Student sensemaking at the high school level is a fast-growing practice in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Two contrasting teaching styles were compared, along with using sensemaking strategies within an NGSS lesson. The purpose of this research was to investigate any differences in student learning and preference between facilitating sensemaking discussion before or after a student-centered activity, such as a lab. In one group, students formulated their own procedure and data collection plan first, without having a whole class “building understanding” discussion as a group. The other group started the “building understanding discussion sensemaking” discussion before considering what investigation they would conduct or what evidence they would gather. Data collection included an open-ended pre and post assessment and a qualitative student survey. The Mann-Whitney independent variable statistical test found that there was a significant difference between the two teaching styles, and there is a significant improvement between the pre and post-assessment for the teaching style that has students explore the lab before creating a student data table. Further studies are needed to assess how sensemaking and NGSS can be more effective for students with special needs and how the two teaching styles can be compared between semesters.