KnowAtom's Blog

Research from Northeastern University’s Dr. Tracy L. Waters shows that using the KnowAtom Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)-based curriculum is helping teachers spark excitement from young learners. Promoting differentiation in how students are taught core science concepts, build 21^st century career skills, and utilize scientific process for hands-on discovery is helping improve student success and increase collaboration and engagement in the classroom.

In order to properly prepare students for mastery and meeting the NGSS performance expectations, we must change our perception of the 5Es from a linear process to an iterative spiral. As you will see, each phase now includes multiple Es each, linking together one to the next. When you reach the 5th stage, the cycle is not “complete,” but ready rather to inform a new iteration. The breakdown goes like this:

In order to properly prepare students for mastery and meeting the NGSS performance expectations, we must change our perception of the 5Es from a linear process to an iterative spiral.

The Next Generation Science Standards require a complete rethinking of how teachers and students interact in the classroom because they call for students to develop their higher order thinking skills of creating, evaluating, and analyzing.

The widely established 5E teaching sequence – which includes the progressive stages Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate – is helpful for informing the design of science programs, units, and lessons.

As helpful as it can be, the 5E instructional model is now more than 60 years old. What’s more, recent advances in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) have raised concerns over the model’s linear theory of learning.

This invites the question: Does the traditional 5E learning model support the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)? Or does the 5E model need adaptation to align with NGSS best practices?

In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about the 5E learning model, including:

• The 5E Model: What It Is and How It Works
• Advantages and Disadvantages of 5E Lesson Plans
• The 5E Model and Next Generation Science Standards

The widely established 5E teaching sequence – which includes the progressive stages Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate and Evaluate – is helpful for informing the design of science programs, units and lessons. However, it’s important to pose the question: Does their current incarnation actually work to support the Next Generation Science Standards and deepen STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) learning in our students, or does it require adaptation in order to best serve NGSS?