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THREE DIMENSIONSOF SCIENCE LEARNING

SUHSD is incorporating the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) to the district science curriculum.  A high-quality science education means that students will develop an in-depth understanding of content and develop key skills—communication, collaboration, inquiry, problem solving, and flexibility—that will serve them throughout their educational and professional lives.  Within NGSS, there are three distinct and equally important dimensions to learning science. These dimensions are combined to form each standard—or performance expectation—and each dimension works with the other two to help students build a cohesive understanding of science over time.

• • Crosscutting Concepts help students explore connections across the four domains of science, including Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science, and Engineering Design.
  • Science and Engineering Practices describe what scientists do to investigate the natural world and what engineers do to design and build systems.
  • Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs) are the key ideas in science that have broad importance within or across multiple science or engineering disciplines. These core ideas build on each other as students progress through grade levels and are grouped into the following four domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science, and Engineering.

Excerpted from https://www.nextgenscience.org/

All students need a high-quality science program designed to prepare them to graduate form high school ready for college and a career.  In support of this goal, the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) were designed from the A Framework for K-12 Science Education:  Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas developed by the National Research Council (NRC).  NGSS represent the most substantive changes to the delivery of science education in a generation.

The vision of the Framework supporting the NGSS is that students will be engaged at the nexus of three dimensions:

• Science and Engineering Practices
• Crosscutting Concepts and
• Disciplinary Core Ideas.

Components of each of these elements are blended together to produce a Performance Expectation (PE).

The Performance Expectations depict what students must do to show proficiency in science.  The Performance Expectations are written in a way that expresses the concept and skills to be performed.

The Sweetwater Union High School District (SUHSD) curriculum team and the site Professional Learning Communities will work together to establish curriculum to ensure students master the Performance Expectations.

Science and engineering are integrated into science education by raising engineering design to the same level as scientific inquiry in science classroom instruction at all levels and by emphasizing the core ideas of engineering design and technology applications.