Science at Washington

Science instruction is beginning to look different from what many of us as parents experienced in our childhood. To help you better understand what Washington teachers are doing with your child, explore the resources on this page.

 

The purpose of the NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards) Framework is to act as the foundation for science education standards while describing a vision of what it means to be proficient in science. It emphasizes the importance of the practices of science where the content becomes a vehicle for teaching the processes of science.

Each standard is a combination of these three dimensions...

1. Scientific and Engineering Practices are the skills and behaviors used by individuals in the pursuit of scientific inquiry and engineering design.

2. Crosscutting Concepts are the themes of science that provide an essential organizational schema for linking the domains together, making connections between various science concepts to create a coherent, scientifically based view of the world around us. They include: Patterns; Cause and Effect; Scale, Proportion and Quantity; Systems and System Models; Energy and Matter in Systems; Structure and Function; Stability and Change of Systems.

3. Disciplinary Core Ideas are the broad, organizing concepts of science around which student learning is connected to life experiences or societal/personal concerns. They embody key understandings of complex ideas that develop over time with greater levels of depth and sophistication. Disciplinary ideas are grouped in four domains: the physical sciences; the life sciences; the earth and space sciences; and engineering, technology and applications of science