Improving the Classroom Climate

Engaging students using the NGSS requires that students interact with one another in meaningful ways. For student interactions to be productive, students need to have effective social and emotional skills. Instead of teaching social emotional learning (SEL) separately from the NGSS, teachers can leverage Science and Engineering Practices where students are already doing science and interacting with one another. Specifically, when students are engaged in the SEPs, teachers can ask explicit/reflective questions before, during, and afterward to help students actively think about and enact SEL skills while engaging in science learning. This article explores how social emotional learning can be embedded into a 3rd grade 5E about obtaining and combining information to describe climates in different regions of the world (3-ESS2-2).