OVERVIEW: Design Based Implementation Research (DBIR) recently posted a tool for intentionally integrating the seven Crosscutting Concepts of NGSS into 3 Dimensional Assessment Tasks. The tool provides possible prompts and questions for uncovering student understanding of each specific Crosscutting Concept.
AUDIENCE: K-12 teachers of science, curriculum directors, PD providers, curriculum writers, assessment writers, etc.
PURPOSE: Provide specific questions and prompts for uncovering student understanding of the seven Crosscutting Concepts. If you’ve been working on developing 3D assessments and tasks you’ve probably seen that the Crosscutting Concepts tend to be subtle or in the background in typical assessment items. These prompts and questions zoom in on a given Crosscutting Concept and pull them into the foreground for assessment and instructional purposes. This document is a great companion piece to the Integrating Science Practices into Assessment Tasks Tool.
Here is an example for Patterns.
Ask after presenting students with observational data as part of the scenario:
What patterns do you observe in the data presented above in the [table, chart, graph, model output]?
LINK: http://learndbir.org/resources/CrosscuttingConceptsPrompts-160822.pdf
Science for All 
I am not sure that I see how this is crosscutting as opposed to practices. What are your thoughts?
Hi Chris,
A. Did you download the CCC document? Because one of the links was to a document on the practices…
B. Yes- I think this helps a teacher tackle the CCCs. The questions are organized around the CCCS (patterns, Cause & Effect, etc) and the questions/prompts guide students to consider the CCCs while perhaps also using a Practice.
Kirk