Science Essential Standards
Facilitator: Katie McGregor
RC Day Workshop 1 of 3
October 31st, 2011

What processes must all science teachers
initiate when teaching the NC Science
Essential Standards with efficacy?

How will we frame our instructional
practices to meet the requirements for
student-mastery based on the Next
Generation of Science Standards and
Assessments?
Session Essential Questions

Standard I: Teachers demonstrate
leadership

Standard III: Teachers know the content
they teach

Standard IV: Teachers facilitate learning for
their students
Focus: North Carolina Professional
Teaching Standards
These sessions are about Teachers!
nstacmu.wikispaces.com

Locate “Improving Adult Content Knowledge
Before Teaching a Unit.” Handout 6.1

Put a √ next to the strategy you most frequently use
during the school year to improve or refresh your
own adult content knowledge before teaching a
new unit.

Discussion: How does adult content knowledge
influence instruction? Why must science teachers
remain abreast current information concerning the
content they teach?
How do you prepare for teaching?

Locate “Ten Common Beliefs about Standards &
Research on Learning.” Handout 2.1

Complete the chart by reading each statement
and marking whether you “Agree,” “Disagree,” or
are “Not Sure or It Depends.”

In small groups, discuss your responses to each
statement.

We will revisit these statements throughout the day.
Beliefs about Standards and Research
on Learning

The Three Little Pigs story metaphorically describes
various approaches to and considerations for K-12
science curriculum development. In a small group, read
the story.

On the Post-It note provided, please write down which
pigs’ house you believe most represents your district’s
current curriculum design process (this includes work
that was done previously, if you have not started
developing or revising your curriculum yet). For example,
if you believe your district design process is most like the
second little pig’s house, record a “2”. (You can have
1.5 and 2.5 if you feel you are in-between.)

Place your Post-It notes on the chart to create a bar
graph with your group. Make sure to label your graph!
Science Curriculum Metaphors: The
Three Little Pigs

Identify and discuss the metaphors used in describing
the construction of each pig’s house as they apply to
curriculum development (Handout 6.13). As you discuss
these metaphors, talk about where you see your district
in the story. Do any of these metaphors apply to your
curriculum?

Translate one metaphor from each pig’s house into a
curriculum design practice as listed on your
supplemental handout. 3 Pigs Metaphor

Generate a list, on chart paper, of things you think
should be considered as we examine The Essential
Standards and develop our local science curriculum.
Science Curriculum Metaphors: The
Three Little Pigs
9:40-9:45ish

2.E.1 Understand patterns of weather and
factors that affect weather

To introduce weather:
◦ Schoolhouse Rocks Video or Weather Flip Chart

The Local Forecast
◦ Daily Temperatures Graph
Activity #1: Introducing Weather

For the following activity, you will engage as
a student learner.

You may only speak and respond as a
student. Please use your Post-It notes to jot
down teacher thoughts.
Pre-Activity Instructions
Activity #1: Let’s Build a Weather Tool!
•Face the Wind By: Vicki Cobb
•Now that you’ve investigated more about the air
and the wind, how can we MEASURE how fast the
wind is blowing?
Your Challenge: Design a tool to measure
wind speed.
It must feature free-spinning cups that spin faster as the wind
increases. The wind should blow into the cups pushing them
away.
Materials:
-5 Paper cups
-A Skewer
-2 Straws
-Scissors
-A marker
-Tape
With your group: How will you use your tool to measure wind
speed?
What’s the tool called?
An Anemometer
Making
an Anemometer
Weather Tools Flip Chart
www.fi.edu/weather/ todo/dixie.gif
www.daviddarling.info/ images/anemometer.jpg
http://www.reuk.co.uk/OtherImages/
kestrel1000-anemometer.jpg

Do you see the correlation of this activity to
the Essential Standards?

Which of the 5Es does this lesson address?
See handouts.

Do you facilitate similar activities in your
classroom already?

Questions?
Teacher Talk
2.E.1 Understand patterns of weather and factors that
affect weather.
2.E.1.1 Summarize how energy from the sun serves as a
source of light that warms the land, air and water.
2.E.1.2 Summarize weather conditions using qualitative
and quantitative measures to describe: • Temperature •
Wind direction • Wind speed • Precipitation
2.E.1.3 Compare weather patterns that occur over time
and relate observable patterns to time of day and time of
year.
2.E.1.4 Recognize the tools that scientists use for observing,
recording, and predicting weather changes from day to
day and during the seasons.

There must be a balance between teacherdirected instruction and student independent
exploration of concepts

Does this mean that teachers cannot guide
students?

Read the article, “To Hypothesize or Not to
Hypothesize”

Group Discussion: How important is the adult’s
understanding of an activity and ability to question
in the execution of a hands-on activity?
Questioning in Science: “To Hypothesize
or Not to Hypothesize”
National Science Education Standards
Young
children are naturally interested in everything
they see around them—soil, rocks, streams, rain, snow,
clouds, rainbows, sun, moon, and stars.
During
the first years of school, they should be
encouraged to observe closely the objects and
materials in their environment, note their properties,
distinguish one from another and develop their own
explanations of how things become the way they are.
As
children become more familiar with their world,
they can be guided to observe changes, including
cyclic changes, such as night and day and the
seasons; predictable trends, such as growth and
decay, and less consistent changes, such as weather
or the appearance of meteors.
CTS Curriculum Topic Study
Science For All Americans
The earth has a variety of climatic patterns, which
consist of different conditions of temperature,
precipitation, humidity, wind, air pressure, and
other atmospheric phenomena. These patterns
result from an interplay of many factors.
 The basic energy source is the heating of land,
ocean, and air by solar radiation. Transfer of heat
energy at the interfaces of the atmosphere with
the land and oceans produces layers at different
temperatures in both the air and the oceans.
 These layers rise or sink or mix, giving rise to winds
and ocean currents that carry heat energy
between warm and cool regions.
 The earth's rotation curves the flow of winds and
ocean currents, which are further deflected by
the shape of the land.

CTS Curriculum Topic Study
Benchmarks for Science Literacy
There
are many ways to acquaint children with earthrelated phenomena that they will only come to understand
later as being cyclic.
◦ For instance, students can start to keep daily records of
temperature (hot, cold, pleasant) and precipitation
(none, some, lots), and plot them by week, month, and
years. It is enough for students to spot the pattern of
ups and downs, without getting deeply into the nature
of climate.
They should become familiar with the freezing of water
and melting of ice (with no change in weight), the
disappearance of wetness into the air, and the
appearance of water on cold surfaces.
◦ Evaporation and condensation will mean nothing
different from disappearance and appearance,
perhaps for several years, until students begin to
understand that the evaporated water is still present in
the form of invisibly small molecules.

CTS Curriculum Topic Study
2009 Essential Standards
2004 NC SCOS
2.E.1 Understand patterns
of weather and factors that
affect weather.
2.E.1.1 Summarize how energy from the sun
serves as a source of light that warms the
land, air and water.
2.05 Discuss and determine how energy
from the sun warms the land, air and
water.
2.E.1.2 Summarize weather conditions using
qualitative and quantitative measures to
describe:
• Temperature
• Wind direction
• Wind speed
• Precipitation
2.01 Investigate and describe how
moving air interacts with objects.
2.03 Describe weather using
quantitative measures of: temperature ,
wind direction, wind speed ,
precipitation
Essential Standards: Crosswalks
2009 Essential Standards
2004 NC SCOS
2.E.1 Understand patterns
of weather and factors that
affect weather.
2.E.1.3 Compare weather patterns that occur
over time and relate observable patterns to
time of day and time of year.
2.06 Observe and record weather
changes over time and relate to time of
day and time of year.
2.E.1.4 Recognize the tools that scientists
use for observing, recording, and predicting
weather changes from day to day and during
the seasons.
2.04 Identify and use common tools to
measure weather:
• Wind vane and anemometer
• Thermometer
• Rain gauge
Essential Standards: Crosswalks
2.E.1.1
Students know that light travels from the sun to the earth.
Some of this light is reflected back into space, some is
absorbed by the land, water, and air. Bill Nye: The Sun
2.E.1.2
Students know that numbers are used to describe air
temperature, wind speed, and the amount of
precipitation that occurs. Students know that wind
direction is described using cardinal directions (N, S, E, W)
and numbers. Students know how to measure air
temperature with a thermometer, wind direction with a
wind sock or vane, wind speed with an anemometer, and
precipitation with a rain gauge. My Weather Tools
PowerPoint
Essential Standards Unpacked: What the students
need to be able to know, understand and do!
2.E.1.3
Students know that over time there are patterns that
can be observed in the weather and that these
patterns are influenced by the time of day (cooler
morning, warmer afternoon) and the time of year
(seasonal changes). On the Same Day in March By: Marilyn
Singer
2.E.1.4
Students are familiar with manual and electronic
weather instruments, sensors, and computers as well as
how they can produce a ‘running record’ of weather
changes that occur over time by collecting and
recording data. This collection of data can be analyzed
as a basis for predicting weather trends. Want to be a
meteorologist?And Build Your Own Forecast
Essential Standards Unpacked: What the students need to
be able to know, understand and do!
Essential Standards: Vocabulary: www.wordle.net
How to Use it in the Classroom

Hierarchy of Scientific Content Knowledge (See
Handout 6.7)

The Essential Standards intentionally reflect the
importance of topics and ensure that some topics
covered under the strands of Life, Earth and
Physical Science continue from kindergarten
through high school.

In reading the “Unpacked Document,” be sure to
note prerequisite knowledge often introduced with
“Students should already know…”

Focus on identifying learning targets and criterion
for success. (How will you know that know it?)
Vertical Curriculum

Based on the Essential Standards, evaluate
the content of your lesson plans using the
criterion. (Handout 6.14)
◦
◦
◦
◦

Essential Understandings
Important Understandings
Worth Being Familiar With But Not Necessary
Not Worth
How will this evaluative practice improve
your planning as a science teacher?
Prioritize Your Instruction!
1:50ish

For the following activity, you will engage as
a student learner.

You may only speak and respond as a
student. Please use your Post-It notes to jot
down teacher thoughts.
Pre-Activity Instructions
A group of friends is looking up at a rain cloud. Each had a different idea
about how rain falls from the clouds. This is what they said:
Will: “I think rain falls when clouds melt.”
Chandra: “I think rain falls when clouds open up.”
Bettina: “I think rain falls when clouds get too cold.”
Fern: “I think rain falls when clouds are shaken or pushed together.”
Lorna: “I think rain falls when the evaporated water in clouds
condenses.”
Marcus: “I think rain falls when water droplets in the clouds get too
heavy.”
Jonah: “I think rain falls as the ice crystals in the clouds begin to melt.”
Noah: “I think rain falls when the water falls through little holes in the
clouds.”
Which person do you agree with most and why? Explain your answer.
Water Cycle Song
Activity #2: Formative Assessment Probe (2.E.1)
Camping Trip
Five friends were camping in the north woods. It was a clear night with
mild weather conditions. Sunset was at 9:14 p.m. Sunrise was at
5:22a.m. The five friends wondered when it would be coldest as they
slept under the stars. This is what they said:
Collin: “I think it will be coldest right after the Sun sets.”
Bono: “I think it will be coldest at midnight.”
Jeri: I think it will be coldest around 3:00a.m.”
Emma: “I think it will be coldest at the beginning of sunrise.”
Kit: “I think it will be coldest a few hours after sunrise.”
Which person do you agree with most and why? Explain your
answer.
Formative Assessment Probe #2

Do you see the correlation of this activity to
the Essential Standards?

Which of the 5Es does this lesson address?
See handouts.

Do you facilitate similar activities in your
classroom already?

Questions?
“Teacher Talk”
Activity #3: Ideas for lesson plans: Isn’t that
what we REALLY want from a workshop?
In your groups, share lesson ideas that correlate with your
group’s essential standard. Write your ideas and be ready to
share.
Think about what you do in YOUR science classroom:
-picture books or novels
-videos/music/PowerPoints
-websites & technology
-skits/plays
-experiments/hands-on activities
-discussions
-assessments
-mini lessons
Resources:




My school website: Katie McGregor
http://www.wsfcs.k12.nc.us/Page/28743
Wikispace
◦ http://wsfcselementaryscience.wikispaces.com/
Edmodo
◦ http://wsfcs.edmodo.com/
Questions? Comments? Concerns?
We will meet again on:
Jan. 23rd & Feb. 20th
Your Ticket Out The Door:
-Please write your name, school and email address on the
index card, so that I can email you the ideas/ lesson plans
that we shared.
-If there are ideas, questions or materials you would like
from me: please note that on the index card.
-Also, if you have comments or questions for the WS/FCS
Science Department, please note that on the index card
as well. I will forward those for you!