Running header: NEXT GENERATION SCIENCE STANDARDS 1

Next Generation Science Standards

Laura Mauck

SCI 352

December 3, 2015
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Michigan has just recently adopted the Next Generation Science Standards joining

sixteen other states. These standards stress the importance of scientific inquiry and engineering

design. Students will now be expected to connect broad concepts throughout various science

fields. (Heitin, 2015) As a pre-service teacher it is important to understand these new standards

and to look at how I plan to incorporate them into the classroom. Since I am planning to teach

Elementary school I will focus on those grades. Physical Science will also be the particular

science field this paper will examine.

Physical Science in Kindergarten focuses on forces and interactions with the forces of a

push or pull being the main concept. The standards required here are very basic and I feel they

are a great starting point for children to begin to understand forces and their interactions. The

terms are easy for me to understand and I believe they will be helpful when incorporating science

into the classroom. First graders are expected to understand waves in sound and light. These

standards are simple as well and the terms are recognizable. I think that is good to start students

off with a basic understanding of how light and sound travel in waves but getting into the

technical terms is not needed at this age. This would help me to distinguish useful information

and what may go over their heads. Structure and properties of matter are the focus for second

graders physical science. The terms here are easily read and all are important information that I

believe a second grader would be capable of understanding. The standards mention chemical

reactions and I wonder just what type of experiments would not cause too much havoc in a

second grade classroom. I believe the cross-cutting concepts in these standards are quite helpful

for understanding other science fields. Third graders will go back to focus more on forces and

interactions. It does not say in particular that talk of Newtons laws of motion should be learned

but I feel if I could give the students a basic understanding of the laws then it would be useful.
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Technical terms are not expected of students at this time either which I feel is a good idea again

as some of the terms may just be hard for them to remember. I think this standards are helpful

again to see how students ideas of forces and interactions have evolved. Fourth graders are

expected to look into both energy and waves. Scientific concepts have a higher standard at this

time and a lot is expected of students at this grade. There are many standards for the concept of

energy but they are so tightly related that it proves useful to group them all together at this time.

The standards on waves are concepts that build upon what students learned in first grade. All the

terms are still recognizable and the standards showcase some good ideas for experiments to help

children understand these concepts. Fifth graders will focus on structures and properties of

matter. These standards build upon the concepts that were learned in second grade. Chemical

reactions are mentioned at this level and more ideas for experiments come to mind when

working with fifth graders. This is the first time the concept of atoms are discussed. The terms in

these standards are still recognizable and are helpful when coming up with ideas for possible

projects for students to work with in groups. (NSTA, 2015)

With the introduction of a Robotics program in the fifth grade there are times in various

grades in which elements could be useful for students to better understand. In Kindergarten and

third grade as students work to understand forces and interactions this could be related to how a

robot functions or other electronic elements. First and fourth graders as they learn about waves

could understand how they influence robotics. Fourth graders lessons on energy could easily be

worked into an understanding of how machines use energy. A program about climate change

would be best suited for fourth grade. The Earth and Space science standards for fourth graders

focus on Earths systems and in third grade they focused on weather and climate. Since the
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physical science standards also focus on energy it would be a good time to combine the ideas

from both sciences to talk about climate change.

Cooking or baking does not often come to mind when speaking about science but it is one

real world application that I can see many standards being showcased. Structures and properties

of matter standards are ones that I could see with baking as we can see and taste chemical

reactions. Once that liquid baking mix has been baked into a cake there is no going back to its

original state. One could also understand how the ingredients are important to be at the right

amount or you will not get the correct outcome. You could also understand how the concept of

heat energy and how it helped to create this reaction.

I believe the best way to incorporate these standards into my classroom are to find

experiments that showcase the concepts. I have had many come to mind as I looked over the

standards and they are also easy to find online. I have also watched a YouTube series called

SciShow Kids which has excellent videos focusing on various scientific ideas that are geared

towards children. I think these videos would be useful to show to children either before or after

an experiment.

In conclusion, I believe the Next Generation Science Standards are very useful for

students and teachers. They set out very good concepts that students should be able to understand

at different grade levels. Science is an important subject that is needed for children and having

set standards that build upon themselves and branch into other science fields will help teachers to

know what they should be teaching their students.

References

Heitin, L (2015, November 10) Connecticut and Michigan Adopt the Next Generation Science

Standards. Retrieved from

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2015/11/connecticut_michigan_adopt_next_g

eneration_science_standards.html

NSTA (2015) Next Generation Science Standards by Topic. Retrieved from

http://ngss.nsta.org/AccessStandardsByTopic.aspx