Strengthening Rigor in STEM- Rubrics

Using rubrics is an excellent way to establish rigor and hold students to high standards in the classroom.

Using rubrics to maintain rigor can be used in two ways:

• Students- to demonstrate the expectations and levels of mastery for the lesson/project
• Teachers- to assist in planning rigorous lessons for students

Providing rubrics for younger students and/or developing rubrics with older students is a clear-cut way to define expectations and establish rigor in the classroom.  By providing a set of "guidelines" for student achievement, rubrics help students to understand the expectations. A thorough rubric also helps students progress from understanding the basic components to thinking deeply and not only demonstrating mastery, but applied skills like problem solving.

When constructing a rubric for students, be mindful of the categories chosen and the levels of mastery within each one.  As you write each mastery level, take special care to choose your words carefully, making sure that each level is one step above the prior.  Rubrics should not be too cumbersome, but should be tightly written to ensure high standards and work towards applied knowledge.

As teachers, we can benefit from rubrics as well.  Many rubrics have been developed to help teachers establish rigor when planning lessons, projects, or units.  By keeping a rigor rubric handy, we can keep rigor at the forefront of our planning and thus construct better and more rigorous lessons for students.

Next Generation Science Standards

About a week ago, on January 8,  the second draft of the Next Generation Science Standards were released for public comment.  This state-led effort headed by the National Research Council and the NSTA, aims to develop new K-12 science standards based on the most current research in science and science learning.

Describing a vision of what it means to be proficient in science, each standard will be made up of three dimensions- Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Disciplinary Core Ideas.

 

Practices emphasizes the skills necessary to engage in inquiry-based science as well as to investigate engineering design and STEM principles such as critical thinking and problem solving.  As many teachers agree, teaching the "T" and "E" in STEM are the most difficult, so these new standards will be a useful guide in strengthening a state or district curriculum.

Cross-cutting Concepts are a way to incorporate skills that bridge multiple disciplines.  Most of us would probably call them cross-curricular skills.  "These concepts need to be made explicit for students because they provide an organizational schema for interrelating knowledge from various science fields into a coherent and scientifically-based view of the world."

 

Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCI) are are grouped in four domains: Physical Sciences, Life Sciences, Earth & Space Science and Engineering, Technology and Applications of Science.  These content areas strive to meet selected criteria that identify the DCI as critical in the K-12 science curriculum.