NGSX: Next Generation Science Exemplar, Gelroth, Summer 2026

Course Number:	EDU 5710 S17
Instructor:	Hannah Gelroth, M.Ed.
Location:	In-person at Vermont Institute of Natural Science (VINS) and online
Dates and Times:	July 27 - Sep 15, 2026. July 27-30: 8:00-3:30 in person at VINS with the remainder of the course in an online, independent format.
Credits:	3 Graduate Credits
Tuition:	Tuition is set by and payable to VINS

Course Description

Interested in shifting your instruction from a place where students are just “learning about” to one where they are “figuring out” the how and why? Please join VINS for the Next Generation Science Exemplar (NGSX) professional development course. Participants will explore how to use phenomena (things that happen in the world) to drive instruction, motivate learning, and help learners drive where to go next. Participants will engage as adult learners using the same best instructional practices used with students-practices that help learners go public with their ideas, reason together, persist through challenging tasks, and revise thinking over time. Participants will develop indicators for student engagement in the core practices of modeling, argumentation, and explanation-practices central to all content areas and participants will dig into how to build a culture of public reasoning and experience and use tools for implementing productive small and whole group discussions. This course is designed for teachers K-12.

Audience: K-12 with an earned Bachelor's Degree

Course Goals & Objectives

Course Goals:

Develop teacher capacity to apply the ideas in the Framework and NGSS to their own practice
Focus on high leverage practices that are the most central to the NGSS

Course Objectives: In this course we will focus on the following essential questions:

What are the implications of shifting from learning about to figuring out for our teaching and our classrooms?
How can we strategically integrate three-dimensional learning into our science classrooms to help our students engage with the world around them as scientists and engineers?

Course Schedule

Our in person schedule will follow the units outlined in the NGSX Web Platform.

Beyond the assignments embedded within the NGSX web platform, students will develop one unit incorporating the high-leverage science and engineering practices explored deeply in NGSX.

There are daily small homework assignments, and the final unit is due by September 15, 2026.

Required Readings/Resources

Costs for required readings may not be included in the course tuition. Please contact VINS for more information.

NOTE: This framework book below, while more than 5 years old, is a critical part of the instructional foundation for the course because it provides teachers with a way to understand and better meet the NGSS standards.

Ambitious Science Teaching. (2023, November 29). Scientific Argumentation in the Early Grades. [Video]. YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YajBTz2rbDM

Council, N. R. (2012). A framework for K-12 science education: Practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas.

Gulf of Maine Research Institute. (2024, May 21). Developing a Modeling Orientation to Science. [Video]. YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aNh0_Qzekc

McKenna, T. (2025). Making sense of sensemaking: Designing Authentic K–12 STEM Learning Experiences. Teachers College Press.

Svoboda, J. (2025). Supporting multilingual science learners. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 24(1), fe1. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.25-01-0009

For additional course or registration information

Hannah Gelroth

hgelroth@vinsweb.org

This course requires registration with VINS first.