It’s Time for Science Podcast Episode 26: Cross-Cutting Concepts and Sense-Making Discussions

It's Time for Science, and it's time to talk about cross cutting concepts and sense-making discussions! Tom talks with Dr. Samantha Messier and professional learning specialist Leslie Lausten about those deep fundamental ideas that span across all science disciplines and how to facilitate students making sense of the data they collect while engaging with phenomena and cross-cutting concepts. 

Dr. Samantha Messier is a retired educator and biologist from Boulder, Colorado.  She served as Director of Standards and Instructional Support for the Colorado Department of Education and in multiple roles for the Boulder Valley School District, including Science Director and Assistant Superintendent for Instructional Services and Equity. Her Ph.D. research was on the evolutionary ecology and behavior of termites. 

Tom begins the discussion with Dr. Messier on cross-cutting concepts (CCC) and making sense of data, with discussing how one of the most critical components of a science-learning experience for a student is making sense of what they’ve experienced in the classroom. Tom and Dr. Messier talk about how, as educators, we often think of aiming towards a specific performance expectation (PE), but that PE almost always weaves together discipiinary core ideas (DCI), practice, and CCC; how those CCC provide connections across multiple disciplines of science; how we ultimately want students to be able to apply to different contexts and solve different types of problems; CCC help to build conceptual frameworks, which help students to better understand, organize their thinking, and retrieve ideas more easily. They talk about CCC across grades and how CCC change and deepen; Dr. Messier talks about her own deepening of understanding in college, using structure and function as an example; how beginning or less experienced teachers can work at helping students with sense-making; how as a teacher do you help students develop conceptual understandings and move on to the next level?; the importance of high quality instructional materials (HQIM), naming FOSS and the resources FOSS provides in helping facilitate sense-making through clear storylines; examining the DCI and CCC before beginning instruction to understand where a lesson is going; rephrasing DCIs in student-language, how students might say it in their own words, as one way of preparing to teach; how to help teachers with concerns that data collection will go awry–pay attention to groups as they collect data and help facilitate adjustment if needed; the learning opportunities presented by conflicting sets of data from different groups–how do we figure out which outcome is better supported by the data?; the importance of asking good questions as a teacher, rather than understanding all aspects of the science; how teachers might apply CCC to their local context to give students immediate and concrete pieces that relate to their everyday lives–science is literally everywhere!

Leslie A. Lausten has a rich background in science instruction. She taught multiple elementary grades, was a literacy coach and science lead teacher for over 30 years in Virginia. She has an MEd in Science Education (K-8) and a Reading Specialist endorsement. Currently, she is the East FOSS Professional Learning Specialist and enjoys helping teachers implement best practices into their science classrooms through meaningful experiences and sensemaking.

Tom and Ms. Lausten continue the CCC and sense-making conversation, beginning with discussing how sense-making is something many folks just don’t understand the importance of when teaching a lesson; how science can help interdisciplinary connections; the importance of sense-making in all disciples; demystifying CCC–how are we already doing those things in other disciplines, and how can we transfer that to science?; the importance of HQIM in helping structure sense-making for students; how the exploration of concepts changes across grades, but also how it stays the same; how sense-making routines stay the same across grades, allowing teachers to adjust for content and level while keeping a set routine they know; and what teachers new to sense-making will want to think about when beginning.

 

Ms. Lausten recommends watching the following videos to learn more about how crosscutting concepts and making-sense of data are addressed in FOSS:

 

Crosscutting Concepts in FOSS 

Grades K-5 https://vimeo.com/389559289

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