New elementary science standards being developed

STAFF PHOTO ANDY SHUPE Rebecca Wilbern, right, a fourth-grade teacher at Vandergriff Elementary School in Fayetteville, takes a look at specimens Thursdsay collected by Greyson Garrett, 10, left, and Ezra Andersen, 9, as her class spends time in search of specimens behind the school.
STAFF PHOTO ANDY SHUPE Rebecca Wilbern, right, a fourth-grade teacher at Vandergriff Elementary School in Fayetteville, takes a look at specimens Thursdsay collected by Greyson Garrett, 10, left, and Ezra Andersen, 9, as her class spends time in search of specimens behind the school.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Students at Vandergriff Elementary School pushed aside their desks, got down on the floor and propelled handmade cars on the slick floor as if it was an icy highway.

The students were to figure out the friction necessary to propel and stop the cars, made from recycled scraps. The students were learning about the science of motion through trial and error and collaboration.

Web Watch

Arkansas K-12 Science Standards

To keep up with the development of the K-12 Science Standards for Arkansas students, visit

http://www.arkansas…

At A Glance

Next Generation Science Standards

The first step in the development of the new standards was the development of “A Framework for K-12 Science Education,” developed by the National Research Council, the staff arm of the National Academy of Sciences and released in a final form in 2011.

The Next Generation of Science Standards was developed collaboratively with states and others in science, science education, higher education and industry and are intended to prepare students for college and careers. The standards are rich in content and practice and designed to give students across all grades and disciplines a high quality science education. The standards were completed and published in 2013.

Two Northwest Arkansas teachers, Melissa Miller of Farmington and Kathy Proffit of Springdale were among the original group of science educators from around the country to write the Next Generation Science Standards.

Source: www.nextgenscience.…

"You're the engineer. You have to do it," Rebecca Wilbern told her students.

"They kept playing and learning from failures. There was joy and pride when they got it to work," she said.

And, that, according to Wilbern, is how science should be taught in public schools.

Wilbern, a 20-year veteran of the classroom who teaches fourth grade, is one of 45 educators statewide tapped to write new science standards for grades kindergarten through fourth grade.

The group met in October and again last week to continue reviewing the Next Generation Science Standards and adapting them to fit what Arkansas students need to know, said Jenny Gammill, director of K-12 science and technology in the Fayetteville School District.

The committee's goal is to present the standards to the Arkansas State Board of Education in the spring, said Michele Snyder, science specialist for curriculum and instruction with the state Department of Education.

New science standards are being developed for kindergarten through 12th grades during the next three years. The committee is now working on kindergarten through fourth grade, followed by grades fifth through eighth. The final review will be for high school students, according to a timeline developed by the Arkansas Department of Education.

The state education board voted to endorse the Next Generation Science Standards, which were released in 2012, as a basis for the development of K-12 science standards in Arkansas, Snyder said. The standards will meet curriculum mandates reflecting what students should know and be able to achieve at all grade levels.

Science standards were last revised in 2005, Snyder said.

Gammill said the science standards used today have a foundation in the work of the National Research Council and the American Association for Advancement in Science some 15 years ago. Newer research about how students learn has pointed to incorporating more hands-on experimental study.

In Wilbern's classroom, she said the "aha" moment comes when students figure out what works or doesn't and why.

"There is a natural love in creating something that is theirs," Wilbern said. "In elementary, we teach the idea of science, a rediscovery of a child's natural curiosity of the life around them. We encourage that. Thinking scientifically is not natural, but creativity is. The emphasis should be on the learning, not the grade.

"They are more engaged when they feel like they own it," Wilbern said.

The elementary standards, expected to be implemented in 2016, will have more hands-on work for students and more professional development for teachers.

Wilbern said her own science education consisted of reading a chapter in a textbook, answering questions at the end and moving on to the next chapter. Her preparation to teach science was the weakest link in her teacher training, she said. She sought professional development in science early in her career.

Cathy Wissehr, an assistant professor in elementary science at the University of Arkansas, teaches aspiring teachers to be better science teachers. She said science is taught as a set of facts students memorize and repeat on tests. An example is making the students learn the order of planets as they extend from the sun.

Wissehr said science education should have three components: science and engineering best practices; concepts or content; and cross-cutting concepts, an interdisciplinary approach to learn the cause and effect of a science concepts.

Using science and engineering practices puts the emphasis on science, technology, engineering and math education into the mix, Gammill said.

"There will be a greater integration of science into the curriculum," Gammill said.

A major challenge is to adequately prepare teachers about how to engage students and teach according to the new standards, Snyder said.

The idea is to "learn science the way scientists do science with a lot more hands-on work," Snyder said.

Because of a strong emphasis on literacy and math during the No Child Left Behind years, science education has often been relegated to study at the end of a week, teachers have said. Gammill won't say science was ignored, but her job is to elevate science to more prominence in Fayetteville classrooms, particularly at the elementary level.

Fifth-graders in Arkansas scored 60 percent proficient or advanced on science tests last spring. Seventh-grade performance level was just less than 40 percent proficient or advanced.

NW News on 11/24/2014

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