Crosscutting Concepts

Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs) help students develop a coherent scientific understanding of the natural and engineered world. These concepts transcend discrete core ideas and domains, helping students build conceptual frameworks upon which to attach new “chunks” of content knowledge.

Like the other dimensions, a CCC must never be assessed in isolation. Rather, CCCs must be assessed in the context of a Science and Engineering Practice (SEP) and/or Disciplinary Core Idea (DCI).

To demonstrate alignment to a CCC, the response to an item must require students to draw on an explicit connection of a CCC to a DCI and/or an SEP.

The NGSS contain seven CCCs that progress throughout each grade band:

1. Patterns

2. Cause and Effect

3. Scale, Proportion, and Quantity

4. Systems and System Models

5. Energy and Matter

6. Structure and Function

7. Stability and Change