Hodgson Portfolio Page
Link to Design-Based Science Course
About Me
Elizabeth (Liz) Hodgson is a 9th grade science teacher at Cohoes High School, a small urban district north of Albany, NY. She is passionate about creating engaging learning tasks and hands-on lab experiences that require her students to use 21st century skills such as data analysis, modelling, and multiple forms of communication.
As a current Master's student in the Curriculum Development and Instructional Technology program at SUNY Albany she is exploring how innovate curriculum design and educational technologies can improve outcomes for schools.
My Topic and Purpose
The intent of the course will be to support science teachers to develop Design Based Science Tasks that will facilitate student use of the Next Generation Science Practices.
Topics Covered:
- What are the NGSS Science Practices and why are they important?
- What does Design Based Learning look like in science classes?
- What are components of effective Design Based Science Tasks?
- What scaffolds are needed to support all students in Design Based Science Tasks?
The course will build teacher comfort in using a new pedagogical model in order to create modern science assessment tasks in which students use authentic science and engineering practices.
Scope of Learning Outcomes and Content
Learners will be able to..
- Identify examples and importance of the 8 NGSS Science Practices
- Identify characteristics of Design Based Learning Tasks
- Evaluate existing Design Based Science Tasks
- Create an original Design Based Science Task which includes multiple NGSS Science Practices
The first two lessons will be content based where the teacher-learner will explore theory and examples (readings, videos, images) of NGSS Practices and Design Learning in classroom practice.
The second two lessons will be practice based where the teacher-learner will be supported in developing a ready-to-use Design Based Science Task relevant to their content area (provided with scaffolds and templates).
Needs Assessment
Educational Opportunity:
Current research on science learning repeatedly emphasizes the need to focus on science practices and 21st century skills rather than on fragmented knowledge or science facts. The Framework for K-12 Science Education Policy Brief outlines how a modern science curriculum at any age level should have 3 dimensions: (1) scientific and engineering practices, (2) crosscutting concepts, and (3) disciplinary core ideas in science. While the second two dimensions help educators hone in on important concepts and phenomena, the first dimension promotes students to engage in a “wide range of approaches that are used to investigate, model, and explain the world… understand the work of engineers and the links between engineering and science” (K-12 Science Education Policy Brief, 2011). In April 2013, the NGSS standards were released for use and many states readily adopted them and began the process of shifting instruction to align with the new standards (NGSS). Schools are still modernizing their curriculum and would benefit from resources to support required changes, especially with incorporating engineering design. Most teachers do not have formal training in engineering and will continue to need assistance to link Design Thinking to their updated content.
Existing Efforts:
Many companies and organizations have begun to transition curricula for NGSS alignment. Wonder of Science, for example, has sample assessments for K-12 grade levels organized for each NGSS standard and many blank scaffolds for organizing ideas in each science practice. Other high-quality examples include curriculum from Open Sci Ed, StoryLines, and InquiryHub which are all fully NGSS aligned. Despite the many strengths of the resources linked, there is a dearth of resources specific to engineering design practices which were originally intended to be woven into every science course per the K-12 Science Framework. One expansive database with an explicit focus on engineering is Teach Engineering a database of lessons and activities, however these vary in quality and format since they are drawn from multiple contributors.
Current Learning Gap:
Teachers are transitioning their curricula to match the Next Generation Science Standards. One aspect of the transition that might be especially challenging is incorporating the engineering practices because teachers lack experience in this area. Resources are lacking for incorporating engineering into life sciences courses, more so than physical science courses. Design Based Learning or Design Based Science (Fortus, 2004) is an educational strategy where “design is viewed as a vehicle through which scientific knowledge and real-world problem-solving skills can be constructed”. DBS resources can support teachers to incorporate the full range of NGSS Science Practices, with special attention to the engineering standards. Multiple recent research indicates that design based learning can support problem solving, (Shanta and Wells, 2022) and reduce equity gaps (Mehalik, 2013) in addition to providing a means of assessment for science understanding.
The intent of the course is to support middle and high school science teachers to develop Design Based Science Tasks that will facilitate student use of the Next Generation Science Practices.
Analysis of the Learner and Context
Learner: This course is designed primarily for middle and high school teachers, pre-service teachers, and teacher-trainers. These participants may have a range of prior experience with NGSS lesson design, but since the standards were released around a decade ago every teacher should be aware of the overall goals of NGSS and interest or motivation in adapting or developing content aligned to NGSS. Realistically, many teachers would not have experience with engineering if their degrees were in education or in a content area (Biology for example) and may have apprehensions about teaching design-based science lessons (Capobianco, 2021). The course will work through background theory and many examples of design-based science so teachers can feel confident in understanding that helping students design and evaluate solutions to science problems can certainly be done without an engineering degree.
Context: This course would likely take a learner multiple days to complete. The digital nature of the course, where videos and articles and databases are linked directly from the course allows the learner to spend extra time exploring the added resources. Additionally, the course culminates in the teacher creating an actual design task which may take multiple hours to do for the first time. The learner would need consistent internet access and familiarity with Google Suite to complete the course. School trainers or pre-service educators might assign or modify the course in their instruction or teachers could use it at their own pace for personal professional development.
Performance-Based Objectives
After completing the course learners will be able to...
- Content Objectives:
- Identify examples of the 8 NGSS Science Practices from digital resources such as videos or lesson samples
- Recognize characteristics of effective Design Based Learning Tasks from digital resources such as videos or articles
- Develop a persuasive summary for near peers to justify the relevance of Design Based Learning for developing NGSS practices for 21st century learning
- Practice Objectives:
- Evaluate two sample Design Based Science Tasks for use in the teacher-learner's classroom context.
- Create an original Design Based Science Task which includes multiple NGSS Science Practices, using provided templates
- Prepare a presentation for near peers about the implementation or implementation plan of the newly developed Design Based Science Task
Task and Content Analysis
- Identify examples of the 8 NGSS Science Practices from digital resources such as videos or lesson samples
- Recognize characteristics of effective Design Based Learning Tasks from digital resources such as videos or articles
- The first two course objectives are examples of foundational tasks necessary to support later work in the course. Content presentation will be articles and/or video resources about what NGSS Practices and Design Based learning are and realistic examples of these pedagogies. These sources may come from the publishers of these frameworks and reputable teachers or organizations. The learner will be supported with a graphic organizer to track their learning.
- Develop a persuasive summary for near peers to justify the relevance of Design Based Learning for developing NGSS practices for 21st century learning
- The next course objective is a higher-level task which asks the learner to consolidate understanding from the learning and exploring they did in the first part of the course. The purpose of this objective is to push the learner towards more complex cognition, so they are more prepared for the final project. The learner will be supported with detailed prompts and a template.
- Evaluate two sample Design Based Science Tasks for use in the teacher-learner's classroom context
- The next course objective asks the learner to take an evaluative rather than explorative role. Content presentation will be websites, data bases or Drive files (instructor created) which show examples of Design Based science tasks. The learner will be supported with a checklist or review sheet to support their performance on the objective.
- Create an original Design Based Science Task which includes multiple NGSS Science Practices, using provided templates
- The largest course objective is predicted to be the most time-consuming. This objective most closely reflects the overall goal of the course. The learner will be supported with templates for all materials in the Design Based Science task including a teacher lesson plan, a student handout, and a class slide show. The learner will also be provided with a checklist to review their own work.
- Prepare a presentation for near peers about the implementation or implementation plan of the newly developed Design Based Science Task
- The final objective is a communicative task which prompts teachers to reflect on the value of their learning (and newly designed lesson) for an audience of near peers. The purpose of the objective is to allow enthusiasm about sharing and/or implementing the learning in the school context. The learner will be supported with detailed prompts and a template.
Curriculum Map
How to Read Curriculum Map:
- Boldface: Overall course goal and objective most closely related to the overall goal
- Yellow: Explorative learning tasks (foundational theory and resources)
- Green: Evaluative task (preparation for Design task)
- Blue: Design task (major course objective which develops lesson plan artifact)
- Purple: Summative communicative tasks (transferring knowledge and attitudes to others)
Resources
| NGSS Resources |
Design Based Learning Resources |
Other References |
| NGSS Practices Appendix | DBL Basics/History | Teach Engineering Library |