The Knowles Academy offers state-of-the-art professional development experiences for teachers. All Academy courses are designed and facilitated by experienced teachers who understand the complexities of teaching in today’s world.
Through this Knowles Academy course, science teachers will work in small, collaborative groups as they learn to increase the cognitive demand of their lessons and provide more opportunities for students to talk about science—tactics that lead to an increase in student engagement.
Designing Instructional Tasks to Increase Student Engagement and Learning in Science
This sustained professional development course is designed to support teachers who aim to provide their students with a connected and conceptual understanding of science content. Through an introductory six-week course, this program will help science teachers provide increased opportunities for all students to learn by supporting their use of high cognitive demand tasks and provide more opportunities for students to talk about science and productive talk in their classrooms. Teachers will become more closely acquainted with the disciplinary practices described by the Next Generation Science Standards. Using these resources as a framework, teachers will learn to engage all students in authentic science in ways that are aligned with the changing landscape of education in the U.S.
Course Objectives:
- Consider what it means to do science and who has access to doing science in your classroom
- Engage as learners in a high cognitive demand task
- Identify the cognitive demands of tasks and consider how the tasks influence students’ opportunities to learn
- Examine the alignment between learning goals and the tasks you give your students
- Design and plan a cognitively demanding task for your classroom
Academy Services
All Knowles Academy courses can be customized to meet the specific needs of schools and/or districts. Please use the below form to request information about custom services.
Designing Instructional Tasks to Increase Student Engagement and Learning in Science
Dates: July 13, 2022; July 14, 2022; July 15, 2022
Time: 1:00–5:00 p.m. EDT
Location: Zoom
Price: $200
Limited funding is available to offset the course registration fee. Register by July 13, 2022, and save $150 (promotional code: KNOWLES150).
Optional Graduate Course Credit Available
This course has been canceled. Contact us via email at academy@knowlesteachers.org if you are interested in attending a future science tasks course.