Promote Sensemaking with Science & Math Practices

Moving students beyond rote memorization and fostering genuine inquiry and sense-making can be challenging. Our course supports educators in this journey, guiding them to become facilitators of student-driven exploration. Throughout the course, participants engage in hands-on explorations of phenomena, learning how to guide students in constructing, evaluating, and refining ideas. Participants learn to critically assess and redesign curricular materials to maximize student proficiency in science and math practices. Participants emerge with a newfound perspective on science and math education, equipped with tools and strategies to redefine their classrooms as vibrant hubs of exploration. They leave with a deepened appreciation for the transformative power of student-led inquiry and a renewed commitment to cultivating critical thinkers and lifelong learners.

 

Course Highlights

  • Engage in an inquiry experience as a learner to develop and articulate an understanding of the practices scientists use and how engagement in scientific practices supports the development of scientific knowledge
  • Analyze data from classroom observation video and classroom vignettes to reflect on opportunities for students to engage in the NGSS science practices
  • Identify indicators of student engagement in the practices of science and consider how these scientific practices influence students’ opportunities to build the core ideas of science that are the target of instruction
  • Develop a framework to evaluate current curricular materials and to design future lesson sequences that provide increased opportunities for students to engage in the practices of science
  • Apply frameworks to analyze data from lessons, including other participants’ lessons and their own, to reflect on students’ opportunities to engage in the practices of science
  • Redefine what it means to do science in your classroom

Associated workshops
Exploring a Physical Science Phenomenon through the Practices of Science
Exploring a Life Science Phenomenon through the Practices of Science

Course Dates

Please note that courses are subject to cancelation if minimum enrollment is not met.