Scientific and Engineering Practices in K-12 Classrooms: Understanding "A Framework for K-12 Science Education"

Overview & Synopsis

The author presents the science and engineering practices from the recently released "A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas." He recognizes the changes implied by the new framework, and eventually a new generation of science education standards will present new perspectives for the science education community. Although the NRC report is a framework and not standards, it is prudent for those in the science and technology education community to begin preparing for the new standards. Because science and engineering practices are basic to science education and the change from inquiry to practices is central, this innovation for the new standards will likely be one of the most significant challenges for the successful implementation of science education standards. He is especially sensitive to the challenges for those students in teacher preparation programs and classroom teachers of science at all levels. Questions such as "Why practices and why not inquiry?" and "Why science and engineering?" are reasonable, and the author discusses them in this article. But to provide background and context, he first discusses the practices. (Contains 8 figures.)