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1. Engaging Students in Sensemaking via the Science and Engineering Practices

   Ricketts, Amy; Rasmussen, Tiffany (August 2025, Science scope)

   We know that teachers want their students to have plentiful opportunities for scientific sensemaking. Based on our experience, we believe that other teachers will find the SEP Tools very useful for helping them work toward that goal. The SEP Tools are useful whether working solo or in collaboration with other teachers, but we do encourage you to engage in this work with other teachers whenever possible. We found that using the language from the tool in our collaborative conversations really helped us to clarify and align our thinking about what it looks like for middle school students to be fully engaging in the practices, as defined by the NGSS. If you are the sole science teacher in your school or district who wants to use the SEP Tools with a thinking partner, you might consider reaching out to other teachers via your local or state science teacher association, your county office of education, or a professor of science education at a nearby university. 

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2. Solarize Your School: A Solar Energy System Design Challenge

   Chao, J; Xie, C; Massicotte, J; Schimpf, C; Lockwood, J; Huang, X; & Beaulieu, C (January 2018, The Science teacher)

   As solar energy becomes increasingly affordable, many schools are considering installing new solar power systems. Can students contribute to the design, evaluation, and decision-making process in any way? Many students are familiar with solar power and energy, having researched solar energy on the internet, built solar cookers, inspected mini solar cells, gone on field trips to local solar farms, and so on. Well-informed and motivated, they are just one step away from taking responsibility for their own schools. In this article, we present Solarize Your School, an engineering project that gives students the opportunity to design and evaluate solar power solutions for their own schools. This STEM project requires students to learn and apply skills and practices related to solar energy and photovoltaic technology concepts, such as architectural measurement and modeling techniques, graphical interpretation and data analysis, budgeting and investing, scientific inquiry and engineering design, and collaboration and communication (see Next Generation Science Standards table, p. 47). Solarize Your School can be incorporated into environmental science, physical science, and engineering courses, and can be adapted to fit any curriculum scope and time frame. We suggest a 10-day sequence of learning activities. All the technologies and materials mentioned are freely available (see “On the web”). 

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3. Quantum information science and technology high school outreach: Conceptual progression for introducing principles and programming skills

   https://doi.org/10.1119/5.0211535  

   Schneble, Dominik; Wei, Tzu-Chieh; Kelly, Angela M (January 2025, American Journal of Physics)

   National data have shown the need to expand and diversify the talent pool of the quantum technologies workforce. This article describes a newly designed 25-h summer quantum information science and technology (QIST) program for high school students in grades 10–12; the goal is to advance physical science literacy and diversify the STEM pipeline through novel quantum science and quantum computing access and learning. This partnership between Stony Brook University and the New York Hall of Science was designed by quantum physicists and physics education researchers. This manuscript describes the rationale and progression of quantum ideas and computing skills introduced in the outreach program. The program design scaffolded physics, mathematics, and computer science concepts to engage high school students in the excitement of quantum information science and technology fields. The disciplinary content included the limitations of classical computing, classical and quantum physics principles (diffraction, polarization, wave-particle duality), the Mach–Zehnder interferometer, superposition, quantum thought experiments (Schrödinger's cat and Wigner's friend), entanglement and Bell's inequality, quantum key distribution, and basic quantum computing skills. Students also spent time visiting laboratories and museum exhibits and learning about academic progressions and career pathways in quantum technologies. This university-based science outreach model may be replicated by other quantum educators and adapted for learning in formal contexts. 

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4. Solarizing Your School: Engineering Design in Students’ Authentic Epistemic Practices of Adopting Renewable Energy

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-025-10258-5  

   Tang, Hengtao; Jiang, Shiyan; Xie, Charles (September 2025, Journal of Science Education and Technology)

   Abstract Engineering design has been widely implemented in K-12 curricula to cultivate future workforce. In this study, seventh-grade students (N = 38) participated in theSolarizing Your Schoolcurriculum, an action-oriented program where they engaged in engineering design processes to tackle a real-world problem related to renewable energy adoption. The study sought to explore how students balanced constraints and criteria in engineering design. Over a five-day period, seventh-grade students developed plans for adopting solar energy on their school campus and simulated the plan on a technology-enhanced epistemic tool, Aladdin (https://intofuture.org/aladdin.html). Data was collected through design artifacts, log data from design processes, and surveys about their learning experience. Three distinct patterns of balancing design criteria and constraints emerged, including designing for practice, for performance, and for irrelevant goals. The group who designed for practice gave priority to criteria and constraints recorded a higher level of design performance. The study underscores the benefits of integrating action-oriented learning opportunities via engineering design processes in science education. 

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5. EYE: A Middle School STEM Unit on Energy Flow

   Zangori, L; Otto, S (October 2023, Missouri Association for Rural Educators (MARE))

   This middle school STEM unit called Energy in Your Environment (EYE) was co-created by middle school science teachers, architectural studies, and science education faculty with the goal of improving students’ energy literacy and energy conservation knowledge. The unit fosters place-based education by using the school building to enhance systems thinking about energy consumption and flow between the building and surrounding environment. Within the unit, students explore the role of electrical, thermal, and light energy in their school building and consider how building features (such as windows, lighting, and insulation) impact energy flow and conservation. Students use their energy systems knowledge to design and build a desk-top one-room energy efficient building using simple materials to explain how and why their design impacts energy flow. Five teachers implemented the unit with over 200 students. The growth from pre- to post-measurements was statistically significant for students energy flow knowledge and tracing the path of energy (F(1, 209) = 3118.3, p = 0.001). In our presentation, we will provide an overview of the unit, our student learning data, and result summary. 

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