![]() Using Phenomena in NGSS-Designed Lessons and Units. A good phenomenon builds on everyday or family experiences: who students are, what they do, where they came from.īell, P. Selecting phenomena that students find interesting, relevant, and consequential helps support their engagement. Students who do not have access to the material in a way that makes sense and is relevant to them are disadvantaged. Engagement is a crucial access and equity issue.Students need to use the occurrence to help generate the science questions or design problems that drive learning. Anchoring the development of general science ideas in investigations of phenomena helps students build more usable and generative knowledge. Teaching science ideas in general (e.g., teaching about the process of photosynthesis) may work for some students, but often leads to decontextualized knowledge that students are unable to apply when relevant.Using phenomena in these ways leads to deeper learning. Phenomena can drive the lesson, learning, and reflection/monitoring throughout.They are what can be experienced or documented. Phenomena are NOT the explanations or scientific terminology behind what is happening. Phenomena (e.g., a sunburn, vision loss) are specific examples of something in the world that is happening-an event or a specific example of a general process.Students need to be able to engage deeply with the material in order to generate an explanation of the phenomenon using target DCIs, CCCs, and SEPs.Authentic engagement does not have to be fun or flashy instead, engagement is determined more by how the students generate compelling lines of inquiry that create real opportunities for learning.THINKING ABOUT PHENOMENA THROUGH THE NGSS/NVACSS For example, instead of simply learning about the topics of photosynthesis and mitosis, students are engaged in building evidence-based explanatory ideas that help them figure out how a tree grows. Engineering involves designing solutions to problems that arise from phenomena, and using explanations of phenomena to design solutions.īy centering science education on phenomena that students are motivated to explain, the focus of learning shifts from learning about a topic to figuring out why or how something happens.The goal of building knowledge in science is to develop general ideas, based on evidence, that can explain and predict phenomena. Natural phenomena are observable events that occur in the universe and that we can use our science knowledge to explain or predict.We con- sider how these missed opportunities may constrain place‐ based learning in natural environments, and reflect on implications for educators, students, and nonhuman others.WHAT ARE PHENOMENA IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING? OBE opportunities were par- ticularly scarce in middle and high school years, and missing entirely from PEs for disciplinary core ideas related to ecosystems and human impacts on ecosystems. Nine out of 142 (6%) PEs related to ecology require observations. Only 16 of the 175 (9%) learning progression descriptions for the SEPs explicitly mention observations. ![]() We identify where observations are in- cluded and omitted in these documents. We used lexical analysis of Next Generation Science Standards documents to identify instances of observational methods suggested in the SEPs and ecology‐related performance expectations (PEs). Yet recent educational reforms may privilege other scientific and en- gineering practices (SEPs) over OBE methods. Systematic observations of organisms and processes from an early age can help children develop ecological knowledge and skills, and deepen their connection to the natural world. Observation‐based ecology (OBE) generates critical knowledge about the health of ecological systems and human impacts on these systems. ![]()
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