Integrating Engineering in the Sciences - Year 2

“Society demands a higher level and different set of skills than schools were ever designed to teach” (Daggett, 2010). The KBE’s recent adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and the science Content Literacy Standards that are part of the CCSS for ELA have great implications and challenges for teachers as they work to implement effective learning experiences and assessments with their students. Through a broad partnership facilitated by the Partnership Institute for Math and Science Education Reform (PIMSER), comprised of high school science teacher teams, science educators, and scientists, the project will work to develop, pilot and revise high school instructional units of study. With the addition of Global Climate and several human health-related core ideas in the NGSS, high school science programs have a high need for assistance with developing units that address these concepts and integrate engineering. Although there are numerous programs and materials available for integrating engineering into elementary and middle school science content, there are very few designed for high school and none specific for the NGSS. Integrating Engineering in the Sciences (IES) will build on the success and lessons learned from Year 1 of the project. Each teacher will develop, pilot/implement and revise a multi-disciplinary unit of study aligned to the NGSS that integrate engineering to assist in learning the science. Participating in IES is designed to move science teachers from test preparation to designing classroom experiences that genuinely prepare students to be college and career ready. The units of study that will be developed will serve as a model for developing other units that will include a rigorous but student-centered approach to learning with effective integration of mathematics and language arts. This proposal is targeted to work with 19 high school science teachers (five high school teams) from four districts: Ashland Independent and Bell, Knox, and Pendleton counties (three districts are high need). The partnership project consists of full-day academic year cadre meetings, a summer institute in June 2016, onsite mentoring and classroom observations with descriptive feedback, and a webpage/online community.