In early July, 22 Johnson City Elementary School teachers took part in a full-day workshop to examine the Next Generation Science Standards from New York state. During the upcoming school year, teachers will move from a transition phase to an implementation phase as the newly developed curriculum becomes official. Teachers examined the three dimensions of the standards: disciplinary core ideas, science and engineering practices, and crosscutting concepts. They engaged in activities to identify essential grade-level unit topics and concepts from the New York State Science Learning Standards in order to assemble a Pre-Kindergarten- Grade 5 spiraling topic map. This topic map will ensure that all grade levels understand their role and responsibility in teaching the new curriculum to prepare students for a NYS Elementary/Grade 5 exam in 2024. Throughout the summer, teachers will continue to collaborate to write units aligned with the new standards that identify knowledge, skills, deep understandings, performance tasks and investigations and high-quality inquiry-based resources.
