High School - Gateway 3

The materials reviewed for High School meet expectations for providing teacher guidance with useful annotations and suggestions for how to enact the student materials and ancillary materials, with specific attention to engaging students in figuring out phenomena and solving problems.

Across the materials, teacher guidance is included at the unit level in the Unit Overview Materials and at the lesson level in the form of margin notes, callout boxes, and built-in guidance. 

The Unit Overview includes several sections that provide comprehensive guidance that supports implementation of the materials. These sections include the Unit Overview, Unit Storyline, and Teacher Background Knowledge. The Unit Overview focusing on the storyline at a high level includes the Building Towards NGSS Performance Expectations which details the PEs addressed in the unit. The Unit Storyline is a lesson-by-lesson overview and the Teacher Background Knowledge contains safety guidance, information to contextualize the unit within the OpenSciEd Scope & Sequence, the unit structure, NGSS connections, common ideas that students might have, pacing guidance, and ideas for developing personal glossaries. These sections provide teachers with an overview of the unit, how the unit connects to the standards, how the unit connects to other units and grade levels in the program, important science content information, and ideas about the science that students may have. 

Lesson-level teacher guides also include embedded guidance on a variety of elements for implementing the materials. The materials name the following types of margin notes, callout boxes, and lesson guidance: Building Toward NGSS, What Students Will Do, What Students Will Figure Out, Materials Preparation, Where We Are Going, Where We Are Not Going, timestamps for each part of the lesson, Strategies for ___ (lesson activity), Attending to Equity, Supporting Students In ____ (specific SEPs and CCCs), Additional Guidance, Key Ideas, and Alternate Activity. These embedded supports provide teachers with guidance on what specific elements of the NGSS are being addressed, where students may have alternative ideas about the science content, safety considerations, and guiding questions that will help students make connections and understand content. For example:

• In Unit P.4, Lesson Set 1, Lesson 4: Why do objects sometimes collide in space?, after students have updated their personal glossaries and Progress Tracker about the motion and interactions of space objects, the teacher guide states, “Consider other factors for colliding versus missing space objects. Present slide Z. Ask students to share some of their ideas about the prompt: 

  • Is the shape of orbits enough to predict a future collision between Earth and a space object? Why or why not? 

  • What additional information would you need to predict where and/or when a collision could occur?

Accept all answers.

ADDITIONAL GUIDANCE: The goal of this discussion is to highlight the stringent conditions required for a space collision to occur. By addressing questions about intersecting orbits and the orbit path of an object, the focus is on clarifying that intersecting orbits alone do not guarantee collisions. The aim is to create awareness that perfect conditions, beyond mere intersection, must align for space collisions to occur. Reinforce the idea that seeing the lines cross in a 2-D model does not necessarily mean that the orbits cross in 3-D space. This discussion will serve as a motivation for the need to learn about speed in orbits as a crucial factor in collision predictions.”

The materials reviewed for High School meet expectations for containing explanations and examples of grade-level/course-level concepts and/or standards and how the concepts and/or standards align to other grade/course levels so that teachers can improve their own knowledge of the subject.

Each unit-level teacher guide includes a Unit Overview in which teachers are provided with a summary of what the unit and associated lessons incorporate in terms of the anchoring phenomenon, the focal DCIs, SEP, and CCCs, and the NGSS Performance Expectations the unit builds towards. The teacher guide also provides a section titled, Teacher Background Knowledge that includes additional information about the anchoring phenomenon for the unit, the NGSS elements that are developed, and additional ideas that students will have from previous grade levels. Within the Teacher Background Knowledge, a section titled, What are recommended adult-level learning resources for the science concepts in this unit?, provides a curated list of online resources including videos, podcasts, and articles teachers can use to further their knowledge of unit content. Each lesson-level teacher guide contains a section titled, Where We are Going and NOT Going, that contains information about addressing boundaries connected to student learning of the standards.

The materials reviewed for High School meet expectations for including standards correlation information, including connections to college- and career-ready ELA and mathematics standards, that explains the role of the standards in the context of the overall series. 

Standards correlation information and explanations for science standards are provided at several points within the program including at the unit level and the lesson level. Element specific information is present along with progressions and explanations. Mathematics standards information and explanations are provided at the unit level and sometimes at the lesson level whereas ELA standards information and explanations are only provided at the lesson level, where appropriate.

Examples of correlation information and explanations for grade-level/grade-band science standards:

• The High School Scope and Sequence document provides an overview of how all three high school programs (Biology, Chemistry, and Physics) address the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Separate tables provide progressions for the elements of the DCIs, SEP, and CCCs, indicating which units address each element. Information is also provided at the unit level about where SEPs and CCCs are intentionally addressed, serve a key use, and are not a focus.

• The Elements of NGSS Dimensions document exists for each unit. It is separated by DCIs, SEPs, and CCCs and contains information about what lesson(s) each claimed element from the program is addressed within. It includes the element code, lesson number, element language, and a rational section. For DCIs, this section indicates whether the full element or part of the element is present in the lesson, with strikethroughs where appropriate. For SEPs and CCCs, the rational section provides information about how students are intended to engage with the element within that lesson. 

• Each unit-level teacher guide contains several places with information about science standard correlations and information:

  • The Unit Overview contains information about the Performance Expectations (PE) the unit will build towards. 

  • The Teacher Background Knowledge contains information about where the unit falls within the OpenSciEd Scope and Sequence, including the PEs that will be addressed only in a particular unit and those that are shared across other units and/or programs. Element level information is provided including connections to Middle School OpenSciEd units and a table contains element language, with cross-outs where appropriate, for each of the DCI, SEP, and CCC elements addressed in the unit. A table with connections to Nature of Science and Engineering, Technology, and Applications of Science provides information about which elements are developed and how. Additionally, information about how the unit builds three-dimensional progressions is present, with connections to middle school DCIs, DCIs addressed in past and future OpenSciEd units and programs, and a table showing connections of SEPs and CCCs with all three OpenSciEd High School programs.

• Each lesson-level teacher guide contains several places with information about science standard correlations and information:

  • The first page of each lesson contains a list of the PEs the lesson is building towards along with learning objectives that are color coded to identify the three dimensions and codes that correlate to specific element language.

  • The Where We Are Going and NOT Going section provides information about how students engage in each of the elements identified in the learning objectives as well as justifications for why certain parts of the element may not be addressed in that lesson, as applicable. 

Examples of correlation information and explanations for grade-level/grade-band ELA and mathematics standards:

• Each unit-level teacher guide contains a section titled, What mathematics concepts will students engage with in the unit? with a table that provides mathematics standards identifiers (category, code, domain, heading, and standard language) along with the particular lesson(s) number where it is addressed. The section also contains a short description of how the identified standards show up in the unit and how teachers might support students to engage with them. Note: Unit P.6 does not have connections to mathematics standards. However an explanation for why is provided.

• Each lesson-level teacher guide contains a section titled, Additional Lesson Teacher Guidance with information about how to support students in making connections in ELA and/or mathematics. The specific standard identifier information and language is included along with a description of how students will use the standard in the lesson.

The materials reviewed for High School meet expectations for providing explanations of the instructional approaches of the program and identification of the research-based strategies.

The Teacher Handbook provides information about the instructional approach of the program. Detailed information is provided about the storyline approach, alignment to the NGSS, and design elements. Each of the routines that are part of the instructional model are explained including the different elements that make up each routine and examples from the program materials. References are cited within the text as well as provided in a list at the end of the document. The Program Overview document also provides this information in an abbreviated version.

With the unit and lesson-level teacher guides, more specific information is provided on how to implement the instructional approaches. The Teacher Background Knowledge section in the Unit Overview document provides information about the anchoring phenomenon and why it was chosen, how the unit builds three-dimensional progressions, and strategies to support equitable science learning. The Teacher Reference Materials at the end of each unit-level teacher guide also contain details about different strategies used within the unit, such as how to build an anchor chart or use Universal Design for Learning (UDL) for jigsaw readings, along with references, as appropriate. Each lesson-level teacher guide contains a section titled, Where We Are Going and NOT Going that describes how students develop ideas across the unit and makes connections to program design, specifically with how the storyline model is used to support students to build understanding.

The materials reviewed for High School meet expectations for including a comprehensive list of supplies needed to support the instructional activities.

Each lesson-level teacher guide includes the Learning Plan Snapshot which includes a table with the part of the lesson, duration, summary, slides used, and a list of materials. A specific Materials List section is also included that lists what is needed per student, per group, and per class. Materials preparation information is also provided along with the anticipated time it will take to prep. The Learning Plan section also includes what materials are needed for each part of the lesson. Additionally, the Program Overview document contains a section titled, Lab Investigation Kits that directs teachers to the OpenSciEd website to view a complete list of materials on each unit’s overview page and a list of partners who offer certified kits for purchase.

The materials reviewed for High School meet expectations for providing an assessment system with opportunities to determine student learning throughout the school year and sufficient teacher guidance for evaluating student performance and determining instructional next steps.

The assessment system for the program consists of formative, summative, pre-, self-, and peer assessments. Within the unit-level teacher guide, the Assessment System Overview provides a section titled, “Overall Unit Assessment” and includes a table with information about each assessment including what lesson the assessment is located in, any assessment and scoring guidance provided, and the purpose of the assessment. Each assessment type is identified within the purpose. After this summary table, the Lesson-by-Lesson Assessment Opportunities section includes a table that lists each lesson, the lesson-level performance expectations (PE) included in that lesson, and assessment guidance as related to each PE. Guidance is provided about when to check for understanding of each PE as well as what to look for/listen for in the moment. Within each lesson-level teacher guide, the Learning Plan Snapshot contains a box with a checkmark icon that indicates every assessment opportunity within the lesson. In the Learning Plan, the check mark icon again is present along with an Assessment Opportunity box that includes information about what to look for/listen for in the moment and what to do. It also includes the lesson-level PEs that the assessment is building toward. Various assessment opportunities are located across the unit, with pre-assessments taking place at the beginning, formative, self and peer assessments taking place throughout, and summative assessments taking place at the end of a lesson set and/or unit.

In most cases, a key is provided for formative and summative assessments. Formative assessment keys may contain the lesson-level PE(s) the assessment is building toward and a table with the 3D elements addressed in the assessment. Next there is a table with three levels of understanding: Foundational Pieces, Linked Understanding, and Organized Understanding. For each level there is guidance around what should be present in terms of the three dimensions as well as suggestions and guidance around feedback/what to do to help students move to the next level of understanding. Suggested student responses are also provided. Some formative assessments do not include keys and some do not include all the parts described above. Summative assessment keys may contain the relevant lesson-level PE(s) and a table that, again, includes the 3D elements addressed in the assessment. This table provides additional detail about each assessment question and which elements it addresses. Guidance is then provided for each question, color coding to identify where elements are addressed, as well as what to look for (with suggested student responses), and what to do based on student responses. Transfer task keys include the table with the three levels of understanding with what to look for as related to the elements, an example student response, and feedback to support students to move to the next level of understanding. At the end of the transfer task key is a table with suggestions for instruction for each level of understanding, based on how the majority of the class does on the transfer task.

The materials reviewed for High School meet expectations for embedding clear science safety guidelines for teachers and students across the instructional materials.

Each unit-level teacher guide contains safety guidelines within the Teacher Background Knowledge section. A part titled, “Lab Safety Requirements for Science Investigations” lists general science safety guidance along with a note that specific safety precautions are called out within each lesson and identified with a yellow triangle with an exclamation point in the middle. Each lesson-level teacher guide also contains safety guidelines, as appropriate. The Materials preparation section contains guidance related to safety as related to particular investigations or other student activities. Within the Learning Plan, the safety triangle icon appears along with the heading “Safety Precautions” and specific details about safety guidelines as related to the particular activity students are engaging with. Student Procedure documents for each lesson also contain the safety triangle icon and additional safety details as applicable. The slide deck that accompanies each lesson includes the safety triangle icon and additional safety language on any relevant slides. 

It is important to note that teachers should always locate and adhere to local policies and regulations related to science safety in the classroom.

The materials reviewed for High School meet expectations for providing strategies and supports for students in special populations to support their regular and active participation in learning grade-level/grade-band science and engineering.

The Teacher Handbook provides an overview of how the program has been designed to provide strategies, supports, and resources for students in special populations. The supports and strategies fall under the material’s Universal Design for Learning (UDL) general philosophy and have limited identification of specific student populations. Every unit-level teacher guide contains a section titled “What strategies are available to support equitable science learning in this unit?” This section summarizes the different places within the unit that “...are integrated throughout the OpenSciEd routines and are intended to increase relevance and provide access to science learning for all students.” For each lesson-level teacher guide, additional sections that include supports for special populations are the Additional Guidance sections and the Attending to Equity callout boxes. In some cases, these sections include specific guidance for how to support students in special populations. For example:

• In Unit P.1, Lesson Set 1, Lesson 1: What can we learn from a blackout in Texas about producing reliable energy from our communities, an Attending to Equity callout box contains guidance for implementing Universal Design for Learning. To support students coming together to build a consensus model of relevant systems and components in an energy grid, the callout box says, “Use representations like color coding and/or letter or number coding to foreground parts of the model. Create a key to track what colors, symbols, or codes represent different parts of the system. Though color coding is useful for quick reference, letter or number coding helps ensure accessibility for any student who may be color-blind. If color coding is used, consider a color palette with orange, blue, black, or dark brown.”

In other cases, the supports are more general and would benefit all students. For example:

• In Unit P.2, Lesson Set 1, Lesson 1: What is happening in the Afar region? an Attending to Equity callout box contains guidance for implementing Universal Design for Learning. To support students to read different earthquake case studies, the callout box says, "Not all students will perceive the text in the same way. Consider offering an auditory alternative. This can be done by using text-to-speech capabilities of various platforms with the Google Docs or PDF version of the text, allowing for a partner or "interviewer" to read the text aloud, or by creating narrated video (including images) of each case, among other options."

The materials reviewed for High School meet expectations for providing extensions and/or opportunities for students to engage in learning grade-level/grade-band science and engineering at greater depth.

Within the unit-level teacher guide, the Unit Overview contains a section titled “How do I shorten or condense the unit if needed? How can I extend the unit if needed?” This section lists the locations and describes the extensions available in each unit. The majority of extensions are dependent upon the teacher making the decision to extend the thinking for all students. If a single student chooses to do them, they are in addition to the standard activities of the lesson. These extensions are for all students and not solely advanced students. Some extension suggestions include language like “if time allows” and “For students who demonstrated mastery of the standard at an earlier stage.” Within the lesson-level teacher guide, there are also references to extension opportunities, including within the Additional Guidance, Alternate Activities, and various callout boxes. These opportunities are present as applicable within the lesson and may include guidance to extend for all students or opportunities to extend for advanced students outside of the lesson. Opportunities include adding materials and time to an investigation, removing scaffolds related to science and engineering practices, or having students conduct additional investigations or sharing of information at home. While some of these opportunities are work outside of the lesson, they are connected to the content of the lesson and optional.

Examples of opportunities for all students to engage in grade-level/grade-band science at a higher level of complexity:

• In Unit P.5: How do we use radiation in our lives, and is it safe for humans?, the unit-level teacher guide contains the section “How do I shorten or condense the unit if needed? How can I extend the unit if needed?“ As an opportunity for Lesson 5, it states, “Give students additional materials and time to carry out their own investigations. This will require additional time assessing the safety of each of the investigations students will carry out, but it will give students the opportunity to gather data they considered as appropriate to answer their own questions. You may also want to consider taking an extra period for classes in which there is student engagement around the need for additional tests beyond the three defaults outlined in the lesson.”

Examples of opportunities for advanced students to engage in grade-level/grade-band science outside of the lesson:

• In Unit P.2, Lesson Set 2, Lesson 9: How does the rock in Afar compare to the rock around the world, and what does this tell us about the history and future of the region?, students examine crustal age data and plan and carry out a rock density investigation. Within the lesson-level teacher guide, an Alternate Activity section states, “Extension opportunity: For those who are eager to learn more, consider offering the optional extension reading, Composition of Continental and Oceanic Rocks. You can also have them research the composition of other types of rocks in Earth’s crust, and come to class prepared to share this information with their peers.”