Next Generation Science Standards

Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn, and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.

                                -John Dewey

I learned a lot about the Next Generation Science Standards last week, and found a resource that I thought anybody in elementary education (classroom teacher, outdoor educator, professional development facilitator, principal, anybody) would find really beneficial and cool. Paul Anderson, Montana's 2011 Teacher of the Year, a science teacher at Bozeman High School, created a ton of really good science videos for students and teachers. I spent some time checking out his website, bozemanscience.com, and really liked the videos about the Next Generation Science Standards. They're for teachers, under 10 minutes long, and do a great job explaining science in a way that makes teaching it easier. For me, it was a clear, concise refresher on overarching concepts that apply to many specific content areas in science. For teachers with less of a science background, these videos simply explain what we want kids to know and ways to do that at different levels of development.

I learned about these videos at a curriculum planning workshop I got to attend last week.
I felt really fortunate that, although a parent volunteer and not on staff, I was invited to take part in an elementary science curriculum planning session. This particular session built on some visioning that took place in the fall, where teachers painted a picture of what they wanted elementary science to look like in the school district. I learned that the teachers had a vision of student discovery, exploration, and wonder. And that they care about sustainability. But that they wonder about how to realize their vision despite the demands of testing and day-to-day constraints.

The school district's new science facilitator shared his philosophy of science education for the elementary years and how this blends with the Next Generation Science Standards. He talked about the importance of focusing on broad concepts, like teaching kids how to question; the basics of the scientific method; or learning how to recognize patterns, understand cause and effect, and make predictions about systems. He talked about the need to concentrate on these rather than focusing so much on content at this stage. He talked about designing an experience, trusting in children's innate curiosity and purposeful playfullness.

Well, I think this is exciting stuff, to be sure. As one participant remarked during the workshop--almost all educators enter the profession desiring to create learning experiences like the one John Dewey described in the quote at the top. But this can be difficult due to constraints put on teachers, and downright intimidating to some teachers if they don't have a lot of science education themselves. This is where these science videos come in. They turn the 400 page document (nextgenscience.org) containing the entire framework of science standards into easily understood chunks of information. They simplify complex topics, they're engaging, and I think they will quickly increase teachers' comfort level and ability in teaching science. Check them out, and let me know if you think they're as cool as I do!

Stop there, or read on below for some more tidbits about the curriculum meeting I attended.  This meeting gave me hope for both my son who has a few more years in elementary school, and for his teachers who want the freedom to create learning experiences that help kids maintain an attitude of exploration, discovery, and wonder.

Some of the ideas that resonated with me from the workshop:

• Young kids learn while playing, and their play almost always has a purpose. Educators can design science-related experiences that tap into learning through play. Check out the Periodic Table of Play to see different ways play can be classified...

• Currently, we generally begin designing an experience with a consideration of content. (Content is what we want kids to learn, i.e. the parts of a plant or the process of the water cycle.) At the elementary level, content is less important than learning to use scientific practices and learning to understand the broad, cross-cutting concepts which encompass the content students should know when they leave high school. Approaching a learning experience this way makes it more likely students will have a sense of wonder, discovery, and exploration. Basically, the science facilitator's message was this: Get kids comfortable with scientific method and argument and help them understand the cross-cutting concepts. Worry about specific content when kids are of an age where the details will begin to stick. 

• If you want teachers to feel free to design learning experiences that emphasize Practices and Cross-Cutting Concepts, the grading rubric needs to reflect that. We worked on this a bit. Whew. As if I didn't already think teachers jobs were hard...

• There needs to be some sort of coordination among grade-levels so that the kids' learning in science builds on previous years' learning without too much overlap in content or activities. This is the nitty-gritty, and it will be interesting to see what happens when the planning gets to this stage!

Eating for Sustainability: An Experiment Pt. 1

Is it possible to eat healthfully and ethically while on a budget? I can honestly say that I've never had to figure out the answer to that question. But I've wondered for awhile now about whether or not the local food movement is accessible to folks who can't afford to buy their meat from the farmer's market and who would balk at how much I pay each week for organic milk.  So...thanks to my sister-in-law's comment during a moment of New Year's susceptibility...here I go on a culinary and economic adventure:  I'm fixin' to track my food expenses and cooking habits to see if I can rein in my spending while strengthening my commitment to a healthy local economy, a healthy planet, and healthy (and hopefully tasty) food for my family. 

Currently, I would guesstimate that I spend $200 each week on groceries, for my family of four. Not all of it is local, organic, or unprocessed, but I do my best without making myself crazier than I already am.

•  I spend $50 each week on my CSA membership with Fair Shares*.  
• I buy organic milk at $6 a pop each week. 
• I buy pricey bread that has lots of fiber, $3-4 each week. And I'm hooked on expensive crusty bread. Maybe I'll learn how to make it myself.
• I'm an egg weirdo too, and spend $4-5 on a carton of free range eggs. 
• Sometimes I purchase a bag of chicken breasts in a moment of heavy-hearted weakness, but I purchase my meat directly from farmers as often as I can. Here in a week or two, I'll be purchasing 1/3 of a hog with a couple of neighbors. My cost will be about $300-400, but that should be enough pork to last me about a year. (Exception: BACON!! We are gluttons when it comes to bacon.) 
• Things like yogurt, cheese, lunchmeat, pasta, condiments, and canned goods are still beholden to big business from who-knows-where. Frosted Flakes and chips are concessions to my kids, who I feel bad for sometimes. But I'll be darned if I can force myself to purchase a package of Chips Ahoy. I'll make the cookies myself, thanks.
• I buy grocery store produce to supplement my CSA membership as needed. It's a mix of organic and non-organic. There's no real method to that madness--sometimes I can't bear to eat a strawberry that has been fumigated with pesticides, and other times I can't stomach the pricetag on the organic version. No idea why this varies each week, it just does.
• I will not track the cost of my adult beverage purchases. But I might talk about how much I enjoy cooking with a glass of wine in my hand.

So there you have it, a current snapshot of my shopping habits currently. From this starting point, I hope to be able to cut costs and continue to eat well. Who knows, maybe this will inspire me to forever give up bagged chicken breasts. Wish me luck!

*CSA=community supported agriculture. It's a food system in which consumers purchase subscription for a weekly allotment of food from a farmer. The consumers pay up front for a season's worth of food, and then they are at the mercy of weather and pests along with the farmer. If it's a bumper crop, good for everybody. If there's a drought, slim pickin's all around as well. Fair Shares is a multi-farm CSA here in St. Louis that includes meat, eggs, and dairy in the weekly boxes. It's been a really great way to get a variety of local food each week, and you can find out more about it at https://fairshares.org/

Systems thinking

I'm pondering systems thinking and ways to teach it. What about sitting in the school yard and listening to see how many different systems one can observe? You could break it down by senses. What can you hear? What can you see? I'd expect students to be able to hear or see a variety of animal systems (mammals, birds, insects), traffic systems, heating/cooling systems, woodland systems, a classroom system. This could be a great way to introduce the idea of systems to students, and help them see how ubiquitous systems are. 

What would happen if we just let kids explore this and ask questions? Start with systems and let them ask questions to direct us. As teachers we could let them take any system, then help them look for the components of the system and learn to understand the system they are already interested in. Learn to recognize patterns, learn to look for feedback loops (negative ones as well as amplifiers), identify energy flows, learn to look for hubs--points of multiple connections. 

I'm not a teacher (just a parent volunteer), so I don't have a class of my own to try these ideas with. Maybe that's why it is so exciting to me that Tillman elementary is already thinking about systems teaching. I'm not sure to what extent they are already teaching it, but I know that the principal and some of the teachers understand the importance of imparting an understanding of systems. That's why creating a helpful outdoor space is gonna be so transformational. Because the culture of the school is primed to shift right as the outdoor space is being changed, the potential for real and lasting change is great. 

It seems to me that so many teachers are ready and knowledgeable and want to help our kids be able to care for themselves and the planet when theyre grown. And they know that systems thinking is so important for that. 

It gives me so much hope to see how much change there already has been in our society in the last 10 years. When I started this, I never encountered an administrator and very few teachers who thought about "schooling for sustainability". 

Today I find myself in 2 schools helping to coordinate new garden programs and I'm blown away by their readiness to make substantial changes. Schools are such powerful definers of culture. So,  when thinking about what can happen over the next 10 years as many many schools around the country are doing what Tillman and Nipher are, I am filled with hope. And hope, let me tell ya, it makes life a whole lot more fun.