Science Resources

The vision for K-12 science education in Oregon aims to provide each and every student with high-quality, three-dimensional instruction, inspiring future generations of scientifically literate individuals. Science is vital to understanding today’s complex world and solving tomorrow’s challenges. Connecting learning to students’ interests and experiences is crucial for broadening participation in science.

There is no doubt that science - and therefore, science education - is central to the lives of every community member. Never before has our world been so complex and scientific literacy so critical to making sense of it all. Science is also at the heart of each community’s ability to continue innovating, leading, and creating jobs for the future. That's why each and every student - regardless of whether they pursue college or STEM careers - should have access to a high-quality, three-dimensional science education. “Equity in science education requires that all students are provided with equitable opportunities to learn science and become engaged in science and engineering practices; with access to quality space, equipment, and teachers to support and motivate that learning and engagement; and adequate time spent on science. In addition, the issue of connecting to students’ interests and experiences is particularly important for broadening participation in science.” — NRC Framework

Oregon K-12 Science Standards with Clarifying Guidance - This document describes the vision for science education in Oregon and identifies the three dimensions that make up the K-12 science standards for each grade level in K-5 and grade band in 6-8 and high school.
K-12 Science Standards Best Practices Guide - This document is designed to support the implementation of a high-quality science education program.
Dig Into Science - This professional development platform provides an introduction to current best practices in science education. It is an entry point for teachers new to science, paraprofessionals who support science learning, administrators who observe and support teachers, or anyone supporting science learning outside of school
Guide to Implementing the Next Generation Science Standards - This document provides guidance to district and school leaders and teachers charged with developing a plan and implementing the NGSS as they change their curriculum, instruction, professional learning, policies, and assessment to align with the new standards. For each of these elements, this report lays out recommendations for action around key issues and cautions about potential pitfalls.
Matrix of Oregon's K-12 Science Standards - This document provides a matrix for visualizing the integration of Crosscutting Concepts and Science and Engineering Practices across Oregon’s K-12 Science Standards within each grade band.
K-12 Standards with Evidence Statements - This document demonstrates the coherence between the science standards, evidence statements, and interim assessments to support science teaching and learning.
Integrating TSEL in K-12 Science Education - This document serves as a companion guide to the Science Oregon Teacher’s Guide and Lesson Sparks, providing educators with resources and examples that continue to create inclusive and affirming learning environments.

Using Phenomena - This resource answers questions about how and why to center science education on phenomena so that students are motivated to explain. This focus of learning shifts instruction from learning about a topic to figuring out why or how something happens. Video support.
Qualities of a Good Anchor Phenomenon - This resource identifies how instructional sequences are more coherent when students investigate compelling natural phenomena (in science) or work on meaningful design problems (in engineering) by engaging in the science and engineering practices.
Attending to Student Interests and Community Priorities in Phenomena - This open educational resource (OER) is a professional learning resources that includes slides, speaker notes, facilitator guide, and embedded resources focused on identify a variety of meaningful phenomena of different types that connect to specific science and engineering learning standards.
Going 3D with GRC - This site is a collection of grades K-12 vetted, three-dimensional lessons grounded in phenomena and aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards developed from the Framework for K-12 Science Education.
NGSS Design Badge Lessons and Units - This collection of lessons and units have been awarded a digital badge based on the Educators Evaluating the Quality of Instructional Products (EQuIP) Rubric for Science.

Equity in K-12 STEM Education: Framing Decisions for the Future - This interactive overview takes a comprehensive look on how to advance equity in STEM education through a process that requires intentional, multi-level decision-making and sustained strategic action to address systemic inequities and build a more just future. The full report puts forth five equity frames to guide decision makers short- and long-term goals for equity and to make decisions about policy and practice.
Culture, Learning, and Identity Framework - This framework provides opportunities to focus on culture and identity in science learning and teaching.
Designing for Social Justice in Science Teaching and Learning: Working Toward Rightful Presence - This resource is based on multiple manuscripts to explore three specific tenets of how Rightful Presence might be enacted in science classrooms.
Gender-Inclusive Biology - This site provides gender affirming resources, a reflection framework for adapting curriculum, and professional development materials.
Helping Students Make Sense of the World: Toward More Equitable Learning in Science - This chapter focuses on expanding relationships among students, teachers, and science practices. The vignettes provide examples of potential approaches to equitable learning for each and every student.
How can you advance equity and justice through science teaching? - This resource focuses on seven key intersectional tenets of equity that can guide the teaching and learning of science towards social justice.
NGSS Instruction: A Powerful Lever for Equitable Learning, Language Development, and Learning in Other School Subjects - This brief from WestEd describes some key results and takeaways from implementing the instructional shifts called for in A Framework for K12 Science Education and the NGSS.
Power and Historicity Framework - This framework provides an overview of the ways power and historicity are present in science learning environments and approaches toward ethical, just, and sustainable forms of learning in science education.

CLEAN Culturally Relevant Climate Teaching - This resource focuses on the Living Landscapes project is a set of educational resources designed to integrate traditional knowledge (Native Science) about the climate with current climate research.

CLEAN Guidance in Elementary Teaching about Climate and Energy - This resource provides guidance, ideas, and strategies for elementary educators for teaching climate and energy in elementary grades.
CLEAN Teaching Energy/Enseñar temas sobre energía - This resource traces the story of energy in our lives, beginning with the physics of energy and how energy flows throughout the earth system. Explore energy's influence on human society, sources of energy, the ways we use energy, how we make decisions about energy, and the impacts of energy use.
CLEAN Teaching Climate/La Enseñanza de la Ciencia Del Clima - This resource walks students through key components of the climate system: the Sun, the atmosphere, life on Earth, human impacts, how scientists study climate, and actions humans can take.

ClimeTime - This website provides developed PK-12 climate science lessons, units, and professional development resources that are shared through the OER Commons group.
National Center for Science Education - This site provides resources for educators to address misconceptions about climate change and high school climate science lessons and units.
Smithsonian Science Education Center - This site hosts Sustainability Resources that are designed to engage students in phenomenon-based learning through coherent storylines, inspire teachers with point-of-use support, and connect students firsthand to the world around them.
STEM Teaching Tools: Climate Learning Resource Designing Climate Change Learning for Action - These practice briefs, webinars, and professional learning resources focus on different aspects of this climate science and provide a variety of examples for diverse learning environments. .
Talk Climate - This website provides age appropriate, emotionally-responsive, and action centered resources for PK-12, caregivers, educators, and professionals.
Yale Program on Climate Change Communication - This site focuses on resources for educators grades 6-12 and were developed based on recommendations from educators across the United States.

A Framework for K-12 Science Education - This is a compilation of science education research identifying critical topics and best practices for youth to learn science that centers students' cultures, interests, and identities as they make sense of their world. The Framework highlights how "all science learning can be understood as a cultural accomplishment."

Equity and Diversity in Science and Engineering Education - Chapter 11 highlights equity challenges and approaches to inclusive science instruction through a lens that all science learning can be understood as a cultural accomplishment.

STEM Teaching Tools - This is a professional development playlist of learning sessions to introduce and understand the Framework’s vision of science education to educators and administrators.
Advancing Coherent and Equitable Systems of Science Education (ACESSE) - These are professional learning resources that include slide decks, facilitators guides, and embedded resources that focus on the fundamental components of three-dimensional teaching and learning.
Next Generation Science Standards: Appendices - These appendices provide background and additional details about the standards, along with implementation models and case studies:

Appendix A: Conceptual Shifts
Appendix B Responses to Public Feedback
Appendix C: College and Career Readiness
Appendix D: All Standards, All Students Case Studies
Appendix E: Disciplinary Core Idea Progression in the NGSS
Appendix F: Science and Engineering Practices – Practices Matrix
Appendix G: Crosscutting Concepts in the NGSS –Crosscutting Concepts Matrix
Appendix H: Nature of Science in the NGSS – Nature of Science Matrix
Appendix I: Engineering Design in the NGSS
Appendix J: Science, Technology, Society, and the Environment
Appendix K: Model Course Mapping in Middle and High School

Prompts for Integrating Crosscutting Concepts Into Assessment and Instruction - This resource provides possible prompts intended to help elicit student understanding of crosscutting concepts in the context of investigating phenomena or solving problems.
Using the crosscutting concepts to reflect on and refine your teaching - This resource focuses on how educators can use crosscutting concepts to engage in deeper reflection and metacognition (Plan, Do, Study, Act).
Using Crosscutting Concepts to Prompt Student Responses - This comprehensive resource centers crosscutting concepts to focus students’ thinking on making sense of phenomena and provides scaffolding and sentence frames for use in classroom discussions.
Why and how should I use crosscutting concepts to enhance my science instruction? - This resource provides clarity on how to use the crosscutting concepts to promote integration across disciplines and to build coherency to support student learning.

In May 2023, ODE released Oregon's Early Literacy Framework to provide coherence, clarity and common ground for high-quality, comprehensive early literacy education statewide. Below are some elementary-focused resources that support both the statewide literacy vision and science education:

Using Science to Bolster Literacy Skills in Elementary Education - This resource explores opportunities for teaching literacy by increasing interdisciplinary connections between science and literacy.
Rise and Thrive with Science - Teaching PK-5 Engineering - This is a free practitioners’ guide using relevant classroom examples. This guide includes supports needed to implement effective and equitable instruction for all children and elevates the deep connections to develop their language skills and literacy while engaging in local context and phenomena.
Science in Elementary Classrooms for Oregon Administrators - This self-guided course is designed to guide administrators, particularly those in K-5 schools, in thinking about science education in their buildings and to provide background on and fundamentals regarding the Oregon Science Standards.
Engaging English Learners in the Science and Engineering Practices - This tool explores how science learning supports language development and how to leverage students' interests and identities.
What does subject matter integration look like in elementary instruction? Including science is key! - This resource leverages students’ natural curiosity and builds strong knowledge-bases in other content areas.
K-5 Elementary Storylines - This website provides examples of lessons that are driven by students' questions and building skills to explain their thinking and understanding of phenomena.
NGSS Bundled Topics in Elementary - Bundling is a helpful step in implementing standards as it can support coherence and connections between concepts and topics. This resource provides guidance on how to group standards in K-5.

A Framework for K-12 Science Education - This is a compilation of science education research identifying critical topics and best practices for youth to learn science that centers students' cultures, interests, and identities as they make sense of their world. The Framework highlights how "all science learning can be understood as a cultural accomplishment."
Guide to Implementing the Next Generation Science Standards - This document provides guidance to district and school leaders and teachers charged with developing a plan and implementing the NGSS as they change their curriculum, instruction, professional learning, policies, and assessment to align with the new standards. For each of these elements, this report lays out recommendations for action around key issues and cautions about potential pitfalls.
Equity in K-12 STEM Education: Framing Decisions for the Future - This interactive overview takes a comprehensive look on how to advance equity in STEM education through a process that requires intentional, multi-level decision-making and sustained strategic action to address systemic inequities and build a more just future. The full report puts forth five equity frames to guide decision makers short- and long-term goals for equity and to make decisions about policy and practice.
English Learners in STEM Subjects - This consensus study examines the research on ELs' learning, teaching, and assessment in STEM subjects and provides guidance on how to improve learning outcomes in STEM for students. It builds upon the assets students bring into the classroom and to STEM education.
Call to Action for Science Education: Building Opportunities for the Future - This interactive overview from National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine provides a vision to achieve equitable access to quality science learning across the K-12 educational system. The full report also identifies specific recommendations for key educational partners.
Rise and Thrive with Science - Teaching PK-5 Engineering - This is a free practitioners’ guide using relevant classroom examples. This guide includes supports needed to implement effective and equitable instruction for all children and elevates the deep connections to develop their language skills and literacy while engaging in local context and phenomena.
Science and Engineering in Preschool Through Elementary Grades: The Brilliance of Children and the Strengths of Educators - This interactive overview takes a comprehensive look at the assets children, communities, and educators bring to elementary classrooms in service of equity and justice. The full report also elevates the deep connections to literacy practices through local context and phenomena.
Understanding and Addressing Misinformation About Science - This report helps to elevate the impacts of misinformation about science and offers potential solutions across a diversity of individual peoples, communities, and societies.

If you have any questions please email ode.stem@ode.oregon.gov

Science Resources

K-12 Science Standards and Instructional Materials Implementation

Phenomena Driven Instruction

Leading for Educational Equity in Science Education

K-12 Climate Education

Foundational Understanding of Oregon Science Vision

Crosscutting Concepts in Science

Elementary Science and Literacy Connections

Research