Lesson Plans: Learning experiences can rarely be achieved in a single period, especially if the goal for learning is a progressional, incremental development of content, skills, and understanding. By creating larger, cohesive learning experiences that are tiered to NGSS standards, Common Core, and scientific practices, students have space and time to collaboratively and individually explore, understand, and be assessed on their learning. Learning experiences should always be introduced with formative assessments for educators to understand and gauge student's prior knowledge, interests, and questions.