NGSS* Science and

3-Dimensional Engineering
Practices

Planning
Cards

Developing
Asking and Using
Questions Models
 Science and NGSS* 3-D Planning Cards
Engineering Practices
These cards were created by Paul Andersen to facilitate
Science is not just a body of knowledge that reflects current 3-dimensional learning and unit planning.
understanding of the world; it is also a set of practices used
to establish, extend, and refine that knowledge. Learn More

• Asking Questions (for science) thewonderofscience.com

• Defining Problems (for engineering)
Sources
• Developing and Using Models
Achieve (2012). Next generation of science standards. Washington,
• Planning and Carrying Out Investigations DC: Achieve

Achieve (2015). NGSS evidence statements. Washington, DC:

• Analyzing and Interpreting Data Achieve

• Using Mathematics and Computational National Research Council (NRC). (2012). A framework for K-12
Thinking science education: Practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas.
Washington, DC: The National Academy Press
• Constructing Explanations (for science) Quinn, Helen. (2014). Using crosscutting concepts with framing
questions.
• Designing Solutions (for engineering)
Peacock, Amy and Jeremy (2017). Using crosscutting concepts to
• Engaging in Argument from Evidence scaffold student thinking. Northwest Georgia RESA - Science

* Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) is a registered

• Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating trademark of Achieve. Neither Achieve nor the lead states and
Information partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards
were involved in the production of this product, and do not endorse it.

Developing and Using Models

Asking Questions
Modeling can begin in the earliest grades, with students'
models progressing from concrete "pictures" and/or physical Students at any grade level should be able to ask questions
scale models to more abstract representations of relevant of each other about the texts they read, the features of the
relationships in later grades. phenomena they observe, and the conclusions they draw
from their models or scientific investigations.

Student Performance
Student Performance
• Identify components of the model
• Formulate a question that addresses the
• Identify relationships between components
hphenomenon
• Use connections to describe, explain, and

• Identify the nature of the question
predict
• Evaluate the empirical testability of the
aquestion
 Planning and Analyzing and
Carrying Out Interpreting
Investigations Data

Mathematics

Computational
Thinking
Constructing
Explanations
 Analyzing and Planning and Carrying
Interpreting Data Out Investigations
Organize and interpret data through tabulating, graphing, or Planning and carrying out investigations that provide
statistical analysis. Such analysis can bring out the meaning evidence for and test conceptual, mathematical, physical,
of data so that they may be used as evidence. and empirical models.

Student Performance Student Performance

• Organize data • Identify the evidence and purpose
• Identify relationships within datasets • Plan the investigation
• Identify relationships between datasets • Collect the data
• Interpret data • Refine the design

Constructing Explanations Using Mathematics and

Computational Thinking
Students are expected to construct their own explanations,
as well as apply standard explanations they learn about
Using algebraic thinking and analysis for statistical analysis
from their teachers or reading.
to analyze, represent, and model data. Simple computational
simulations are created and used based on mathematical
models of basic assumptions.
Student Performance
• Formulate a question Student Performance
• Identify a scientific cause • Identify representations in a system
• Describe a causal mechanism • Use math and mathematical modeling
• Use computational thinking
• Analyze results

 Obtaining,
Engaging in Evaluating, and
Argument Communicating
from Evidence Information

Defining Designing
Problems Solutions
 Obtaining, Evaluating, and Engaging in Argument
Communicating Information From Evidence
Using appropriate and sufficient evidence and scientific
Communicating information, evidence, and ideas in
reasoning to defend and critique claims and
multiple ways: using tables, diagrams, graphs, models,
explanations about the natural world.
interactive displays, and equations as well as orally, in
writing, and through extended discussions.

Student Performance
Student Performance • Identify a given claim
• Obtain information • Identify provided evidence
• Evaluate information • Evaluate and critique evidence
• Communicate information • Evaluate reasoning and synthesis
• Select appropriate style and format

Designing Solutions Defining Problems

There is usually no single best solution but rather a range
of solutions. Which one is the optimal choice depends on Students ask questions to define the engineering
the criteria used for making evaluations. problem, determine criteria for a successful solution,
and identify constraints.

Student Performance
Student Performance
• Generate the design solution
• Identify the problem to be solved
• Describe the criteria and constraints
• Define the criteria
• Evaluate potential refinements
• Define the constraints
Crosscutting
Concepts

Patterns

Scale
Cause Proportion
Effect Quantity
 Patterns Crosscutting Concepts
Observed patterns of forms and events guide organization and
classification, and they prompt questions about relationships These concepts help provide students with an
and the factors that influence them. organizational framework for connecting knowledge from
the various disciplines into a coherent and scientifically
based view of the world.
Framing Questions
• What structures or shapes are found in the • Patterns
phenomenon or system after careful observation?
• What cycles or events repeat over time? • Cause and Effect: Mechanism and
Explanation
• How could these patterns be represented?
• How could patterns be used to classify or organize • Scale, Proportion, and Quantity
objects and events?
• Systems and System Models
• What causal relationships are found in the data?

• Energy and Matter: Flows, Cycles, and
Conservation
• Structure and Function
• Stability and Change

Scale, Proportion, and Quantity Cause and Effect

It is critical to recognize what is relevant at different size, time,
and energy scales, and to recognize proportional relationships Events have causes, sometimes simple, sometimes
between different quantities as scales change.
 multifaceted. Correlation does not imply causation.


Framing Questions Framing Questions

• What aspects of the system may be relevant at • What relationships between events or patterns can
different time, size, and energy scales? be observed in the phenomenon or system?
• How do different quantities vary at different scales? • How can these relationships be explained?
• What measurements could be made to describe the
• Are any of these relationships cause and effect?
system more precisely?
• What evidence supports a cause and effect
• What proportional relationships can be observed?
 relationship?

 • What further investigations would help determine if

 these relationships are cause and effect?

 Systems Energy
System Models
Matter

Structure Stability
Function Change
 Energy and Matter Systems and System Models
Tracking energy and matter flows, into, out of, and
 A system is an organized group of related objects or
within systems. components. Models can be used for understanding and

 predicting the behavior of systems.
Framing Questions 

Framing Questions
• What matter flows into, out of, and within the system?
• What physical and chemical changes occur in the • What is included in the system? What is external?
system? • What are the components of the system and how are
• What transformations of energy are important in the they related?
system? • What are the inputs and outputs of the system?
• How does the flow of energy drive the movement of • What predictions can be made from a system model?
matter in the system?
• What are the limits of the system model?

• How are energy and matter conserved in the system?






Stability and Change Structure and Function

The way an object is shaped or structured determines many
Conditions that affect stability and factors that control rates
of change are critical elements to consider and understand of its properties and functions.

in natural systems.
Framing Questions
Framing Questions • What shapes or structures are observed in the
system at this scale?
• Under what range of conditions does the system
operate effectively? • What roles do these structures play in the functioning
of the system?
• What changes in conditions cause changes in its 

stable operation? • How do the structures support the functions?
• What changes in conditions could cause the • How does the environment affect the fitness of
system to become unstable or fail? organisms with specific structures? 

• What feedback loops in the operation of the 

system enhance its range of stable operations?