Becoming the Change: A Critical Evaluation of the Changing Face of Life Science, as Reflected in the NGSS

AbstractTwenty-six states voluntarily partnered to provide leadership and guidance for the purpose of adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). However, a need exists to examine the NGSS versus state standards to better understand changes in curriculum and instruction to make their implementation successful for all states. The present study correlates a set of state science standards from the NGSS leadership team (Tennessee) to the NGSS for High School Biology/ Life Sciences, as a model, and examines the changes from a traditional biology curriculum to a dynamic set of standards that teach the technical skills and critical thinking needed in these scientific fields. The NGSS addresses a move from dated scientific quandaries and proposes standards supported by cutting edge scientific research and literature. Partnerships between scientists and educators allow for the information exchange necessary to implement the changes in scientific research in K-12 instruction. Professional development opportunities that include direct partnerships with scientists foster the continued understanding and skills required to teach science.Keywords: Next Generation Science Standards, secondary biology, Tennessee State Science Standards, curriculum guidemaps, partnershipsIntroductionTennessee, as one of the 26 lead state partners that volunteered to provide leadership and guidance to states for the purpose of adoption of Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), is seriously considering implementing the resulting NGSS as presented. The current Tennessee science standards, aligned with (1) National Science Education standards; (2) Benchmarks for Science Literacy, (3) National Association for Educational Progress (NAEP) standards, and (4) the ACT Standards, were adopted in 2007-2008, and implemented during school year 2009-2010. The next implementation cycle of standards will coordinate with the scheduled curriculum materials adoption in school year 20152016. Therefore, Tennessee, similar to many states across the nation, is reviewing adoption of new science standards according to the NGSS proposed timeline. This illustrates a commitment to adopting a set of standards that can grow and adapt to teaching the skills that scientists need rather than simply supplying factual information. Science changes every day and with it the skills necessary to understand its increasing complexity change. Training the next generation of scientists is not only a daunting task, but one that must be abreast of an immense amount of novel research in order to maintain relevance.This article stems from a grant funded through the National Science Foundation Division of Graduate Education (Grant Number DGE-0742364; PL Dr. Gordon Anderson). This STEM Graduate Fellowship Program, Science First!, is supported by East Tennessee State University in partnership with North Side School of Math, Science, and Technology, a high need and racially/ethnically diverse elementary school. The outcome included STEM fellows and K-5 teachers collaborating on developing an integrated curriculum using mathematics and science as a connecting thread (Access website: http://www.etsu.edu/ cas/gk/).One of the STEM Fellows, Larry Bowman (author), has created a series of posters showing correlations between the current Tennessee Science Education standards (Huffman, 2009) and NGSS (Achieve, 2013). The sequence of 18 posters serves as a series of guidemaps between the Tennessee Curriculum Standards for Science Education (TNCSSE) for grade levels kindergarten through high school and the corresponding NGSS. (See http://www.netstemhub. com/) The 18 guidemaps were presented at the recent Tennessee Science Teachers Association (TSTA) conference (November 2013). During the November TSTA conference, Dr. Scott Eddins, State Board of Education (SBE) staff member, discussed the SBE Science Education Review plan. The steering committee, appointed by SBE, has asked to use the collection of guidemaps in their deliberation of the science standards review, adoption, and implementation. …