Session Options

As OpenSciEd’s elementary units become available, many schools and districts are eager to explore these high-quality instructional materials. This full-day professional learning experience, led by one of our certified OpenSciEd facilitators, provides administrators and educators with a deep understanding of the shifts required by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and how OpenSciEd’s instructional model supports these changes.

OpenSciEd middle school materials have been publicly available for five years and are rapidly gaining momentum in classrooms across the country. The key to successful implementation lies in the instructional model’s embedded routines, which support student sensemaking, discourse, and three-dimensional learning.

In this full-day session, participants will engage with an anchoring phenomenon from an OpenSciEd unit, explore the storyline that drives student inquiry, and navigate the assessment system to understand how it supports both formative and summative evaluation of student learning. By the end of the session, educators will leave with practical strategies for using OpenSciEd’s routines effectively to enhance science instruction and deepen student engagement.

Students are tasked with designing a structure that can help keep them cool on the playground. In order to do this, students explore how sun and shadows change over the course of a day. Students also explore how weather changes throughout the seasons, what causes the seasons, and how weather forecasting can help us prepare for different types of weather.

In this unit, students view photographs of garbage in the Mississippi River. Throughout the unit, students will investigate the problem to gather information about why the garbage got there, the types of garbage in the water, and how the garbage impacts living things. They will use their learning to design, test, and communicate solutions to clean up the garbage in the Mississippi River.

In this unit, students listen to a read aloud about the migration journey of the ruby throated hummingbird. They investigate how and why the hummingbird migrates such a long distance each year. Throughout the unit, they study hummingbirds and explore how they care for their young. They also figure out that adult hummingbirds are similar, but not exactly like their parents. They use the information they gain throughout the unit to write a short story about the hummingbirds.

In this unit, students are introduced to biomimicry, or using inspiration from nature to solve human problems. They make observations with hands-on plant investigations to identify parts of plants and their functions. They connect each plant part back to biomimicry, thinking about how they could be used as inspiration to help protect a campsite. They make comparisons between plant parts as a plant grows, and throughout seasons, to determine how plants change, and how young plants are alike, but not exactly like, their parents.

The Putting on a Show with Light and Sound unit invites students to explore how light and sound can be used to communicate a story through a shadow puppet show. Students begin by investigating how sound is created through vibrations and how changes in pitch and volume can influence music and emotions. They apply this knowledge by engineering musical instruments from recycled materials to provide sound effects for their show. Next, students explore how light allows us to see objects and how it interacts with different materials to create shadows. Using this understanding, they design and construct shadow puppets. The unit culminates in a student-led performance, where they integrate their knowledge of sound and light to bring a story to life on stage. Through hands-on investigations, engineering challenges, and creative expression, students develop a deeper understanding of wave properties, design solutions, and the role of technology in communication.

Oh no! What could happen to the Plover Piper? In this unit, students view photographs and maps of the Sleeping Bear Dunes. They read an article about how the dunes are getting smaller, and how this affects animals and people in the area. Throughout the unit students will investigate the problem to gather information about how wind and water change the earth over time. They will use their learning to design solutions that protect the dunes from changing.

In this unit, students investigate how early Inuit, Polynesian, and Nordic explorers navigated and adapted to different environments around the world. Through research and hands-on activities, they compare landforms, bodies of water, and exploration routes, creating salt dough maps to represent the landscapes of early explorers. Students design and build models of expedition vessels, shelters, and tools to understand how these explorers traveled and survived in various conditions. They also explore cultural connections by designing lyres used in traditional music. To apply their learning, students become modern explorers, mapping their own school or playground and creating models to represent their discoveries.

In this session, educators will explore the "How Seeds Travel" science unit, where students investigate unexpected plant growth and seed dispersal. Participants will learn how to engage students with a story about cucumbers growing in a radish bed, leading to hands-on activities where students plant seeds, make predictions, and record growth. Educators will gain strategies for guiding students in data collection, graph construction, and analysis. The session will also cover exploring plant parts, habitats, and the role of animals in seed dispersal. Educators will learn how to facilitate student investigations and model-building to understand seed movement.

Pinball machines make learning physics fun! In this unit, students explore forces and motion through the design and construction of a pinball machine. They investigate how forces, including gravity and magnetism, affect motion by analyzing games and conducting hands-on experiments. By gathering and interpreting data, students identify patterns in balanced and unbalanced forces and use this understanding to improve their pinball designs. They engage in the engineering design process to develop, build, and test their machines, incorporating creative tricks using magnets. Throughout the unit, students apply fair testing strategies to refine their designs based on criteria and constraints. The unit culminates in a Pinball Carnival, where students showcase their working pinball machines.

Students explore why only certain types of foods can be grown in their community compared with other parts of the world. They compare climate differences between their area and other places, and how this determines which types of plants can be grown. Additionally, students ask questions about frost and how it might affect plants. Students investigate how frost forms, and how it affects plants. Students analyze seasonal weather to understand how plants can be protected based on predictable weather patterns. Students then engineer and test solutions to protect plants from the hazard of frost.

The Bugs and Blooms unit engages students in exploring the fascinating world of insects and their interactions with plants through three anchoring phenomena. First, students investigate why bees are often found near flowers by observing a bee visiting a flower, growing plants, and modeling pollination, including the role of static electricity and honey bee social structures. Next, they explore why pink katydids are rare, using a case study to understand variations in traits and how color impacts survival and reproduction. Finally, students observe the life cycle of a darkling beetle, comparing it to other organisms to understand patterns of growth and change. Throughout the unit, students develop models, analyze data, and construct explanations to answer driving questions about organism interactions, trait variation, and life cycles. The unit culminates with a classroom insectarium, where students showcase their research on different insects.

Students will explore the multifaceted impact of the Glen Canyon Dam. The unit begins with students viewing a slide deck of photos and listening to a podcast to make initial observations and ask questions about the dam. Throughout the unit, students will gather evidence to understand why the Glen Canyon Dam is a ssing the evidence collected, students will create a public service announcement (PSA) in the form of a video, slide presentation, poster, or other media to inform their peers and families about the various perspectives on the controversy.

This unit's anchoring phenomenon focuses on how tsumanis can be very dangerous for people. Students view slides and videos of tsunamis in Japan and Indonesia and consider the cause of tsunamis, the structure of the waves, and ask questions about how to detect tsunamis in order to reduce the impact of tsunamis on people. Students will learn where tsunamis occur and how earthquakes often cause tsunami waves. They will develop a model to explain how these waves are formed and identify patterns in terms of amplitude and wavelength. Then, they will explore ways people might detect tsunamis ahead of time and send messages to people across long distances. They use their understanding of science ideas to design a solution using sensors and computer programs to improve warnings about tsunamis.

The A Playground for All unit challenges students to design playgrounds that are fun, safe, and inclusive. Students begin by reflecting on their own playground experiences and surveying their school’s playground to evaluate its engagement, safety, and accessibility. They first explore how objects move by investigating forces, motion, and friction, using their findings to design exciting yet predictable playground equipment. Next, they examine safety concerns by studying energy transfer in collisions and how heat from the sun affects materials, leading to design solutions that reduce injury risks. Finally, students explore simple machines and sensory experiences to create playground features that accommodate all children, including those with physical and sensory needs. The unit culminates with students presenting their inclusive playground designs to their peers and school administrators, applying engineering and scientific principles to create a space where all children can play together.

Students explore how patterns in the sky have been used to measure time throughout history. They investigate how Earth's rotation and revolution create predictable changes in shadows, daylight hours, and the positions of stars. By designing sundials, using graphical data displays, and modeling celestial movements, students explain how ancient civilizations developed clocks and calendars. They also examine how Earth's gravity influences objects on its surface and how the Sun's gravity governs planetary orbits. Using a gravity simulator, students explore the connection between gravity and the patterns they observe in the sky. To synthesize their learning, students create a fictional civilization that uses celestial patterns to track time, crafting online storybooks to share with younger students.

Get prepared to teach this unit during the 2024-25 school year: At the start of this unit, students view a slide deck of photos and listen to a podcast to make observations and ask questions about the Glen Canyon Dam. Throughout the unit, students will collect evidence about why the Glen Canyon Dam is controversial and how it impacts people, animals, and the environment. They will use this evidence to produce a public service announcement (video, slides, poster, or other form of media) to inform their peers/families about the different sides of the controversy.

The A Particle Picnic unit invites students to explore the science behind cooking and baking as they prepare for a community picnic. Students investigate how ingredients change when making a cake, using models to explore the properties of matter, chemical reactions, and states of matter. They then explore mixtures by experimenting with different ways to combine and separate substances while making lemonade, deepening their understanding of solubility and conservation of matter. Finally, they apply their learning to plan and prepare a full meal, considering how matter transforms during cooking. Through hands-on investigations, modeling, and problem-solving, students discover the role of science in the kitchen and use their knowledge to create a delicious and well-planned picnic meal.