Storyline a Local Pathway

Tool Purpose

1. Create a logical progression of lessons that builds on student questions and interests.

2. Plan how each lesson will contribute to students' explanation of the anchoring phenomenon.

What’s Included

This tool includes a template to identify for each lesson in your local pathway the: lesson question that motivates investigation, evidence gathering activities students will engage with, science ideas students will figure out, and navigation to connect to the next lesson. 

Importance for Unit Design

Storyline units begin with a driving question board, which include questions students generate about the anchoring phenomenon at the end of the anchor lesson. These questions form the basis to motivate the unit. 

Students should answer these questions in a way that makes sense to them (i.e. what do they want to investigate right away), rather than in a way that makes sense to someone who already knows the content to be learned. This tool helps you think about what science ideas students figure out in each lesson as they incrementally revise their AEMS (Argument, Explanation, Model or Solution).

Driving Question Board in Action

See how one teacher, Tiffany (Flood pathway), supports her students in developing questions about a local climate phenomenon. These student questions are shared with the class to develop the Driving Question Board, which motivates investigations in the rest of the unit.