Why? The crosscutting concepts are the frames through which scientists think about the natural world. They are the big ideas that connect the sciences and help to understand nature and how science and engineering work. Students who understand the crosscutting concepts will have a deep framework for integrating and understanding science ideas. It is often hard to keep the "big ideas" central to classroom instruction and to curriculum design. The 7 Crosscut Symbols give students a visual way to recognize and work with the crosscutting concepts in the Next Generation Science Standards.
How?
CrossCutSymbols by Peter A'Hearn and James Jared Taylor
How?
- Students can use the CrossCutSymbols in their notes and journals to indicate where they see the crosscutting concepts.
- Students can use a CrossCutSymbol in a summary or reflection to show how their learning connects to the big ideas of science and engineering. Choose from the critical questions and links to the practices at the bottom of each concept page.
- Students can use this website to submit images to show where they see connections between what they are learning and the crosscutting concepts.
- Teachers can use the CrossCutSymbols in their lessons to signal where a crosscutting concept applies.
- Teachers can use the critical questions and connections to the practices at the bottom of each of the concept pages for individual reflection or for class discussion.
- Teachers can ask students to reflect on a lesson by choosing the CrossCutSymbol that fits the performance expectation and explaining why that is the symbol that best fits.
- Teachers can challenge students but assigning a CrossCutSymbol that is not in the performance expectation and ask students to find a connection.
- Curriculum Developers can use the CrossCutSymbols to signal where the crosscutting concepts apply to a lesson or unit.
- They are meant to be understandable by students by the 2nd grade level. All of the symbols involve science that will be first introduced in the primary years.
- The symbols come from across the disciplinary core ideas of physical sciences, life science, earth and space sciences, and engineering.
- The symbols are designed to grow in meaning and relevance through high school and beyond. For example a second grader can understand the bat and ball symbol for cause and effect in terms of the force of the bat on the ball, but as a student's knowledge of physics grows they will understand the symbol in terms of equal and opposite reactions, momentum, collisions, and energy transfer.
- They were drawn by artist James Jared Taylor to be beautiful, but simple enough for a young child to draw quickly and efficiently.
CrossCutSymbols by Peter A'Hearn and James Jared Taylor