(Carbon TIME) is a program that includes publicly available teaching units, teacher professional development, and teacher networks based in local education agencies. The teaching units, designed for middle and high school science classes, focus on processes that transform matter and energy in organisms, ecosystems, and global systems: combustion, photosynthesis, cellular respiration, digestion, and biosynthesis. Students use these cellular and chemical processes to explain the functioning of organisms – plants, animals, decomposers - as well as ecological and global carbon cycling.
The Interactions curriculum introduces students to science as an endeavor, a process we engage in, rather than solely a set of discoveries by others. Through engaging in modeling and scientific explanation students explore curious aspects of the everyday world, discovering how the unseen world of atomic level interactions and energy transformations are responsible for much of what we observe around us.
- Aligned with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) - For 9th grade physical or integrated science students. To gain access to the curriculum, you will need to register for a free account. In addition, this curriculum received an Achieve Digital Badge for high-quality NGSS design. BIOZONE specializes in the production of high quality student and teacher resources for high school biology (grades 9-12) in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. Our aim is to Excite, Enrich, Engage and Empower students to succeed in biology. These are the fundamentals of our pedagogical approach. We create unique cutting edge learning resources that are highly visual, provide compelling solutions, and create an exceptional learning experience.
Thank you for your interest in the Modelbasedbiology (MBER) community! The site is now live and ready to accept your payment ($23). MBER is a group of science educators and biologists. Our team includes teachers who work with students every day. We have worked over the span of four years to develop, pilot, and refine curricular and pedagogical resources to support you in implementing a full year of high school biology that engages students in three-dimensional learning as called for in the Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards. Members of our team have worked for many years to figure out how to bring the practice of developing and using models into the science classroom.
You must have an account before proceeding to the payment system. After logging in, please make sure you read the terms and conditions found on the Getting Started page. Once you go through that process you will have full access to the modelbasedbiology (aka MBER) community. Please note that not all materials will be in a downloadable format as we continue to update the curriculum. Searching for classroom resources online can quickly yield thousands of results, but how do teachers know which are most effective? What are teachers with similar students using in their classrooms? At New Visions for Public Schools (located in the State of New York), we’ve created an extensive Open Educational Resource (OER) collection of curriculum materials, arranged by courses across a wide range of content areas, that help teachers plan more effectively and improve student learning!
In review of this resource, curriculum materials were designed to meet the New York state science standards from 1996. The design team have cross walked these standards and have made curricular module changes to meet the vision of teaching in 3 dimensions as called for in “The Framework for K-12 Science Education.” The modules target grades 9-12. |
Next Generation Storylines (K-12) has units or potentially an entire year's worth of curriculum designed to meet the 3-dimensioon learning as called for by the Next Generation Science Standards. On any given day, a visitor to a classroom should be able to walk over to a group of students and ask them- What are you working on? Why are you working on this? Students should be able to answer by describing a question they are trying to figure out or a problem they are trying to solve, and not just say because the teacher told us to do this.
A storyline is a coherent sequence of lessons, in which each step is driven by students' questions that arise from their interactions with phenomena. A student's goal should always be to explain a phenomenon or solve a problem. At each step, students make progress on the classroom's questions through science and engineering practices, to figure out a piece of a science idea. Each piece they figure out adds to the developing explanation, model, or designed solution. Each step may also generate questions that lead to the next step in the storyline. Together, what students figure out helps explain the unit's phenomena or solve the problems they have identified. A storyline provides a coherent path toward building disciplinary core idea and crosscutting concepts, piece by piece, anchored in students' own questions. Active Physics® is based on the research on how students learn—encapsulated in the 7E Instructional Model (elicit, engage, explore, explain, elaborate, extend, evaluate). As a result, Active Physics provides ALL students with a deep and memorable learning experience.
Active Physics students are motivated to learn. Students are motivated to learn science in the context of highly engaging and authentic “real-world” projects that guide instruction and serve to organize their learning. Research shows that the project-based approach promotes excitement and meaningful learning for ALL students. Active Physics students learn like scientists. The science and engineering practices, as described in A Framework for K-12 Science Education, are integrated throughout the curriculum. Students engage with complex situations and collaborate on what they need to learn in order to manage the situation effectively. Active Physics is for ALL students. The Active Physics Plus feature in the student edition allows teachers to customize the program for students who want or need more mathematics, depth, concepts, or explorations. A comprehensive Teacher’s Edition and Resources provide full support for differentiated instruction with augmentations, accommodations, and suggestions for the English Language Learner. Active Chemistry® fosters scientifically literate students who will be prepared for the workforce, able to make informed decisions, and contribute as productive citizens in the 21st century. Active Chemistry fits your standards. Active Chemistry reflects the full scope of chemistry content standards for high school—those identified as the Disciplinary Core Ideas in A Framework for K-12 Science Education and those of individual states and districts. EarthComm is a comprehensive, project-based, secondary level Earth and space sciences program. It includes student learning materials, teacher resources, teacher-support networks, and assessment tools. EarthComm also features a robust Web site filled with student and teacher resources regularly updated by AGL EarthComm promotes systems thinking. In EarthComm, students learn about the interactions among the various parts of the Earth system by reflecting on the ways in which matter and energy flow through the Earth system, and the different ways in which Earth’s processes occur over time and space. EarthComm fosters Earth stewardship. With EarthComm, students discover the wonder and importance of Earth and space science by studying it where it counts—in their community. EarthComm utilizes local and regional issues and concerns to stimulate problem-solving activities, and to foster a sense of Earth stewardship by students in their communities. EarthComm fits your standards. EarthComm reflects the full scope of Earth and space science content standards for high school—those identified as the Disciplinary Core Ideas in A Framework for K-12 Science Education and those of individual states and districts. |
The ISTA assembled its first working group in 2016 for developing a full year of Biology Storylines. The focus of this work was to :
#1. Train educators in three-dimensional learning, teaching, and coherent curricular design through sustained collaborative work and by both experiencing and doing it themselves; #2. Create coherent storylines, including embedded three-dimensional assessment pieces that will evolve over time through continuous feedback from pilot teachers; and most of all #3. Share our work- for teachers, by teachers, for free- with any stakeholders interested in making the fundamental shift towards a three-dimensional classroom. This is free resource. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the images for each storyline. This pictures will take you to detailed lesson plans located in a Google folder. |
When signing up for a free account, WISE offers a growing collection of curriculum units that address key conceptual difficulties students encounter in science. Units are carefully crafted to SUPPLEMENT teachers' core curricular scope and sequence and are iteratively refined through classroom-based research. WISE units support the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), encourage 3-dimensional learning, and can be adapted to address local standards.
WISE engages students in the methods of real scientists and engineers. We take a multidisciplinary approach so that students learn inquiry through activities that emphasize essential skills in reading, writing, and multimedia literacy. Many of our units are also project-based and feature hands-on design challenges. With WISE inquiry units, students not only learn skills that prepare them to be successful in STEM. They also learn skills necessary to be responsible, critical thinking citizens. |
The Patterns High School Science Sequence is a three year course pathway and curriculum aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The sequence consists of freshman physics, sophomore chemistry, and junior biology courses. Each course utilizes common instructional strategies and real world phenomena and design challenges that engage students and support their learning. The curriculum is a combination of teacher-generated and curated open-content materials. The Teacher generated materials are shared freely under a Attribution-NonCommercial-Sharealike Creative Commons License.
The Patterns Approach to science instruction emphasizes the use of mathematical and phenomenological patterns to predict the future and understand the past. Students construct science knowledge by making an initial “wild-guess”, asking questions, planning and conducting experiments, collecting data, finding a mathematical model that fits their data, explaining the phenomenon based on that model, then finally making a data-informed prediction. Harnessing their own experiences, students compare and contrast low-evidence predictions (wild guesses) to their data-informed prediction to live the experience and learn the value of evidence-based reasoning. Additionally, students engage in several engineering projects in each course, where they must use the Patterns they discover in their designs to optimize their solutions. The Patterns Approach utilizes technology, student-constructed knowledge, frequent opportunities for student talk, and language supports to ensure the engagement and success of every student. By emphasizing, rather than removing, the mathematical connections to science, the Patterns Approach supports student conceptual understanding by connecting real-world inquiry experiences, graphical representations, and mathematical representations of science phenomena. For more on the Patterns Approach, read lead physics course developer Bradford Hill’s article in The Science Teacher: “The Patterns Approach – engaging Freshman in the practices of science.” |
BSCS Biology: Understanding for Life
Our new program, BSCS Biology: Understanding for Life, has a greater purpose. It is designed to prepare students for life in our complex, interconnected world.The program includes four units, each centered around a 21st century societal challenge that we can no longer ignore, such as antibiotic-resistant infections. Students are challenged to investigate. They “figure out” rather than “learn about” scientific phenomena. This approach is different. It requires a different kind of work. And the unfamiliar can be frustrating, at first–especially for students who have learned to play the game of school by memorizing facts to get an A.
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