• Utah Effective Teaching Standards > Standard 5: Professional Responsibility
  Element 2: Continuous Professional Learning - Engaging in and valuing constructive feedback, reflective practices, professional learning and collaborative activities that support professional, instructional and schoolwide improvement.

To earn this microcredential you will need to collect and submit two sets of evidence demonstrating your effective and consistent use of appropriate science instructional strategies. You will also complete a short written or video reflective analysis.

A fee of $20.00 will be assessed once the microcredential is submitted for review.

This stack of microcredentials must be completed sequentially starting with Microcredential #1 in the Cause and Effect in Science stack.

This microcredential is not available for educators with a secondary certification.

As previously stated, this microcredential stack completes the competencies for one requirement area of the Elementary Science Endorsement. These competencies are the same regardless of the pathway the educator selects to complete, microcredential stack or university course. Also of note, these competencies are structured to lead the educator through a series of experiences. First, the educator analyzes the purpose of the Learning Intentions and demonstrates proficiency in them (This is typically the first and possibly the second microcredential in the stack). Then, the educator plans, implements, and reflects on instruction for the identified Learning Intentions. The last microcredential in the stack involves educators reaching out to support others in their school, district, state, or nation. This focuses on developing leadership skills and promotes building a professional network of support. Through these experiences, the educator demonstrates competency of the knowledge, skills, and dispositions for the specific requirement area of the educator endorsement.

Research from A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas (National Research Council, 2012), states that “a major activity of science is investigating and explaining causal relationships and the mechanisms by which they are mediated. Such mechanisms can then be tested across given contexts and used to predict and explain events in new contexts” (p. 84). This document also asserts that “one goal of instruction about cause and effect is to encourage students to see events in the world as having understandable causes, even when these causes are beyond human control. The ability to distinguish between scientific causal claims and nonscientific causal claims is also an important goal” (p. 88). Additionally, this document is the foundational resource that informed the development of the current Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (USBE, 2019). Within these standards, the concept of cause and effect is included as a crosscutting concept and the expectation is that elementary students should progress in their understanding of cause and effect within the science concepts that students encounter during science instruction.

This microcredential focuses on preparing educators to promote effective and equitable science instruction both in personal practice and in the science education community regarding cause and effect in science concepts.

References: National Research Council. (2012). A framework for K-12 science education: Practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas. Committee on a Conceptual Framework for New K-12 Science Education Standards. Board on Science Education, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

A Framework for K-12 science education: Practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas

A teacher friendly research document that explains the three dimensions of science including science and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas. Each dimension is explained in depth within its own chapter. The disciplinary core ideas are grouped into major disciplines (i.e., Physical Sciences; Life Sciences; Earth and Space Sciences; Engineering, Technology, and Applications of Science). Each discipline is explained in a separate chapter. The report also describes developmentally appropriate learning progressions.

SEEd Content Courses for Grades K-8
https://www.schools.utah.gov/curr/science?mid=1128&tid=4

These Grade K-8 courses are developed specifically for elementary educators and Grade 6-8 middle school science teachers. The purpose of these courses is to build and support teacher science conceptual knowledge of the disciplinary core ideas (DCIs) used within the SEEd Standards.These courses are free for participants and are self-paced. Educators may register at any time. Successful completion of each component within the course is worth between .5 and 1.0 USBE Credits.

Implementing the Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards K-12
https://www.schools.utah.gov/curr/science?mid=1128&tid=4

This Canvas-based course contains six modules: Introduction to the SEEd Standards, Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs), Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs), Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs), Engineering Design, and Using Phenomena. The course’s purpose is to support educators in understanding shifts to instruction that are required to effectively implement the Utah SEEd Standards The course is free for participants and is self-paced. K-12 educators may register at any point. Successful completion of the entire course is worth 2.0 USBE Credits. Credit will be assigned three times during the year.