Next Generation Science Standards

The Next Generation Science Standards is a multi-state effort to create new education standards that are "rich in content and practice, arranged in a coherent manner across disciplines and grades to provide all students an internationally benchmarked science education." The standards were developed by a consortium of 26 states and by the National Science Teachers Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Research Council, and Achieve, a nonprofit organization that was also involved in developing math and English standards. The public was also invited to review the standards, and organizations such as the California Science Teachers Association encouraged this feedback. The final draft of the standards was released in April 2013.

The purposes of the standards include combatting ignorance of science, creating common standards for teaching in the U.S., and developing greater interest in science among students so that more of them choose to major in science and technology in college. Overall, the guidelines are intended to help students deeply understand core scientific concepts, to understand the scientific process of developing and testing ideas, and to have a greater ability to evaluate scientific evidence. Curricula based on the standards may cover fewer topics, but will go more deeply into specific topics, possibly using a case-study method and emphasizing critical thinking and primary investigation. Possible approaches to implementing the standards may even include replacing traditional siloed high school courses such as biology and chemistry with a case-study approach that uses a more holistic method of teaching science. Many education supply companies have already started offering NGSS-aligned products and resources to help teachers implement these new principles.

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are based on the "Framework K–12 Science Education" that was created by the National Research Council. They have three dimensions that are integrated in instruction at all levels. The first is core ideas, which consists of specific content and subject areas. The second is science and engineering practices. Students are expected not just to learn content but to understand the methods of scientists and engineers. The third is cross-cutting concepts: key underlying ideas that are common to a number of topics. The NGSS give equal emphasis to engineering design and to scientific inquiry. In addition, they are aligned with the Common Core State Standards by grade and level of difficulty. The standards describe "performance expectations" for students in the area of science and engineering. They define what students must be able to do in order to show competency.

...
Wikipedia