Disciplinary Core Ideas Resources

Disciplinary core ideas are fundamental ideas for understanding a given science discipline. DCIs provide tools for investigating complex ideas and solving problems, and are taught throughout grade levels to progress levels of depth and complexity.

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Featured Resources

What's so Special about Disciplinary Core Ideas? (Part 1)

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Blog Post

Disciplinary Core Ideas: Reshaping Teaching and Learning (e-book)

Like all enthusiastic teachers, you want your students to see the connections between important science concepts so they can grasp how the world works...

eBook

Core Idea PS4: Waves and Their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer

Like all enthusiastic teachers, you want your students to see the connections between important science concepts so they can grasp how the world works...

Book Chapter

A Framework for K-12 Science Education – Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas

Science, engineering, and technology permeate nearly every facet of modern life and hold the key to meeting many of humanity's most pressing challenge...

Acquired Book

Latest Resources

Journal Article

Coordinating Modeling With Content Representations to Support Students’ Three-Dimensional Learning

Journal Article

Using Summary Tables to Support Students’ Explanations of Science Phenomena

Journal Article

Reimagining Science Lessons Through Translanguaging

Journal Article

Bringing the Ethical Debate to Life

Journal Article

Oh Deer! Using Socioscientific Issues to Teach Inquiry-Based Lessons With English Language Learners

Journal Article

Three-Dimensional Learning

Journal Article

Understanding “Death”

Journal Article

Aligning Undergraduate Science Curricula With Three-Dimensional Learning

Recent science reform advocates for the inclusion of engineering design to teach science and represents a shift to so-called three-dimensional (3D) le...

Journal Article

The Eagle Has Fallen

Journal Article

Putting the Energy Into Concept Development

Journal Article

Layers of Phenomena

Journal Article

Freezing Lake Phenomenon

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