Cobb Science

By now you've probably heard a little about the new Georgia Standards of Excellence for Science, which we will call the Cobb Teaching and Learning Standards. We have several opportunities this fall for you to delve deeper into the standards and practice the type of instruction expected by the standards:

Phase 1: Building Awareness and Understanding of the CT&LS for Science

• · Holding community forums to elicit feedback for the CT&LS for Science
  
• · Description and discussion of the CT&LS for Science
  
• · Identifying similarities and differences between new and the current standards
  
• · Understanding the CT&LS for Science across grade levels (vertical articulation).
  
• · Introduction of a 3-D approach to science instruction: Integrating core Ideas, science and engineering practices and crosscutting concepts.
  

Phase 1 Webinar

Watch recording at your leisure:

ES: http://tinyurl.com/ESSciSSStandardsWebinar
MS/HS: http://tinyurl.com/MSHSSciStandardsWebinar

Community Forum

November 16, 2016

6:30 - 8:30pm

Hawthorne Learning Center

Phase 2: Supporting Balanced Instruction of the CT&LS for Science

• · Engaging teachers in the balanced science instruction featuring the integration of core ideas, science and engineering practices, and crosscutting concepts
  
• · Targeting core concepts
  
• · Using scientific phenomena to build coherence
  
• · Practicing model lessons developed to support balanced instruction
  

Phase 2 Webinar

November 29, 2016

3:00 - 4:00 pm (ES)

4:30 - 5:30pm (MS/HS)

Online

(Check Blackboard for links)

F2F Standards Workshop

December 8, 2016

3:15 - 4:45pm (ES)

5:00 - 6:30pm (MS/HS)

Hawthorne & Big Shanty ES

(registration coming soon)

Phases 3 and 4 will take place in the spring and over the summer.

The Dodgen Middle School Science Olympiad Team cordially invites you to participate in the Dodgen Science Olympiad Invitational Tournament on Saturday, January 21, 2017. This Middle School "B" Tournament will be held at Dodgen Middle School, 1725 Bill Murdock Road, Marietta GA 30062.

In an effort to have more Science Olympiad winners, teams can compete in two flights: One flight for teams who have experience and another flight for those teams who are just starting or those who have not frequented state competitions. All 23 events will run.

Registration opened on November 3rd at the following link:

https://sites.google.com/site/dodgensciolyinvitationalreg/home

Last month we focused on model-making in the classroom, another one of the eight Science and Engineering Practices. This month we'll explore the practice of asking questions and defining problems. Science begins with a question about a phenomenon, such as “Why is the sky blue?” or “What causes cancer?,” and seeks to develop theories that can provide explanatory answers to such questions. A basic practice of the scientist is formulating empirically answerable questions about phenomena, establishing what is already known, and determining what questions have yet to be satisfactorily answered (http://www.csus.edu/indiv/k/kusnickj/sanjuan/practices.pdf)

Students should be able to:

• Ask questions based on observations to find more information about the natural and/or designed world(s).
  
• Ask and/or identify questions that can be answered by an investigation.
  
• Ask questions about what would happen if a variable is changed.
  
• Ask questions that arise from careful observation of phenomena, models, or unexpected results, to clarify and/or seek additional information.
• Ask questions to identify and/or clarify evidence and/or the premise(s) of an argument.
  
• Ask and/or evaluate questions that challenge the premise(s) of an argument, the interpretation of a data set, or the suitability of the design
• (http://nstahosted.org/pdfs/ngss/matrixofscienceandengineeringpractices.pdf)

Consider how you would implement the following standards and what strategies you would use to get students to ask questions:

S1L1. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about the basic needs of plants and animals.

b. Ask questions to compare and contrast the basic needs of plants (air, water, light, and nutrients) and animals (air, water, food, and shelter).

S7L3. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to explain how organisms reproduce either sexually or asexually and transfer genetic information to determine the traits of their offspring.

c. Ask questions to gather and synthesize information about the ways humans influence the inheritance of desired traits in organisms through selective breeding.

SC6. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about the properties that describe solutions and the nature of acids and bases

g. Ask questions to evaluate merits and limitations of the Arrhenius and Bronsted-Lowry models of acid and bases.