Science IDEAS and NGSS 3-Dimension Instruction

Figure 1. Comparison of the instructional elements of Science IDEAS and NGSS. In NGSS, lessons are developed in “top down” fashion from “bundled” Performance Expectations that provide a basis for integrating the three dimensions (see Krajcik et al., 2016). In Science IDEAS, multiday lessons are developed from the disciplinary structure of the core concepts to be taught. Multiple activities across the six types of Science IDEAS elements are then identified and arranged into coherent lessons.

Figure 2. Illustration of how 3-dimensional NGSS instruction is addressed within Science IDEAS. As shown, specific grade-appropriate NGSS Practices of Science and Cross-Cutting Concepts are explicitly incorporated within concept-focused Science IDEAS instruction. Italicized elements in Practices of Scientists and Cross-Cutting Concepts are only addressed informally in grades 1-2, as are Nature of Science elements GK-NS-2 and GK-NS-4.

Figure 3. Science IDEAS curriculum concept map- Evaporation. Numbers indicate a possible order for teaching the component activities across multi-day lessons.

Figure 4. Illustration of how a multi-day science lessons could be Structured using different Science IDEAS elements/activities. In this example, the lesson activities focusing on a core science concept would consist of 6 hands-on explorations (student hands-on practices of science, teacher demonstrations), 4 reading, 1 concept mapping, 4 journaling/writing, and 1 application project. Within limits, teachers have flexibility regarding the number of activities and how they are sequenced.