Unpacking the NGSS: What High School Science Teachers Need to Know [Episode 177]

Rebecca Joyner [00:00:00]:
If you are a high school science teacher or a middle school science teacher, then most likely you have heard of the NGSS or the Next Generation Science Standards because they have been around since 2013. That is twelve whole years y’all. And still, even at the time of me recording this, I know many of you are still asking questions about what they are and how best to implement them because it’s taken over a decade for many schools to jump on board with using them. And even now, you may be considering cutting off this podcast because your school doesn’t use NGSS. But let me tell you something. Back in 2022, I was studying for the chemistry curriculum that I wrote all of 2023. And in my studying and research process, I read every state’s standards. Okay? Now, of course, some districts, some schools just go completely rogue, but I researched and found out all 50 states, what was going on, what they were using for chemistry.

Rebecca Joyner [00:01:07]:
Okay. 52% of all states. So 26 out of the 50 states use the NGSS directly. 36% of states, 18 out of 50 use their own standards. But when I read them, they’re nearly identical to the NGSS with just maybe slight tweaks in wording or the notation is unique to your state use, like, different letters at the front, not the HSLS two dash seven or whatever. And a lot of states use the NGSS as the baseline, and they have a couple of, like, state specific additions. For instance, this week I was reading Nebraska state standards and they have a few things in the biology standards about, like, specifically researching and looking into energy flow and ecosystems unique to Nebraska. Okay? So that’s 36% of states are pretty much using NGSS.

Rebecca Joyner [00:01:59]:
12% of states, there’s only 12%, six out of 50 that are, you know, totally unique at the time of me recording this. Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, although it was still pretty similar, Texas and Virginia. But I know Virginia right now is working on new standards for 2025. So maybe those will be more NGSS esque. Okay? But in general, that is still 88% of states are using some version of the NGSS. And even still, states like Texas who do have their own unique standards, they’re using a lot of the same language. They’re still borrowing it. And again, 36% of states are almost direct copies.

Rebecca Joyner [00:02:43]:
Okay? So all of that to say, knowing more about the NGSS applies to nearly every person listening to this podcast. Because even if your state isn’t officially an NGSS state, most likely it has borrowed a lot of the principles from it into what it’s doing. And if you’re not sure, one of the things I do and I don’t see myself ever stopping to do is I read state standards. I swear it’s like a third of my job, and I’m happy to do it for you. Like, if you’re considering it’s not rocket science resources, I’m always like, hey, shoot me your standards if you’re not an NGSS state, and I’m happy to read them and let you know alignment. So it’s something I’m doing all of the time and I’m happy to help you with that. But I wanna help like, I wanna unpack this with you. And y’all, it’s gonna take a couple episodes to do it.

Rebecca Joyner [00:03:31]:
So this is just the beginning of a a month long series we’re gonna do. But today, specifically, I wanna cover what I would consider the pillars of the NGSS to be, and I should say before I even go any further. Like, NGSS is a registered trademark of Achieve, neither Achieve or, you know, their lead states are partners that develops the NGSS. We’re involved in the production of this episode. They don’t endorse it. I’m free ranging it right now. Okay? As, like, a real life high school science teacher who had to teach these standards. Okay? Y’all know that that’s what I’m here to be.

Rebecca Joyner [00:04:06]:
I’m not this like perfect expert who works for these companies or was a part of the writing of them, or like has a deep connection to College Board when we talk AP or anything like that. I’m just like a former real teacher like you, who is in the classroom expected to use these standards and apply these things and had to figure out how to do it, which leads me to not only are we gonna talk about what I consider the pillars of it to be, but also what I love and hate about it, what I think has been great about it and that has caused like a positive shift in science education for educators and students alike. But then also what I think has been kind of negative about it and what’s hard about it And hint, it’s practicality, which we’ll get to. But then we’re gonna go into after that so you’re encouraged, like, why you don’t need to be scared of it though? Like, there’s nothing to be scared of. If your school’s switching and you think you’re gonna have to just, like, do a whole overhaul of everything you’ve been working on the last fifteen years, like, take a deep breath. I got you. And then, of course, to end, we’re gonna talk about some quick tips to get started with it or to improve your existing practice with it. Like, maybe you’ve been using NGSS or some version of it for a bit, but you’re looking for something really, really practical to get improvement out of it.

Rebecca Joyner [00:05:17]:
And so you can always count on me for the practical. So that’s what we’re gonna do. And then in future weeks, we’re gonna dive deeper into the CCCs, the SEPs, phenomena, and storyline. So if you’re like, I don’t even know what all that is. No worries. I’ve got you. We will get there. Okay? But for now, let’s dive into unpacking the NGSS.

Rebecca Joyner [00:05:37]:
This is Secondary Science Simplified, a podcast for secondary science teachers who want to engage their students and simplify their lives. I’m Rebecca Joyner from It’s Not Rocket Science. As a high school science teacher turned curriculum writer, I am passionate about helping other science teachers love their jobs, serve their students, and do it all in only forty hours a week. Are you ready to rock the time you spend in your classroom and actually have a life outside of it? You are in the right place, teacher friend. Let’s get to today’s episode. First and foremost, what do I believe are kind of the pillars of the NGSS? Like, if I was gonna explain this to someone like my husband who only took the bare minimum, I think, one required science class in college, like, science is not his forte. He has many gifts. This is not one of them.

Rebecca Joyner [00:06:30]:
Here’s how I would explain it to him or anyone. Okay? Is first the three-dimensional nature of the NGSS. The NGSS really at its basics boils down to its three d nature. Those three dimensions are the DCIs or the disciplinary core ideas, the SEPs or the science and engineering practices, and then the CCCs, the cross cutting concepts. Okay. And then together, they’ve established these DCIs, SEPs, CCCs. And then they took those and they wrote out actual standards or, of course, because let’s make it more complicated. Let’s give it a new term, performance expectations.

Rebecca Joyner [00:07:13]:
I feel like traditional standards, like, you probably had when you were in high school or maybe when you were first starting to teach. And then for me, the first school I taught at, I was on, like, very traditional South Carolina State Standards. Now the South Carolina state standards are more reminiscent of the NGSS. But before that, it it there was a lot of focus on the what to teach, like what is the content? And yes, there were like different levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy and like words that we were looking into, but it was it tended to trend more into those lower levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy focused on the what. I feel like the DCIs, the disciplinary core ideas, that’s kind of the what. The SEPs, the science and engineering practices are really the skills. So what are we gonna need to actually do? Not just what do they need to know, but what do they actually need to be able to do? And then the CCCs are those cross cutting concepts. These are gonna be big themes, big picture ideas.

Rebecca Joyner [00:08:11]:
How does this connect to everything you’ve learned this year or everything you’ve learned in science since you started learning science or everything you’re doing, you know, cross curricularly, like looking at these big concepts and really seeing the big picture. So in the past where we used to be really focused on content and details and memorization and like looking at things on a really small scale, NGSS kind of blows that up and says, let’s look at this bigger, more broadly, but also more holistically, if you will. Like, looking at not just the what, but the how and the why and what are we gonna do. Okay? So that’s another kind of pillar, I would say. It’s a doing more than it is a knowing. And I also think it’s these big picture ideas and this critical thinking more so than it’s content knowledge. And this is really, like, insane because even back in 2013 when these were written, even though obviously technology was there and the Internet was there, that is still exploded so much more even since then. But this was really written at a time when it was the beginning of this idea that like students have content at their fingertips at all times.

Rebecca Joyner [00:09:15]:
They can find any content in seconds. Now it’s more like, not like let’s just find content and answer the questions, but let’s be asking the questions and really exploring bigger picture here, problem solving. So three d nature doing over knowing big picture ideas and critical thinking over content knowledge. And then the other two words I have to mention when I mentioned NGSS are phenomena and storylining. So phenomenon based teaching is again, it’s kind of a push to force students to shift from learning about something to figuring out how or why something is the way it is or works the way it works. Do you hear how, like, everything I’m saying is kind of the same thing in different ways? That’s what this is. Like, it’s not just about the what or learning about. It’s the how, it’s the why, it’s a skill, it’s a big picture.

Rebecca Joyner [00:10:05]:
And then storylining is really, I think storylining really, really helps with the cross cutting concepts and really helps connect everything together. It really gives a lot of meaning and purpose for students in particular. We’ve been talking about real world application for years. That’s what storylining really is. It’s like giving them these stories, these real word pictures they can learn from. We know that students learn well from stories. Oral narration is like how people have learned for centuries and telling stories helps you when you get a visual, like a a word visual, like it gives you something to cling on to. This helps them learn and it helps them understand why what they’re learning matters.

Rebecca Joyner [00:10:45]:
You know, I grew up in the teaching days where you would walk in a class and there’d be the EQ on the board, the essential question for the day, And there’d be the SWABAT, students will be able to statement. Okay? This is broader than that. Like, this is and and may not even broader than that, but more actually, like, interesting than that. I can’t tell you one time I walked in as a student and cared what the essential question was or what the swap bat was. Okay? But those were initiatives trying to get people to make sure students knew that there was, like, meaning and purpose to the lesson. I feel like storylining and phenomena based teaching kind of bring that about more creatively and more naturally. Again, it’s also gonna be a little bit more visual and applicable for students and relatable than just like an essential question for a unit or a day. Okay.

Rebecca Joyner [00:11:34]:
So those are kind of what I see the pillars to be. Now, what I love about it and why I think this is an overall positive shift in education as a whole. First and foremost is that it gets us back to what science is all about. And this is another reason why I don’t want you to be afraid of it because all it is is doing science. That is what the NGSS is. It’s it’s trying to force people to do science again. I will never forget. I’ve mentioned him so many times on this podcast.

Rebecca Joyner [00:12:01]:
One of my best professors I ever had and my graduate school advisor, he was so good about making sure that everything we did was experiential. For instance, I had him my senior year of my undergraduate program. And then again, like I said, in graduate school, he was teaching us, like, about inquiry and how it was so important to do inquiry. He wasn’t just, like, telling us, like, we have to do inquiry. I’ll never forget, we walked into his class and he had that little drinking bird. I don’t know if you’ve seen it. You can look up, like, drinking bird science demonstration and you’ll probably see where you can buy one. But he had that going at the front of class.

Rebecca Joyner [00:12:35]:
And then we started asking questions. He started, you know, making us push deeper. And eventually, he basically modeled a lesson of, like, what the inquiry was and then how we could use that. So he was doing what he was explaining that we needed to do. That’s what the NGSS is. It’s trying to get us doing more. It’s really focused on skills. I love that it’s focused on that, the hands on nature of science.

Rebecca Joyner [00:12:57]:
To me, I think something that gets misread about NGSS is like a science teacher is the focus is so much on lab. Like 40% of the class time will be spent in lab. And I love the SEPs, which we’ll dive into next week. And a lot of them are things that will happen in a lab, but there’s so much more like hands on learning experience that can happen in a science classroom that’s not just a lab. Okay? There’s so many ways that we can have these skills and we can do science that gets us thinking in a scientific way. I love that. And I love how it’s kinda opened our minds a little bit as to what science and doing science really looks like. I love the big picture focus because I love the connections and helping them see the meaning.

Rebecca Joyner [00:13:35]:
I think this is especially important for like you’re in teaching biology and you’ve got some students that are not life science minded. They care about chemistry and physics. Okay. We can bring that in. And then vice versa. When you’re in chemistry and you’ve got your, you know, student that you just taught in biology last year and they’re crying because they wanna color organelles and, like, you know, make a diorama of a biome. They they’re like, why are we doing all this math and chemistry? You bring in those biological connections and they see how it all works together. I think that’s really helpful.

Rebecca Joyner [00:14:04]:
I love the incorporation of real world stuff. Again, that’s the phenomena which we’ll talk more about. Like I said though, if you have been a good science teacher or had good science teachers, this is all stuff you were probably already doing. You just didn’t have a fancy name for it. The last thing I’ll say about what I love about the NGSS is if I lived in an ideal world with unlimited time and resources, I would be like 100% obsessed. I’d be trying to get sponsored by the NGSS, like give me an affiliate link, you know, like I’d be, that would be where I would live. But it’s not an ideal world. It’s a real world.

Rebecca Joyner [00:14:40]:
So let’s talk about the things I don’t love and that I think have made been maybe a little bit negative in terms of maybe what it’s done to science education. The hardest thing is I don’t feel like it is written practically. I think educators would really appreciate more specificity in the DCIs portion of the performance expectations. I feel like the SEPs are really clear. I feel like if you do a little bit of researching, the CCCs become clear, but I just think the practical content is not always clear. Like what do they need to learn? And I think being a secondary science teacher, this is especially hard for us because I think so many of you came to this from a second profession. This is like, you know, you’re, you were in a former field of science, found out you didn’t like working in a lab or you didn’t like your hours as a nurse, or you wanted, you know, a schedule that matched your kids or you didn’t wanna travel in pharmaceutical sales anymore. So now you’re in high school science teaching and you know science, but you don’t know what, 14 to 18 year old needs to know in science.

Rebecca Joyner [00:15:45]:
So I think more specificity would really support teachers better. Also, I think and I wanna say this very gently. I think while standardization of anything at all can be a really good thing in terms of it helping with equity and all students being prepared the same amount to the same level so that they’re all equally prepared for future opportunities the same. I think that’s a beautiful part of standardization. I think standardization can also be crippling for teachers because it does not give us the freedom to use our professional judgment to decide what’s best for our students, what we feel like they should learn or how we feel like we need to differentiate the level for our student population or whatever. So I think that’s a tricky thing about it. Also with the standardization is like you standardize the standards, but the resources we have to execute those standards are not the same. And so these standards are a lot harder for teachers who are not in a lab space, who, you know, don’t have any equipment, who don’t have any resources, who have five different preps and only one forty five minute planning period a day.

Rebecca Joyner [00:16:57]:
Like there’s a lot more work on the teacher to execute these standards than like maybe more traditional standards. The other thing I think that is tricky about it is while we make shifts in K through 12, that doesn’t mean those shifts are happening in higher education. And so I think a lot of secondary science teachers are having to balance both. So that’s a lot, like I know so many people I see in these Facebook groups, especially like the national biology teachers, Facebook group or whatever, like, yeah, we’re trying to do all this stuff so that we’re covering the standards, but we’re also trying to prepare them for AP bio, which even that is changing, but it’s slow progress. And then I love when adjunct professors and stuff chime in in these groups about what’s going on at the college level. And you see that like bio one zero one is still taught in lecture halls with 400 students in a lot of schools. And it’s a lot of sit and get situation. And so I just think that’s really hard because we’re trying to do what’s best for our students while also doing what our job requires of us.

Rebecca Joyner [00:17:55]:
And so that puts a lot on teachers. The other thing I think too about the NGSS, which I think can be funky, is it’s very idealistic. And I think a lot of schools trying to do that three course model of the NGSS where the standards are integrated. So if you teach an integrated course, that’s who I’m talking to. I think that’s hard. I think the four course model is a lot easier to execute. I think it’s a big move for their brains to go from the way they’ve kind of always learned to this. And I also think it’s harder to get into specialized content if you don’t have the time and even specialized skills because you’re having to bring in all this other stuff that quote unquote feels off topic.

Rebecca Joyner [00:18:38]:
Even though it’s not, like, I know it’s not. I know it’s all connected. But I think that’s one of the things that’s fun about a high school science teacher is, like, I like to teach the content I like to teach. It’s one reason why I never was middle school science because oftentimes those courses, middle school science courses are more integrated. But again, that’s just a personal preference. Please don’t come and fight me about how much better integrated sequences are. So all that to say, I think it’s a little idealistic and I wish it was a little bit more practical and there was more support to it. That’s one thing I’ve always respected about College Board and the stuff they do for AP teachers is like, yeah, they make a lot of changes or they switch things up, but I do feel like they provide a lot of support too because they want teacher students to be successful, which I appreciate that.

Rebecca Joyner [00:19:20]:
So all that to say, let’s wrap up this episode with some encouragement and some practical tips. So first, encouragement. Why you don’t need to be scared of the NGSS. Okay? Literally, everything we’re gonna be talking about related to the NGSS is core to what science has always been about. This is like the very nature of science is the NGSS and what it’s asking us to do. They’re just providing a framework for teachers to actually do it. And most likely you are doing a ton of this already if you’re a good science teacher. And I’m gonna venture to guess that if you’re taking the time to seek out and listen to a podcast specifically created for secondary science teachers, that you are better than average teacher.

Rebecca Joyner [00:20:08]:
Okay? So take a deep breath. Like, you are you’re probably doing so much more than you think. And I also wanna encourage you, like, this doesn’t have to be a massive overhaul of your curriculum and a total restart, But I do think it requires a perspective shift. Going back to those pillars of really saying, okay, at the end of the day, am I carrying and focusing more on doing versus knowing and the big picture than the little specific content knowledge picture. So don’t be scared. Now, how do I get started? I wanna leave you with four little action tips you can take to improve your practice or get started with NGSS if you haven’t started using it at all. And remember, here at Secondary Science Simplified, I’m all about simplifying your life in the classroom, but really so that then you’re simplifying your life outside of it because I want you to have a life outside of it. Okay? We are always gonna do our best here, the best that we can with what we have in our current season of life.

Rebecca Joyner [00:21:08]:
So pick the smallest tip possible here that you can do in your current season. Make this manageable. First though, I think it’s very useful to audit what you are already using. For the last ten years that I’ve been creating It’s Not rocket science resources, I have had well, I’ve always had digital sticky notes on the backdrop of my computer. I’m obsessed with digital sticky notes. For the last ten years, I’ve had two pulled up at all times, the SEPs and the CCCs. And anytime I’m creating any instructional resource, I’m looking at those to make sure I’m bringing those in. And that’s what I used when I created my NGSS alignment guides that are in every single one of the 36, it’s not rocket science, units that are out there.

Rebecca Joyner [00:21:54]:
But I think even doing it was such a a helpful practice, especially when I did it for the biology curriculum. I think I I wrote the biology curriculum in 2016. I believe I added the NGSS alignment guides in 2018, and then I did a big revamp of biology in 2020. And a lot of the revamp was because when I made those NGSS alignment guides, like I was like, oh, I’ve got some gaps here in my three d nature of the instructional resources I’m using. And so I made sure to do that better. And then I did better with that in 2019 when I wrote anatomy and then 2023 when I wrote chemistry, Physical science as I’m doing the revamp now, like, this is a big part of it. So I think doing an audit is really helpful. So essentially all you do because I feel like we don’t have a problem covering content.

Rebecca Joyner [00:22:41]:
Like, if anything, we’re probably covering more content than we need to. So what I recommend is making a little table and writing the name of like each instructional resource you use. So whether it’s like an activity, a project, a lab, like an inquiry thing, whatever. So write those down and then have a column to list out the SEPs that are engaged, the science and engineering practices that are engaged in that resource and the CCCs. Preferably each instructional resource you’re using is gonna engage one of each of those things. The best ones will engage several at once, but I think doing that will be really helpful. And then I always love looking at the unit as a whole just to make sure we’re hitting preferably all of them in the scope of one whole unit. So I really recommend doing that practice.

Rebecca Joyner [00:23:26]:
All it’s requiring you to do is make some lists. And then I think you have something visual now you can look at and really see like, oh, I’m doing better than I thought. Or, oh, man, I am covering so many of these SEPs that are lab specific, but I am not doing a lot of developing and using models. Like maybe I need to bring in more of that. And so it really just gets you I think you’ll be encouraged when you do it and then also see obvious holes. Second thing I would recommend if you’re like looking at what you’ve done and you’re like, wow, I am not covering very much of anything in any of these. One thing I’ve seen some other teacher friends do successfully is say, okay, I’m gonna kinda pick an SEP to really focus on this year. And I’m gonna really focus on that idea of developing and using models and try to integrate that into every unit I have.

Rebecca Joyner [00:24:17]:
And then next year, I’m gonna really focus on the engaging an argument for evidence SEP. And you can do this with the CCC too, but like really picking one thing and focusing on it, or you can assign one per unit if you wanna do that. But I think just picking one and really focusing and then over time, you’ll start acquiring those a little better. Okay. So first tip, audit what you’re using. Second, consider just focusing on one for the year or one per unit to get better at that one. Third thing I would say is start really getting familiar with the standards as well. If you have not really read through them, I highly recommend doing it.

Rebecca Joyner [00:24:53]:
My lessons unit, it’s one of my mini courses in the SSS, Secondary Science Simplified Professional Development course bundle. I have a whole lesson where I walk you through my standards alignment guide and, like, how I read it and make sense of it and interpret it. But I think anyone should do this for their standards. I think it just really helps you get to know them a little bit better. You can highlight different things, look for themes, look for patterns. I mean, they’re already pretty much color coded with the SEPs and CCCs and DCIs and all of that, but I think it’s really helpful and read everything on the page, like the stuff in the bottom and the colored boxes too, not just the top. Okay. I think that’s a great practical step.

Rebecca Joyner [00:25:30]:
If you’ve never done that, that’s a great starting point. And then the fourth thing I’ll say that could be a practical tip for you is just pick one standard, like one you feel like you’re really not doing well or fully or to the uttermost of that the standard requires in terms of skill and develop an instructional resource entirely around it. This was a grad school assignment for me over a decade ago, and that’s how I made my very first it’s not rocket science resource, which was my human impact project. It is based on HSLS two dash seven. So that’s the life science high school standard that says design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity. And I had to create this resource and then basically do a CER of, like, all the ways that this resource, like, hit this standard. It hit the SEP. It hit the DCI.

Rebecca Joyner [00:26:23]:
It hit the CCC. And it was a really, really helpful project. So maybe you look through your standards and see, like, what’s one I’m just, like, not doing at all and start there. And then you have a resource that you can use for years to come. So those are my action items for you that I think would be helpful. Again, you might be thinking, like, all you told me to do is read the standards or try better with SEPs and CCCs. That’s because I think getting to know the standards and the three d nature of the NGSS is the most important. Okay? That’s why we’re gonna talk about this first.

Rebecca Joyner [00:26:55]:
Next week, we’re gonna dive more into SEPs and CCCs to continue this three d conversation. Then in the subsequent weeks, we’ll talk about phenomena. We’ll talk about storyline, but I feel like those are things that not should come later because people will fight me on that because they are important. But I think the most important thing is the three d nature of NGSS. So I think starting there helps decrease overwhelm. So that’s what I would recommend doing. And if you wanna check out those resources or that mini course I mentioned, they’ll be in the show notes, always linked there, which you can find at isarakascienceclassroom.com/episode170seven. And I would love it if you haven’t already.

Rebecca Joyner [00:27:31]:
Leave a review. Five stars, please. Oh, it means so much. And especially if you teach in an NGSS school and you’re excited about this series, I would love to hear from you. Alright, teacher friends. That wraps up today’s episode. If you’re looking for an easy way to start simplifying your life as a secondary science teacher, head to itsnotrocketscienceclassroom.com/challenge to grab your classroom reset challenge. And guess what? It’s totally free.

Rebecca Joyner [00:27:59]:
Thanks so much for tuning in, and I’ll see you here next week. Until then, I’ll be rooting for you, teacher friend.