Written by Maria Hasken-Averkamp, GWAEA Science Consultant聽
Highland Middle School science teachers Jayme Kallaus and Jenny Colbert have been building momentum with OpenSciEd over the past two years, learning and growing along the way.
Featured Lesson: During a recent visit, Jayme鈥檚 sixth grade students were starting the OpenSciEd 6.6 Cells and Systems unit and experiencing the anchoring phenomenon centered around understanding how the body heals. During the first lesson, students were reflecting on their favorite activities and how their body鈥檚 structures and functions allow that movement to happen. Jayme provided her own example of rock climbing and how damaged foot tendons now interfere with her ability to grip the rocks safely. Students shared experiences and discussed times when they were not able to do certain activities. This then led into a new scenario for the students to investigate that involved the injury of a student who dropped a large weight-lifting kettle ball on his foot. By the end of the first day鈥檚 lesson, students were eager to view and annotate the emergency room and post-operative reports of the featured injury into what they noticed and wondered about the healing process.聽
Teacher Perspectives: Jayme discussed two things primarily changed when switching to OpenSciEd. The first being that the teacher does more learning WITH the students. She joked that teachers first trying out OpenSciEd might 鈥渇reak out a little bit but trust the process!鈥� OpenSciEd curriculum provides students the opportunity to lead the learning versus the teacher presenting information for the class to learn. Jayme discussed that with the OpenSciEd curriculum, 鈥渢eachers and students are in an equal partnership鈥� in figuring out science concepts together.
All OpenSciEd units are designed in a storyline that are anchored in a phenomenon that tasks students with a situation to personally connect with and figure out. Students generate initial models, questions to investigate, related phenomena as well as ideas for investigation during the anchoring lessons of the unit. Jayme said that the second thing that was a change when switching to OpenSciEd was giving more trust to students to allow them to explore. When first starting to use a new curriculum there is always some anxiety about how students will respond. Allison Butterbaugh is a para in the classroom and noted that OpenSciEd is 鈥渕ore challenging since it has students use more critical thinking skills.鈥澛�
Student Perspectives: The class acknowledged that it took time to adjust to being asked to create questions to investigate, share their ideas in a scientist circle, and develop models to explain their thinking. Sixth grade students also noticed some shifts in this year鈥檚 science class. Haleigh noted that they were 鈥済etting to more real-world problems.鈥� Kendon stated 鈥渢eachers lead the learning but not what you figure out.鈥� Lain added that 鈥渢hey use more models and visuals鈥� as they are asked to think like scientists. As students were sharing and comparing their experiences in this first lesson, it was evident that Jayme built a successful community of learners who recognized the value of figuring things out together.聽
High Quality Instructional Material Rating: The OpenSciEd middle school curriculum received an all-green rating from EdReports for meeting expectations in the the three EdReports gateways: Meets Next Generation Science Standards, Coherence and Scope, and Useability. OpenSciEd is considered a 鈥榟igh quality instructional material鈥� and is an open education resource (meaning the curriculum resources are free to use.)聽 Check out the elementary, middle and high school curriculum units on their and contact GWAEA Science Consultant Maria Hasken-Averkamp if interested in learning more about OpenSciEd.