Highlighting Crosscutting Concepts in Three-Dimensional Science Lessons supports middle school science teachers in adapting their lesson delivery to engage with crosscutting concepts (CCCs), a core element of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s key conceptual framework. Rather than serve as a prescriptive curriculum, this hands-on resource offers lesson sequences across three key content areas—physical science, life science, and earth and space science—that are aligned with one or more of the CCCs. Each lesson is matched to specific performance expectations, science and engineering practices, and disciplinary core ideas of the Next Generation Science Standards. Many of these lessons further guide teachers to help students, including those struggling, engage in scientific argumentation and write Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning statements. Readable in any order, this book fosters your students’ engagement with science in a way that incorporates standards-based rigor and understanding of important real-world phenomena.

Colleen Windell is an independent science consultant and former science teacher as well as a recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science.