Organizing K-12 Science Education around Core Ideas


Organizing K-12 Science Education around Core Ideas
The meeting on core ideas in K-12 science education that will be held at the Keck Center of the National Academies on August 17^th is intended as a first step in a multi-stage, multi-partner process to develop new frameworks for standards in science education. Much work on learning and on the impacts of standards has been done since the National Science Education Standards—and the variety of state standards that followed them—were formulated over ten years ago. The aim of this meeting is to look at some of that work and use it to begin to define a framework for building science standards around core ideas of science to take advantage of this current and previous scholarship. The specific goals for the meeting include:

1. Explore various interpretations of “core ideas” in science, discuss the related research evidence for the usefulness of core ideas in teaching and learning science, and review previous efforts to identify core or big ideas 2. Develop criteria for identifying core ideas that integrate perspectives from the cognitive and learning sciences, education research, assessment, and the science disciplines 3. Explore how core ideas can be defined such that all aspects of science learning (as described in the four strands from Taking Science to School) are integrated into the standards 4. Begin to discuss implications of these criteria for a standards development process–what does it mean to use core ideas as underlying framework for setting new science education standards
Several papers have been commissioned for the meeting in order to advance the conversation more quickly. Together, these papers examine some of the current work on core or big ideas as well as learning progressions—see the background material link below. *The meeting has been funded by the National Science Foundation under award No. DRL-0936529.
MEETING
Meeting: August 17, 2009 Keck Center 500 5^th Street, NW Washington, DC	Agenda Background Materials
STAFF
Martin Storksdieck, Director, BOSE Heidi Schweingruber, Deputy Director, BOSE Jean Moon, Senior Scholar for Education Strategy and Planning Rebecca Krone, Senior Program Assistant


Stakeholders’ Meetings
Based on the last decade of research in teaching and learning, a growing understanding of the interconnectedness of science disciplines, rapid growth of knowledge in science, and a policy window that allows for change, there is an opportunity now to rethink and revise science education standards over the coming two years. The goal is to move towards standards that represent core or essential disciplinary and cross-disciplinary ideas in the natural and applied sciences; that are relevant to the learner, can be learned (and conversely, can be taught); and build on learning progressions wherever possible. In short, there should be fewer standards that define what we want students to learn within and about science in ways that are reflective of the scientific method and process overall. The results will be a smaller number of clearly defined standards that set a higher bar and prepare students for college and lifelong learning. Clearly, the task is not easy. Fortunately, we can build on previous and existing efforts. With generous support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Board on Science Education is holding two half-day informational meetings that will describe and discuss current efforts to develop fewer, clearer and higher science education standards. The two meetings will feature the same agenda and will be held on October 12 and October 27 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.. During the meetings, we will: • Discuss the need to revise science education standards now • Clarify conceptual considerations behind core ideas, standards, benchmarks, and performance expectations and discuss the rationale behind the call for fewer, clearer and higher standards • Share initial experiences from the ongoing process of developing common core standards in mathematics and English language Arts • Report on the results of NSTA’s Science Anchors project • Consider insights about the potential role of learning progressions in defining core ideas, gained from a recent meeting at the Academies • Present and discuss a new effort to develop a theoretical framework for core ideas in science and for developing standards based on this framework over the course of the next two years.
MEETINGS
Please register for the meeting that fits best with your schedule. Remember both meeting feature the same agenda.
Meeting 1: October 12, 2009 Keck Building Room 100 500 5^th Street, NW Washington, DC 20001	Agenda Presentations	If you are unable to attend either meeting but would like to stay informed about this project please click here.
Meeting 2: October 27, 2009 National Academy of Sciences Building 2100 C ST, NW Lecture Room	Agenda (pdf) Agenda & Presentations
STAFF
Martin Storksdieck, Director, BOSE Heidi Schweingruber, Deputy Director, BOSE Rebecca Krone, Program Associate