Using the Next Generation Science Standards With Gifted and Advanced Learners

Using the Next Generation Science Standards With Gifted and Advanced Learners provides teachers and administrators examples and strategies to implement the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) with gifted and advanced learners at all stages of development in K-12 schools. The book describes―and demonstrates with specific examples from the NGSS―what effective differentiated activities in science look like for high-ability learners. It shares how educators can provide rigor within the new standards to allow students to demonstrate higher level thinking, reasoning, problem solving, passion, and inventiveness in science. By doing so, students will develop the skills, habits of mind, and attitudes toward learning needed to reach high levels of competency and creative production in science fields.

Cheryll M. Adams is director of the Center for Gifted Studies and Talent Development at Ball State University. She teaches graduate courses for the license in gifted education. For the past 25 years, she has served in the field of gifted education as a teacher of gifted students at all grade levels, Director of Academic Life at the Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics, and Humanities, and as the principal teacher in the Ball State Institute for the Gifted in Mathematics program. Additionally, she has been the founder and director of various other programs for gifted students. Dr. Adams has authored or coauthored numerous publications in professional journals, as well as several book chapters. She serves on the editorial review board for Roeper Review, Gifted Child Quarterly, Journal for the Education of the Gifted, and The Teacher Educator. She has served on the Board of Directors of the National Association for Gifted Children, has been president of the Indiana Association for the Gifted, and currently serves on the board of The Association for the Gifted, Council for Exceptional Children. In 2002, she received the NAGC Early Leader Award.

Alicia Cotabish, Ed. D., is an Assistant Professor of Teaching and Learning at the University of Central Arkansas. Currently, Alicia teaches graduate-level K-12 teacher candidates and secondary science methodology. Alicia directed STEM Starters, a Jacob K. Javits project, and was the former Associate Director of the Jodie Mahony Center for Gifted Education at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. As a public school teacher, Alicia taught middle school and Pre-AP science and was an award-winning gifted and talented teacher and coordinator for 8 years in Texas and Arkansas. Her recent work has focused on STEM, gifted education, and peer coaching.