Education Week – Liana Heitin
“In a packed session this morning, a professor who helped lead the development of the Next Generation Science Standards, described the new standards as “a shift from learning about something to figuring out something”…Students are given a big question that they can relate to—a “mystery” of sorts. Through their investigation of that question, they hit on other phenomena along the way that they also need to investigate and explain…It’s an exciting prospect—teaching science with mysteries—but is it practical right now? Many teachers are just starting to get to know the standards, which 13 states and D.C. have adopted. And so far, there are very few resources out there to help them with tasks and assessments. So for the most part, they’re making up these mysteries on their own.”(more)