Engaging Students in the Scientific Practices of Explanation and Argumentation

A Framework for K–12 Science Education identifies eight science and engineering practices for K–12 classrooms. These practices, along with core ideas and crosscutting concepts, define our nation’s learning goals for science. An important advance from earlier standards (AAAS 1993, NRC 1996), these practices are clearly identified not as separate learning goals that define what students should know about the process of science. Instead, the scientific practices identify the reasoning behind, discourse about, and application of the core ideas in science.