How do we create science learning experiences that make student thinking visible—and then use that thinking to guide instruction?

In this two-day professional learning experience, science educators will engage in curriculum-embedded ATLAS performance tasks from the perspective of the learner and explore how authentic phenomena can create meaningful opportunities for three-dimensional learning. Through collaborative investigation, discourse, and reflection, participants will examine how performance tasks can surface student reasoning and support deeper sensemaking.

Using the Investigate • Interpret • Act process, participants will learn to examine student-generated evidence, interpret what it reveals about student thinking, and use those insights to make intentional instructional decisions. Participants will then shift from the role of learner to facilitator, considering how instructional moves, questioning, discourse, and task design can create greater opportunities for students to reason, make sense of phenomena, and exercise voice and agency.

Participants will leave with practical strategies, performance tasks, and resources they can use to strengthen three-dimensional science learning in their own classrooms and instructional contexts.