Building an NGSS-ESS Community through Engagement with Webinars

Implementation of the NGSS in Earth and space science education (NGSS-ESS) calls for a systemic approach to addressing issues of curricula, assessment, instructional strategies, pre-service and in-service teacher preparation, and more. These aspects of implementation are inherently mutually supportive. As scientific topics are addressed as part of the NGSS, including weather, climate, and ocean science, they require attention to the entire network of ideas. This includes, too, attention to the features of science education that have come to be referred to as 3-dimensional teaching. For more than three years, to address these many aspects of NGSS-ESS implementation, we have conducted a webinar series with a focus on connections between ESS topics and various aspects of NGSS implementation. Topics for the webinars fall into four categories: classroom teaching resources, teacher preparation and support, learning about the NGSS (e.g., NGSS basics), and extending NGSS-ESS (e.g., through curricular integration). The products from this webinar series, including the webinar recordings and slide sets, continue to be available online as a community resource. This session will describe specific webinar presentations, outlining how they have connected topics of weather, climate, and ocean science to aspects of NGSS-ESS implementation, such as assessment, resources available for teaching, and linkages to other disciplines. Together, the presentations provide practical guidance for teachers, teacher educators, resource providers, and faculty members who are working to design instruction that is compatible with the spirit of NGSS-ESS. The fact that many of the meteorologically-relevant topics have been discussed in conjunction with other disciplinary areas (e.g., physics, chemistry) and themes (e.g., sustainability, data-based evidence) is itself important in that it reflects the cross-disciplinary nature of real-world phenomena and the ideals of instructional approaches that are aligned with the NGSS. Data from the webinars will be shared to illustrate the value of creating this sort of community resource. Registration, attendance, and also subsequent unique visitors to the recorded versions of the webinars each provide insights into the dynamics of involvement and utilization. We will also share hypotheses regarding possible interpretations of the data, such as that much of the value of the webinars is realized when individuals find themselves facing particular implementation challenges, which then leads them to search for and access specific webinar content. Importantly, scientists and others who are working to support high quality Earth and space science education can rely on the resources in the webinar series archive as a source of basic guidance regarding many areas of concern to educators, and how those can be addressed.