Hi Elissa,

Thank you for your email! This project builds on the work we did with over 400 middle school teachers in another NSF project that is sunsetting this year. It was clear that tools were needed to help educators understand NGSS and make the necessary shifts in engaging students in the 3-dimensional, interdisciplinary context of investigation of phenomena that exists in the real world. We’ve tested our tools with approximately 100 educators to date and are rolling out a network improvement community (this June) of researchers and practitioners representing multiple campuses across the country who will be using our tools with their preservice and inservice teachers and sharing data to continue to refine the tools and examine their effectiveness in various contexts. The rubrics were developed by “unpacking” each component of each of the three dimensions by grade-level (middle school). We have separate rubrics for each of the science and engineering practices and a “3-D” map or tool that helps users make the connections across teh 3 dimensions. These are web-based, down-loadable tools. Used collaboratively in the context of examining an existing lesson or developing a new one, the tools contain prompts intended to provoke co-reflection and dialogue which leads to deeper understanding of the standards, 3-dimensional learning, and the instructional shifts,

Next Gen ASET (funded by a recent NSF award) builds on findings from our prior $12 million NSF focused on developing district capacity and infrastructures to advance science education. We worked with over 400 middle school teachers across 10 districts in 4 counties in the SF Bay Area. From that experience, we knew that it was critical to develop tools that help educators unpack the 3 components of the 3 dimensions as articulated in the new Framework for K12 science education and revise their current lesson materials. We’ve tested these tools with close to 100 inservice science teachers and county office science coordinators, science methods faculty, and preservice teacher candidates. We are about to expand the testing and continued improvement of these tools at through six additional university partners (with their preservice and inservice teachers) in June. It’s hard to describe in a nutshell the tools we are developing but we have rubrics that unpack each of the science and engineering practices across middle school grade levels and also a tool that helps educators make the connections in their lesson planning or lesson revision across the three dimensions. We are also working on making connections to common core.

Please fee free to contact me at rachelle.distefano@csueastbay.edu. Our website will be going live at the end of the month. We are launching a network improvement community on June 13/14 of researchers and practitioners representing other universities across the country. They will be using the tools in their science methods classes and, as co-researchers, share data for continuous improvement of the tools. We are completing our annual report in a few weeks that will answer your questions. But, feel free to contact me in the interim.

We are launching in mid June a Network Improvement Community across six universities to continue to study the use of our tools in various contexts — using data on variation to make additional improvements as needed. Are you with a university or PD organization? If you would like more information about learning to use these tools, please feel free to contact me directly.

Please fee free to contact me at rachelle.distefano@csueastbay.edu. Our website will be going live at the end of the month. We are launching a network improvement community on June 13/14 of researchers and practitioners representing other universities across the country who will be using and testing the tools in their science methods classes and, as co-researchers and sharing data with the partnership for continuous improvement of the tools. Given that the new science reform docs are project-based, the tools can be used to inform the development or revision of existing projects to align with the vision of 3-dimensional science learning espoused in the new science reform docs.

Thank You, I look forward to viewing your website! The science reform docs might be very useful for our outreach projects at Iron Range Engineering, which is utilizes project-based curriculum as well. Great project.