What are the three dimensions of NGSS?
Science and Engineering Practices – The Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs) show students how scientists and engineers investigate, model, and explain the world around us. They’re also the dimension of the NGSS that can most capture a student’s curiosity and show how science and engineering can help solve the major challenges facing our society.
1. Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering)
2. Developing and using models
3. Planning and carrying out investigations
4. Analyzing and interpreting data
5. Using math and computational thinking
6. Constructing an explanation (for science) and creating a solution (for engineering)
7. Engaging in an argument stemming from evidence
8. Obtaining, evaluation, and communicating information
Crosscutting Concepts – Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs) help students make connections across Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs), and unify the application of SEPs. These are often the most challenging concepts for students to figure out.
1. Patterns
2. Cause and Effect
3. Scale, Proportion, and Quantity
4. Systems and System Models
5. Energy and Matter
6. Structure and Function
7. Stability and Change
Disciplinary Core Ideas – Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCI) are the main concepts that make up the NGSS. Grouped into four domains (Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science, and Engineering, Technology, and Applications of Science), DCIs form the broad content necessary to understand science.
1. Physical Sciences
2. Life Sciences
3. Earth Sciences
4. Engineering, Technology and Application of Science
In its optimal implementation, an NGSS curriculum should coach students to think like scientists and engineers, grapple with core scientific principles, and support deep learning of concepts that cut across domains. We set out to create a science program that educators can use to bring three-dimensional science learning to life. Amplify Science is a robust, multimodal, hands-on program made to fulfill the new science standards, as well as a substantial number of ELA and math standards. Educators who adopt Amplify Science will have access to a comprehensive curriculum complete with detailed lesson plans, embedded assessments, hands-on activities and materials, digital simulations, and robust teacher support resources.
Built for new science standards and three-dimensional learning
Amplify Science’s NGSS curriculum meets higher expectations for science teaching and learning.
- Anchor phenomena, explored through diverse interdisciplinary contexts, serve as the foundation for compelling, coherent storylines.
- Research-based multimodal learning allows students to develop expertise in all Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs) and deep understanding of Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs) and Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs) through experiences within a wide variety of contexts.
- Modeling tools enable students to create, and later revise, visualizations of their ideas of key scientific phenomena at critical points in the curriculum.
- Embedded engineering in units focused on engineering and technology emphasize that there’s not always one right answer, as students balance competing constraints to design the best justifiable solutions.
Grade-specific resources
Although every elementary unit of the Amplify Science NGSS science curriculum provides a three-dimensional learning experience, each unit emphasizes one of the following specific science and engineering practices:
Investigation units
Investigation units focus on the process of strategically developing investigations and gathering data to answer questions. Students are first asked to consider questions about what happens in the natural world and why, and are then involved in designing and conducting investigations that produce data to help answer those questions.
Modeling units
These Amplify Science units provide extra support to students engaging in the practice of modeling. Students use physical models, investigate with computer models, and create their own diagrams to help them visualize what might be happening on the nanoscale.
Engineering design units
Engineering design solves complex problems by applying science principles to the design of functional solutions, and iteratively testing those solutions to determine how well they meet pre-set criteria. All Amplify Science engineering design units are structured to make the development of such solutions the central focus.
Argumentation units (grades 3–5)
These Amplify Science units provide extra support to students engaging in the practice of argumentation. As students move up the K–5 grades, they focus on important aspects of argumentation in an intentional sequence.
Each grade-level of the Amplify Science NGSS middle school science curriculum contains nine total units comprised of three different types of units:
Launch
Launch units are the first unit taught in each year of Amplify Science. The goal of the Launch unit is to introduce students to norms, routines, and practices that will be built on throughout the year, including the practices of argumentation, active reading, and using the Amplify Science technology. For example, rather than taking the time to explain the process of active reading in every unit in a given year, it is explained thoroughly in the Launch unit, thereby preparing students to do active reading in all subsequent units.
Core
The majority of units in a course are Core units, which guide students in constructing a deep understanding of important science concepts by using key science and engineering practices. A Core unit establishes the context of the unit by introducing students to the real-world problem they will be investigating. As students move through lessons in a Core unit, they will figure out the unit’s anchoring phenomena, gain an understanding of the unit’s disciplinary core ideas and science and engineering practices, and make linkages across topics through the crosscutting concepts. Each Core unit culminates with a Science Seminar and final writing activity. Students explore a new real-world problem, collect and analyze evidence, and then debate which claims are best supported by evidence, all while making clear their reasoning that connects the evidence to the claims.
Engineering Internships
In Engineering Internship units, students take on the role of interns for the fictional Futura company as they design solutions for real-world problems. Students figure out how to help those in need, from tsunami victims in Sri Lanka to the needs of premature babies, through the application of engineering practices. In the process, they apply and deepen their learning from Core units.
What do students do in an NGSS curriculum?
The NGSS calls for deep linkages between the three dimensions of Crosscutting Concepts, Disciplinary Core Ideas, and Science and Engineering Practices. To do this effectively, students need to gather evidence from a variety of sources, make sense of that evidence, and construct strong scientific arguments about real-world phenomena.
Engineering in the Next Generation Science Standards
The Next Generation Science Standards include eight science and engineering practices that show students how scientists and engineers actually investigate, model, and explain the real world, and design and produce effective solutions to real-world problems.
In the classroom, the science and engineering practices help students understand how scientists and engineers actually work.
Evidence in the era of NGSS
How do we support students in building evidence-based explanations of phenomena? A multi-modal approach allows students to gather evidence from a variety of sources and grapple with phenomena and real-world problems like scientists do.
Learn more about how a deep understanding of NGSS can support you in making principled pedagogical decisions!
Active Reading: Treating reading as an act of inquiry
Active Reading supports student engagement in reading complex science text, makes reading a motivating, student-centered experience, and allows students to reveal genuine understanding and questions about the text.
Literacy-rich science instruction
Literacy is an integral part of science. While practicing scientists actively investigate the natural world, large parts of their investigations involve reading, writing, listening, and speaking in order to obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about the natural world. Scientists read about and connect their work to the work of other scientists, explain their findings, and communicate ideas to a variety of audiences.
Take a closer look at the importance of literacy-rich science instruction, and see how students benefit from reading, writing, and talking like real scientists.