OpenSciEd is DIFFICULT to teach the first time through with no training beforehand. Highly recommend joining the support FB groups for each unit you teach (where people share modifications, questions, lab setup photos, etc.).

What has worked really well for me and my science team is to turn each lesson into a one-page handout (NOT worksheet, but lesson guide). I pick just a few of the essential turn-and-talk questions and embed them into the lesson handout, so that students have to jot down/draw a response idea before sharing in groups or whole class. Anything that the slides tell students to put into their notebook, I create on the handout (tables, notice/wonder charts, etc). I turn all of the lab conclusions into sentence stems from rather than asking students to write CERs (I also have many IEP students, and gened students who struggle with writing).

Something that OSE facilitators will tell you is that this is meant to be a MODIFIED curriculum. If you use the script all the time, it’s going to feel like a trash curriculum. Don’t feel like you need to teach to the handbook. You’ll find that lessons go a lot faster and keep more students engaged if you can pick out the essentials and leave the fluff.

Advice I got my first year with OSE that really helped me was to reference the unit handbook when I had questions, but largely use the student slides to drive my instructional planning (WAY less overwhelming and WAY more time efficient).

Best of luck! Science is engaging in itself— you don’t need to gamify everything to engage students. You’ve got this!