Project 2061 Workshop: Understanding and Using Next Generation Science Learning Goals

Looking for help in implementing Next Generation Science Standards? Then be sure to join us for this new workshop that will provide you with essential tools, resources, and strategies for applying standards to improve curriculum, instruction, and assessment.  This is a practical and hands-on professional learning experience that you won’t want to miss!

Hosted by Project 2061 of the American Association for the Advancement of Science—a partner in the development of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and publisher of key resources such as Science for All Americans, Benchmarks for Science Literacy, and the Atlas of Science Literacy—this workshop is a unique opportunity to tap into a set of tools, resources, and strategies that can help you meet the challenges of NGSS implementation. 

The two-day workshop is designed to help you use NGSS and other resources to:

Improve the coherence of the science content you teach:

• Deepen your knowledge of the three dimensions of science learning and the performance expectations presented in NGSS.
• Clarify the science practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts that students are expected to learn.
• Explore strategies for identifying coherent and well-aligned curriculum and instructional activities that integrate all three dimensions of science learning.

Increase your knowledge of students’ conceptual development and common difficulties:

• Use Atlas of Science Literacy progression-of-understanding maps, NGSS, and the NRC Framework to identify essential prerequisite ideas and see how ideas fit together and contribute to one another.
• Consider how formative and embedded assessments can be used to monitor your students' progress and get a better sense of their preconceptions, misconceptions, and alternative ideas.

Evaluate the alignment of curriculum and instruction to science learning goals:

• Use tools for evaluating curriculum and instruction in light of the NGSS science learning goals, including the Educators Evaluating the Quality of Instructional Products (EquIP) rubric and Project 2061's research-based curriuclum materials analysis criteria. Learn how to apply the rubric and criteria to a model lesson developed by AAAS and BSCS and then analyze a lesson or activity from your own classroom and consider ways to improve it.

Who should attend?

• K-12 science and mathematics teachers, administrators, and curriculum specialists
• Informal science educators
• Teacher education faculty
• Education researchers
• Curriculum and assessment developers
• Textbook authors and publishers

Educators from a school, district, or informal science institution are encouraged to attend as a team (at least 2 members). Discounts on team registrations are available.

Fees are listed below.

* To qualify for the Early-Bird discount, registrations must be received four weeks prior to the first day of the workshop.

If you have any questions, please contact 202-326-6628 or use our feedback form.

About the workshop leaders

Jo Ellen Roseman, Ph.D., is director of AAAS Project 2061 and responsible for overseeing all of the project's programs and activities in the areas of curriculum, instruction, and assessment.  She has been involved in the design, testing, and dissemination of Project 2061's science literacy reform tools since 1989. As the project’s curriculum director, she participated in the development of Benchmarks for Science Literacy and Resources for Science Literacy: Professional Development and, as director, provided leadership for and contributed to the development of Atlas of Science Literacy, Vol. 2. She also led Project 2061's evaluative studies of science and mathematics textbooks and currently serves as principal investigator on curriculum development efforts funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, the National Science Foundation, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Prior to joining Project 2061, Roseman was involved in scientific research and teaching at Johns Hopkins University and the National Institutes of Health. Her doctoral studies in biochemistry and research explored the regulation of intracellular protein turnover and provided strong evidence that oxidative modification may be a significant mechanism in signaling cellular destruction of proteins. She also has extensive experience teaching biology and chemistry at the secondary level in Michigan, Massachusetts, and Virginia. Roseman was educated in Maryland and Illinois public schools and received degrees from the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and Johns Hopkins University.

Joseph Krajcik, Ph.D., is a Writing Team Leader for Next Generation Science Standards, director of the Institute for Collaborative Research in Education, Assessment, and Teaching Environments for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (CREATE for STEM)m and a faculty member in science education at the Michigan State University. CREATE is a joint effort between the College of Natural Science and the College of Education to improve the teaching and learning of science and mathematics K–college teaching. He also served as the lead writer of the Physical Science Design Team to identify and describe the core ideas in physical science for the National Research Council's Framework for K–12 Science Education.  Professor Krajcik, along with Professor Angela Calabrese Barton from Michigan State University, serves as co-editor of the Journal of Research in Science Teaching. He has authored and co-authored curriculum materials, books, software, and over 100 manuscripts, and makes frequent presentations at international, national, and regional conferences. A former high school chemistry and physical science teacher for eight years in Milwaukee, WI, Professor Krajcik spent twenty-one years at the University of Michigan before joining Michigan State University in 2011.  He received his Ph.D. in Science Education from the University of Iowa in 1986.

Cari F. Herrmann Abell, Ph.D., is a Senior Research Associate at AAAS Project 2061 and contributes to the development of curriculum and assessment resources aligned to K–12 science learning goals. Her current work focuses on topics in the physical sciences, and she is principal investigator on a project funded by the U.S. Dept. of Education's Institute of Education Sciences to develop a set of instruments for measuring students' understanding of energy concepts at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. In addition to presenting her work at scholarly and professional conferences, Herrmann Abell also leads workshops on the item development process for researchers and classroom teachers, including, for example, those in Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia, the American Chemical Society, the University of Michigan, and the Shanghai Association for Science and Technology. As a reviewer for the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress, Herrmann Abell critiqued physical science and life science assessment items for grades 4, 8, and 12. She received her Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her B.S. in chemistry and mathematics from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA.