Classroom Resource

The Knowles Teacher Initiative Evolution of Doing Resource helps educators reflect on how their notions of what it means to “do” math or science evolve. This tool supports teachers in considering how these evolving ideas shape the opportunities they create for students to engage meaningfully as doers of the discipline.

This activity helps students get to know each other while also providing them with an introduction to the engineering design process. We recommend using this activity at the beginning of the school year to build community and student understanding of engineering.

This monitoring tool helps science educators make student engagement in science practices visible. By distinguishing observable actions from developing behaviors, it supports formative noticing during investigations. Student self-checks promote agency, while teacher notes capture evidence in real time, reinforcing students’ identities as people who do science.

This protocol adapts two powerful frameworks to create a culturally responsive approach to data analysis and organizational reflection that centers the experiences of those whose voices may not always be heard. The protocol is meant to be adapted, rearranged or shortened depending on the facilitator’s goal and the community needs.

This resource helps educators reflect on how status shapes participation and belonging in math and science classrooms. By plotting their academic, social, and societal status as learners, teachers uncover how perceptions of competence and value influenced their own experiences, and how similar dynamics may be impacting the students they teach.