Tier #3 STEELS Special Topics, Session B Cancelled

Instructor(s): Peney E. Wright

Description of Activity: Session B includes:

Equity, Inclusion and Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

• Review the CAST UDL Principles
• Engage with an interactive infographic that pairs principles of UDL with the 3-Dimensions

STEM: Integrating TE Within STEELS K-12

• In addition to the Science Standards, the Technology and Engineering (TE) Standards are for all students. Many of the new TE Standards will be part of STEM Program curricula.
• TE Standards are also to be integrated with the sciences, K-12.
• And, TE Standards are to be integrated within Project/Problem-based Learning, including multiple subject areas.
• Take a deep dive into the TE grade bands, noticing progressions before, within and after your grade level.
• Strategies and Examples for TE integration will be shared.
• Investigate integrated exemplars created by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology for all grade bands.
• Time to begin a grade level and/or K-12 STEM/TE Integration Plan will be provided.

Critiquing and Shifting Towards Phenomena-based 3-Dimensional Curricula

• NGSS Lesson Screener Tool
• Next Generation Science Storylines
• Ambitious Science Teaching S#2  Unit Plan Share-outs

Equity, inclusion and belonging are tenets of PA’s Equitable Practices.  The STEELS Standards are intended for all learners at every school. Use the principles of Universal Design for Learning to remove barriers to learning, invite all students to take advantage of tools and technology to support successful learning and share the variety of ways you encourage your students to show what they’ve learned.

“The integration of these disciplines in the standards highlights the interconnectedness of scientific, technological, and engineering focused study; the integral relationship between humans and the environment; and the importance of integrating the teaching and learning of science, technology, and engineering.”  June 2022 PDE STEELS

“Technology & Engineering - Focuses on the interactions among technology, engineering, society, the environment, and other disciplines, with a goal of developing individuals that can create, utilize, and assess current and emerging technologies. The standards are written as grade-banded performance expectations built around technology and engineering strands, practices, and contexts and integrated into a set of specific standards. These components are elaborated upon in Foundation Boxes (hyperlinked for each standard) providing support for design of curriculum

and instruction.”  June 2022 PDE STEELS

The new STEELS Standards are intended to promote integration at all grade levels, in all ways:

• the sciences integrated with technology and engineering
• technology and engineering integrated within all the sciences
• Elementary integration: STEELS with ELA and Math
• Middle and High School STEELS integration between all subject areas

“The difference in the verbs used in the NGSS tells the story. Gone is the conception of science education as an abstract recall of facts. Instead, students demonstrate proficiency in science by engaging in actual scientific practices — in this case, developing models, designing solutions and constructing arguments. In the words of one standards author, the NGSS requires that students move from demonstrating good note-taking skills to demonstrating true understanding of scientific practices, concepts and core ideas. The resulting implications for classroom practice could not be greater.”  2013, Achieve NGSS Workbook

Our goals are to shift our teaching to engage 21st Century students in rigorous science learning. 

NGSS Conceptual Shifts

• K–12 Science Education Should Reflect the real-world interconnections in science
• All practices and crosscutting concepts are used to teach all core ideas all year
• Science concepts build coherently across K-12
• The NGSS focus on deeper understanding and application of content
• Integration of science and engineering
• Coordination with Common Core State and STEELS Standards

Strongly recommended: read the National Research Council: A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts and Core Ideas(2012), free download