Inspire a Culture of Science Achievement

When teachers are empowered and inspired in the science classroom, so too are their students. When students have the tools they need to succeed in science, and have their confidence and mindset transformed by a great teacher, the possibilities are limitless.

Today’s science teachers are focusing on the science standards and how they impact teaching and learning. The new standards present an opportunity for teachers to combine their tried and true instructional practices with the latest research on student success in the science classroom.

Science Courses

Student-Centered Science: An NGSS Overview

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) open the door to more effective, student-centered science exploration. Explore Performance Expectations, Science and Engineering Practices, Disciplinary Core Ideas, and Crosscutting Concepts as they join forces to comprise the NGSS. Complete this session with an action plan that can be implemented in your classroom.

Develop Scientific Thinking: Claims, Evidence, and Reasoning

Explore the Claim-Evidence-Reasoning-Rebuttal (CER) process and how it ties into the Three Dimensions of Learning. Analyze each part of the process and identify examples and non-examples while building and refining the process. Discuss how to deepen student understanding in multiple curricular areas, find opportunities in your science curriculum for CER, and establish a plan for how to implement the process with your students.

Science Is All Around You: Phenomenon-Based Learning

Take part in learning experiences that introduce and explore the practice of phenomenon-based learning. Learn what constitutes phenomena, evaluate phenomena for alignment with your instructional goals, and incorporate anchor, investigative, and everyday phenomena in your instruction to engage and challenge student concept development.

Inspire Problem Solvers: Engineering Design Process

Explore the relationship between science and engineering, the roots of the Engineering Design Process (EDP), and how the EDP is used by many to design solutions to real-world problems. Relate the EDP to a growth mindset and consider its application within science classrooms.

View all HMH Science Course Offerings

Science Coaching

Our job-embedded coaching for teachers and teams of teachers drives innovation and instructional improvement. Our coaches will work with teachers side-by-side so they can immediately apply the skills they’ve learned into their classrooms. Use the HMH Coaching Studio to stay in touch with your coach and your colleagues.

Instructional Practices Inventory

Math Solutions has identified four key areas of instructional practice that impact science instruction and student achievement. Use it as a guide to enhance your science instruction.

Conceptual Connections


Teacher Best Practice	Student Learning Practice
Connecting learning to real-world situations both inside and outside the classroom	Defining systems and developing models to test variables or claims
Implementing project- and phenomenon-based learning that represents a balance of conceptual understanding and procedural fluency	Identifying and utilizing a variety of information sources and approaches to explain phenomena
Integrating cross-curricular experiences for exploration and application of scientific content and concepts	Relating causes of events with their effects to predict outcomes and justify their reasoning using evidence
	Reflecting on and revising their designs and claims based on evidence
	Using cross-curricular skills and knowledge to deepen their understanding of science concepts
	Applying and expanding their learning through the lens of appropriate crosscutting concepts

Scientific Reasoning and Processes

Teacher Best Practice	Student Learning Practice
Addressing students’ initial understanding and preconceptions	Developing and arguing evidence-based claims using prior and newly acquired knowledge
Asking students to communicate their claims and provide evidence to support or refute the claims	Engaging in discourse that reflects an understanding of how to gather and evaluate information and evidence
Facilitating questioning and scientific discourse	Defining problems and generating testable questions leading to further study
Engaging students in the iterative engineering design process	Applying the engineering design process to solve problems involving real-world phenomena
	Identifying and working within the confines of criteria and constraints as they experiment, develop models, and resolve explanations of phenomena

Learning Environment

Teacher Best Practice	Student Learning Practice
Providing a respectful, safe, and culturally responsive environment in which mistakes are seen as an opportunity to learn	Taking an academic risk and relying on their own thinking and the thinking of other students
Structuring the class for independent work, pairs, groups, and whole class in a thoughtful and deliberate way	Listening to and asking questions of each other to clarify information and respectfully challenge ideas
Asking high-level questions that both build and reveal new understanding of content and practice	Explaining their reasoning; constructing viable arguments and critiquing the reasoning of others
Making appropriate tools available and encouraging their use	Showing perseverance and effort when faced with challenging tasks
	Working productively in a variety of grouping structures

Formative Assessment

Teacher Best Practice	Student Learning Practice
Uses data to make instructional decisions based on student need.	Take responsibility for their learning by monitoring their progress toward a learning target.
Provides feedback to students or structures opportunities for students to provide feedback to each other.	Evaluate the reasonableness of their results using feedback from the teacher or a peer.
Identifies and communicates the learning target(s) of the lesson.	Articulate what they are learning and why.
Implements a variety of strategies to monitor student learning.