To most students new to the Consortium, science learning is synonymous with memorization: long lists of biological and environmental structures and functions, chemical symbols of elements and molecules, abstract algebraic physical formulas.

Too often they have misconceived ideas of the nature of science and what scientists do. Typically scientists are men, invariably white, dressed in white gowns who carry out “weird” experiments behind closed doors—the stereotyped image of the “‘mad” scientist. For most of these students science is a mystery much too complicated for them to solve.

Science teachers in the Consortium know that science is best learned by doing. Consequently, the long-term goal of any inquiry science or engineering class is to enable students to design their own experiments or engineering designs. This problem-based approach to teaching science is a well-established and research-based strategy for developing students' knowledge and skills in the sciences.

This process culminates with the graduation-level PBAT in Science, through which students develop, implement, and analyze an extended controlled experiment or create, prototype & iterate an original engineering design. Students’ written work and oral defenses are evaluated by their teachers and external evaluators using the Consortium’s Experimental Science or Engineering/Design rubrics.

Resources for Teachers

Guidelines for Instruction & Assessment

• Experimental Science Rubric

  • Experimental Science Rubric Guide — A guide for teachers and evaluators for the revised science rubric shared in June 2024.

• Engineering & Design Science Rubric

• Science Instruction & Interim Assessments in Consortium Schools Interim Assessments, implemented in each science class a student takes, provide the practice and discipline our students need to reach the level of high competency described by the Experimental Science and Engineering/Design rubrics.

Pedagogic strategies must focus on one major concern: How do we as teachers create an atmosphere of inquiry in which students will be encouraged to think like scientists, to see themselves not only as members of a class but as an integral part of a community of scientists?

How can our teaching practices encourage students to internalize the scientific process? How do we demystify science for our students?

Shared Science Curriculum & Planning Resources:

• Introducing Scientific Research Articles to Students — Created by Barry Fox, Consortium. A set of classroom activities that introduce students to research designs and prepare them for reading scientific literature.

• Neuroscience Curriculum & PBAT Resources – Created by Teachers from the Institute for Collaborative Education. A comprehensive set of resources for teaching neuroscience and supporting students throughout the PBAT process.

• Genetics Curriculum Resources - Compiled by a teacher committee in Summer 2020, this document includes resources for in person, hybrid, and fully online teaching of Genetics. Additional recommended classroom texts in Genetics have been compiled by Barry Fox

• Water Quality Unit Resources — Compiled by a teacher committee in Spring 2018.

• Teaching the Climate Crisis - Sample Syllabi. Recommended classroom texts & resources for Climate Change compiled by Barry Fox

• Nuclear Chemistry - Created by Rayhan Ahmed, Gotham Professional Arts Academy

• Recommended texts for classroom use in Physics

• Recommended texts for classroom use in Animal Behavior

• Recommended texts for classroom use in Genetics

• Recommended texts for classroom use in Evolution

Sample Science PBAT Papers

• Do Different Types of Exercise Affect Memory Recall In Young Adults? — Competent/Good

• The effect of Thermophilic, Mesophilic, and FFW on the height of the stem, number of leaves, and number of seeds germinated on the species Zinnia elegans — Good

• Content Effects on Word Problem Performance — Good

• The Effect of Tank Volume on Goldfish Growth — Good

• Neuroscience: Colorful Patterns — Good/Outstanding

• The Effect of Post-Event Co-Witness Information on Adolescents’ Event Recall — Outstanding

Learn more about Science teaching in Consortium schools

Read Inquiry Teaching in the Sciences (A Teacher-to-Teacher Publication)

Watch Talk, Talk, Talk

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