Tips for successful NGSS alignment

What makes NGSS ( Next Generation Science Standards) unique and  important shift in teaching science is its three-dimensional perspective . Science is no more memorizing content or reciting knowledge.  Conceptual knowledge and the engineering practices are the other two dimensions that should be taken in consideration. The main slogan of NGSS is "teaching science by doing" through engaging students in authentic learning experiences where they act like scientist and rediscover the knowledge. The successful alignment of any standards requires alignment with the curriculum, instruction, and assessment, and this is the challenge part of  aligning any new standards. It is more difficult in  NGSS case, as these new standards are not  content-based as the previously used NSES ( National Science Education Standards). When teaching NGSS, the teacher should look for activities that  include the content, the conceptual knowledge, and the engineering practice in one lesson. Science teachers are familiar with the content part as it is what they usually teach. In the NGSS, the content is called "Disciplinary Core Ide" and should be taught using specific concepts called " Crosscutting concepts" that can help students to generalize the knowledge and apply a specific way of thinking based on patterns, cause and effect, sequencing, structure and function..etc when discussing the knowledge. People who are familiar with the IB system are using this conceptual learning regularly and  they extend to use the same concept in different subjects to provide the holistic umbrella to their teaching. The best part of these concepts is that they are repeated over and over every year from K to 12 so students are trained to think using this conceptual way of thinking appropriately whenever they are exposed to new knowledge. The Engineering practices' dimension was available in the previous standards but was presented in separate from the content. However, with this blend, NGSS guarantee teaching science through the inquiry-based learning approach that applies epistemological methods such as the scientific method to learn science. Teaching science through this approach requires more time to cover the same content that teachers used to do before, therefore, NGSS had reduced the taught topics to allow more rich and deep learning to happen "A mile in deep and an inch in width". This paradigm shift in teaching science requires three important factors to be successful; teachers' role to be a facilitator in class, student-centered lessons, and changing the lesson instructions to be aligned with the new standards. The challenge will remain in the assessment part. To assess our students, based on the NGSS performance expectation,  schools require continuous professional development  to familiarise teachers with the alternative assessing techniques.