Many considerations must be taken into account in designing instructional materials to
create a product that lives up to the expectations of students, teachers, schools, and
districts. There are the obvious and necessary elements that must be addressed, such as
standards, scope and sequence, instructional model, and pacing. OpenSciEd instructional
materials are thoughtfully constructed with all of these considerations and constraints in
mind. Yet, these elements are not enough. Instructional materials must have a classroom
vision, an image of how students will engage with the content, what type of discourse
students will engage in, and a sense of what a teacher needs to make standards come
alive.
OpenSciEd’s beliefs about a science learning and vision of the classroom are embodied in
our design specifications. These fourteen specifications describe what we want science
learning to look like for every student, and therefore guide our materials development
process and implementation support. The topics addressed range from equitable science
instruction and the centrality of asking questions, to meeting practical needs and
constraints of a classroom. These specifications are based on A Framework for K-12
Science Education and the resulting Next Generation Science Standards, including the
emphasis on three-dimensional learning.Published versio
