Description:

This hands-on session unlocks the power of inquiry-based learning by guiding educators through the explore before explain approach, an instructional shift that places student thinking at the center. Participants will experience strategies that prioritize exploration, collaboration, and evidence to support sensemaking. Through activities such as consensus mapping, data analysis, and discourse routines, teachers will learn how to create classrooms where students actively engage in making sense of phenomena. The session highlights how purposeful discourse not only supports science and engineering practices but also deepens literacy, strengthens critical thinking, and nurtures curiosity. Educators will leave with practical tools, including sentence frames, annotation guides, discourse scaffolds, and evidence-based routines that can be implemented immediately to make science instruction more meaningful and accessible for all learners.

Delivery Format: In-Person|Virtual|Hybrid|Implementation Support

Target Audience: Pre-Service Teacher|Classroom Teachers|Instructional Coaches|School Administrators|District Administrators

Duration: Workshop (60-90 minutes)|Half-Day (3 hours)|Full Day (6 hours)|Yearlong Coaching Series

Facilitators:

Learning Intentions:

• I can identify and implement high-impact instructional strategies that integrate exploration before explanation in science instruction.
• I can connect the Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs) of analyzing and interpreting data, and engaging in argument from evidence, to purposeful discourse.
• I can use scaffolds such as sentence frames, consensus maps, and thinking routines to support student voice and reasoning.
• I can design classroom opportunities where students construct knowledge through evidence-based exploration and peer-to-peer discourse.

Grade Level: Elementary|Middle|High

Success Criteria:

• I can articulate at least three strategies that promote student discourse grounded in evidence.
• I can model how to facilitate student argumentation using claims, evidence, and reasoning (CER).
• I can plan for at least one explore-before-explain activity aligned to a Virginia Science SOL concept.
• I can facilitate discussions that encourage all students—including English learners and students with disabilities—to share, refine, and justify their ideas with data.

Expected Impact:

Increased student engagement, improved conceptual understanding, and stronger connections to real-world scientific practices; classrooms where student curiosity drives inquiry and is supported by evidence; enhanced alignment with the science and engineering practices and sensemaking.

Testimonials: