Teaching Phenomena with NGSS – A Complete Unit

The Next Generation Science Standards1 (NGSS) require teachers to think very carefully about the structure of lessons, which content must be taught to allow students to achieve NGSS expectations, and how content is delivered. With the standards’ focus on three-dimensional learning and the use of relevant phenomena, most teachers are urged to make genuine shifts in their classrooms. This paper gives an example of a lesson that accommodates these shifts centered around what some consider the most challenging of the physical science performance expectations.