Professional Development

NSTA Launches New Teacher Resources for Next Generation Science Standards

• By Joshua Bolkan
• 05/15/15

The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) has released a series of tools to help teachers implement the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and the Framework for K-12 Science Education, including an e-book, a collection of videos and instructional resources.

The book, Discovering the NGSS, "guides educators through a series of activities, simulations, videos, reflection activities and assessments that explore numerous topics, including vision and history of the standards; the three dimensions of the NGSS — science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas and crosscutting concepts; integration of the three dimensions; and translating the NGSS into classroom instruction," according to a news release.

It includes 40 hours of self-paced learning activities and unit planner and is available on Macs, computers running Windows, Chromebooks, iPads and Android tablets. Discover the NGSS is available to $55.95 to NSTA members and $69.95 for non-members.

The classroom resources, available at [email protected] Hub, have been curated by a group of 55 science educators and include lesson plans, units, books and book chapters, science kits, video simulations and instructional guides.

"Using the EQuiP Rubric for Lessons and Units: Science to guide their work, the curators review each resource to evaluate how well it supports NGSS-based instruction — particularly how well it addresses performance expectations, science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts," according to a news release. "The curators post a review of the resource on the [email protected] Hub, offer suggestions on how the resource could be used or adapted to best support NGSS-based instruction, and provide direct links to the free and fee-based resources."

The video collection, also available via the Hub, aim to introduce teachers to new strategies based on the standards and the Framework for K-12 Science Education. The videos run approximately 10-minutes each.