What Role Do NGSS Resources Have in Preparing Students for Future Career Opportunities?

Many students are unable to create a direct link between their key subjects taught and their future careers. As a result, their lessons appear to be of little use to them. Students who put in the hours studying may be able to recite scientific information like “Evaporation, condensation, and precipitation are the three stages of the water cycle,” but memorization-based teaching approaches do not equip these students with the skills they will need in college and beyond. They end up simply regarding their education as being unrelated to their lives.

By using NGSS resources (Next Generation Science Standards), many schools in the United States are taking a fresh approach to teaching and learning science. These new standards are intended to make science more relevant for students, as well as to help them acquire critical thinking abilities that will be useful in any field - not just science! In the end, they will be more active in following their passions and understanding their distinct interests if they cultivate a love for learning and discovery.

What Are the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)?

For students in grades K-12, the NGSS employs “phenomenon-based” teaching methods. Instead of memorizing information, this method motivates students to ask questions and explore solutions using cross-cutting ideas like patterns, reasons and impacts, structure and function, and systems and system models.

Instead of monitoring insects on the playground, a kindergartener may look for patterns in the life cycles of beetles, butterflies, and pea plants to determine what all living things have in common. Instead of studying the different sorts of earthquakes, an elementary school student may use a cause-and-effect approach to create strategies to avoid structures from falling after an earthquake by examining data trends. Instead of making a model of a cell and identifying its components, a middle schooler may design a new cell with a structure that optimizes energy production. Instead of memorizing the periodic table, a high school student could utilize a system model analysis to describe and predict the features of various elements. By seeing the relationship to learning and the world them, students will become more engaged and passionate about their studies.

How is NGSS Is Important for Science Education?

The basic concepts of NGSS are applicable to all branches of research, including physical, biological, earth/space, and engineering. The latter is often overlooked in primary, middle, and high school science curriculum. Students can develop abilities applicable not only to fields of scientific investigation, but also to any other disciplines, by learning these standards through inquiry-based courses, critical thinking exercises, and hands-on problem-solving.

For instance, an inquiry-based mindset is important for a reporter when deciding which topics and issues to cover and which angle to take; critical thinking is important for an business person when looking for ways to improve their marketing strategy; problem-solving skills are important for a graphic designer when dealing with creative concepts and overlapping deadlines, and a desire to learn is important for an entrepreneur.

How Does NGSS Help Children Achieve Success in School?

According to a survey on parents, it has been found that 9 out of 10 felt that learning science is just as important as reading, writing, and math. According to another study, their children feel the same way: 81 percent of kids think science is intriguing. However, only 37% of students say they enjoy science class; they wish it was more engaging, and they prefer hands-on lab activities and other engaging exercises to simply reading textbooks or being lectured.

Students who are not engaged in their science classes are less motivated to learn and are less likely to discover areas in which they excel. Moreover, many schools do not even offer engineering as a subject, so kids may never have the opportunity to be inspired by those themes before entering college. NGSS allows students to be more involved in their courses and use those experiences to make informed decisions when they transition to college by focusing on phenomenon-based experiments and incorporating more specialized areas of science.

Students may be excluding themselves from dozens of majors that could provide them with difficult and gratifying career pathways if they do not get the opportunity to learn about and even enjoy science before applying to college. The new science standards are designed to pique students' interest in science and engineering by aligning teaching techniques with how they learn best, especially among students who – at least initially - don't consider themselves "science lovers."Teachers who have employed NGSS resources have seen noticeable improvements in their students in the following areas.

  • Improved Concentration

    The hands-on NGSS resources used by teachers have been found to make students less distracted, and more interested in their coursework. These improved behaviors were ascribed to students' increased autonomy, the flexibility of movement, and the ability to make their own judgments while immersed in the interactive learning settings fostered by the NGSS paradigm.

  • Improvement In Standardized Test Scores

    Teachers saw improvements in standardized test scores, including the new MAP (Measure of Academic Performance) scores in mathematics and science.

  • Collaboration

    The emphasis on collaborative problem-solving was extremely effective in teaching kids the value of cooperation. Because "they realize they can only achieve if their entire team works together," students were more driven to help one another. Teachers, also acquired new perspectives on the value of cooperation in the classroom, agreeing that "student participation can dramatically affect learning outcomes."

What Effect Has It Had on Teachers?

The changes teachers noticed in themselves are perhaps the most significant. One of the most important findings is that active learning shifts the teacher's role from lecturer to learning facilitator, allowing students to take more ownership of their learning through dynamic classroom activities. While the new curriculum emphasizes the development of "Next-Generation skills," such as science and technology, teachers discovered that the NGSS science curriculum has strong connections to other core subjects, particularly mathematics and language arts. Teachers also said that their attitudes toward Socratic dialogue, partner work, and group exercises had altered, and those creative ways should be employed to help struggling learners in all aspects of their studies.

Parents too can support their child’s science learning at home using NGSS resources from NewPath Learning. To learn more about NewPath Learning’s NGSS and other educational learning resources, please visit https://www.newpathlearning.com/.