A team of 12 Washington state educators—OSPI, Regional Science Coordinators, and teacher leaders—attended the OpenSciEd Elementary Facilitator Academy in Denver, CO, June 19-24 with support from the Climetime project and Williams Foundation.
Growing Elementary Science in WA State
This week-long immersion was the first look at the elementary materials which complete the suite K-12 of these open educational resources. Steeped in the NGSS and best practices in elementary science teaching and learning, this content-integrated, phenomena-based approach to elementary science had educators in “student hat” trying to read under the covers, designing solutions to keep a playground cool, and wondering about nurse logs and plovers. With science at the center, each unit also delved into grade-level math and ELA content with authentic, standards-based integrated lessons.
Grade 1 Notice and Wonder Chart
This OpenSciEd event brought together over 100 educators from across the United States for the initial launch training for the field test of the newly-developed OpenSciEd elementary curriculum. Washington had the most robust team in attendance with 2 facilitators at each grade level (who also all cross-trained at another grade to provide flexibility and coverage for the roll out).
The two-year field test launches this August with the first unit training taking place in ESD 112 for over 90 teachers K-5 from across the state. Teachers will experience investigations, facilitate scientist circles, and more as they learn to navigate from lesson to lesson with the guidance of the twelve Washington facilitators.
