Science

The Ambitious Instruction: Accelerating Learning plan brings the district back to the basics of quality learning and teaching. It unites all content areas around (1) formative practices, (2) explicit instruction, and (3) meaningful student engagement. Each grade level and content area will embrace specific instructional practices around these areas.

The following equity-oriented practices provide the framework for Ambitious Instruction: Accelerating Learning.

• Using high-quality, standards-aligned, district-adopted instructional materials
• Focusing on culturally and linguistically responsive teaching practices that promote learning
• Leveraging technology to empower students to create, collaborate, communicate, and think critically

All science courses reflect the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
 

Milwaukee Public Schools' Vision for Science Education:

“All science educators will provide a high-quality interdisciplinary learning experience for all students enabling them to engage in hands-on relevant learning experiences to prepare them for college, career, and citizenship readiness.”                

Milwaukee Public Schools aligns science curriculum and instruction to the vision outlined in A Framework for K–12 Science Education. This approach is designed to more closely replicate the way scientists think and work by ensuring that students learn the skills and practices of scientists in concert with specific content knowledge. Students are exposed to research-based science education in the life, physical, earth, and space sciences while integrating engineering practices and Common Core State Standards for math and literacy. This holistic approach to science learning allows students the opportunity to examine, explore, and explain how and why things happen in the world around us while working to create solutions to challenges we face now or will face in the future.  

This approach emphasizes the importance of hands-on, inquiry-based, relevant lifelong learning to foster student achievement. A Framework for K–12 Science Education  is the foundation of the Next Generation Science Standards.

A Framework for K–12 Science Education:

“The framework is designed to help realize a vision for education in the sciences and engineering in which students, over multiple years of school, actively engage in scientific and engineering practices and apply crosscutting concepts to deepen their understanding of the core ideas in these fields.”

                                                                                                                                                                    - A Framework for K–12 Science Education, 2011

Why Next Generation Science Standards?