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Steels Foundation

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Steels foundation

This session is designed to provide a level-set understanding for the shift in science instruction.

  • Understand
  • Experience
  • Apply

Science, Technology & Engineering, Environmental Literacy & Sustainability

Diving into STEELS Integration

Today we will develop understanding of the new STEELS standards and the phenomena driven inquiry approach to science learning.

Part 1: Understanding 3-Dimensional Learning & STEELS

Seeing the Change

The facts about science are still there, but it's now on equal footing with doing science, as well as with connecting ideas across science.

2002 - 2022
July 1, 2025 Adds Environmental Literacy & Sustainability

Doing Science

Facts about Science

Science and Engineering Practices

Disciplinary Core Ideas

Crosscutting Concepts

What Students DO

What StudentsKNOW

How Students THINK

Decoding a STEELS Standard

Essential Question:How are the characteristics of one generation related to the previous generation?

6-8

9-12

Click the grade level closest to the one you teach to take a closer look.
2002 Standards

Decoding a STEELS Standard

Essential Question:How are the characteristics of one generation related to the previous generation?

3.1.1.C Make observations to construct an evidence-based account that young plants and animals are like, but not exactly like, their parents.

  • What actions are learners doing?
  • What is the core content of this standard?
  • How could parts of this standard support learners making connections to other science content?
  • How could parts of this standard support learners making connections to other non-science content?

K-12 View

Decoding a STEELS Standard

Essential Question:How are the characteristics of one generation related to the previous generation?

3.1.3.C Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of these traits exists in a group of similar organisms.

  • What actions are learners doing?
  • What is the core content of this standard?
  • How could parts of this standard support learners making connections to other science content?
  • How could parts of this standard support learners making connections to other non-science content?

K-12 View

Decoding a STEELS Standard

Essential Question:How are the characteristics of one generation related to the previous generation?

3.1.6-8.M Develop and use a model to describe why structural changes to genes (mutations) located on chromosomes may affect proteins and may result in harmful, beneficial, or neutral effects to the structure and function of the organism

  • What actions are learners doing?
  • What is the core content of this standard?
  • How could parts of this standard support learners making connections to other science content?
  • How could parts of this standard support learners making connections to other non-science content?

K-12 View

Decoding a STEELS Standard

Essential Question:How are the characteristics of one generation related to the previous generation?

3.1.9-12.P Ask questions to clarify relationships about the role of DNA and chromosomes in coding the instructions for characteristic traits passed from parents to offspring.

  • What actions are learners doing?
  • What is the core content of this standard?
  • How could parts of this standard support learners making connections to other science content?
  • How could parts of this standard support learners making connections to other non-science content?

K-12 View

Discussion Time

  • Introduce yourself and share your thoughts about your grade level standard.
  • We will then collectively discuss what is seen in the K-12 progression

Decoding a STEELS Standard

Essential Question:How are the characteristics of one generation related to the previous generation?

3.1.1.C Make observations to construct an evidence-based account that young plants and animals are like, but not exactly like, their parents.

3.1.3.C Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of these traits exists in a group of similar organisms.

3.1.6-8.M Develop and use a model to describe why structural changes to genes (mutations) located on chromosomes may affect proteins and may result in harmful, beneficial, or neutral effects to the structure and function of the organism

3.1.9-12.P Ask questions to clarify relationships about the role of DNA and chromosomes in coding the instructions for characteristic traits passed from parents to offspring.

Decoding a STEELS Standard

Essential Question:How are the characteristics of one generation related to the previous generation?

3.1.1.C Make observations to construct an evidence-based account that young plants and animals are like, but not exactly like, their parents.

3.1.3.C Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of these traits exists in a group of similar organisms.

3.1.6-8.M Develop and use a model to describe why structural changes to genes (mutations) located on chromosomes may affect proteins and may result in harmful, beneficial, or neutral effects to the structure and function of the organism

3.1.9-12.P Ask questions to clarify relationships about the role of DNA and chromosomes in coding the instructions for characteristic traits passed from parents to offspring.

Key

Science and Engineering Practices (SEP)

Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCI)

Crosscutting Concepts (CCC)

STEELS are a piece of cake!

Performance Expectations

Science & Engineering Practices

Crosscutting Concepts

Disciplinary Core Ideas

3-Dimensional Learning

Explore Building a STEELS Standard.

3-Dimensional Learning

Strands weave together to form what learners should be able to do. "Performance Expectations"

Experience phenomena-driven Inquiry

You Pick!

Doritos on the beach
Tanker Implosion Exploration Padlet

Padlet?

Paper?

Whiteboard?

Take a piece of paper and fold it in half. This will be your science journal for today!

Next

In your science notebook, note what you Notice and Wonder.

Picture 2

Picture 1

Use your observations to create a sketch or diagram of what you think happened.

Share your model with your group and compare your displays.

  • What is similar?
  • What is different?
Read this and discuss any changes in thinking.Develop one group model to share with the class.Create a list of questions you have about this phenomenon

Use your observations to create a sketch or diagram of your observations.

article

How can we investigate these questions?

What Learning Did We Facilitate?

  • Asking Questions
  • Developing and Using Models
  • Planning and Carrying out Investigations
  • Collaboration
  • Communication
  • Teamwork
  • Analytical Thinking
  • Text Analysis

What Content Could We Teach?

Facilitate Learning Instead of Memorization of Terms and Facts

  • Inputs
  • Outputs

Systems

  • Convection
  • Radiation

Thermal Energy

  • Ocean Currents
  • Coriolis Effect
  • Human Impacts

Climate

  • Properties
  • Solubility
  • Bouyancy
  • Waves

Matter

This Does NOT Mean No Direct Instruction!

Why use phenomena?

An anchoring phenomenon routine is used to kick off a unit and drive student motivation throughout the unit. It provides a common experience with a phenomenon that is engaging and puzzling, eliciting student questions and a drive to figure things out.

Sensemaking
  • Students generate inital explanations that elicit competing ideas about key pieces that target DCIs.
  • Students go public with their explanations.
  • The class builds a record of areas of consensus and disagreement across everyone's explanations.

Take a Moment to Reflect

Anchoring Phenomena

Anchoring Phenomena

Observable, real-life context that forms the basis of a question or problem to be solved.

  • The glue for an entire unit.
  • Connect student learning across multiple weeks of instruction.
  • Requires a depth of understanding involving several scientific ideas to explain.
  • Allows learners to apply concepts, terms, and definitions to a shared experience.

Choosing Anchoring Phenomena

A good anchor builds upon everyday experiences and is observable.

A good anchor will require students to develop an understanding of and apply multiple performance expectations while engaging in related acts of mathematics, reading, writing, and communication.

A good anchor is too complex for learners to explain or design a solution after a single lesson.

A good anchor can be a case, something that is puzzling, or a wonderment.

A good anchor is something learners care about.

Anchoring Phenomena Ideas

Case Studies

A Problem or Challenge

Something Puzzling

Environmental Issues

Experiment

Card Sorts

Demonstration

Using Data

Science Talk

Simulations

Think Aloud

What do you Wonder? --> What do you Think? --> How do you Know?

Topics & Standards

Anchoring Phenomena

Instruction

Understanding& Connections

Workshop Time!

Your Breakout Room Workshop Choices:

1. Start planning an anchoring phenemena activity for Unit 1 of your course:

    1. with a group
    2. independently
2. Explore STEELS resources.

Workshop Time Begins!

  • Press the link here (or in the chat) to get started.
  • Raise your "Zoom hand" to ask for help if you have any questions.
  • If you need to change rooms, let us know, and we can move you.
  • We will come back together and share what you have discovered.

That's a Wrap!

Be sure to complete the survey in Frontline for Act 48 credit.

Next up in our STEELS Trailblazers series: Sparking Curiosity.

Register today!

LS1.A: Structure and Function LS1.B: Growth and Development of Organisms LS1.C: Organization for Matter and Energy Flow in Organisms LS1.D: Information Processing

From Molecules to Organisms

LS2.A: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems LS2.B: Cycles of Matter and Energy Transfer in Ecosystems LS2.C: Ecosystem Dynamics, Functions, and Resilience LS2.D: Social Interactions ad Group Behavior

LS3.A: Inheritance of Traits LS3.B: Variation of Traits

LS4.A: Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity LS4.B: Natural Selection LS4.C: Adaptation LS4.D: Biodiversity and Humans

ETS1.A: Defining and Eliminating an Engineering Problem ETS1.B: Developing Possible Solutions ETS1.C: Optimizing the Design Solution ETS2. A: Interdependence of Science, Engineering and Technology ETS2.B: Influence of Engineering, Technology, and Science on Society and the Natural World

PS1.A: Structure and Properties of Matter PS1.B: Chemical Reactions PS1.C: Nuclear Processes

PS2.A: Forces and Motion PS2.B: Types of Interactions PS2.C: Stability and Instability in Physical Systems

PS4.A: Waves and Properties PS4.B: Electromagnetic Radiation PS4.C: Information Technologies and Instrumentation

PS3.A: Definitions of Energy PS3.B: Conservation of Energy and Energy Transfer PS3.C: Relationships Between Energy and Forces PS3.D: Energy in Chemical Processes and Everyday Life

Environmental Literacy & Sustainability

Environmental Literacy & Sustainability

ESS3.A: Natural Resources ESS3.B: Natural Hazards ESS3.C: Human Impacts on Earths Systems ESS3.D: Global Climate Change

ESS2.A: Earth Materials and Systems ESS2.B: Plate Tectonics and Large-Scale System Interactions ESS2.C: The Roles of Water in Earth's Surface Processes ESS2.D: Weather and Climate ESS2.E: Biogeology

ESS3.A: Natural Resources ESS3.B: Natural Hazards ESS3.C: Human Impacts on Earths Systems ESS3.D: Global Climate Change

ESS1.A: The Universe and Its Stars ESS1.B: Earth and the Solar System ESS1.C: The History of Planet Earth

Disciplinary Core Ideas

  • The facts and the content

STEELS standards are categorized under three disciplines:

  1. Science
  2. Technology & Engineering
  3. Environmental Literacy & Sustainability

Dimensions for Science and Environmental Literacy & Sustainability:

  1. Science and Engineering Practices
  2. Disciplinary Core Ideas
  3. Crosscutting Concepts

Dimensions for Technology & Engineering:

  1. Science and Engineering Practices
  2. Disciplinary Core Ideas
  3. Technology and Engineering Practices

3-Dimensional Learning

Sensemaking

Learners

make sense of targeted elements of Disciplinary Core Ideas and/or Crosscutting Concepts they need to explain how or why the phenomenaon occurs.

Teachers

have guidance to help move learners thinking about Disciplinary Core Ideas deeper and may include questions to ask learnsers (that don't give away "aha! moments) and talk moves to support students in building understanding or reaching concensus.

SensemakingScreener

Crosscutting Concepts

  • unite “core ideas throughout the fields of science and engineering (Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 2024).”

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. (2024). Standards Aligned System. Retrieved April 2, 2024 from https://pdesas.org.

Effective July 2025:STEELS Science Technology & Engineering, Environmental Literacy & Sustainablilty Standards
2002 - 2022Outdated PA State Standards

Performance Expectations

  • what learners should be able to do as a result of STEELS standard-aligned instruction

LS1.A: Structure and Function LS1.B: Growth and Development of Organisms LS1.C: Organization for Matter and Energy Flow in Organisms LS1.D: Information Processing

From Molecules to Organisms

LS2.A: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems LS2.B: Cycles of Matter and Energy Transfer in Ecosystems LS2.C: Ecosystem Dynamics, Functions, and Resilience LS2.D: Social Interactions ad Group Behavior

LS3.A: Inheritance of Traits LS3.B: Variation of Traits

LS4.A: Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity LS4.B: Natural Selection LS4.C: Adaptation LS4.D: Biodiversity and Humans

ETS1.A: Defining and Eliminating an Engineering Problem ETS1.B: Developing Possible Solutions ETS1.C: Optimizing the Design Solution ETS2. A: Interdependence of Science, Engineering and Technology ETS2.B: Influence of Engineering, Technology, and Science on Society and the Natural World

PS1.A: Structure and Properties of Matter PS1.B: Chemical Reactions PS1.C: Nuclear Processes

PS2.A: Forces and Motion PS2.B: Types of Interactions PS2.C: Stability and Instability in Physical Systems

PS4.A: Waves and Properties PS4.B: Electromagnetic Radiation PS4.C: Information Technologies and Instrumentation

PS3.A: Definitions of Energy PS3.B: Conservation of Energy and Energy Transfer PS3.C: Relationships Between Energy and Forces PS3.D: Energy in Chemical Processes and Everyday Life

Environmental Literacy & Sustainability

Environmental Literacy & Sustainability

ESS3.A: Natural Resources ESS3.B: Natural Hazards ESS3.C: Human Impacts on Earths Systems ESS3.D: Global Climate Change

ESS2.A: Earth Materials and Systems ESS2.B: Plate Tectonics and Large-Scale System Interactions ESS2.C: The Roles of Water in Earth's Surface Processes ESS2.D: Weather and Climate ESS2.E: Biogeology

ESS3.A: Natural Resources ESS3.B: Natural Hazards ESS3.C: Human Impacts on Earths Systems ESS3.D: Global Climate Change

ESS1.A: The Universe and Its Stars ESS1.B: Earth and the Solar System ESS1.C: The History of Planet Earth

Science & Engineering Practices

  • What scientists and engineers do to figure things out

Combined Experiences with Instruction & Investigative phenomena

Investigative Phenomena & Content to Guide Instruction
Curriculum

STEELS standards are categorized under three disciplines:

  1. Science
  2. Technology & Engineering
  3. Environmental Literacy & Sustainability

Dimensions for Science and Environmental Literacy & Sustainability:

  1. Science and Engineering Practices
  2. Disciplinary Core Ideas
  3. Crosscutting Concepts

Dimensions for Technology & Engineering:

  1. Science and Engineering Practices
  2. Disciplinary Core Ideas
  3. Technology and Engineering Practices

Activate Prior Knowledge
Develop Driving Question(s)
Notice/Wonder
What makes some animals go extinct while others are able to survive?