Kennewick teachers recently gathered at the REACH Museum in Richland to explore how to make science more meaningful for their students. Organized by the Engaged to Understand Institute, a collaborative project with ESD 123 and the Kennewick School District, this professional learning series focuses on helping educators teach science through “sense-making” and the essential cross-cutting concepts in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
The institute is designed to encourage teachers to model how they can foster sense-making and student discourse around complex science topics. As the teachers met, they discussed how climate change affects the Tri-Cities region. Their guiding question was: How does climate change impact Washington’s snowpack, and what strategies can we develop to manage this valuable resource sustainably?
This question opened the door for participants to approach science from multiple angles. These concepts help students look at science phenomena from different perspectives, making it easier to understand and solve complex problems.
This was just the first of three sessions in the series, where educators will continue to explore how to integrate cross-cutting concepts into science education, preparing students to be thinkers and problem solvers for the future.