--- title: Common Core: What Are the Next Science Generation Science Standards? description: They are not a curriculum, but a series of goals and best practices that are intended to inform teachers’ science instruction canonical: https://time.com/3992995/next-generation-science-standards/ author: Varsity Tutors article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-11T19:51:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:02:24.478Z og:title: What to Know About the Next Generation Science Standards og:description: They are not a curriculum, but a series of goals and best practices that are intended to inform teachers’ science instruction og:url: https://time.com/3992995/next-generation-science-standards/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta4fc27e3926b2d45/69885ec18e0601c3fa461cd4/boy-science-test-tube.jpg?branch=production&width=509&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 509 og:image:height: 286 og:image:alt: boy-science-test-tube og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What to Know About the Next Generation Science Standards twitter:description: They are not a curriculum, but a series of goals and best practices that are intended to inform teachers’ science instruction twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta4fc27e3926b2d45/69885ec18e0601c3fa461cd4/boy-science-test-tube.jpg?branch=production&width=509&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What to Know About the Next Generation Science Standards > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture recommendation newsletter, edited by culture editor Eliza Berman. Each week it surfaces the books, shows, films and ideas TIME's editors think are worth your attention, and explains why. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Does TIME have a culture newsletter? Yes. Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published weekly. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-worth-2026q3/newsletters?i=9eb7d6f5-3528-4926-8bd2-139cb34b1921&cr=time-nl-worth-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Zion's Story - First Bilateral Hand Transplant in a Child [Watch (HLS stream): Zion's Story - First Bilateral Hand Transplant in a Child](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/WjIh5WvU.m3u8) (13:11)  _Published 2015-07-28. Zion's Story - First Bilateral Hand Transplant in a Child_ by [Brian Witte / Varsity Tutors](https://time.com/author/varsity-tutors/) ## Brian Witte / Varsity Tutors Aug 11, 2015 7:51 PM UTC  Student working in science lab Student working in science lab Getty Images by [Brian Witte / Varsity Tutors](https://time.com/author/varsity-tutors/) ## Brian Witte / Varsity Tutors Aug 11, 2015 7:51 PM UTC Historians may one day look back on the 21st century as a scientific revolution of sorts. Like the Industrial Revolution that occurred in the 1700 and 1800s, a scientific revolution would transform many aspects of the world around us, including our own selves. The United States may one day play a central role in opening the door to a scientific revolution, but to do so would require a sophisticated method of educating our students about science. The Next Generation Science Standards (or NGSS) represent one such attempt to bring K-12 science education into the 21st century. The Next Generation Science Standards come at a time of upheaval in education, when change is certainly necessary, but the structure and content of this change remains unclear. The Next Generation Science Standards are young, and their precise use in American classrooms is not yet known. Despite this fact, now is an ideal time for students to familiarize themselves with one possible educational future. After all, preparation is key to a smooth transition and continuing success, and with that in mind, here are four things every student should know about the Next Generation Science Standards: **The NGSS is not a curriculum** The Next Generation Science Standards are just that – standards. They are a series of goals and best practices that are intended to inform teachers’ science instruction, but they are _not_ a set of lesson plans, a list of required textbooks, or a collection of exams. In other words, the NGSS essentially serves as an outline, not a step-by-step guide. The methods that each state might use to help students meet these goals are deliberately vague. The NGSS thus allows for local control and some flexibility in instruction. **The NGSS emphasizes science practices** Science is not a simple accumulation of knowledge, but is instead one way of closely examining and understanding the world around us. Knowledge is a product of that process, but memorizing facts alone is not science. The Next Generation Science Standards emphasize this key distinction by identifying important engineering and science practices. Under the NGSS, students will be expected to know and understand _how_ scientists work. For example, what role does data play when forming a hypothesis? What does it mean to test a hypothesis? What is the difference between a single observation and a trend in data? Even students who choose not to continue their education in a STEM field will be able to apply STEM principles to their lives, perhaps by evaluating claims made in advertising, or by observing patterns of occurrences in their day-to-day existences. **The NGSS explores ideas across science disciplines** The various branches of science may appear radically different to a non-scientist. Astronomy, for instance, deals with the whole of the universe, while Earth science is only concerned with our planet. In reality, all branches of science share common elements: the importance of patterns, the role of matter and energy, the use of mathematics to describe and predict, etc. This inter-connectedness is emphasized in the attention that the Next Generation Science Standards give to crosscutting concepts. An intensely narrow focus may be necessary in order to make advances at the frontier of a given field, but most individuals can benefit from learning to recognize the connections between scientific disciplines. For example, what do a sick child and a warming ocean have in common? Both scenarios represent a system that is out of balance, and understanding one can help us to understand the other – and the world – more clearly. **The NGSS has some items in common with other science frameworks** Crosscutting concepts and scientific practices still rely on a base of knowledge. The NGSS divides this knowledge into four domains: the physical sciences; the life sciences; the earth and space sciences; and engineering, technology, and applications of science. Each grade level will explore the content most relevant to its age group, with the understanding that this material will be revisited in later grades at a deeper level of complexity. While this is not unique to the NGSS, its developers hope that the _context_ of this knowledge will lead to a more coherent, personalized grasp of science for all students. The future of the Next Generation Science Standards remains to be seen. The documents currently available on the [NGSS website](http://www.nextgenscience.org) are simply targets to potentially reach for, and states are not obligated to follow these guidelines. The decision to opt in or out of the Next Generation Science Standards may ultimately be subject to input at the state, district, school, and/or classroom level. If adopted, NGSS implementation would also require substantial community buy-in – from students, to parents, to teachers, to principals. Despite these initial challenges, the roadmap that the Next Generation Science Standards provide is an intriguing one, and we may one day see it in all or a portion of our classrooms. _Brian Witte is a professional SAT tutor with_ [_Varsity Tutors_](http://www.varsitytutors.com/lsat-tutors)_. He earned his Bachelor of Science from the University of Washington and holds a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University._ _More from Varsity Tutors:_ * [What Common Core Teaches Us About the Future of Testing](http://time.com/3940638/common-core-future-testing/) * [How Summer Reading Programs Can Keep Students on Track](http://time.com/3957349/college-student-summer-reading-program/) * [Here’s the Best Time to Visit College Campuses](http://time.com/3936398/best-time-college-campus-visit/) ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] We have some good news for you. [ MUSIC ] Close up far away. Close up. Far away. Call Zoey Zion. Zoey. Close up. Come on! Come on! I wasn't, I wasn't always like this. When I was two, I had to get my hands cut off because I was sick. [ MUSIC ] I don't know what a child's hand looks like. It could be this color. Or this color, I don't know. Okay. Make a muscle. Over here. Let me see how strong you are. We have followed Zion for probably about a year and a half now. And done extensive evaluations to see if he was a good candidate for a hand transplant. So, when I get these hands, I will be proud of what hands I get. I will be proud. I will be too. Yeah, cuz they're going to be your new hands. Are you excited? And if it gets messed up, It's not going to get messed up. Are you excited? I don't care, because I have my family. [ MUSIC ] As far as we know, it's never been even attempted in a child. One of the things that's unique about Zion is that he already had kidney transplants. He's on medication for rejection. And so essentially we could piggyback off of that same medication. Our concerns about doing these hand transplants in anybody is that once you do it, the patient has to stay on lifelong medication So they don't reject. And those medications increase the risk of infection and they also increase your risk of having some cancer develop later on in life. And so for a child that's a very, very difficult decision. Stand up straight, let me see your arm. Now I want you to make a fist for me. Make a fist. Good relax. When I met Zion I said why do you want hands? Zion why do you want hands? He's very, very intelligent young man. Said I want to swing on the monkey bars. My grandmother said I'm smarter than a lot of grownups. I'm really smarter than a lot of grownups. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] You know, that's sort of a milestone for a lot of kids, and why shouldn't he be like another child? And, you know, our hope is over time that, indeed, he'll be able to do that. And that's a TV camera. He wants to know if he's on TV. This is just like another hurdle that he jumps. How can I There is no me. He jumped so many hurdles, he's so amazing. This isn't the first amazing thing that he's done. He's been doing amazing things since he's been sick. I don't know many adults that could handle half of his life on a day to day basis. Like sometimes I just think some of my classmates they don't mean to say mean things to me, but it just slips out. So either somebody says something to me and then I just figure it slipped out and they didn't mean to say it. Everybody has their own way of thinking things. Each year, there are only 15 children, based on the databases, that would even be eligible to donate hands. And then it comes down to the organ procurement organizations approaching families at a terrible time, the loss of a child. Let's just stop and think about that. So, the fact that he was put on the waiting list for hands in April and three months later, this came along. That in and of itself was a remarkable story. [ MUSIC ] Chrissy called me and she's like okay we have a match. I'm like stop playing Chrissy. She's like no I'm serious. [ MUSIC ] We have about 12 surgeons and a whole Bevy of nurses, at least eight nurses circling in and out. And then a team of anesthesiologists. I think at least three or four of them that'll be working throughout the nights. So, it's a large team. There's an expression in surgery. Preparation is the only short cut you need. And particularly in surgery, and in highly complex operations, we prepare. [ MUSIC ] [ SOUND ] [ MUSIC ] So, we're about to get started. Zion's just come in to the room. And they're starting to put intravenous lines in and get ready for the surgery. We'll prepare the donor limbs and the recipient sites. And then do the actual transplantation. So, expect to be here all night, but hopefully at the end we'll have two hands on two arms. Okay. Hi. Good to see you, doctor. How are you? Ready? Good. [ INAUDIBLE ] We've rehearsed. We know our steps. We know each other. We know what we have to do today. And I think everybody assembled here has committed to this patient and making this a reality for this little boy. We can have complications. We can fail. We can have troubles. But we're not planning on it. So, everybody is familiar with their particular role. And I just want to say in advance, we'll do our best and we're all here together. [ MUSIC ] This is a new arena of reconstructive surgery. It's a new arena in transplant surgery. Now this gives new hope, not only to the adults, but particularly children. And there are ethical issues and questions about the implications for that, but that deceased child's hands and expression, if you will, will live on in Zion. And that's a pretty profound thing when you You think about it. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] In the beginning of the operation, we actually had four teams operating at the same time, and each of them had specific things they were supposed to do. So they had to find all the structures, put pre- made tags on them for every single structure that we'd have to repair, And they would have to sew those onto the nerves, blood vessels, tendons, et cetera. [ MUSIC ] [ SOUND ] It's one thing to sew adult vessels, which in and of themselves are small, and it requires a kind of skill. But the highest echelons of reconstructive microsurgery take place in, in children, small children. And my colleagues who participate in the microvascular aspects of the cure are just the best in the world. We gotta leave those here. So we gotta cut those really short. [ NOISE ] [ INAUDIBLE ] Blood is going across the hook up here and you can see the hand right here is starting to pink up. Do you see the capillary refill? Do you see that? See it's white when I touch it and then it pinks up. And now that's starting to get out to the level of the fingers. How's my baby? Great. He's doing well. Just came out to give you an update. Thank you. So, we've got through a lot so far. Okay. Yeah, we brought this thing down into four different parts. Okay. And we're on this last part here. Mmhm. So, at this point the hands have already been attached so the bones are back together and Dr. Levin and the other microsurgeons are working on putting the arteries and veins together. So We want to really make sure that this was going to work for our patient, and work for a life time, not just a year. For us, this is really not just a technical exercise, it's really trying to restore a better level of life time function for these patients. [ MUSIC ] I think, all of you who know about microsurgery. And, all of you do. Do know that we're not out of the woods and this is sort of, just the first step. And, we have to be very vigilant and we have a whole protocol on how to take care of this little guy. But, from the bottom of my heart, thanks. [ MUSIC ] We have some good news for ya. [ MUSIC ] And your little guy has two hands. [ MUSIC ] Hi Zion. What might we say about Zion Harvey? Be in 10 years or 15 years. What might we say about this? I hope he's the first of literally hundreds or thousands of patients that are going to be afforded this operation. [ MUSIC ] All right. Up, up, up, nice. [ MUSIC ] No hands. [ LAUGH ] That's all you. Don't let me get it. Don't let him take it. I'm gonna get it. It's like a war. [ LAUGH ] He's in no better place than in the children's hospital of Philadelphia to make sure he gets through this and does well. Me and Zoey want a puppy. [ LAUGH ] Where's the puppy gonna live? My room. Where else? 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