Why science practices?

The recent science standards include a focus on 8 science practices. These ten professional development modules provide support in learning about all 8 science practices, as well as learning how to integrate them into K-12 science instruction. 

However, because making sense of 8 science practices can be overwhelming, and they never occur independently, we developed 3 groups for thinking about these practices: Investigating Practices, Sensemaking Practices, and Critiquing Practices (McNeill, Katsh-Singer & Pelletier, 2015). 
  • Investigating Practices - these science practices focus on students asking questions and conducting investigations about the natural world, which result in the production of data. 
  • Sensemaking Practices - these science practices include the many ways that data can be analyzed and made sense of by students as they develop models and explanations about the natural world.
  • Critiquing Practices - these science practices, which are often left out of K-12 science education, emphasize students evaluating and arguing about different models and explantations, which ultimately helps them develop stronger understandings about the natural world. 


These professional development modules are organized by these three groups. It is important to note that this is one way to group the 8 practices into Investigating Practices, Sensemaking Practices, and Critiquing Practices. Any of these 8 practices could fall into a different group, depending on how students are being asked to engaged in them during a lesson. That said, we feel these groupings can be helpful for learning about  the 8 science practices.

Professional Development Modules

We recommend using the Introductory Module first. Any of the other modules may be used after the first one depending on the needs and interests of teachers. Each module was designed to take approximately 45 minutes. 

Furthermore, each module can be viewed in two ways: 1) by scrolling down a page, or 2) by clicking on the "Slideshow View" button under the agenda and viewing the module as a slideshow. The content in both versions is the same.  

Click on the links below to learn more about each professional development module!
​©2016 Boston Public Schools Science Department