NGSX: Next Generation Science Exemplar, Gelroth & Stainton, Summer 2019

Note: Please register directly with the VINS using the link provided below. VINS will then give you the link to Castleton's online registration form. Payments are due to VINS.

Course Description

Interested in shifting your instruction from a place where students are just “learning about” to one where they are “figuring out” the how and why? Join VINS for the Next Generation Science Exemplar (NGSX) professional development course. Participants will explore how to use phenomena (things that happen in the world) to drive instruction, motivate learning, and help learners drive where to go next. Participants will engage as adult learners using the same best instructional practices used with students - practices that help learners go public with their ideas, reason together, persist through challenging tasks, and revise thinking over time. Participants will develop indicators for student engagement in the core practices of modeling, argumentation, and explanation.  These practices are central to all content areas and participants will dig into how to build a culture of public reasoning and experience, as well as use tools for implementing productive small and whole group discussions. This course is designed for teachers K-12.

Course Objectives/Goals

Course Goals:

• Develop teacher capacity to apply the ideas in the Framework and NGSS to their own practice
• Focus on high leverage practices that are the most central to the NGSS

Course Objectives:

In this course we will focus on the following essential questions:

• What are the implications of shifting from learning about to figuring out for our teaching and our classrooms?
• How can we integrate three-dimensional learning into our science classrooms to help our students engage with the world around them as scientists and engineers?

Course Expectations:

Key References:

We will be using the NGSX web platform

Assignments:

Beyond the assignments embedded within the NGSX web platform, students will develop one unit incorporating the high-leverage science and engineering practices explored deeply in NGSX and write a short course reflection.

Standards Addressed:

Addresses the Next Generation Science Standards

Expectations:

This course requires full and active participation in a collaborative learning environment.  Participants will be expected to attend each session and complete all assignments, including those incorporated into the NGSX web platform.

For additional course and registration information

Hannah Gelroth
(802) 359-5000

Bethany Sprague

(802) 468-1325

Register online now!