A comprehensive, research-based professional development that provides the necessary ingredients for building a scientific way of thinking, a deep understanding of how and why things move in our world, and the skills teachers need to support students making sense of force & motion.
In this 5-day face-to-face professional learning course, participants work to make sense of the different kinds of motion we encounter by unpacking what makes things move in the first place. Throughout the course, participants engage in active discourse as they work to understand the science for themselves as adult learners.
Interwoven with the science are Literacy Investigations that provide participants with an opportunity to engage with contextualized discussions that focus on the unique nature of reading in science. Teaching Investigations provide an opportunity to connect their own adult learning to the classroom context.
As part of the resources included in this course, participants have access to the Making Sense of Student Work PLC protocol and the Energy Formative Assessment Task Bank. An optional Next Generation Science Toolkit is also available. The toolkit supports building a deeper understanding of energy in the context of Next Generation science as described in the NRC Framework for K-12 Science Teaching.
By engaging in sense making using well-developed teaching dilemmas, teachers can better understand their students’ ideas and take deliberate actions to address them through improved understanding of content and how to teach that content.
Page Keeley, author of the Uncovering Student Ideas in Science series
- Audience: For teachers of 6–8 science
- Time: In-person | 5 full days
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Prepare staff developers to facilitate a specific MSS Course. Attendees experience the course as learners and delve into the techniques needed to facilitate it for participants.
Force & Motion Course Materials
This comprehensive set of materials supports the professional learning in our 5-day Force & Motion course.
Surveys & Assessments for Teachers and Leaders
Use our surveys to collect professional learning feedback and determine teacher self-efficacy and confidence. Our assessments gauge student and adult science content knowledge assessment, teacher NGSS knowledge assessment, and teacher pedagogical science knowledge.
Moving the Needle on Middle School Student Achievement in Science by strengthening Teachers’ Knowledge and Skills
Students whose teachers participated in three, 5-day physical science courses, and used school-year formative assessment supports, gained an equivalent of nearly 6 months of science learning as measured by the Arizona state standardized test.