This microcredential focuses on educators' consistent and effective use of Three Dimensional Assessments to inform instruction. Three Dimensional Assessments help demonstrate student understanding and proficiency to explain phenomena and solve design challenges. Assessments require students to apply the science and engineering practices (their skills) to reveal their understanding of disciplinary core ideas (the content) and crosscutting concepts. (the big ideas that connect all sciences.) Formative and summative assessments are both necessary to assess student understanding and performance.

This microcredential represents educators' ability to appropriately use crosscutting concepts to support student sensemaking. This stack of microcredentials fulfills one of the requirements of the pathway for the Secondary Science Endorsement.

This microcredential represents educators' ability to appropriately use disciplinary core ideas to support student sensemaking. This stack of microcredentials fulfills one of the requirements of the pathway for the Secondary Science Endorsement.

This microcredential represents educators' consistent and effective focus on equity and accessibility in three-dimensional science instruction in secondary science classrooms. This stack of microcredentials fulfills one of the requirements of the pathway for the Secondary Science Endorsement.

This microcredential assesses a teacher’s ability to reflect the nature of science and engineering in their classroom and use this to promote student learning. This stack of microcredentials fulfills one of the requirements of the pathway for the Secondary Science Endorsement. Click the More Info button to learn more.

This microcredential represents educators' use of natural phenomena and problems as a part of science and engineering instruction to guide student-centered learning. This stack of microcredentials fulfills one of the requirements of the pathway for the Secondary Science Endorsement.

Instructional sequences are more coherent when students investigate compelling natural phenomena (in science) or work on meaningful design problems (in engineering) by engaging in the science and engineering practices. We refer to these phenomena and de

This set of prompts is intended to help teachers elicit student understanding of crosscutting concepts in the context of investigating phenomena or solving problems.

Despite their centrality in science and engineering, phenomena have traditionally been a missing piece in science education, which too often has focused on teaching general knowledge that students can have difficulty applying to real world contexts.

A Framework for K-12 Science Education poses the idea that students are best positioned to figure out phenomena and solve problems by engaging in science and engineering practices and using the crosscutting concepts as thinking lenses. The crosscutting concepts are a broad set of useful themes that can be applied to any field, including education. By using the crosscutting concepts to approach their own problems and opportunities of practice, teachers can engage in deeper reflection and metacognition—and strengthen their ability to help students use the crosscutting concepts to explain phenomena and design solutions.

In the NRC Framework vision for science education, the crosscutting concepts (CCCs) are a key component of three-dimensional learning, yet many educators and educational leaders remain unclear about their use in science instruction. The CCCs include: patterns; systems and system models; cause and effect; scale, proportion, and quantity; energy and matter; structure and function; stability and change. The CCCs are thinking tools that have applications across the sciences (and into other disciplines). Clarity on their instructional use is essential as the CCCs promote integrated understanding and are necessary for a coherent and scientifically based understanding of the universe

Three-dimensional science learning centers on student sensemaking of phenomena. However, finding phenomena that are safe, accessible, culturally relevant, and grounded in the place where students live can be challenging for educators. Nature Journaling (NJ) can provide simple tools and strategies that educators can employ to encourage students’ investigations of local phenomena through deeper observations. In addition, helping students explore phenomena in local outdoor places leverages their interests and supports building relationships and awareness about community and neighborhoods.

STEM in our society allows students to develop critical thinking capabilities to better understand how science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), impact the human experience in the past, present, or future. This microcredential represents educators' ability to appropriately use science and engineering practices to engage students with STEM and society. This stack of microcredentials fulfills one of the requirements of the pathway for the Secondary Science Endorsement.

This microcredential represents educators' ability to appropriately use science and engineering practices to support student sensemaking. This stack of microcredentials fulfills one of the requirements of the pathway for the Secondary Science Endorsement.