OpenSciEd in the News

OpenSciEd is partnering with Tuva, the leading data literacy instructional platform, to catalyze data literacy and bring authentic datasets and interactive data tools into its middle grades curriculum. Through this partnership, a selection of Tuva datasets will be integrated with OpenSciEd lessons and investigations and be freely available to all districts, schools, teachers, and students. The Tuva datasets will be included in the following units upon public release: 6.5 Natural Hazards, 7.6 Earth’s Resources & Human Impact, and 8.5 Genetics.

Vernier Software & Technology has partnered with OpenSciEd to make it easy for middle school teachers to integrate Vernier data-collection technology into OpenSciEd’s lessons, which align with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Through the partnership, teachers can now use Vernier sensors with OpenSciEd’s curriculum to engage students in hands-on learning as they develop an even deeper understanding of important scientific concepts.

Weymouth, MA is one of seven districts participating in a three-year pilot to use a new curriculum called OpenSciEd which proponents say has the potential to revolutionize science education. Five of the school’s 10 seventh and eighth grade science teachers are part of the pilot. “When you look at it as a philosophy for student learning, it’s a no-brainer,” Weymouth Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Director Terri Fleming said, adding that it encourages 21st-century problem solving. “It’s what colleges are asking for. It’s what corporations are looking for,”

In this article, Lori Andersen shares three key features that help to distinguish high-quality, NGSS-aligned science teaching materials from other materials: 1) sequence of activities 2) use of the three dimensions and 3) supporting sensemaking.

OpenSciEd released the first round of middle school science units covering “thermal energy,” “metabolic reactions” and “sound waves.” The units have passed evaluation by Achieve’s Science Peer Review Panel (which has reviewed almost 300 units and given the top seal of approval to just 14, including these three) and are listed as examples of quality materials on https://www.nextgenscience.org/.

In 2017 philanthropists, state leaders, and curriculum writers formed OpenSciEd to get materials to teachers implementing the Next Generation Science Standards, which emphasize hands-on projects and integrate several scientific disciplines. The consortium working on OpenSciEd includes developers from BSCS Science Learning, a nonprofit organization that creates curriculum materials and conducts research; Boston College; Northwestern University; The University of Texas at Austin; and Digital Promise, a nonprofit organization authorized by Congress to promote innovation in education.

This article describes OpenSciEd, as a partnership of 10 states, a consortium of curriculum developers, and science education leaders and experts working to create a complete set of robust, research-based, open-source, K-12 science instructional materials and professional learning supports to increase accessibility for all teachers and students. The instructional materials are being designed not as stand-alone units but as a full coherent sequence that builds across units and across years. OpenSciEd is designed to shift teachers’ and students’ vision of science. instruction and science learning. The professional learning approaches are not just about learning to use the instructional materials, but about supporting teachers to learn new instructional strategies that will better support every student in learning science.

A new nationwide effort is trying to speed up that process by offering free, open source science materials to teachers and schools. “Some districts are looking at OpenSciEd saying ‘We don’t have to spend a million dollars,’” said Phillip Lafontaine, a regional director with K-12 Alliance at WestEd and project director for OpenSciEd in California. “That’s the whole point of open source materials.”

When Susan McClarty’s district made the switch to open educational resources, the 6th and 7th grade science teacher at Centennial Middle School in Broken Arrow, Okla., initially struggled to find quality materials aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards. “We were kind of wading through water, trying to create something out of nothing,” she said. But last school year, her school participated in a field test for a new, open-source middle grades science curriculum: OpenSciEd. The units were easy to use and emphasized hands-on discovery, she said, and using them took the pressure off of teachers to shape a coherent curriculum.

This report examines five different approaches to successful professional learning as it relates to the implementation of high-quality instructional materials. Through each of the 5 case studies, lessons learned are shared that districts and school leaders should consider as they prepare teachers and provide them with the knowledge and skills to ensure that the adoption of high-quality instructional materials translates into improvements in student achievement.