Delaware teachers lead shift to Next Gen science standards

Dover — More than 110 Delaware teachers will revise their lessons and teaching styles to give students more opportunities to work like scientists, part of the national development of the Next Generation Science Standards.

Ninety five teachers have already participated in the program. Delaware was among 26 states that participated in the development of the Next Generation Science Standards, which emphasize inquiry, engineering design and understanding the broad concepts common to all scientific disciplines. The state Board of Education unanimously adopted the standards in September 2013.

The participating teachers were chosen by their districts to participate in the state-funded program, learning about the standards and the shifts in teaching and meeting with science educators from the state Department of Education (DOE) as well as several writers of the standards. During the 2015-2016 school year, the first group of teacher will try out the revised lessons and work on classroom standards. The second group of teachers will follow the same pattern, according to officials.

“We have been deliberate and focused in how we’re implementing these standards, building the infrastructure and capacity for success through the NextGenTeacher Leader Program,” said Michael Watson, chief academic officer for the DOE.

Eleven other states and the District of Columbia are also using the standards, based on a framework written by the National Research Council.