Science and Engineering Practices

Whether your school district has adopted the Next Generation Science Standards or not, the 8 science and engineering practices outlined in NGSS should not be overlooked.  The NGSS brings together 3 dimensions for teaching and learning science and engineering.  One of these dimensions includes these eight practices.  Teachers should be working towards giving their students opportunities to engage in these practices while learning science and engineering concepts.  It may seem a little overwhelming at first, but these practices are very doable with students as young as kindergarten.

One thing teachers should keep in mind when trying to incorporate the practices into lessons, is that it's just about impossible to include all the practices within one lesson.  The idea behind these practices is to provide students opportunities to engage in the practices over the course of a unit.  For example, in my Space Unit, students may be engaging in analyzing data and performing mathematical computations when investigating the relative distances of planets.  On another day, students may be planning and carrying out investigations when investigating the impact gravity has on different sized objects.  When designing my units or mini units, I try to get to all of the practices, but not necessarily in one lesson.

Of course, some practices are more difficult to implement than others; we all will have our favorites.   Check out the NGSS Appendix F found here to get ideas on how you can provide opportunities for your students to engage in practices that are used by real scientists and engineers.  There's a breakdown included to show teachers how the practices progress from Kindergarten through Grade 12 that I think you will find very useful.