New Mexico Science Instructional Scope 2.0

The NM STEM Ready! Science Standards define what students should understand and be able to do by the end of each grade or course. The New Mexico Instructional Scope for Science was created to support educators in deeply understanding the performance expectations for each grade level or course along with other elements or tenets that are part of providing a guaranteed, viable, and equitable instruction to all students.

How to use the Instructional Scope for Science:

Support your lesson planning
Guide teams to discuss, plan, model, and reflect on your practice.
Scaffold your deliberate planning and your focused conversations with your colleagues during professional learning community discussions, supporting your use of high-quality instruction that meets the needs of all learners.
Consider how to address learning needs and where targeted scaffolds may be needed to assist students in accessing grade level core instruction.
Use side by side with high-quality instructional materials.
Incorporate supports that contribute to equitable classroom structures.
Design classroom learning environments that minimize barriers and optimize learning for all students.
Monitor students’ progress on grade-appropriate assignments.

Science standards have been broken down to give clarity around what the performance expectation means, as well as clarity around the Science Engineering Practices (SEP), the Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCI), and the Crosscutting Concepts (CCC). Embedded formative assessments tasks/samples are aligned with each performance expectation. These may be used as part of formative assessments or as tasks during instruction.

What is New in the Instructional Scope for Science 2.0

References to high-quality instructional materials (HQIM)
Inclusion of relevant, New Mexico science phenomena
More culturally and linguistically responsive instructional strategies
Tying Multi-Layered Systems of Support (MLSS) with Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
Career Connections

You are encouraged to read the NM Instructional Scope in its entirety. You will find full grade level documents (K-5) and separate documents for each science domain (middle school and high school) broken down into separate PDFs.

The NM Instructional Scope is considered a “living” document as we believe that teachers and other educators will find ways to improve the document as they use it. Please send feedback so that we may use your input when updating these guides.

Feedback Form

Should you need assistance, please contact the Math and Science Bureau staff.

Instructional Scope Instructional/Reference Guides:

To better understand the Instructional Scope documents for Science, please be sure to read through the sections below in order, each of which are present within each Instructional Scope document.

Section 1 — NM STEM Ready! Science Standards Implementation Guide
- Elementary
- Middle School
Section 2 — Individual grade level/course standards
Section 3 — Planning Resources
- Elementary
- Middle School