Using Microscopy for Authentic Science Teaching: A Learning Sciences Perspective

We are currently experiencing a new national effort to improve science education in K-12, one that is building on a somewhat failed effort from the mid-1990s to introduce "inquiry" into the science classroom. This new movement is build around the adoption and implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards In contrast to previous science education standards from the 1990, the new ones are formulated as so-called "performance expectations"; performance expectations specify what a student should be able to do or demonstrate in terms of scientific or engineering competency that can be observed or tested. The NGSS are therefore not curriculum guidelines, but the endpoint of a learning or teaching effort that is oriented towards a student outcome. How this is achieved is left to curriculum developers or teachers.