NGSS Resources

Example Instructional Materials

New Quality High School Unit Posted

Over the last ten years, the field has learned about the features of high-quality science instructional materials, and their importance in making the shifts in classrooms that today’s science standards demand. In this time, over 50 lessons and units have been posted on nextgenscience.org as quality examples for the field to use and learn from. Each of these examples is also linked on the corresponding standards pages the example aims to address.

Incorporating Research: Engineering in Preschool Through Elementary Grades

Research on science teaching and learning plays a significant role in supporting all students in engaging in an equitable and inclusive learning experience. Implementing research findings can lead to meaningful outcomes including resources, tools, and strategies that can improve science teaching and learning in the field. 

Science in elementary schools often comes with many challenges — instructional time, several demands placed on teachers, a lack of resources and infrastructure — but it is an essential time for students to be developing identities as scientists and engineers. The recent National Academies consensus study identified approaches and strategies that can be used by education leaders at all levels to ensure all children are provided with high-quality learning experiences.

Read more from the 2021 National Academies report here, and more research in the past ten years about science education here. 

Centering Instruction on Sense-making: Problems with Problems 

Over the past decade, classroom instruction has started to shift from learning about science to figuring out the cause of phenomena. The field now has many resources on driving instruction with phenomena. However, today’s science standards also represent a commitment to raise engineering design to the same level as scientific inquiry when teaching science at all grades K–12, including supporting students to learn and apply the three dimensions while solving real world problems. A 2021 resource provides examples and guidance on what it can look like to drive instruction with engineering design problems.

Read the 2021 NextGenScience resource here.

Monitoring Progress: Implementation Indicators of Today's Science Standards

Change is a process that must be managed — it does not occur instantly or without great, sustained, and intentional effort. Monitoring progress is an essential component of that work. This resource provides some key common indicators of successful NGSS implementation at the district level, as well as some concrete actions that districts can take to achieve implementation goals.

See the 2017 Achieve resource here.

High School: Leukemia Unit

In a quality high school unit posted this month, students investigate the fictionalized case of Hina Marsey, an eleven-year-old girl who is diagnosed with a form of leukemia. They explore the effect mutations can have on cells as they divide and differentiate, how cancer can disrupt our body’s systems, and how science is used to develop treatments and cures. 

See the free Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center unit and corresponding EQuIP Rubric for Science evaluation report posted in April 2023 here. It is also linked on the standards pages for HS-LS1-1, HS-LS1-2, and HS-LS1-4.

New Middle School High Quality Unit Posted 

In this life science and engineering unit, students explore the important role bees play as pollinators within ecosystems. Students investigate the impact of human activities on wild bee species and discover why a reduction in biodiversity threatens global food security. Confronted with this problem, students make a choice: save the bees or replace them. The unit earned a rating of High Quality NGSS Design if Improved by the NextGenScience cadre of expert reviewers.  See the freely available Stile unit and corresponding EQuIP Rubric for Science evaluation report here.

Blog Post: Cultivating Cultural Competency

A new On the Same Wavelength blog post discusses what it takes to build affirming science learning environments. The authors share three strategies from the Promoting Inclusion and Engagement in STEM Learning practical guide to support educators, administrators, and professional learning providers to meaningfully engage students using the language and cultural assets they bring to the classroom. 

See the NextGenscience blog post here