What is Earth Science by Design?

1. What is Earth Science by Design?

2. What is ESBD? • A year-long program of professional development for middle school teachers who teach Earth science • Created by TERC and AGI with funding from NSF

3. ESBD Rests on 3 Pillars • Understanding by Design • Earth as a System • Scientific Visualizations

4. Pillar 1: Understanding by Design • ESBD is based on the Understanding by Design (UbD) approach developed by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe

5. UbD is… a deliberate approach to: • Selecting what to teach • Designing assessments • Designing instructional strategies

6. UbD is: • Similar to “task analysis” • Not new curriculum • Systematic • Coherent and aligned • Consistent with many other pedagogical models

7. UbD assumes that: • The goal is understanding • We don’t often get understanding • To achieve understanding, we need to design for it • There is a process for achieving understanding

8. Backward Design: • Is the process we use to design for understanding • It has 3 stages

9. Stage 1: Identify Desired Results • Determine what you want students to understand, in detail! • These are the big ideas and the supporting knowledge and skills

10. Stage 2: Determine Acceptable Evidence • Develop a suite of assessment tools • Monitor student understanding throughout the unit, rather than just testing at the end

11. Stage 3: Plan Learning Experiences • Your design should engage student interest • Equip them with knowledge and skills • Develop understanding

12. Pillar 2: Earth as a System • Earth can be thought of as a system of interacting “spheres” • Geosphere • Atmosphere • Hydrosphere (& Cryosphere) • Biosphere

13. Pillar 3: Scientific Visualizations • Contemporary Earth science relies upon scientific visualizations • You will learn how to incorporate web-based visualizations into your teaching

14. Your Tasks This Week: • To understand the UbD design process • To learn how to apply this process in your teaching • To understand the systems approach to Earth science • To understand how to use visualizations appropriately and effectively in your teaching

15. Your Task Next Week: • To apply what you learn this week to the design of an Earth science unit that you can teach during the coming school year • This Earth science unit is your performance assessment for this institute

16. ESBD Program Tasks • Create an Earth Science by Design Unit • This is the performance task that will provide evidence that you have understood the ideas of ESBD

17. Complete Daily Reflections during the Institute • These will help us monitor your understanding on an ongoing basis

18. Critique an Earth Science by Design Unit • You will learn how to evaluate an ESBD unit using the Unit Checklist

19. Attend the Fall Teacher Conference • You will bring a revised version of your unit for feedback before beginning to teach the unit

20. Implement an Earth Science by Design Unit • You will implement your unit in the classroom following the Fall conference

21. Keep an ESBD Journal • Notes and reflections that you record as you implement your unit. These can form the basis of your implementation report.

22. Evaluate an Earth Science by Design Lesson as it is taught • You will visit your partner’s classroom and together evaluate the ESBD lesson of that day

23. Prepare an Implementation Report for the Winter Teacher Conference • This will be a written report on your implementation experience