Representing the importance of coherent, well thought out curriculum, a resource-, time-, and expertise-heavy undertaking, is much needed. Each of the many elements that you highlight are important in combination. Is there a companion guide that a curriculum might use to accompany the video?

Thanks,
Arthur

Thanks for your thoughts, Arthur. The video was developed as part of a set of three. We wanted to support teachers in considering effective science curriculum – its characteristics, the importance of content coherence, and how curriculum can be modified mindfully. The videos were developed using content from our biology curriculum with the idea that the underlying messages of the videos could be transferred to whatever curriculum a teacher might be using. Long response to your question – we did not develop a guide for the videos. We were hoping that they could stand alone.

Hi,
This presentation is clear and pithy. I think I want to pick up on Arthur’s question, and your answer, about purpose and context for this video and its companions. Have you tested this out with teachers at different stages of their careers (I don’t mean necessarily formal testing, but just — gotten input/reactions from novice teachers, pre-service, mid-career) – and also curriculum supervisors or other administrative types — I could see that this might be useful as a thought-piece embedded in any one of a number of decisions in a school or district.

Our teacher reviewers told us that they thought pre-service and early career teachers would find this useful. And some told us that veteran teachers would find this animation (and the other 2 videos in our suite) good tools for evaluating their instructional materials). We have not disseminated any of these animations as yet.
Kathy Paget

Hi,
I like that one of the underlying principles of the video is that teachers are able to evaluate science curricula and modify it based on their goals.
In thinking about teachers using this as a tool, I am wondering what the target grade range is for the videos.
Thanks,
Elissa

Hi – and thanks for sharing this animation! I agree with Brian that the presentation is clear and concise, yet can also easily imagine some viewers might find it helpful (e.g., through a companion guide) to be able to drill-down through the rich information provided here to explore some of the ideas in more depth. I’d love to learn more about the project’s plans for dissemination—and whether the animations might be available for other researchers to embed in their projects (e.g., as a means of both sharing information on the value of using a core curriculum and obtaining data on the utility of these videos from a range of users in a variety of contexts). Looking forward to learning more about your work as the Video Showcase conversation unfolds!

Each time I see one of these I feel much like Brian – its clear and “pithy.” If coordinators, staff developers or teachers wanted this video or the series, where could they find them?

Tools to assist school districts and funders to (re)think deeply about the role of instructional materials in addressing the NGSS are critical. Vetted, coherent curricula are time-consuming and expensive to develop. But they are an essential first step, especially if major changes in content and practice are envisioned at scale. Are on the cheap, locally developed and/or teacher made a zombie idea– one that should have died but keeps coming back to life?

Hey all! Our media guru just posted this version of the video to our YouTube channel (LTDFlix) so it can be used. After clicking this link and going to the page, click “Share” under the video and then select “embed” to get the embed code. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b48COZiu2lA&amp...

What a wonderful tool for thinking about instructional materials – and a great video, Nevin Katz! Thanks for sharing.