CHOOSING PRACTICE-CROSSCUTTING CONCEPT PAIRS IN LEARNING PERFORMANCE STATEMENTS FOR THE EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCES

Recommendations for building a lesson or unit for the NGSS involve choosing a bundle of target performance expectations and designing the lesson around learning performance statements using backwards design. Learning performance statements are like the performance expectations of the NGSS in that they combine one Disciplinary Core Idea (DCI), one Crosscutting Concept (CCC), and one Science & Engineering Practice, but they are unique to the lesson or unit being created. The choice of Practice and Crosscutting Concept (Practice-CCC pair) in a lesson-specific learning performance statement is most meaningful if it represents the disciplinary processes of science unique to the Earth & Space Sciences.

The performance expectations (PEs) of the NGSS can be used as a guide for the choice of Practice-CCC pair. 42% of all of the Earth & Spaces Sciences (ESS) PEs use just five Practice-CCC pairs. These most common Practice-CCC pairs represent aspects of the “ways of knowing” in the Earth & Spaces Sciences. Developing & Using Models + Systems & System Models (7% of ESS PEs) and Developing & Using Models + Energy & Matter (5%) represent model-based inquiry and systems thinking. Analyzing & Interpreting Data + Patterns (12%) represents data-based or observation-based investigations. Constructing Explanations & Designing Solutions + Cause & Effect (7%), Constructing Explanations & Designing Solutions + Stability & Change (7%), and Obtaining, Evaluating, & Communicating Information + Cause & Effect (5%) communicate historical and causal explanations for past events or predictions of future changes.

However, the ESS Practice-CCC pairs of the NGSS are not a comprehensive representation of all aspects of the processes of science in the Earth & Space Sciences. Other Practice-CCC pairs and bundles can be used to more fully express essential aspects of deep time, systems thinking, large spatial scales, visualization, and spatial reasoning.