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Institute for Systems Biology

ISB, Institute for Systems Biology, is first and foremost a science research institute so we in the education group have a unique perspective on STEM education and offer the extremely relevant experience of our own STEM-professionals in all of our education work.

ISB is a valued education partner, as reported by educators, for the unique way we incorporate STEM professionals into the K-12 profession learning sessions we design and offer. Light bulbs go off when workshop teachers can identify that all 8 Science and Engineering Practices and all 7 Crosscutting Concepts are part of each STEM professional’s story. High school science teachers find the cutting edge research and content updates as a strong entry point in their journey with WSSLS. Elementary and middle school teachers note they value connection to the passionate real world stories of scientific discovery and solutions to current issues. All teachers appreciate the ISB scientists’ understanding and value of the day-to-day work of K-12 science teachers.

ISB’s education team draws experience from years as pivotal leaders in science education, where we have worked as teachers, administrators, scientists, curriculum developers, and education researchers. ISB Education has 20+ years of experience forming long term partnerships with school districts to support growth of K-12 science programs. We design projects to meet the needs of diverse students, and a key way to do this is to work with all the science teachers in a system, so that the attitudes and beliefs about student learning are raised collaboratively. Therefore, we design projects to be systemic, across a whole district or grade band, that provide multiple years of professional learning strategically laid out along our Science Teacher Professional Growth Continuum.

OER & Classroom Resources

ISB hosts and regularly updates a teacher-friendly website for all the OER materials we use in the ClimeTime workshops; please view at https://see.isbscience.org/. New resources were added during the past school year with remote-learning and hybrid-learning strategies and formats.

Professional Learning Experiences

ISB weaves through each workshop series the 3-Dimensions of student science learning:

DCIs – What students learn
SEPs – What students do
CCCs – What students think

The professional learning experiences follow our learning arc for educators — this develops teachers’ practice in a way that results in their students building their own STEM identity and increasing aspiration for STEM occupations.

Personal learning by each teacher through experiencing contemporary important STEM content, careers, and approaches.
Professional learning via teachers collaborating to prepare for instruction using best practices. Student voice strategies (learning progress heat maps, clicker surveys, reflection boards, and more) are modeled for and practiced by teachers.
Action for student learning happens through teachers engaging their students in STEM learning experiences that build students’ aspiration for STEM career pathways, and by teachers analyzing evidence of learning across this network of educators.

Teacher Professional Learning

“Teachers Inspiring Science Students — CCCs in action to learn climate science: a ClimeTime project by ISB with ESD + district partners”

Features:

We use a Systems Approach, working with teams of teacher colleagues towards equitably supporting each student.
We facilitate STEM Professionals to engage with teachers around climate science issues, current research, and personal stories of life/school pathways in STEM fields.
We model the use of a range of exemplary OER resources including ISB developed modules that provide authentic science investigations that engage students and bridge the distance between the professional lab and the classroom.
We make the Crosscutting Concepts come to life, emphasizing their importance for each and every student, every grade throughout K-12 and exploring strategies for authentically integrating them into the classroom.
We support teachers to observe student learning including using practical measures as they implement.

Outcomes:

Elementary teachers will engage in professional learning (synchronously), implement OER lessons in their own classrooms (asynchronously), and submit evidence of student learning.

Sept-Nov 2021 | Form Teams with ESD and district partners
Jan-Feb 2022 | Elementary
- Tier 1: “Systems Are Everywhere!”
- Tier 2: “CCC-4: Systems and System Models”

Secondary teachers will engage in professional learning (synchronously), implement OER lessons in their own classrooms (asynchronously), and submit evidence of student learning.

Sept-Nov 2021 | Form Teams with ESD and district partners
Jan-June 2022 | OER-Secondary/Middle and High School
- Tier 1: “Systems Are Everywhere!”
- Tier 2: “CCC-4: Systems and System Models”
- Tier 2: “CCC-3: Scale, Proportion, and Quantity”
- Tier 2: “CCC-7: Stability and Change”
Dec-June 2022 | Climate Science OER Modules-High School
- “Bioengineering A Sustainable World”
- “Ocean Acidification
- “Invisible Forest”

Partners & Collaborators

PSESD 121
NWESD 189
Bellevue School District

Workshops

Tier 1 workshop / Grades K-5, 6-12

“Systems Are Everywhere!”

4 hr synchronous learning, 2 hr class implementation
SEE Module (OER unit by ISB)
Take this first, then select other workshops

Teacher participants expand their knowledge about systems, systems thinking, creating and iterating models to develop scientific explanations, and how system models can be integrated into 3-Dimensional science learning lessons. Teachers use their own community infrastructure for scenarios. For career connections we use a strategy, “Who are the people in your neighborhood?”
Teachers implement the OER unit and embed systems thinking into 3-dimensional science learning in their grade/district context.

Second tier workshop, after competing Systems Are Everywhere

“Crosscutting Concept #4 Systems and System Models”
“Crosscutting Concept #3 Scale, Proportion, and Quantity”
“Crosscutting Concept #7 Stability and Change”

4 hr synchronous learning, 2 hr class implementation

Choose 1, 2 or all 3

Teacher participants expand their knowledge about the big ideas of science, the CCCs, from STEM professionals and by engaging in lessons as a student would.
Teachers have time with peers and a coach to practice instructional moves then do lesson planning to embed CCCs into their district’s core science unit.
Teachers implement the OER unit and embed systems thinking into 3-dimensional science learning aligned with their grade/district context.

Grades 9-12

“Ocean Acidification”
“Invisible Forest”
“Bioengineering a Sustainable World”

8 hr synchronous learning, 4 hr class implementation
SEE Modules (OER units by ISB)

Choose 1, 2 or all 3

High school teacher participants engage in the lessons as a student would.
Teachers have time with peers and a coach to practice instructional moves then do lesson planning. This series will teach educators how to maximize career-connected learning opportunities for students by exploring a variety of STEM fields. To ensure the collaborative, systems approach that ISB is known for, educators will have the chance to work with STEM professionals. As they engage with ISB’s network of scientists and education leaders, and work with peer educators, they strengthen and expand their professional network.
Teachers implement the OER unit and collect student learning evidence along the way. Teacher groups analyze the evidence together, and reflect on shifts in both science teaching and learning. Furthermore, the action phase of the learning arc nudges teachers to gather student voices in their classrooms and bring the findings back to the teacher network to discuss how this directly informs next instructional moves.

High School Chemistry: Learning to implement the first OpenSciEd unit “Thermodynamics in Earth’s System”

The purpose is bringing the vision of the NGSS – equitable, engaging, rigorous and relevant learning experiences – into high school chemistry. In this series we will:

Build a community of teacher leaders, networked across the region
Weave climate science into chemistry courses, with 1 exemplary unit (e.g. OpenSciEd “Thermodynamics in Earth’s Systems”)
Unit phenomenon: How can we slow the flow of energy on Earth to protect vulnerable coastal communities?
Learn and practice research-based pedagogical shifts to enhance student engagement and learning (3D, AST, Routines, OEL protocol, etc.)
Teacher voice from August 2021: “This helped so much!!! I’m not anywhere near as frightened about the new units we’ll be piloting :)” — Bellevue HS chem teacher

ClimeTime project In Partnership with PSESD 121

Ask us about customizing workshops, district-wide STEM support, and more at education@isbscience.org.

View workshops

I thought the idea of having an actual Scientist come into my classroom, or virtual classroom as it stands right now, would just be exciting for my students. I want to reach out to someone right away and see if they would be willing to visit us.

The scientist mentioned different career opportunities for different levels of education which would be great to share with my students.

Wonderful intro to systems thinking, the scientist interactions made it “real”, my brain is full!

Success Stories from Institute for Systems Biology

Systems are Everywhere!

Aug 19, 2022

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ClimeTime leadership team and partner organizations adapted the network and project activities in several ways.

Climate Science through Chemistry

Aug 17, 2022