Greetings Science Educators!
It is the start of another school year and an opportunity for students across Oklahoma to experience amazing opportunities to engage in science and get to know the many outstanding science teachers in this state! I wanted to begin the science message by saying thank you to all of those that e-mailed, called, Facebook messaged and texted condolences in the past two weeks for the sudden passing of my father. They were truly appreciated and reminded me just how special the OKSci community really is. Thank you.
There are several exciting things to share in this week’s message, so let’s get started with a few updates. Science teachers around the state have been working on two projects to develop resources for teachers and districts related to the new Oklahoma Academic Standards for Science.
(1) The Oklahoma Science Framework Project – In Phase 1 of the project, twenty K-12 teachers have been working to develop “Framework Overviews”. The Overviews represent how a small group of teachers (Framework Writers) at a given grade-level might bundle performance expectations or standards found in the Oklahoma Academic Standards for Science. Bundling may be a new word, but it certainly isn’t a new concept as it simply implies how teachers would group performance expectations or standards for the purpose of developing instructional units of study.
Once bundled, the Framework Writers were then charged with completing four categories of information that coincided with the bundle of performance expectations or standards.
In – Lay Terms:
This section aims at providing a brief introduction to the goals outlined in the Performance Expectation Bundles.
Three Dimensional Storyline:
This section aims at providing a comprehensive storyline of how the three dimensions represented in the Performance Expectation Bundles intertwine to support students engaging in science and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts and disciplinary core ideas.
Lesson Level Performance Expectations:
This section aims at providing scaffolding three-dimensional learning targets that teachers can design instruction around to meet the end goals of the Performance Expectation represented in the bundles.
Misconceptions:
This section aims at providing research-based misconceptions that students frequently have related to the science concepts (disciplinary core ideas) embedded in the Performance Expectation bundles.
“The vision of the Overviews is to provide a resource for teachers that encourages them to embrace the new standards and implement them effectively in their classrooms. The suggestions provided by the frameworks project do not have to be implemented exactly as they are written and are not required to be a successful teacher, but serve a guide to setting up effective lessons that will help students meet the necessary levels of success in a science classroom.” – Oklahoma Science Project Framework Writer
Keep in mind the Framework Overviews are simply a resource for teachers to assist in planning for instruction. To access the DRAFT Framework Overview Documents go to the following link. We will be publishing these documents in PDF form later this fall, but we wanted to ensure that these resources were accessible as early as possible and we also wanted to provide an opportunity for Oklahoma science teachers to provide feedback on the documents before they are published. You can provide feedback by leaving comments on the Google Documents.
We will continue efforts later this year to provide additional support in the way of instructional exemplars and formative assessments in subsequent phases of the Oklahoma Science Framework Project.
(2) The Oklahoma Open Education Resource Project – This is a project I spoke about at several of the Science Standards Regional workshops last year. This project aims to provide Oklahoma schools with Open Education Resources aligned to the new Oklahoma Academic Standards for Science. While, these resources will not serve as curriculum, they will serve as course text resources for students. We had hoped to have these resources available for the start of this school year, but we were not able to start the project until late last spring. Look for drafts of these resources later this fall.
Assessment Update:
The Office of Assessments has been working hard all summer with OKSci teachers to develop new Blueprints and Item Specification Documents for the assessments that will be aligned to the new Oklahoma Academic Standards for Science in 2016-2017. As a reminder, for school year 2015-2016 the science assessments for 5th, 8th, and Biology 1 will continue to be aligned to the PASS standards for Science.
Educator Opportunities:
Brett Moulding PD Series Coming to OKC Public Schools:
Exciting free professional development opportunity to support teachers in transitioning to the new Oklahoma Academic Standards for Science. Brett Moulding, one of the authors of The Framework for K-12 Science Education, will be coming to Oklahoma City public schools to deliver a series of professional development around transitioning to the new Oklahoma Academic Standards for Science. OKC public schools is offering a few spots to other districts and teachers in the state. This unique opportunity provides teaches with a total of eight days of intense professional development (see dates below). Did I mention it’s FREE? Substitute and travel costs for teachers who wish to attend will be up to the sending district.
Contact Lesa Rohrer at llrohrer@okcps.org if you are interested in participating in the series of professional development being offered. Spaces are limited, so contact Lesa today if your are interested!
First PD Date:
August 27th or 28th – Choose from one of the dates
8:30 – 4:30
OKC Metro – Tech Spring Lake Campus
Remaining PD Dates in the Series:
October 22nd -23rd – Two-day session
December 3rd or 4th – Choose from one of the dates
March 17h – 18th: Two-day session
June 2nd and 3rd: Two-day session
More! Rocks in Your Head!
One-day workshop Saturday, October 3rd in Tulsa.
8:30-3:30
Grade 3-8
See More! Rocks in Your Head! flyer for details.
Project Wet Workshops
Project Wet Workshops are being offered around the state again this year.
See the attached Project_Wet_Workshops flyer for details.
Botball Grants
The Oklahoma State Department of Education is happy to announce our wonderful partners in the world of Robotics are now accepting applications for funding to launch or sustain robotics programs in your school! See Details below:
Botball & Junior Botball (due Sept 30) http://www.ok.gov/sde/oksde-botball-grant
NSTA Free Journal Articles
Science and Children: Dig Into Fossils
Science and Children: Ring! Ring! Science is Calling
Science Scope: Exploring Sound: Using Tablets in Middle School Science
The Science Teacher: Making Molecular Movies
Stay Connected:
Social Media:
Twitter: @tiffanyneill
Facebook: #OKSci
Hashtags: #oksde #OKSci #OKSTEM
Sign Up for a Twitter account: https://twitter.com/
Accessing Archived Science Messages:
You can access Archived Science Messages I’ve sent out since March via the Oklahoma Science Teachers Association (OSTA) website. Scroll down to see previous posts.
Science Listserv:
Please encourage others to register for the science listserv and pass along the following registration link. If you would like to be removed from the listserv you can also do that via the link below.
As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have!
– Tiffany