NGSS Overview
NGSS breaks science teaching into three pieces referred to as dimensions.
- Cross Cutting Concepts
- Science and Engineering Practices
- Disciplinary Core Ideas
Cross-cutting concepts (CCC) can be found in every science idea from K-12 and across all disciplines. One or more CCC will be implicit in every lesson and in every idea taught to students. The goal is to make them explicit and have students recognize how these ideas are interwoven into science as a subject.
- Cause and Effect
- Patterns
- Energy and Matter
- Systems
- Stability and Change
- Scale
- Structure and Function
Science and Engineering Practices (SEP) are the things that scientists do to help them gather, analyze, and communicate information to help answer questions, solve problems, or make predictions. Conventional laboratory activities will cover some of these, and small tweaks and extensions can cover most of the rest. The biggest change here is the addition of engineering skills (defining problems and designing solutions).
- Ask Questions/Define Problems
- Construct Explanations/Design Solutions
- Develop and Use Models
- Plan and Carry Out Investigations
- Analyze and Interpret Data
- Use Math and Computational Thinking
- Argue from Evidence
- Obtain, Evaluate, and Communicate Information
Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCI) is the basic content knowledge that students have been learning for years. NGSS has pared it down to a minimum of big ideas, and each teacher is free to choose how to develop and scaffold those big ideas for students to understand. The DCI give the end result that students should know at the end of the year, but there is complete freedom on your journey to get there. These are different for each grade band and subject area, so it is the area that individual teachers need to learn about for their specific class.
- Cross Cutting Concepts
- Science and Engineering Practices
- Disciplinary Core Ideas
Cross-cutting concepts (CCC) can be found in every science idea from K-12 and across all disciplines. One or more CCC will be implicit in every lesson and in every idea taught to students. The goal is to make them explicit and have students recognize how these ideas are interwoven into science as a subject.
- Cause and Effect
- Patterns
- Energy and Matter
- Systems
- Stability and Change
- Scale
- Structure and Function
Science and Engineering Practices (SEP) are the things that scientists do to help them gather, analyze, and communicate information to help answer questions, solve problems, or make predictions. Conventional laboratory activities will cover some of these, and small tweaks and extensions can cover most of the rest. The biggest change here is the addition of engineering skills (defining problems and designing solutions).
- Ask Questions/Define Problems
- Construct Explanations/Design Solutions
- Develop and Use Models
- Plan and Carry Out Investigations
- Analyze and Interpret Data
- Use Math and Computational Thinking
- Argue from Evidence
- Obtain, Evaluate, and Communicate Information
Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCI) is the basic content knowledge that students have been learning for years. NGSS has pared it down to a minimum of big ideas, and each teacher is free to choose how to develop and scaffold those big ideas for students to understand. The DCI give the end result that students should know at the end of the year, but there is complete freedom on your journey to get there. These are different for each grade band and subject area, so it is the area that individual teachers need to learn about for their specific class.