Virtual Becoming a Next Gen Science Teacher (V-BNGST) is a collaborative, interactive course. Teachers are immersed in doing science as adult learners for portions of the session. Science materials are sent directly to participants. Teachers learn how to apply the tools and principles they engaged with during the science portion to their own classroom, to engage all learners.

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Course goals:

• Develop teachers’ capacity to apply the shifts in instruction called for by NGSS to their own practice. 

• Support teachers to create an equitable classroom culture where all students are supported to go public with their reasoning and build on their classmates’ ideas. 

• Learn how to use a variety of tools to implement productive talk and small and whole group sensemaking discussions.

 

How we do this:

• Engage as learners in hands-on science investigations, as well as modeling, argumentation, and explanation of complex phenomena in the virtual context. 

• Creatively and strategically use interactive web-based tools such as Google Jamboard, Driving Question Board, Summary Table, and Productive Talk with Waterfall Chats.

• Target audience: PreK-12 teachers, coaches, district science leaders, informal educators

• Dates: ​​

  • Please register for only ONE of the sessions below

    • Session 1: Feb 20-22, plus June 26-28, 2024 (45 PDPs). 
      
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    • Session 2: April 16-18, plus June 26-28, 2024  (45 PDPs)​
      
       

Times for Sessions 1 and 2: 8:30 AM - 2:30 PM Eastern, each day.

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NEW SESSION JUST ADDED!

• Saturday cohort: Feb 3, March 2, April 6, and April 27

• Times for Saturday cohort: 9am - 4:30pm ET

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• Format: Virtual, synchronous facilitated study groups.

• Stipend: $450 upon completion

• To see a video of what V-BNGST looks like, go to ngsx.org and click on the link to Virtual PD on the landing page.

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Eligibility

• Eligible Massachusetts educators may take these courses at no cost. Specifically, these courses are open to any currently-employed Massachusetts public and charter school educator whose work relates to science in grades PK-12. This includes general education teachers, special education teachers, ESL or language support teachers, principals, coaches, and other school or district administrators whose work relates to science. 

 

Stipends and PDPs  

• V-BNGST offers $450 stipend and 45 PDPs upon course completion.

• Course completion requires that participants: 

1. Attend and participate in course sessions 

2. Complete brief pre & post assessments 

3. Complete brief DESE-created end of course survey 

• Note: Only participants who meet these requirements will be eligible for PDP certificates and stipends. 

 

Graduate credit:

• These courses are not offered for graduate credit.

For more information about these courses, please email nextgenexemplar@gmail.com

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Participants in last summer’s OAPL V-BNGST course said…

 

“I LOVED this workshop, the information presented, the modeling of the process and talk moves and the facilitators & participants!”

 

“The investigations with phenomena were great;  I liked the breakout rooms for discussion and especially how those groups changed so you worked with a lot of different people.”

 

Would you encourage a colleague to participate in this workshop?  

• Yes! It was both useful for building classroom inquiry and it was fun for me personally.

• ABSOLUTELY.  It provides resources and practice with talk moves and modeling that help engage students in the classroom.  More importantly, it demonstrates how making some (maybe) minor changes in the classroom yields much greater student understanding.