The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)* call for students to use the practices, concepts and content of science and engineering to understand phenomena and solve problems that are relevant to their lives. Starting from a student’s own experiences and community makes the science meaningful and increases engagement while helping students understand how global issues like climate change are present and addressable in their lives. In this series (NGSS in Action: Science and Engineering in your Schoolyard) we examine how you can use the new science standards and your community to understand and address real world environmental problems and explore together how to integrate NGSS into your district’s classroom science units.Workshop 1: Science in Action Description: "Venture outside the walls of the classroom to find local environmental phenomena that can anchor your classroom science unit. Explore with us the big picture of Next Generation Science Standards’ “three dimensional” science learning and then get hands on with the Science and Engineering Practices as you use them to build an understanding of an example phenomenon in our 'schoolyard.' You’ll leave this workshop with ideas and examples you can use in your own classroom science curriculum."

This activity sets an exciting tone of exploration and discovery, encouraging an inquiry mindset in students that helps establish a community of curious, active learners. Students gain tools to explore the natural world—and are inspired to discover and attempt to explain the abundant nature mysteries that surround us. NSI works well at the start of a field experience, to get students excited about nature mysteries. It provides an opportunity for an instructor to coach students in inquiry skills, by using the language of science and engaging in scientific discussions. For instructors with less experience leading open-ended explorations and discussions, this can be a challenging activity to lead successfully the first time. The write-up includes detailed support, by providing information and strategies for the instructor. Students focus on a mystery object, generate observations, questions, evidence-based explanations and share what they already know from other sources. Once students are familiar with these practices, they can use them to investigate and make explanations about anything they find in nature through their field experience(s).

Professor Nancy Kanwisher uses a brain imaging method called fMRI to study the human brain. Her website, Nancy's Brain Talks, is a collection of short videos that explore the different scientific techniques used to study the human mind and brain. You do not need any background in the field to understand the talks.
Topics include:

What Kinds of Minds and Brains Do We Have?
How Can You Study the Human Mind and Brain?
Face Perception
fMRI Imaging of the Human Brain at Work

The site also includes lecture videos from Prof. Kanwisher's undergraduate MIT course 9.13 The Human Brain. You can find a complete version of this course here on MIT OpenCourseWare.

In this video adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, find out about the discovery of a new building material, the carbon nanotube, whose physical properties could theoretically enable the creation of a 22,000-mile elevator to space.

In this lesson, students will research one Native American group from each of the six main biomes in North America. Students will use their developing technology and language arts skills to find reliable sources on the internet, evaluate and integrate information from these texts, select a suitable digital platform to share their findings, and create a cohesive presentation showcasing their mastery of the learning outcomes. Students will discover the climate, landforms, water, and other natural resources available within each region and how they were used by the natives living there. Students will explore the relationships between the cultures found within each region and its resources. This unit was created as part of the ALEX Interdisciplinary Resource Development Summit.

In this video segment adapted from Haskell Indian Nations University, student filmmakers explain why it is important to them to make a video about climate change.

Students use Library of Congress primary sources to examine accounts by Americans from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries of their life changing experiences with nature.

In this lesson the students will explore the outdoor classroom looking for examples of natural resources used to make useful products with a special emphasis on how rocks and soil (clay) are used.

This article provides background information related to natural resources of the poles, and renewable and non-renewable energy.

In terms of life science content, evolution is essentially where genetics meets ecology. In this introduction to evolution, students will take on the role of both research biologists and predators to simulate how environmental conditions affect and change a population of model frogs and traits. Students will encounter the impacts of mutations and changes to the environment affecting the survival as well. This lesson results from a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and ASTA.

This class examines the relationship between the study of natural history, both domestic and exotic, by Europeans and Americans, and exploration and exploitation of the natural world, focusing on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

This course examines the philosophical and theoretical foundations of constructionism as a paradigm for formulating and evaluating new theories for learning and approaches to education. One of the goals of this course is to help new learning researchers situate their work within the constructionist framework through readings and projects that will focus on the rich interplay between the process of knowledge construction and the development and co-evolution of ideas, learners, tools, and contexts.

In this video from WOSU Columbus, learn about the types of communities of plants, animals, birds and fish that abound in wetlands.

In this video segment adapted from Navajo Technical College, meet two members of the Navajo Nation, one Elder and one scientist, as they share their observations about how precipitation has changed since they were children.

Nebraska 5thGrade Science Standards Unwrapped - This document will provide Nebraska Science teachers links to the Unwrapping documentation for each of the Nebraska Science Standards by grade level.

Students will explore the garden environment for examples of organisms having their needs met and will be given an event that might cause that organism to thrive, move or perish.

Students will begin by brainstorming a list of needs that must be met for an animal to survive in its habitat. Next, the students will observe an ant farm, created by the teacher prior to the lesson, and determine how the ants' needs are being met through their environment. Then, students will create a list of needs that must be met for a plant to survive in its habitat and compare this list to animals' survival needs. Lastly, the teacher will assist students in developing a plan to build a natural habitat conducive to meeting the needs of a plant. At the conclusion of the lesson, the students will construct a plant terrarium. This lesson was created as part of the 2016 NASA STEM Standards of Practice Project, a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.

Produce light by bombarding atoms with electrons. See how the characteristic spectra of different elements are produced, and configure your own element's energy states to produce light of different colors.

This course focuses on neural structures and mechanisms mediating the detection, localization and recognition of sounds. Discussions cover how acoustic signals are coded by auditory neurons, the impact of these codes on behavioral performance, and the circuitry and cellular mechanisms underlying signal transformations. Topics include temporal coding, neural maps and feature detectors, learning and plasticity, and feedback control. General principles are conveyed by theme discussions of auditory masking, sound localization, musical pitch, speech coding, and cochlear implants.

The Adirondack Mountains tour is part of the New York Landscape Regions Collection of Google Earth Tours, created by a group of New York State science educators. This tour provides an introduction to the geology of the Great Range and the High Peaks as viewed from Algonquin Peak. It also addresses the issue of acid rain, which is a persistent environmental concern in the Adirondacks.