Skip to main content

First high school OpenSciEd units launched today!


Since Fall of 2021, WA state HS teachers and students have been field-testing OpenSciEd HS units and have helped provide valuable feedback. Per their input, these materials are revised and now the first of these units are released to the public as an Open Educational Resource! They are now available to download on the OpenSciEd website. 

Newly Release OpenSciEd HS Units!

 

Please share these units with any high school teachers looking for new science materials for their classrooms.


Webinars Coming Soon!

In the next few weeks, there will be free webinars hosted by OpenSciEd for you to learn more about these units from the curriculum developers themselves. Sign up via the links below. Recordings of these meetings will be made available after the event has occurred.

o   Biology unit 1 webinar: March 9, 2pm

o   Chemistry unit 1 webinar: March 15, 2pm 

o   Physics  unit 1 webinar: March 13, 2pm

 


August PD: The Summer Institute for HS Teachers

The AESD Network will be offering in-person professional learning on these units August 1-3 in Vancouver, WA. There will also be an optional OpenSciEd facilitator training add-on July 31st (full day) and August 4 (AM only) in Vancouver, WA. Save the dates if you are interested. In a few weeks, Regional Science Coordinators will begin the initial recruitment of teachers and/or potential facilitators to attend. If you know people who might be interested in this opportunity, please have them Join the WA OpenSciEd mailing list for future updates and to receive an application when it becomes available later this month.

 


For more information, reach out to:

 

Will Baur

ESD Network OpenSciEd Project Manager

OpenSciEd: AESD / OSPI Network
253-617-5638

FOLLOW me:
Twitter 

 

Join the WA OpenSciEd mailing list for future updates

 

 

 

Popular posts from this blog

OSPI Bulletin 065-23: Learning Standards Review Update

Summary:  This bulletin provides an update to the information about the learning standards review project addressed by Superintendent Reykdal’s letter to district superintendents dated February 14, 2023. It includes current information about the reviews of the Washington state learning standards for English/Language Arts, mathematics, and science. It also includes a timeline for the review process. Key Audiences:  Educational Service District Superintendents, School District Superintendents, School District Business Managers, School District Curriculum Directors OSPI's Bulletin re: Math, ELA, Science: [ PDF ] Science Updates: [ PDF ]
Read more

[STATE-LEVEL] ASSESSMENT SHOULD NOT DRIVE INSTRUCTION

Regional Science Coordinators are developing an online orientation class for the new Washington Comprehensive Assessment of Science (WCAS). We have involved OSPI’s Science Assessment lead, Dawn Cope and OSPI’s Director of K-12 Science, Ellen Ebert, in the process as well as Lois Sherwood from WSTA. In our first planning meeting, I wanted to hear the most important message from each person at the [virtual] table. Dawn Cope of the assessment department was the first to speak up and quite pointedly said, “assessment does not drive instruction.” That pretty much spoke for the rest of us. What does that mean for teachers in Washington State where we’ve spend the last 13 years writing “powerful classroom assessments” that mirrored the content and format of the WASL and the MSP? Assessment systems serve specific purposes . They are developed to provide specific kinds of data for those purposes. And an assessment developed at the state level to inform state-wide decisions does not l...
Read more

Three-Dimensional Nature of the new Washington Comprehensive Assessment of Science (WCAS)

The new science assessment does NOT privilege content above practice or crosscutting concepts. We have heard from two different parts of the region that someone who self-identifies as an NGSS-assessment-item-writer has returned to their district and erroneously reported to supervisors and colleagues that the new NGSS-aligned assessment’s (WCAS) items focus solely on one of the three dimension of NGSS (namely, the Disciplinary Core Ideas, most closely related to our previous notions of “content”). This is idea represents a serious misunderstanding that could derail a district’s transition efforts around NGSS. Not being an item-writer myself, I reached out to OSPI. Dawn Cope of OSPI’s Science Assessment Team responded with wonder that anyone could come away from item writing with that idea and, explained that all the training materials and the process used reflect the 3-dimensional nature of the NGSS. She shared all the training items for me to examine so I could try and see wher...
Read more