Are you a science teacher who believes rote memorization isn’t enough? The new science standards are now available, and they address that exact concern. The New Generation Science Standards, or NGSS, are new, internationally bench-marked guidelines for K-12 science education in the United States.

What are NGSS Standards?

The new science standards are built on a core belief in the practice of science as much as content. What does that mean? It means the Next Generation Science Standards focus on depth of learning and learning through doing, with the larger goal of engaging students in science long term. The new NGSS standards outline a fresh approach to K-12 science education and are the first comprehensive overhaul in nearly 15 years.

The new NGSS standards represent an overall shift to the traditional approach, which relied on content delivery across a broad number of topics. Until the NGSS standards, students typically learned a broad number of subjects in isolation, with each topic getting its curriculum and with little overlap between the subjects. Now, students will focus on fewer subjects overall but dive into them more deeply.

There are a few key changes you’ll notice in the overall approach of the standards. They all have in common the motivating belief in blending content with practice. One of the biggest changes you’ll notice is the coherent building of knowledge from kindergarten onward. The new science standards focus on a dynamic process of building knowledge over the entire course of a student’s education.

Finally, the standards build around three dimensions — Science Practices, Cross Cutting Concepts and Disciplinary Core Ideas — taught not as separate entities but as overlapping principles. They are not meant to be taught in a vacuum but rather in context — just as in real life.

Science and Engineering Practices

The new NGSS standards are built on the belief that students learn by doing, by using real-life practices used by scientists and engineers today. They outline these practices as follows:

• Defining Problems and Asking Questions
• Developing and Using Models
• Planning and Carrying Out Investigations
• Analyzing and Interpreting Data
• Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking
• Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions
• Engaging in Argument from Evidence

Cross Cutting Concepts

The concepts are inherently interdisciplinary. They function as tools a student can use to make sense of scientific phenomena. These tools are common notions across all domains of science and include:

• Cause and Effect: the idea that one process is responsible for another
• Patterns: a framework for understanding and analyzing repetition
• Systems and System Models: organizing principles
• Similarity and Diversity: commonalities and discrepancies across disciplines
• Scale, Proportion, Quantity: understanding size and growth
• Energy and Matter: the study of physical substance and how things work
• Structure and Function: principles of design and engineering
• Stability and Change: the study of equilibrium and evolution

Disciplinary Core Ideas

Finally, theses are the scientific subjects that are the basis of the new science standards. Rather than learning more subjects superficially, this approach focuses on teaching fewer subjects but in greater depth, spanning the 12 years of primary and secondary education. These are Earth and Space Science, Life Science, Physical Science, and Engineering Design.

The core ideas were chosen because of their immense importance to many sciences, or fields of study, as well as for their relevance to the interests and life experiences of high school students. The effort to connect the pursuit of scientific knowledge with social or personal concerns is intentional, and the curriculum is meant to be both teachable and learnable over multiple grades and levels of sophistication.

Why are the Three Dimensions Critical to the New Science Standards?

The three dimensions work together by reinforcing inter-related concepts, giving students a way of organizing and applying their knowledge across a broad spectrum. This interdisciplinary approach represents a shift in traditional science education, which focused more on content delivery across multiple subjects. The new science standards are built on engagement. Teachers will be answering fewer questions, and instead, posing questions to the student in return. For the NGSS, this core principle expresses the belief that merging the teaching of content with the teaching of practices leads to the application of that material. In short, when you learn by doing, things start to make sense. This approach allows the student to feel like they truly own the content and can apply it to other problems in the future.

What are NGSS Standards for High School Students?

For the committee that designed the new NGSS standards, the goal was twofold. First, to educate all students in science and engineering and, second, to provide a base of knowledge for the scientists and engineers of the future. The key difference is that the teachers and assignments will show students what they are expected to do versus what they learn — not your usual vocabulary lists and comprehension quizzes.

The guidelines build around the core idea that the methodologies of science (research, analytical thinking, communication) are as important as the content in preparing a student for navigating an increasingly complex, global world. High school students especially are meant to benefit from a practice-based education. The overall goal is for high school students to delve more deeply into each subject while learning real-life habits and skills used today by scientists and engineers.

So even though the new NGSS standards hopes to encourage more STEM careers, it’s even more important that the guidelines empower the student with a foundation of knowledge and application as they enter their post-secondary lives.

At the high school level, the subjects under each Disciplinary Core Idea would break down into the following levels of study:

Earth and Space Science

• Space Systems
• History of Earth
• Earth’s Systems
• Weather and Climate
• Human Sustainability

Life Science

• Structure and Function
• Inheritance and Variation of Traits
• Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems
• Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems
• Natural Selection and Evolution

Physical Science

• Structure and Properties of Matter
• Chemical Reactions
• Forces and Interactions
• Energy
• Waves and Electromagnetic Radiation

Engineering Design

• HS Engineering design

What are NGSS Standards Goals?

While the standards get fairly detailed into the subject matter, they are not to be considered curriculum. The NGSS standards reflect what a student should know how to do by the end of high school, but they do not dictate the manner or method of teaching. The new science standards include overarching goals for each area of learning, meaning students, at the high school level, should be able to demonstrate their knowledge through the presentation of each subject’s goals. For example, upon completing their Space Systems class under Earth Science, students should be able to:

• Develop a model based on evidence to illustrate the life span of the sun and the role of nuclear fusion in the sun’s core to release energy in the form of radiation
• Construct an explanation of the Big Bang theory based on astronomical evidence of light spectra, motion of distant galaxies, and composition of matter in the universe
• Communicate scientific ideas about the way stars, over their life cycle, produce elements
• Use mathematical or computational representations to predict the motion of orbiting objects in the solar system.

What are NGSS Standards for a High School Teacher?

How they achieve these overarching goals is largely up to the teacher, though a substantial amount of support, architecture, and guidance is provided by the NGSS as well as the NSTA (National Science Teachers Association). As a teacher, have you ever dreamed of creating your own, more hands-on curriculum? The new science standards offer educators that chance, while still providing a higher standard of science teaching across the board. The NGSS offers course maps for high school, which are more processes for integrating the new standards.

By the end of high school, students should have sufficient knowledge and experience in the three principles (practice, cross cutting, core ideas) but even more important: they have come to appreciate science as the result of human endeavor. In post-secondary life, NGSS hopes to offer students the ability to engage in discussions on science-related issues, be critical consumers of information, and continue to have an interest in science throughout their daily lives.

The NGSS standards are currently available. The guidelines require approval on a state-by-state basis, so check if your state as signed on for the new standards. So far, 16 states have signed on, and up to 40 are likely to follow. Implementation will take a few years, but if you’re a science teacher, getting a handle on the guidelines now will prepare you for the possible transition.

Summary: What are NGSS Standards?

Called the NGSS, the new standards are a framework for K-12 science education that builds in a coherent manner throughout the course of a student’s education. The integration of rigorous science content and application reflects how scientists and engineers work in the business and research world. The NGSS hopes to encourage more STEM careers and greater post-secondary success overall. Its development was guided by the National Research Council, the staffing arm of the National Academy of Sciences.

Want to learn more about the team behind the standards? Check out our story, Who Developed the NGSS?,on the state-led effort behind the NGSS standards.

What do you think of the NGSS?

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