iHub Update Fall 2023
October 25, 2003 - Last spring we let you know that the inquiryHub team has been working on new high school science units as part of the OpenSciEd High School program.
The inquiryHub biology Serengeti and inquiryHub chemistry Polar Ice units have been revised and released as the first units of OpenSciEd biology and chemistry. OpenSciEd Biology: Ecosystems Interactions and Dynamics and OpenSciEd Chemistry Thermodynamics in Earth’s Systems are available now, two additional units derived from inquiryHub materials! So far, a total of six units in the OpenSciEd high school program have been released.
These new units have been well received by field test teachers and have earned the NGSS Design badge for high quality materials (Review Links: Biology, Chemistry, Physics). One new aspect of the materials that is of note is the full integration of the Earth and space science standards into the materials. While we plan to keep archived versions of iHub available for schools and districts that have adopted these curricula, as we head into the new school year we would like to direct educators to the new OpenSciEd units as replacements for the inquiryHub units.
We no longer recommend using a full year iHub curriculum in either biology or chemistry. Rather, we recommend that districts use the new OpenSciEd units and supplement with iHub units to create a full year program that addresses NGSS while the OpenSciEd HighSchool units roll out one by one over the next year. Once the full OpenSciEd High School program is released we recommend that teachers transition fully to that program. iHub materials formed the foundation for OpenSciEd High School materials, and the inquiryHub team led OpenSciEd High School’s development team.
We plan to maintain a web presence for inquiryHub that includes links to all OpenSciEd High School units in biology, chemistry and physics, as well as units we have co-designed with Denver teachers in middle school STEM and in AI education.
The inquiryHub team is excited about supporting professional learning for OpenSciEd, assessment and other high quality science instruction.
2023-24: Biology Scope and Sequence Recommendations:
2023-24: Chemistry Scope and Sequence Recommendations:
New Units Have Launched!
March 20, 2023 - We are excited to announce the launch of a new high school Biology, Chemistry, and Physics curriculum, developed with our partners BSCS and the NextGen Storylines group at Northwestern with support from OpenSciEd. The first units of these three full-year courses were released just three weeks ago, with the inquiryHub team at the University of Colorado Boulder leading the OpenSciEd Development Consortium for High School.
We have built on many parts of the inquiryHub model and curriculum development processes in these new curricula. The storyline instructional model is the same, and, following the same iHub process of gathering interest data from students, we have chosen exciting new anchors for some of our units. The materials have been further enhanced through our rich partnerships with Denver Public Schools, BSCS Science Learning, Northwestern University, and the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas Austin. Additionally, all materials are being extensively field tested in schools from ten partner states to ensure they meet high standards for student engagement and learning.
If you love inquiryHub, you will be excited to see the OpenSciEd HS units as new and improved versions of many of our units.
We know you’ve invested energy and time to adapt inquiryHub to your local contexts: the new materials will allow you to build on and continue that effort. Through a collaboration with the Learning in Places Collaborative, we have integrated ethical decision making supports into phenomena and design challenges. Additionally, an integral component of the development process has been external validation of alignment to the NGSS by NextGenScience’s Science Peer Review Panel using the EQuIP rubric.
While the current iHub materials will remain available to you, we’ll be supporting the OpenSciEd versions in the future as a certified professional learning partner. There are no plans to take down the existing materials, at least through the end of 2027. All of our professional learning offerings will shift to supporting the OpenSciEd units after July 2023.