Online course for teachers: Promote Sensemaking with Science & Math Practices

Promote Sensemaking with Science & Math Practices
Every Tuesday, 6-8 p.m. Central, from February 25-April 1, 2025

Moving students beyond rote memorization and fostering genuine inquiry and sense-making can be challenging. This course from the Knowles Teacher Initiative supports educators in this journey, guiding them to become facilitators of student-driven exploration. Throughout the course, participants engage in hands-on explorations of phenomena, learning how to guide students in constructing, evaluating, and refining ideas. Participants learn to critically assess and redesign curricular materials to maximize student proficiency in science and math practices. Participants emerge with a newfound perspective on science and math education, equipped with tools and strategies to redefine their classrooms as vibrant hubs of exploration. They leave with a deepened appreciation for the transformative power of student-led inquiry and a renewed commitment to cultivating critical thinkers and lifelong learners.

Course Highlights

• Engage in an inquiry experience as a learner to develop and articulate an understanding of the practices scientists use and how engagement in scientific practices supports the development of scientific knowledge.
  
• Analyze data from classroom observation videos and classroom vignettes to reflect on opportunities for students to engage in the NGSS science practices.
  
• Identify indicators of student engagement in scientific practices and consider how these practices influence students’ opportunities to build the core ideas of science that are the target of instruction.
  
• Develop a framework to evaluate current curricular materials and design future lesson sequences that provide increased opportunities for students to engage in scientific practices.
  
• Apply frameworks to analyze data from lessons, including other participants’ lessons and your own, to reflect on students’ opportunities to engage in scientific practices.
  
• Redefine what it means to do science in your classroom.

• Carly Brown, Inquiry Coach
  
• Jessica Watts, Senior Fellows