Science educators from across the region gathered last month at the Impact Career Innovation Center on the Durango High School campus to receive training and hands-on support in implementing real-world, three-dimensional, phenomenon-based learning into local classrooms.
The six-hour training session revolved around how to effectively implement the current Colorado Department of Education Science Standards in classrooms, and was made possible through funds allocated by Colorado Legislature House Bill 24-1446. Durango School District Science and Math Instructional Specialist Megan Fretz helped bring the training to Durango, according to the district.
About 30 kindergarten through 12th grade science educators from Durango, Bayfield, Ignacio and Pagosa Springs attended the seminar.
The 2020 Standards, developed based on the Next Generation Science Standards and state requirements, are the current science standards followed in schools. They replaced the older 2009-2010 standards.
Co-facilitator Christy Sabo said the 2020 standards encourage students to truly engage with science in class, not just hear about it.
“We want science instruction to be mirroring what really happens in the real world: (scientists) observe these events – these natural events in our universe – and ask questions and try to answer those questions,” she said. “The workshop showed teachers how to organize instruction around real-world phenomena and how to support students in using science practices and crosscutting concepts to figure out big ideas.”
Sabo works with the Ridgway School District, and was selected to lead the training by the University of Colorado, Boulder, Inquiry Hub and the Colorado Department of Education, which collaborated on how the new standards will be taught in the classroom.
Michele Mann, a STEM professor at Adams State University, was the other co-facilitator for the seminar.
Programming included interactive practice in introducing the new standards to students, strategies for supporting all types of learners, science lesson-planning and classroom tools developed with the CDE and Inquiry Hub, and opportunities for regional educators to network and connect.
The training was free and optional, and educators who attended earned contact hours toward their teaching license renewal.
Mann said the training allowed science educators to combine their knowledge in an effort to bring hearty science education to all parts of Colorado.
“This type of training allows good science teaching to get to all students, rural and Front Range,” Mann said. “... If we’re not getting a good science education, our pipeline is limited, and we want diversity in the sciences, not only for future scientists, but for our citizenship. ... How we’re going to do (that) is to bring in good science education into all levels of our schooling.”
Miller Middle School science teacher Leigh Gillette said she attended the training for two reasons: because science happens among community, and because creating a community with a robust understanding of science is important.
“Our questions should be driven by the things that we can observe around us, and that’s what this training is about, really, rather than (following) a prescribed set of facts,” Gillette said. “(The updated standards) feel more authentically scientific. (They) align with how the curriculum is changing, because it really is. This is a pretty radical shift from lists of facts and doctrines to remember the idea of a student as an inquisitive scientist and thinker, and letting observable phenomenon drive the inquiry toward the facts that we want people to know.”
Climate-related revisions to the Colorado Department of Education Science Standards were also recently approved, in part as a result of activism by former Durango High School student and founder of the Good Trouble Climate Network Aisha O’Neil.
The new climate Standards were accepted in September, and will go into effect in the 2027-28 school year.
Though the seminar focused on how to implement the current science standards in the classroom, Gillette said the 2027-28 climate editions will also be an exciting new realm of curriculum to explore once they go into effect.
“(The) climate standards and the questions we have about energy transfer and heat and carbon cycling fits so tightly in with what we’re already exploring in our science classes that it’s just another connection,” she said. “If we can recognize carbon or energy or cycling, then that gets us closer and closer to solving some problems (and) setting up a strong future. I’m excited for the opportunity to have one more thing to tie in.”
Sabo said the 2020 standards, and what was covered in the seminar, reflects a positive shift in the way teachers and students approach science education.
“We saw a lot throughout the state that science either wasn’t getting taught or it just wasn’t being taught in a way that served the students,” Sabo said. “And so this professional development really allowed teachers to see how they can align their instruction (not only with) the standards, but also in a phenomenon-based way.”
epond@durangoherald.com
