Teacher Handbook
While the OpenSciEd units are designed to provide teachers who are new to three-dimensional learning with enough support to implement the units successfully, this OpenSciEd Teacher Handbook provides overviews of features of the OpenSciEd units and open educational resources on the website that are likely to be new to many teachers. Each chapter focuses on a different feature.
Middle School Teacher Handbook
HIGH SCHOOL HANDBOOK – Expected October 31, 2023
Teacher Tools & Resources
The Teacher Tools & Resources document provides a collection of all the tools and resources embedded in the OpenSciEd units that could be utilized in other units or with other instructional materials.
The intention of this resource is to provide educators with ideas and resources to modify units or provide additional scaffolds for their students.
This document is organized into clusters of resources but you will see that many resources overlap with other areas. For example, a tool or template under Section A. Resources and Tools to Support the Science and Engineering Practices might also include ideas for supporting the cross-cutting concepts. We offer this tool as a PDF or as a Google Document.
Approaches to Grading
The OpenSciEd materials have a comprehensive assessment system that is aligned with the model of instruction, which supports students in sensemaking and developing their ideas over time. While the materials have embedded assessments, it is up to each teacher to determine how to map the assessment moments to their classroom grades. Grading practices are very localized and informed by school and district policies and a teacher’s own priorities and policies. On this page and in the associated resources, we provide a variety of approaches that educators have taken with grading that aligns with the general approach of the materials.
Driving Question Board Support
The Driving Question Board (DQB) is a tool used throughout the OpenSciEd units as a way to generate, keep track of, and revisit student questions that drive the investigation of the anchoring phenomenon and related phenomena. The DQB is a visual representation of the class’s shared mission of learning in the unit and is a central support for the OpenSciEd Instructional Model.
Remote Learning Resources
In March 2020 the COVID-19 Pandemic caused schools in every state to close their doors. Remote instruction effectively became a national policy for the rest of that year. In an effort to support educators while they shifted to remote learning, OpenSciEd created a handful of remote learning resources. These resources include guidance on how to adapt OpenSciEd’s units for remote learning, remote adaptations of some units, and tips for staying grounded when teaching remotely.
Multilingual Learners Supports
The vision set forth by the NGSS calls for major shifts in the teaching and learning of science, where students learn in the context of puzzling phenomena and engage in authentic science and engineering practices (SEPs) as they seek to make meaning of these phenomena. To meaningfully engage in these SEPs, students must use language in increasingly complex ways. This type of learning presents opportunities for EMLs to tap into their language resources and assets, but could also bring about potential challenges if certain English language needs go unaddressed. This page shares the supports and resources built into our materials for Multilingual Learners and provides insights from teachers using the materials.