Archive: Transforming Science Learning: OpenSciEd Teacher Training: Best Practices for Success: Making Participation Inclusive During Discussions, February 26, 2026
Class discussions are at the heart of OpenSciEd’s instructional model, but ensuring that all students feel empowered to participate can be a challenge.
Class discussions are at the heart of OpenSciEd’s instructional model, but ensuring that all students feel empowered to participate can be a challenge.
Class discussions are at the heart of OpenSciEd’s instructional model, but ensuring that all students feel empowered to participate can be a challenge.
Class discussions are at the heart of OpenSciEd’s instructional model, but ensuring that all students feel empowered to participate can be a challenge.
Class discussions are at the heart of OpenSciEd’s instructional model, but ensuring that all students feel empowered to participate can be a challenge.

The Putting the Pieces Together routine is a cornerstone of OpenSciEd instruction. It gives students structured opportunities to reflect, synthesize, and connect what they have learned across lessons, deepening their understanding of scientific phenomena.
Are your students making their thinking visible? OpenSciEd’s student notebooks and progress trackers are essential tools for supporting sensemaking, self-assessment, and learning over time—but only if they are used intentionally.
Participants will:
Helping students make sense of complex scientific ideas requires more than just content delivery—it requires purposeful, consistent opportunities for thinking, talking, and connecting ideas. Instructional routines are structured, repeatable strategies that create space for all students to engage in meaningful sensemaking.
What does it take to create a science classroom where students feel empowered to share their ideas, ask questions, and figure things out together?
What makes instructional materials high quality—and how can you tell the difference between a resource that simply covers content and one that truly supports deep, three-dimensional learning?
What does it really mean for students to make sense of science?