This monthly newsletter is brought to you by the NISD MS Science C&I Team.

volume 8 issue 3

Fall and winter were full of amazing professional learning and collaboration thanks to your hard work, dedication, and passion for teaching science. Thank you for your unwavering commitment to your students. Make every minute of class meaningful and embrace all the opportunities as you prepare for these last few months. Your work matters and does not go unnoticed!

Teachers new to MS Science came together for the last day of our new teacher series. Teachers spent the day exploring various digital tools integrated into the MS Science curriculum such as zSpace, BrainPOP Science, Legends of Learning, Vernier, and SmartScopes.

6th and 7th grade science teachers came together from across the district for their last full day pull-out to unpack the new standards including the exploration of updated instructional and assessment resources. Teacher collaboration was amazing!

All 6th, 7th and 8th grade science teachers met at Garcia Middle School on February 19th for an afternoon of learning and collaboration. 6th and 7th grades explored upcoming units of study, which included Rare Earth Elements and Plate Tectonics, while 8th grade began to explore the new standards being implemented in 2024-2025.

The February Coordinator PLC focused on learning more about the new Scientific and Engineering Practices and how it will translate to our effective teaching practices. Coordinators also reviewed and provided feedback on possible scope and sequence options with the new 8th grade TEKS. An amazing and dedicated group of instructional leaders! Hard to believe we only have two meetings left this school year!

Below are just a few examples of amazing science experiences happening across middle school campuses in Northside! Thank you teachers for springing into action to provide these wonderful opportunities for students where they are able to be collaborators, creators, and critical thinkers!

Please consider posting pictures, short videos, and experiences of how you and your students are connecting with science on X, the app formerly known as Twitter! Use the following link to view posts from @NISDMSScience.

Per district policy, please do not use emojis to block out student faces.

A few reminders:

• April 8th is a school day for staff and students.

• All NISD staff and students will receive a pair of solar glasses. Campus admin will work with staff to develop distribution plans.

• A K-12 Solar Eclipse Resources spreadsheet has been provided for all teachers that provides access to informational websites, activities, videos, apps and more.

• Please support one another as we all prepare for this amazing phenomena. What an amazing teachable moment for teachers and students. Anything we can do across the contents leading up to the event would be invaluable.

For information regarding the upcoming eclipse, please visit the NISD Solar Eclipse website. The Solar Eclipse site provides times for viewing, safety guidelines, informational sites/videos and apps as well as easy do it yourself eclipse activities for families. Feel free to share this wonderful resource as you communicate with families.

Please note: Each campus is developing their own plans for viewing the Eclipse on the 8th. Please see your campus admin for any possible schedule changes that day.

Voting is done! A HUGE thank you to all IMA campus representatives and all science teachers for your dedication in reviewing all materials. It wasn’t an easy task to take PLC or department time to discuss and complete rubrics. The process was successful and smooth because of your attention to detail and commitment to students.

An announcement will be made after the Board meeting on Tuesday, March 26th. Professional learning and implementation will begin at the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year.

The second district benchmark for 6th and 7th is scheduled for the week of May 6th. Reminder that all CDBs, including the 7th grade supplement, are one week windows. Students will not be able to access after Friday, May 10th.

Please see the MS Science Employee Connection Assessment page to preview the 6th grade and 7th grade CDB Blueprints, which outlines what content will be assessed on the second CDB.

New for CDB 2: The C&I department will be providing two versions of the test with and without content language support (CLS). These tests will have two different test IDs and online passcodes. It is important that the CLS version is assigned to only those students that qualify. District will take care of the merging of these tests.

The Continuous Improvement Schoolnet site provides a click sheet for teachers on how to develop these items and a video for teachers and qualifying students to preview, so they can see what these supports look like in CMS.

To see what these supports look like on STAAR go to www.texasassessment.gov and follow these steps:

• Go to the Educators tab

• Select Practice and Released Tests

• Select Practice Tests Login, Sign In

• Select the grade level and STAAR 2023 8th Grade Science Test

• Toggle on the Content and Language Supports…Text to speech is optional, but it is good to listen to a few questions with text to speech on.

Please see your Science Coordinator and/or SE Coordinator with any questions you might have. Don’t forget your first year EB students may qualify as well.

NISD is proud to have been named a District of Distinction by zSpace National. NISD has partnered with zSpace to implement virtual reality / augmented reality learning experiences in all middle school science classrooms. The purpose of this initiative was to explore innovative educational technology to connect students to the real-world application of science concepts through a simulated virtual environment.

Pictured are the Teacher zSpace Ambassadors representing all middle schools. zSpace Ambassadors and the C&I Science Department are excited as support continues with the integration of this amazing resource into future lessons.

Interested in being part of a curriculum and/or assessment writing committee?

Opportunities are available for all grade levels with work beginning in early May through the summer.

Please see the information below which outlines the curriculum and assessment work.

Apply to be considered using the Google Form below.

Please do not hesitate to contact Elaine Estrada if you have any questions.

Please visit the Middle School Science Employee Connection Extended Learning Opportunities page for additional information!

This year NISD is hosting separate middle school and elementary qualifiers. The middle school qualifier was held on Saturday, March 2nd. Twenty-five teams participated and were definitely in it to win it! They were all fantastic and demonstrated amazing core values. Congratulations to all teams that received an award that day. A complete list of awards can be found linked to the NISD website.

The NISD Robotics Championship will be held at Bernal Middle School on Saturday, April 6th. The middle school and elementary teams will continue to be in separate brackets.

In the solar car program, students develop engineering skills as they work in teams to design and build a working solar car model by applying knowledge, creativity and grit to work this exciting challenge.

Come cheer on the middle school solar car teams at Gus Stadium on Saturday, April 20th. Please see the Race Day flyer for additional information.

Want a front seat? Volunteer for one of the many roles that help this event run smoothly. Volunteers assist as track coordinators and judges, scoring and time officials, registration and run repair stations. Please sign up using the Solar Car volunteer form.

This group will be our main mode of communication throughout the year so please make sure you have joined and that you have turned on notifications. If you are not yet a member, please use the following code to join:

Schoology Group Access Code 4CP8-WZJG-6XH4M

In addition to Employee Connection, this group is how MS Science C&I shares resources and provides updates. To ensure that you are notified when updates are posted, please customize the notifications for this group by selecting Group Update Posted under Email Notifications Settings. For step-by-step instructions, please see the Schoology Notifications Clicksheet.

Please visit the Employee Connection: MS Science page - and make sure it is in your FAVORITES! Information has been updated for the 2023-2024 school year. Check out the CURRICULUM, INSTRUCTION, and ASSESSMENT pages - menu links are on the right hand side.

Elaine Estrada Instructional Specialist

Lisa Crawford IST

Connie Schaub IST

Lauren Stiles Academic Technology IST

Amalia Sollars K-8 Enrichment Programs Coordinator

Email: NISD.MS-Science@nisd.net
Website: https://nisd.net/employees/department/ms-science
Location: 5900 Evers Road, San Antonio, TX, USA
Phone: 210-397-8661