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When it’s time for a game change, you need a guide to the new rules. Helping Students Make Sense of the World Using Next Generation Science and Engineering Practices provides a play-by-play understanding of the practices strand of A Framework for K–12 Science Education (Framework) and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Written in clear, nontechnical language, this book provides a wealth of real-world examples to show you what’s different about practice-centered teaching and learning at all grade levels. The book addresses three important questions:

When it’s time for a game change, you need a guide to the new rules. Helping Students Make Sense of the World Using Next Generation Science and Engineering Practices provides a play-by-play understanding of the practices strand of A Framework for K–12 Science Education (Framework) and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Written in clear, nontechnical language, this book provides a wealth of real-world examples to show you what’s different about practice-centered teaching and learning at all grade levels. The book addresses three important questions:

This study investigates strategies teachers use to support mental imagery during model-based science class discussions. A microanalysis of videos of classroom discussions was conducted in order to (1) identify and describe teaching strategies for supporting imagery; and (2) identify evidence that the students were engaging in the use of imagery as they constructed models and reasoned about competing models. This study starts from prior work on experts’ use of imagery, as well as from prior analyses of imagistic characteristics of concrete exemplars used successfully in a curriculum.

In this study we articulate a multi-level scientific Modeling Practices Framework derived from expert studies on model based teaching strategies in classrooms and examine its usefulness in an actual classroom context. In addition, we develop vocabulary and diagrams to describe a multi level model based teaching processes. We are particularly interested in examining: (1) Is there a pattern of model construction processes that occurs over a large time scale of 3-6 lessons?

While Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields have increased in importance over the past decade, minorities have remained traditionally underrepresented in these fields. In this study we seek to better understand some of the factors that might contribute to or potentially mitigate early STEM pipeline leaks, specifically, high school graduation and college entrance leaks. Student interest formed in the early school years has an impact on future course selections and persistence in school.

Previous research has examined the impact of computing interventions to reduce digital inequity. However, few studies focus on factors such as inequalities to material access, Internet use patterns, and affective or emotional anxiety. This paper investigates the potential role of emotional costs and computer self-efficacy in the connection between computer use at home and students’ computer use patterns. Data for this research come from pretest and posttest surveys administered to fourth- and fifth-grade African-American students.

Over the past decade, there has been a strong national push to increase minority students’ positive attitudes towards STEM-related careers. However, despite this focus, minority students have remained underrepresented in these fields. Some researchers have directed their attention towards improving the STEM pipeline which carries students through our educational system and into STEM careers. Previous research has shown that expectancy-value theory (EVT) is useful for examining the short-term as well as long-term academic motivations and intentions of elementary age minority students.

In this study we investigated eighth grade students’ informal justification for the circle area formula to expand accounts of the measurement knowledge for middle-school age students. Data were collected during three paired interviews of a three-year teaching experiment. Here we describe schemes students exhibited as they operated on measurement tasks at a level we have described as “conceptual area measurer”; the tasks prompted the use of square units to quantify a figure that is not rectilinear.

Supporting Secondary Students in Building External Models is a collaborative project with Michigan State University and the Concord Consortium, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to examine how to support secondary school students in constructing and revising models to explain scientific phenomena and design solutions to problems. This article describes the project and research plans.

Damelin, D., & Krajcik, J. (2016). Supporting secondary students in building external models to explain phenomena. @Concord, 20(1), 10-11.