SEPUP News

  • Addressing Sustainability in the High School Biology Classroom through Socioscientific Issues

    Developers of SEPUP’s Science and Global Issues high school biology program recently published an article in the journal Sustainability detailing how their recently revised curriculum is centered around sustainability-related socioscientific issues. In the article, the authors present the framework they developed and used for presenting sustainability to students, as well as the specific contexts that…

  • EdReports Review of Issues and Science: Third Edition

    EdReports, an independent non-profit organization that reviews instructional materials, has published its review of SEPUP’s Issues and Science middle school science program. We are happy to announce that the program received the second-highest NGSS alignment rating of all programs reviewed to date. Issues and Science was given an overall rating of “Partially Meets Expectations,” with…

  • Middle School NGSS Assessment Project

    SEPUP (Science Education for Public Understanding Program) at the Lawrence Hall of Science is leading a research and development project. In this project, curriculum and assessment developers from the Lawrence Hall of Science are developing assessments to monitor students’ progress towards understanding of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). These assessments are intended for teachers…

  • Example of High Quality NGSS Design if Improved: Disruptions in Ecosystems

    Disruptions in Ecosystems is a middle school unit developed by the Lawrence Hall of Science’s SEPUP as part of a collaborative project funded by the National Science Foundation to develop and evaluate a model instructional unit and professional development program and conduct research on teacher learning. The unit was designed for the middle school NGSS.…

  • SEPUP workshop materials available for download

    Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting 2023 August 6-10, 2023Portland, OR “Middle and High School Ecology Curricula: Preparing Students for 4D Ecological Learning.”Poster NSTA 2023 March 22-25, 2023Atlanta, GA “NGSS-Aligned Summative Classroom Assessments of Three-Dimensional Learning”Presentation Slides “Computational Thinking Using Computer Simulations in High School Biology”Presentation SlidesStudent and Teacher Pages “Using “Science as a Human…

  • Revision of Middle School Science Courses

    SEPUP has revised all three middle school science curricula: Issues and Earth Science, Issues and Life Science, and Issues and Physical Science. The second edition of these courses have been revised to include updated data and information regarding recent events. Specific changes for each course include: Issues and Earth Science Updated data from NASA’s Kepler Mission Activity 32,…

  • Congratulations to Donna Markey

    Donna Markey, a science teacher at Vista Magnet Middle School in Vista, California, is one of two middle level recipients of the 2012 PASCO STEM Educator Award, sponsored by PASCO scientific that honors K–12 STEM educators who implement innovative, inquiry-based, technology-infused STEM programs. Donna has been a long time user, contributor, and developer of many…

  • New Hydrogen & Fuel Cells Module Available

    The Hydrogen Technology and Energy Curriculum (HyTEC) project has developed and field-tested a high school chemistry module titled, Investigating Alternative Energy: Hydrogen & Fuel Cells. This module is currently available and was developed by SEPUP in collaboration with the Schatz Energy Research Center (SERC) at Humboldt State University, and is published by Lab-Aids. The new curriculum…

  • What’s New with Science & Global Issues?

    What’s new in SEPUP’s latest high school course? Science and Global Issues: Biology includes all of the support for students and teachers found in the SEPUP middle school programs, plus some new features appropriate for high school science. Key features of the program are outlined below. In the Student Book: In the Teacher’s Edition: In the Teacher…

  • SEPUP in Japan

    In honor of their tenth anniversary, the SEPUP group in Japan invited us to visit and work with a group of their teachers and students. Barbara Nagle and Maia Willcox were delighted to travel across the Pacific and participate in the lively exchange of ideas organized by our colleagues in Japan. Barbara presented a talk…