If you want to make the most of your precious professional development budget-and who doesn't?-look for inspiration in this updated edition from the Exemplary Science series. This essay collection is designed to spark new ideas while encouraging high-quality learning opportunities for teachers at all grade levels. The book features: An overview of current research on quality professional development and how it aligns with the National Science Education Standards. Fourteen professional development programs that provide real-life models of how to train current or future teachers to carry out the constructivist, inquiry-based approach recommended by the Standards. End-of-chapter questions help you relate the material to your own situation. A reader's guide that includes suggestions for using the book in professional learning communities and other collaborative settings. Some of the collection's authors contributed to the first edition and have updated their chapters to share additional data and communicate what they've learned that might support your work. Additional chapters describe programs and approaches new to this edition. Whether you're a teacher, staff development provider, administrator, or preservice science methods instructor, you'll find this collection to be a fresh and highly useful professional learning tool.

Many foundational concepts in biology are notoriously difficult to teach. The challenge grows tougher when you add the need to align with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). This book makes your job easier by opening your mind to fresh and effective approaches for today's high school classrooms. Hard-to-Teach Biology Concepts provides an Instructional Planning Framework that helps you understand students' learning needs, incorporate appropriate teaching strategies, and interpret the framework and teaching tools through the lens of NGSS. Contributing authors show how they use the framework to teach four NGSS disciplinary core ideas: growth and development of organisms, ecosystems, heredity, and biological evolution. Although the teaching models are specific and illuminating, the book doesn't dictate what's right for you. Veteran teachers and those new to the classroom can use the framework to develop students' conceptual understanding based on what works best for student and teacher.