Oops! My Golden Line (moved from a reply)

"It posed questions of civic and global importance. It integrated diverse modes of inquiry. It called on mathematical, historical, literary, and artistic skills and tools. It provided students not only with a deep and personal relationship with their subject but also with an understanding that learning science is based on continuous and creative investigation: questioning, mapping, reflection, systematic observation, data analysis, presentation, discussion, modeling, theorizing, and explaining." (top of p28)

This passage reminded me of a quote I had seen from our Education Commissioner, Susan Gendron, a few years ago when Maine adopted the 21st Century Learning Frameworks:

“High school graduates need a global awareness, work skills that include team-building, creativity and innovation, critical thinking and problem-solving, self-motivation and self-direction skills, information, communications and technology literacy, as well as high levels of literacy and numeracy. If we think we can let some of our students graduate with less than that and still succeed, then we are fooling ourselves.”

The 21st Century Framework itself, points out the importance of teaching more than just content knowledge - it recognizes the importance of civics, global awareness, and other aspects of education in addition to the 'core' subjects and their standards.
I feel a bit overwhelmed thinking about many of the details of implementing a large scale investigation - organization, alignment to math standards, differentiation, assessment, capturing and promoting student interest... but I'm excited to learn more about Vital Signs, work to foster more collaboration and critical thinking in my classroom, and be more closely connected to Maine's other schools and our scientific community.