In order to create an environment in which challenge exceeds skill, you must be aware of the different levels of readiness. While traditional models of instruction typically get students to awareness or knowledge readiness, NGSS seeks to push students into performance and mastery readiness.
Continue readingOnce students have developed some science and engineering practice skills and are able to use those skills toward meeting the performance expectations, we can draw a straight line between that and college and career readiness. If the student has developed skills and they can develop and use their content knowledge, they are not just going to be able to pass tests and graduate; they are going to be college and career ready, able to perform and be trainable in a work environment, in a college environment, in a two year-degree program, in a technical certificate program, and so on.
Continue readingTopics: Readiness Levels
Readiness levels speak to where a student is in terms of being able to access and work with curriculum content.
Awareness ready means they are mindful that the subject exists and of what scientists and engineers do; knowledge readiness means they have a framework of understanding about it; performance ready means they can interact with the material in the same context they've already learned; and mastery ready means they can take that material and use it creatively, evaluatively and analytically in any context.
Continue readingTopics: Next Generation Science Standards, STEM, Readiness Levels, Evaluating Curriculum