Welcome, Idaho science reviewers!
Overview
With Amplify Science, students don’t just passively learn about science concepts.
No matter where your students are learning, they take on the role of scientists and engineers to actively investigate and make sense of real-world phenomena. They do this through a blend of cohesive and compelling storylines, hands-on investigations, collaborative discussions, literacy-rich activities, and interactive digital tools.
Watch the videos below to learn how the program empowers students to think, read, write, and argue like real scientists and engineers every day.
Grades 6–8
EdReports All-Green
Program structure
Our cyclical lesson design ensures students receive multiple exposures to concepts through a variety of modalities.
As they progress through the lessons within a unit, students build and deepen their understanding, increasing their ability to develop and refine complex explanations of the unit’s phenomenon. It’s this proven program structure and lesson design that enables Amplify Science to address 100% of the NGSS in fewer days than other programs.
Unit sequence
Our lessons follow a structure that is grounded in regular routines while still being flexible enough to allow for a variety of learning experiences.
In fact, our multi-modal instruction offers more opportunities for students to construct meaning, and practice and apply concepts than any other program. What’s more, our modular design means our units can be flexibly arranged to support your instructional goals.
Unit 1
Geology on Mars
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Planetary geologists
Phenomenon: Analyzing data about landforms on Mars can provide evidence that Mars may have once been habitable.
Unit 2
Plate Motion
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Mesosaurus fossils have been found on continents separated by thousands of kilometers of ocean, even though the Mesosaurus species once lived all together.
Unit 3
Plate Motion Engineering Internship
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Mechanical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Patterns in earthquake data can be used to design an effective tsunami warning system.
Unit 4
Rock Transformations
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Rock samples from the Great Plains and from the Rocky Mountains — regions hundreds of miles apart — look very different, but have surprisingly similar mineral compositions.
Unit 5
Earth, Moon, and Sun
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Astronomers
Phenomenon: An astrophotographer can only take pictures of specific features on the Moon at certain times.
Unit 6
Ocean, Atmosphere, and Climate
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Climatologists
Phenomenon: During El Niño years, the air temperature in Christchurch, New Zealand is cooler than usual.
Unit 7
Weather Patterns
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Forensic meteorologists
Phenomenon: In recent years, rainstorms in Galetown have been unusually severe.
Unit 8
Earth’s Changing Climate
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Climatologists
Phenomenon: The ice on Earth’s surface is melting.
Unit 9
Earth’s Changing Climate Engineering Internship
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Civil engineers
Phenomenon: Designing rooftops with different modifications can reduce a city’s impact on climate change.
Metabolism Engineering Internship
Domains: Life Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Food engineers
Phenomenon: Designing health bars with different molecular compositions can effectively meet the metabolic needs of patients or rescue workers.
Rock Transformations
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Rock samples from the Great Plains and from the Rocky Mountains — regions hundreds of miles apart — look very different, but have surprisingly similar mineral compositions.
Evolutionary History
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Paleontologists
Phenomenon: A mystery fossil at the Natural History Museum has similarities with both wolves and whales.
Unit 1
Microbiome
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Microbiological researchers
Phenomenon: The presence of 100 trillion microorganisms living on and in the human body may keep the body healthy.
Unit 2
Metabolism
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Medical researchers
Phenomenon: Elisa, a young patient, feels tired all the time.
Unit 3
Metabolism Engineering Internship
Domains: Life Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Food engineers
Phenomenon: Designing health bars with different molecular compositions can effectively meet the metabolic needs of patients or rescue workers.
Unit 4
Traits and Reproduction
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biomedical students
Phenomenon: Darwin’s bark spider offspring have different silk flexibility traits, even though they have the same parents.
Unit 5
Populations and Resources
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biologists
Phenomenon: The size of the moon jelly population in Glacier Sea has increased.
Unit 6
Matter and Energy in Ecosystems
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Ecologists
Phenomenon: The biodome ecosystem has collapsed.
Unit 7
Natural Selection
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biologists
Phenomenon: The newt population in Oregon State Park has become more poisonous over time.
Unit 8
Natural Selection Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Life Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Clinical engineers
Phenomenon: Designing malaria treatment plans that use different combinations of drugs can reduce drug resistance development while helping malaria patients.
Unit 9
Evolutionary History
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Paleontologists
Phenomenon: A mystery fossil at the Natural History Museum has similarities with both wolves and whales.
Unit 1
Harnessing Human Energy
Domains: Physical Science, Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Energy scientists
Phenomenon: Rescue workers can use their own human kinetic energy to power the electrical devices they use during rescue missions.
Unit 2
Force and Motion
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Physicists
Phenomenon: The asteroid sample-collecting pod failed to dock at the space station as planned.
Unit 3
Force and Motion Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Physical Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Mechanical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Designing emergency supply delivery pods with different structures can maintain the integrity of the supply pods and their contents.
Unit 4
Magnetic Fields
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Physicists
Phenomenon: During a test launch, a spacecraft traveled much faster than expected.
Unit 5
Thermal Energy
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Thermal scientists
Phenomenon: One of two proposed heating systems for Riverdale School will best heat the school.
Unit 6
Phase Change
Domains: Physical Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Chemists
Phenomenon: A methane lake on Titan no longer appears in images taken by a space probe two years apart.
Unit 7
Phase Change Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Physical Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Chemical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Designing portable baby incubators with different combinations of phase change materials can keep babies at a healthy temperature.
Unit 8
Chemical Reactions
Domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Forensic chemists
Phenomenon: A mysterious brown substance has been detected in the tap water of Westfield.
Unit 9
Light Waves
Domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Spectroscopists
Phenomenon: The rate of skin cancer is higher in Australia than in other parts of the world.
Access program
Watch the video to the right plus the ones below showing you how to navigate our digital platform. When you’re ready, follow the instructions below to log into our live demo account.
- Click the orange button below to access the platform.
- To explore as a teacher, enter this username (t1.cartwrightsd@demo.tryamplify.net) and this password (Amplify1-cartwrightsd).
- To explore as a student, enter this username (s1.cartwrightsd@demo.tryamplify.net) and this password (Amplify1-cartwrightsd).
- Choose your grade level from the drop-down menu.
Navigating an Engineering Internship (Part 1)
This Part 1 video demonstrates how Engineering Internship units invite students to design solutions for real-world problems as interns for a fictional company called Futura. In the process, they apply and deepen their learning from Core units.
Navigating an Engineering Internship (Part 2)
This Part 2 video demonstrates how to use the Futura Workspace to manage the immersive experience of the Engineering Internship units. This includes guidance on how to create student groups, how to review student work, and how to send students targeted feedback on their designs.
Navigating a Launch Unit
Launch units are the first units taught in each year of the program. The goal of a Launch unit is to introduce students to norms, routines, and practices that will be built on throughout the year.
Navigating a Core Unit
Core units introduce a real-world problem and support students as they figure out the anchoring phenomenon and gain an understanding of the unit’s DCIs, SEPs, and CCCs.
Navigating our reporting tools
Teachers of Amplify Science grades 6–8 have access to a feature called Reporting. When unit assessments are administered digitally, the Reporting tool enables teachers to analyze student performance on the unit assessments.
Differentiation post-assessment
Every core unit of Amplify Science 6–8 features a formal formative assessment opportunity at the mid-way point, or Critical Juncture, of the unit, which provides an important opportunity for differentiation.
Navigating an Engineering Internship
Engineering Internship units invite students to design solutions for real-world problems as interns for a fictional company called Futura. In the process, they apply and deepen their learning from Core units.
Navigating Classwork and Reporting
Classwork is our new online grading tool that gives you quick and easy access to unreviewed work, student portfolios of work, and automatically generated differentiation groups.
Resources
A closer look at grades 6–8
Amplify Science California is based on the latest research on teaching and learning and helps teachers deliver rigorous and riveting lessons through hands-on investigations, literacy-rich activities, and interactive digital tools that empower students to think, read, write, and argue like real scientists.
In the 6–8 classroom, this looks like students:
- Collecting evidence from a variety of sources.
- Making sense of evidence in a variety of ways.
- Formulating convincing scientific arguments.
Is your school implementing the domain model? Click here.
Program structure
Our cyclical lesson design ensures students receive multiple exposures to concepts through a variety of modalities. As they progress through the lessons within a unit, students build and deepen their understanding, increasing their ability to develop and refine complex explanations of the unit’s phenomenon.
It’s this proven program structure and lesson design that enables Amplify Science California to teach less, but achieve more. Rather than asking teachers to wade through unnecessary content, we designed our 6–8 program to address 100% of the California NGSS in fewer lessons than other programs.
Scope and sequence
Every year our grades 6–8 sequence consists of 9 units, with each unit containing 10–19 lessons. Lessons are written to last a minimum of 45-minutes, though teachers can expand or contract the timing to meet their needs.
Unit types
Each unit delivers three-dimensional learning experiences and engages students in gathering evidence from a rich collection of sources, while also serving a unique purpose.
In grades 6–8, there are three types of units:
- One unit is a launch unit.
- Three units are core units.
- Two units are engineering internships.
Launch units
Launch units are the first units taught in each year of Amplify Science California. The goal of the Launch unit is to introduce students to norms, routines, and practices that will be built on throughout the year, including argumentation, active reading, and using the program’s technology. For example, rather than taking the time to explain the process of active reading in every unit in a given year, it is explained thoroughly in the Launch unit, thereby preparing students to read actively in all subsequent units.
Core units
Core units establish the context of the unit by introducing students to a real-world problem. As students move through lessons in a Core unit, they figure out the unit’s anchoring phenomenon, gain an understanding of the unit’s disciplinary core ideas and science and engineering practices, and make linkages across topics through the crosscutting concepts. Each Core unit culminates with a Science Seminar and final writing activity.
Engineering Internship units
Engineering Internship units invite students to design solutions for real-world problems as interns for a fictional company called Futura. Students figure out how to help those in need, from tsunami victims in Sri Lanka to premature babies, through the application of engineering practices. In the process, they apply and deepen their learning from Core units.
Units at a glance
Microbiome
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Microbiological researchers
Phenomenon: The presence of 100 trillion microorganisms living on and in the human body may keep the body healthy.
Metabolism
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Medical researchers
Phenomenon: Elisa, a young patient, feels tired all the time.
Metabolism Engineering Internship
Domains: Life Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Food engineers
Phenomenon: Designing health bars with different molecular compositions can effectively meet the metabolic needs of patients or rescue workers.
Traits and Reproduction
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biomedical students
Phenomenon: Darwin’s bark spider offspring have different silk flexibility traits, even though they have the same parents.
Thermal Energy
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Thermal scientists
Phenomenon: One of two proposed heating systems for Riverdale School will best heat the school.
Ocean, Atmosphere, and Climate
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Climatologists
Phenomenon: During El Niño years, the air temperature in Christchurch, New Zealand is cooler than usual.
Weather Patterns
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Forensic meteorologists
Phenomenon: In recent years, rainstorms in Galetown have been unusually severe.
Earth’s Changing Climate
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Climatologists
Phenomenon: The ice on Earth’s surface is melting.
Earth’s Changing Climate Engineering Internship
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Civil engineers
Phenomenon: Designing rooftops with different modifications can reduce a city’s impact on climate change.
Geology on Mars
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Planetary geologists
Phenomenon: Analyzing data about landforms on Mars can provide evidence that Mars may have once been habitable.
Plate Motion
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Mesosaurus fossils have been found on continents separated by thousands of kilometers of ocean, even though the Mesosaurus species once lived all together.
Plate Motion Engineering Internship
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Mechanical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Patterns in earthquake data can be used to design an effective tsunami warning system.
Rock Transformations
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Rock samples from the Great Plains and from the Rocky Mountains — regions hundreds of miles apart — look very different, but have surprisingly similar mineral compositions.
Phase Change
Domains: Physical Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Chemists
Phenomenon: A methane lake on Titan no longer appears in images taken by a space probe two years apart
Force and Motion Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Physical Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Mechanical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Designing emergency supply delivery pods with different structures can maintain the integrity of the supply pods and their contents.
Chemical Reactions
Domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Forensic chemists
Phenomenon: A mysterious brown substance has been detected in the tap water of Westfield.
Populations and Resources
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biologists
Phenomenon: The size of the moon jelly population in Glacier Sea has increased.
Matter and Energy in Ecosystems
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Ecologists
Phenomenon: The biodome ecosystem has collapsed.
Harnessing Human Energy
Domains: Physical Science, Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Energy scientists
Phenomenon: Rescue workers can use their own human kinetic energy to power the electrical devices they use during rescue missions.
Force and Motion
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Physicists
Phenomenon: The asteroid sample-collecting pod failed to dock at the space station as planned.
Phase Change Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Physical Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Chemical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Designing portable baby incubators with different combinations of phase change materials can keep babies at a healthy temperature.
Magnetic Fields
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Physicists
Phenomenon: During a test launch, a spacecraft traveled much faster than expected.
Light Waves
Domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Spectroscopists
Phenomenon: The rate of skin cancer is higher in Australia than in other parts of the world.
Earth, Moon, and Sun
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Astronomers
Phenomenon: An astrophotographer can only take pictures of specific features on the Moon at certain times.
Natural Selection
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biologists
Phenomenon: The newt population in Oregon State Park has become more poisonous over time.
Natural Selection Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Life Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Clinical engineers
Phenomenon: Designing malaria treatment plans that use different combinations of drugs can reduce drug resistance development while helping malaria patients.
Evolutionary History
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Paleontologists
Phenomenon: A mystery fossil at the Natural History Museum has similarities with both wolves and whales.
Resources
Montana 6–8 Science
Peoria 6–8 Science Review
Welcome, Middle School Science Reviewers!
Thank you for taking the time to review Amplify Science for grades 6–8. On this site, you’ll find all the resources you need to learn more about this engaging and robust NGSS program. Plus, we make it easy to experience our program firsthand with a live demo account that features our interactive learning platform.
Overview
With Amplify Science, students don’t just passively learn about science concepts.
No matter where your students are learning—whether at school or at home—they take on the role of scientists and engineers to actively investigate and make sense of real-world phenomena. They do this through a blend of cohesive and compelling storylines, hands-on investigations, collaborative discussions, literacy-rich activities, and interactive digital tools.
Listen to these educators share how the program empowers students to think, read, write, and argue like real scientists and engineers every day.
EdReports All-Green
Amplify Science for grades K–8 has been rated all-green by EdReports.
Program structure
Our cyclical lesson design ensures students receive multiple exposures to concepts through a variety of modalities.
As they progress through the lessons within a unit, students build and deepen their understanding, increasing their ability to develop and refine complex explanations of the unit’s phenomenon. It’s this proven program structure and lesson design that enables Amplify Science to address 100% of the NGSS in fewer days than other programs.
Unit Sequence
Our lessons follow a structure that is grounded in regular routines while still being flexible enough to allow for a variety of learning experiences.
In fact, our multi-modal instruction offers more opportunities for students to construct meaning, and practice and apply concepts than any other program. What’s more, our modular design means our units can be flexibly arranged to support your instructional goals.
Unit 1
Microbiome
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Microbiological researchers
Phenomenon: The presence of 100 trillion microorganisms living on and in the human body may keep the body healthy.
Unit 2
Metabolism
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Medical researchers
Phenomenon: Elisa, a young patient, feels tired all the time.
Unit 3
Metabolism Engineering Internship
Domains: Life Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Food engineers
Phenomenon: Designing health bars with different molecular compositions can effectively meet the metabolic needs of patients or rescue workers.
Unit 4
Traits and Reproduction
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biomedical students
Phenomenon: Darwin’s bark spider offspring have different silk flexibility traits, even though they have the same parents.
Unit 5
Thermal Energy
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Thermal scientists
Phenomenon: One of two proposed heating systems for Riverdale School will best heat the school.
Unit 6
Ocean, Atmosphere, and Climate
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Climatologists
Phenomenon: During El Niño years, the air temperature in Christchurch, New Zealand is cooler than usual.
Unit 7
Weather Patterns
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Forensic meteorologists
Phenomenon: In recent years, rainstorms in Galetown have been unusually severe.
Unit 8
Earth’s Changing Climate
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Climatologists
Phenomenon: The ice on Earth’s surface is melting.
Unit 9
Earth’s Changing Climate Engineering Internship
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Civil engineers
Phenomenon: Designing rooftops with different modifications can reduce a city’s impact on climate change.
Unit 1
Geology on Mars
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Planetary geologists
Phenomenon: Analyzing data about landforms on Mars can provide evidence that Mars may have once been habitable.
Unit 2
Plate Motion
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Mesosaurus fossils have been found on continents separated by thousands of kilometers of ocean, even though the Mesosaurus species once lived all together.
Unit 3
Plate Motion Engineering Internship
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Mechanical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Patterns in earthquake data can be used to design an effective tsunami warning system.
Unit 4
Rock Transformations
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Rock samples from the Great Plains and from the Rocky Mountains — regions hundreds of miles apart — look very different, but have surprisingly similar mineral compositions.
Unit 5
Phase Change
Domains: Physical Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Chemists
Phenomenon: A methane lake on Titan no longer appears in images taken by a space probe two years apart
Unit 6
Force and Motion Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Physical Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Mechanical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Designing emergency supply delivery pods with different structures can maintain the integrity of the supply pods and their contents.
Unit 7
Chemical Reactions
Domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Forensic chemists
Phenomenon: A mysterious brown substance has been detected in the tap water of Westfield.
Unit 8
Populations and Resources
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biologists
Phenomenon: The size of the moon jelly population in Glacier Sea has increased.
Unit 9
Matter and Energy in Ecosystems
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Ecologists
Phenomenon: The biodome ecosystem has collapsed.
Unit 1
Harnessing Human Energy
Domains: Physical Science, Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Energy scientists
Phenomenon: Rescue workers can use their own human kinetic energy to power the electrical devices they use during rescue missions.
Unit 2
Force and Motion
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Physicists
Phenomenon: The asteroid sample-collecting pod failed to dock at the space station as planned.
Unit 3
Phase Change Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Physical Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Chemical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Designing portable baby incubators with different combinations of phase change materials can keep babies at a healthy temperature.
Unit 4
Magnetic Fields
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Physicists
Phenomenon: During a test launch, a spacecraft traveled much faster than expected.
Unit 5
Light Waves
Domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Spectroscopists
Phenomenon: The rate of skin cancer is higher in Australia than in other parts of the world.
Unit 6
Earth, Moon, and Sun
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Astronomers
Phenomenon: An astrophotographer can only take pictures of specific features on the Moon at certain times.
Unit 7
Natural Selection
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biologists
Phenomenon: The newt population in Oregon State Park has become more poisonous over time.
Unit 8
Natural Selection Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Life Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Clinical engineers
Phenomenon: Designing malaria treatment plans that use different combinations of drugs can reduce drug resistance development while helping malaria patients.
Unit 9
Evolutionary History
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Paleontologists
Phenomenon: A mystery fossil at the Natural History Museum has similarities with both wolves and whales.
Access program
Watch the video to the right plus the ones below showing you how to navigate our digital platform. When you’re ready, follow the instructions below to log into our live demo account.
- Click the orange button below to access the platform.
- Choose the resources you’d like to review.
- Pick your grade level from the drop-down menu.
- Scroll down to find additional grade-level resources.
Navigating an Engineering Internship (Part 1)
This Part 1 video demonstrates how Engineering Internship units invite students to design solutions for real-world problems as interns for a fictional company called Futura. In the process, they apply and deepen their learning from Core units.
Navigating an Engineering Internship (Part 2)
This Part 2 video demonstrates how to use the Futura Workspace to manage the immersive experience of the Engineering Internship units. This includes guidance on how to create student groups, how to review student work, and how to send students targeted feedback on their designs.
Navigating our reporting tools
Teachers of Amplify Science grades 6–8 have access to a feature called Reporting. When unit assessments are administered digitally, the Reporting tool enables teachers to analyze student performance on the unit assessments.
Differentiation post-assessment
Every core unit of Amplify Science 6–8 features a formal formative assessment opportunity at the mid-way point, or “Critical Juncture,” of the unit, which provides an important opportunity for differentiation.
Resources
Get in touch
Have questions? Bob McCarty is standing by and ready to help.
Robert “Bob” McCarty
Senior Account Executive
(435) 655-1731
rmccarty@amplify.com
Sweetwater 6–8 Science
A closer look at grades 6–8 (domain)
Amplify Science is based on the latest research on teaching and learning and helps teachers deliver rigorous and riveting lessons through hands-on investigations, literacy-rich activities, and interactive digital tools that empower students to think, read, write, and argue like real scientists.
In the 6–8 classroom, this looks like students:
- Collecting evidence from a variety of sources.
- Making sense of evidence in a variety of ways.
- Formulating convincing scientific arguments.
Is your school implementing the domain model? Click here.
Program structure
Our cyclical lesson design ensures students receive multiple exposures to concepts through a variety of modalities. As they progress through the lessons within a unit, students build and deepen their understanding, increasing their ability to develop and refine complex explanations of the unit’s phenomenon.
It’s this proven program structure and lesson design that enables Amplify Science to teach less, but achieve more. Rather than asking teachers to wade through unnecessary content, we designed our 6–8 program to address 100% of the NGSS in fewer lessons than other programs.
Scope and sequence
Every year our grades 6–8 sequence consists of 9 units, with each unit containing 10–19 lessons. Lessons are written to last a minimum of 45-minutes, though teachers can expand or contract the timing to meet their needs.
Unit types
Each unit delivers three-dimensional learning experiences and engages students in gathering evidence from a rich collection of sources, while also serving a unique purpose.
In grades 6–8, there are three types of units:
- One unit is a launch unit.
- Three units are core units.
- Two units are engineering internships.
Launch units
Launch units are the first units taught in each year of Amplify Science. The goal of the Launch unit is to introduce students to norms, routines, and practices that will be built on throughout the year, including argumentation, active reading, and using the program’s technology. For example, rather than taking the time to explain the process of active reading in every unit in a given year, it is explained thoroughly in the Launch unit, thereby preparing students to actively read in all subsequent units.
Core units
Core units establish the context of the unit by introducing students to a real-world problem. As students move through lessons in a Core unit, they figure out the unit’s anchoring phenomenon, gain an understanding of the unit’s disciplinary core ideas and science and engineering practices, and make linkages across topics through the crosscutting concepts. Each Core unit culminates with a Science Seminar and final writing activity.
Engineering Internship units
Engineering Internship units invite students to design solutions for real-world problems as interns for a fictional company called Futura. Students figure out how to help those in need, from tsunami victims in Sri Lanka to premature babies, through the application of engineering practices. In the process, they apply and deepen their learning from Core units.
Units at a glance
Geology on Mars
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Planetary geologists
Phenomenon: Analyzing data about landforms on Mars can provide evidence that Mars may have once been habitable.
Plate Motion
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Mesosaurus fossils have been found on continents separated by thousands of kilometers of ocean, even though the Mesosaurus species once lived all together.
Plate Motion Engineering Internship
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Mechanical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Patterns in earthquake data can be used to design an effective tsunami warning system.
Rock Transformations
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Rock samples from the Great Plains and from the Rocky Mountains — regions hundreds of miles apart — look very different, but have surprisingly similar mineral compositions.
Earth, Sun, and Moon
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Astronomers
Phenomenon: An astrophotographer can only take pictures of specific features on the Moon at certain times.
Ocean, Atmosphere, and Climate
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Climatologists
Phenomenon: During El Niño years, the air temperature in Christchurch, New Zealand is cooler than usual.
Weather Patterns
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Forensic meteorologists
Phenomenon: In recent years, rainstorms in Galetown have been unusually severe.
Earth’s Changing Climate
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Climatologists
Phenomenon: The ice on Earth’s surface is melting.
Earth’s Changing Climate Engineering Internship
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Civil engineers
Phenomenon: Designing rooftops with different modifications can reduce a city’s impact on climate change.
Microbiome
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Microbiological researchers
Phenomenon: The presence of 100 trillion microorganisms living on and in the human body may keep the body healthy.
Metabolism
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Medical researchers
Phenomenon: Elisa, a young patient, feels tired all the time.
Metabolism Engineering Internship
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Food engineers
Phenomenon: Designing health bars with different molecular compositions can effectively meet the metabolic needs of patients or rescue workers.
Traits and Reproduction
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biomedical students
Phenomenon: Darwin’s bark spider offspring have different silk flexibility traits, even though they have the same parents.
Populations and Resources
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biologists
Phenomenon: The size of the moon jelly population in Glacier Sea has increased.
Matter and Energy in Ecosystems
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Ecologists
Phenomenon: What caused the mysterious crash of a biodome ecosystem?
Natural Selection
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biologists
Phenomenon: The newt population in Oregon State Park has become more poisonous over time.
Natural Selection Engineering Internship
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Clinical engineers
Phenomenon: Designing malaria treatment plans that use different combinations of drugs can reduce drug resistance development while helping malaria patients.
Evolutionary History
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Paleontologists
Phenomenon: A mystery fossil at the Natural History Museum has similarities with both wolves and whales.
Harnessing Human Energy
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Energy scientists
Phenomenon: Rescue workers can use their own human kinetic energy to power the electrical devices they use during rescue missions.
Force and Motion
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Physicists
Phenomenon: The asteroid sample-collecting pod failed to dock at the space station as planned.
Force and Motion Engineering Internship
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Mechanical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Designing emergency supply delivery pods with different structures can maintain the integrity of the supply pods and their contents.
Magnetic Fields
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Physicists
Phenomenon: During a test launch, a spacecraft traveled much faster than expected.
Thermal Energy
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Thermal scientists
Phenomenon: One of two proposed heating systems for Riverdale School will best heat the school.
Phase Change
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Chemists
Phenomenon: A methane lake on Titan no longer appears in images taken by a space probe two years apart.
Phase Change Engineering Internship
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Chemical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Designing portable baby incubators with different combinations of phase change materials can keep babies at a healthy temperature.
Chemical Reactions
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Forensic chemists
Phenomenon: A mysterious brown substance has been detected in the tap water of Westfield.
Light Waves
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Spectroscopists
Phenomenon: The rate of skin cancer is higher in Australia than in other parts of the world.
Resources
A closer look at grades 6–8
Amplify Science is based on the latest research on teaching and learning and helps teachers deliver rigorous and riveting lessons through hands-on investigations, literacy-rich activities, and interactive digital tools that empower students to think, read, write, and argue like real scientists.
In the 6–8 classroom, this looks like students:
- Collecting evidence from a variety of sources.
- Making sense of evidence in a variety of ways.
- Formulating convincing scientific arguments.
Is your school implementing the domain model? Click here.
Program structure
Our cyclical lesson design ensures students receive multiple exposures to concepts through a variety of modalities. As they progress through the lessons within a unit, students build and deepen their understanding, increasing their ability to develop and refine complex explanations of the unit’s phenomenon.
It’s this proven program structure and lesson design that enables Amplify Science to teach less, but achieve more. Rather than asking teachers to wade through unnecessary content, we designed our 6–8 program to address 100% of the NGSS in fewer lessons than other programs.
Scope and sequence
Every year our grades 6–8 sequence consists of 9 units, with each unit containing 10–19 lessons. Lessons are written to last a minimum of 45-minutes, though teachers can expand or contract the timing to meet their needs.
Unit types
Each unit delivers three-dimensional learning experiences and engages students in gathering evidence from a rich collection of sources, while also serving a unique purpose.
In grades 6–8, there are three types of units:
- One unit is a launch unit.
- Three units are core units.
- Two units are engineering internships.
Launch units
Launch units are the first units taught in each year of Amplify Science. The goal of the Launch unit is to introduce students to norms, routines, and practices that will be built on throughout the year, including argumentation, active reading, and using the program’s technology. For example, rather than taking the time to explain the process of active reading in every unit in a given year, it is explained thoroughly in the Launch unit, thereby preparing students to read actively in all subsequent units.
Core units
Core units establish the context of the unit by introducing students to a real-world problem. As students move through lessons in a Core unit, they figure out the unit’s anchoring phenomenon, gain an understanding of the unit’s disciplinary core ideas and science and engineering practices, and make linkages across topics through the crosscutting concepts. Each Core unit culminates with a Science Seminar and final writing activity.
Engineering Internship units
Engineering Internship units invite students to design solutions for real-world problems as interns for a fictional company called Futura. Students figure out how to help those in need, from tsunami victims in Sri Lanka to premature babies, through the application of engineering practices. In the process, they apply and deepen their learning from Core units.
Units at a glance
Microbiome
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Microbiological researchers
Phenomenon: The presence of 100 trillion microorganisms living on and in the human body may keep the body healthy.
Metabolism
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Medical researchers
Phenomenon: Elisa, a young patient, feels tired all the time.
Metabolism Engineering Internship
Domains: Life Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Food engineers
Phenomenon: Designing health bars with different molecular compositions can effectively meet the metabolic needs of patients or rescue workers.
Traits and Reproduction
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biomedical students
Phenomenon: Darwin’s bark spider offspring have different silk flexibility traits, even though they have the same parents.
Thermal Energy
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Thermal scientists
Phenomenon: One of two proposed heating systems for Riverdale School will best heat the school.
Ocean, Atmosphere, and Climate
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Climatologists
Phenomenon: During El Niño years, the air temperature in Christchurch, New Zealand is cooler than usual.
Weather Patterns
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Forensic meteorologists
Phenomenon: In recent years, rainstorms in Galetown have been unusually severe.
Earth’s Changing Climate
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Climatologists
Phenomenon: The ice on Earth’s surface is melting.
Earth’s Changing Climate Engineering Internship
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Civil engineers
Phenomenon: Designing rooftops with different modifications can reduce a city’s impact on climate change.
Geology on Mars
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Planetary geologists
Phenomenon: Analyzing data about landforms on Mars can provide evidence that Mars may have once been habitable.
Plate Motion
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Mesosaurus fossils have been found on continents separated by thousands of kilometers of ocean, even though the Mesosaurus species once lived all together.
Plate Motion Engineering Internship
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Mechanical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Patterns in earthquake data can be used to design an effective tsunami warning system.
Rock Transformations
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Rock samples from the Great Plains and from the Rocky Mountains — regions hundreds of miles apart — look very different, but have surprisingly similar mineral compositions.
Phase Change
Domains: Physical Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Chemists
Phenomenon: A methane lake on Titan no longer appears in images taken by a space probe two years apart
Force and Motion Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Physical Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Chemical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Designing portable baby incubators with different combinations of phase change materials can keep babies at a healthy temperature. Domains: Engineering Design, Physical Science
Chemical Reactions
Domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Forensic chemists
Phenomenon: A mysterious brown substance has been detected in the tap water of Westfield.
Populations and Resources
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biologists
Phenomenon: The size of the moon jelly population in Glacier Sea has increased.
Matter and Energy in Ecosystems
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Ecologists
Phenomenon: The biodome ecosystem has collapsed.
Harnessing Human Energy
Domains: Physical Science, Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Energy scientists
Phenomenon: Rescue workers can use their own human kinetic energy to power the electrical devices they use during rescue missions.
Force and Motion
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Physicists
Phenomenon: The asteroid sample-collecting pod failed to dock at the space station as planned.
Force and Motion Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Physical Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Chemical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Designing emergency supply delivery pods with different structures can maintain the integrity of the supply pods and their contents.
Magnetic Fields
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Physicists
Phenomenon: During a test launch, a spacecraft traveled much faster than expected.
Light Waves
Domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Spectroscopists
Phenomenon: The rate of skin cancer is higher in Australia than in other parts of the world.
Earth, Moon, and Sun
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Astronomers
Phenomenon: An astrophotographer can only take pictures of specific features on the Moon at certain times.
Natural Selection
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biologists
Phenomenon: The newt population in Oregon State Park has become more poisonous over time.
Natural Selection Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Life Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Clinical engineers
Phenomenon: Designing malaria treatment plans that use different combinations of drugs can reduce drug resistance development while helping malaria patients.
Evolutionary History
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Paleontologists
Phenomenon: A mystery fossil at the Natural History Museum has similarities with both wolves and whales.
Resources
A closer look at grades 6–8 (domain)
Amplify Science California is based on the latest research on teaching and learning and helps teachers deliver rigorous and riveting lessons through hands-on investigations, literacy-rich activities, and interactive digital tools that empower students to think, read, write, and argue like real scientists.
In the 6–8 classroom, this looks like students:
- Collecting evidence from a variety of sources.
- Making sense of evidence in a variety of ways.
- Formulating convincing scientific arguments.
Is your school implementing the integrated model? Click here.
Program structure
Our cyclical lesson design ensures students receive multiple exposures to concepts through a variety of modalities. As they progress through the lessons within a unit, students build and deepen their understanding, increasing their ability to develop and refine complex explanations of the unit’s phenomenon.
It’s this proven program structure and lesson design that enables Amplify Science California to teach less, but achieve more. Rather than asking teachers to wade through unnecessary content, we designed our 6–8 program to address 100% of the California NGSS in fewer lessons than other programs.
Scope and sequence
Every year of our grades 6–8 sequence consists of 9 units, with each unit containing 10–19 lessons. Lessons are written to last a minimum of 45 minutes, though teachers can expand or contract the timing to meet their needs.
Unit types
Each unit delivers three-dimensional learning experiences and engages students in gathering evidence from a rich collection of sources, while also serving a unique purpose.
In grades 6–8, there are three types of units:
- One unit is a launch unit.
- Three units are core units.
- Two units are engineering internships.
Launch units
Launch units are the first units taught in each year of Amplify Science California. The goal of the Launch unit is to introduce students to norms, routines, and practices that will be built on throughout the year, including argumentation, active reading, and using the program’s technology. For example, rather than taking the time to explain the process of active reading in every unit in a given year, it is explained thoroughly in the Launch unit, thereby preparing students to actively read in all subsequent units.
Core units
Core units establish the context of the unit by introducing students to a real-world problem. As students move through lessons in a Core unit, they figure out the unit’s anchoring phenomenon, gain an understanding of the unit’s disciplinary core ideas and science and engineering practices, and make linkages across topics through the crosscutting concepts. Each Core unit culminates with a Science Seminar and final writing activity.
Engineering Internship units
Engineering Internship units invite students to design solutions for real-world problems as interns for a fictional company called Futura. Students figure out how to help those in need, from tsunami victims in Sri Lanka to premature babies, through the application of engineering practices. In the process, they apply and deepen their learning from Core units.
Units at a glance
Geology on Mars
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Planetary geologists
Phenomenon: Analyzing data about landforms on Mars can provide evidence that Mars may have once been habitable.
Plate Motion
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Mesosaurus fossils have been found on continents separated by thousands of kilometers of ocean, even though the Mesosaurus species once lived all together.
Plate Motion Engineering Internship
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Mechanical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Patterns in earthquake data can be used to design an effective tsunami warning system.
Rock Transformations
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Rock samples from the Great Plains and from the Rocky Mountains — regions hundreds of miles apart — look very different, but have surprisingly similar mineral compositions.
Earth, Sun, and Moon
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Astronomers
Phenomenon: An astrophotographer can only take pictures of specific features on the Moon at certain times.
Ocean, Atmosphere, and Climate
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Climatologists
Phenomenon: During El Niño years, the air temperature in Christchurch, New Zealand is cooler than usual.
Weather Patterns
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Forensic meteorologists
Phenomenon: In recent years, rainstorms in Galetown have been unusually severe.
Earth’s Changing Climate
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Climatologists
Phenomenon: The ice on Earth’s surface is melting.
Earth’s Changing Climate Engineering Internship
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Civil engineers
Phenomenon: Designing rooftops with different modifications can reduce a city’s impact on climate change.
Microbiome
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Microbiological researchers
Phenomenon: The presence of 100 trillion microorganisms living on and in the human body may keep the body healthy.
Metabolism
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Medical researchers
Phenomenon: Elisa, a young patient, feels tired all the time.
Metabolism Engineering Internship
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Food engineers
Phenomenon: Designing health bars with different molecular compositions can effectively meet the metabolic needs of patients or rescue workers.
Traits and Reproduction
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biomedical students
Phenomenon: Darwin’s bark spider offspring have different silk flexibility traits, even though they have the same parents.
Populations and Resources
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biologists
Phenomenon: The size of the moon jelly population in Glacier Sea has increased.
Matter and Energy in Ecosystems
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Ecologists
Phenomenon: What caused the mysterious crash of a biodome ecosystem?
Natural Selection
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biologists
Phenomenon: The newt population in Oregon State Park has become more poisonous over time.
Natural Selection Engineering Internship
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Clinical engineers
Phenomenon: Designing malaria treatment plans that use different combinations of drugs can reduce drug resistance development while helping malaria patients.
Evolutionary History
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Paleontologists
Phenomenon: A mystery fossil at the Natural History Museum has similarities with both wolves and whales.
Harnessing Human Energy
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Energy scientists
Phenomenon: Rescue workers can use their own human kinetic energy to power the electrical devices they use during rescue missions.
Force and Motion
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Physicists
Phenomenon: The asteroid sample-collecting pod failed to dock at the space station as planned.
Force and Motion Engineering Internship
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Mechanical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Designing emergency supply delivery pods with different structures can maintain the integrity of the supply pods and their contents.
Magnetic Fields
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Physicists
Phenomenon: During a test launch, a spacecraft traveled much faster than expected.
Thermal Energy
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Thermal scientists
Phenomenon: One of two proposed heating systems for Riverdale School will best heat the school.
Phase Change
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Chemists
Phenomenon: A methane lake on Titan no longer appears in images taken by a space probe two years apart.
Phase Change Engineering Internship
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Chemical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Designing portable baby incubators with different combinations of phase change materials can keep babies at a healthy temperature.
Chemical Reactions
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Forensic chemists
Phenomenon: A mysterious brown substance has been detected in the tap water of Westfield.
Light Waves
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Spectroscopists
Phenomenon: The rate of skin cancer is higher in Australia than in other parts of the world.
Resources
Welcome, Ohio educators!
Designed from the ground up to teach students to think, read, write, and argue like real scientists and engineers, Amplify Science combines literacy-rich activities with hands-on learning and digital tools to engage students in exploring compelling phenomena in every unit.
Overview
Developed by UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science, our program features:
- A phenomena-based approach where students construct a more complex understanding of each unit’s anchor phenomenon.
- A blend of cohesive storylines, hands-on investigations, rich discussions, literacy-rich activities, and digital tools.
- Newly crafted units, chapters, lessons, and activities designed to deliver true 3-dimensional learning.
- An instructional design that supports all learners in accessing all standards.
Hear what these educators have to say about the program. >
Approach to literacy
[Video] Literacy in action (K–5)
Watch students use scientific text to obtain information and practice reading skills, while using writing prompts to create arguments using evidence.
[Video] Literacy in action (6–8)
Watch students use scientific text to obtain information and practice reading skills, while using writing prompts to create arguments using evidence.
Literacy-rich science instruction (K–5)
Immersing young students in reading, writing, and arguing like real scientists and engineers.
Elementary school
Get started by watching this class share what they’re figuring out with Amplify Science. >
In Grades K–3 we recommend the national grade level units of Amplify Science to provide students with the appropriate grade level literacy and background knowledge. Individual units are available to purchase.
When you’re ready:
- Find a summary of each unit below including each unit’s student role and anchor phenomenon.
- Download some helpful resources to support your review.
- Explore the digital Teacher’s Guide by clicking the orange “Review now” button.
Unit 1
Needs of Plants and Animals
Student role: Scientists
Phenomenon: There are no monarch caterpillars in the Mariposa Grove community garden ever since vegetables were planted.
Unit 2
Pushes and Pulls
Student role: Pinball engineers
Phenomenon: Pinball machines allow people to control the direction and strength of forces on a ball.
Unit 3
Sunlight and Weather
Student role: Weather scientists
Phenomenon: Students at one school are too cold during morning recess, while students at another are too hot during afternoon recess.
Unit 1
Animal and Plant Defenses
Student role: Marine scientists
Phenomenon: Spruce the Sea Turtle will soon be released back into the ocean, where she will survive despite predators.
Unit 2
Light and Sound
Student role: Light and sound engineers
Phenomenon: A puppet show company uses light and sound to depict realistic scenes in puppet shows.
Unit 3
Spinning Earth
Student role: Sky scientists
Phenomenon: The sky looks different to Sai and his grandma when they talk on the phone at night.
Unit 1
Plant and Animal Relationships
Student role: Plant scientists
Phenomenon: No new chalta trees are growing in the fictional Bengal Tiger Reserve in India.
Unit 2
Properties of Materials
Student role: Glue engineers
Phenomenon: Different glue recipes result in glues that have different properties.
Unit 3
Changing Landforms
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: The cliff on which Oceanside Recreation Center is situated appears to be receding.
Unit 1
Balancing Forces
Student role: Engineers
Phenomenon: The fictional town of Faraday is getting a new train. Unlike typical trains, this one floats, which is causing some concern among the town’s citizens.
Unit 2
Inheritance and Traits
Student role: Wildlife biologists
Phenomenon: An adopted wolf in Graystone National Park has some traits in common with one wolf pack in the park and other traits in common with a different pack.
Unit 3
Environments and Survival
Student role: Biomimicry engineers
Phenomenon: Over 10 years, a population of grove snails has changed. Populations with yellow shells have decreased, while those with banded shells have increased.
Unit 4
Weather and Climate
Student role: Meteorologists
Phenomenon: Three different islands, each a contender for becoming an orangutan reserve, experience different weather patterns.
Unit 1
Energy Conversions
Student role: System engineers
Phenomenon: The fictional town of Ergstown experiences frequent blackouts. Their electrical system seems to be failing.
Unit 2
Earth’s Features
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: A mysterious fossil is discovered in a canyon within the fictional Desert Rocks National Park.
Unit 3
Modeling Matter
Student role: Food scientists
Phenomenon: Some ingredients dissolve in a salad dressing while others, like oil and vinegar, appear to separate.
Unit 4
The Earth System
Student role: Water resource engineers
Phenomenon: East Ferris, a city on one side of the fictional Ferris Island, is experiencing a water shortage, while West Ferris is not.
Unit 1
Patterns of Earth and Sky
Student role: Astronomers
Phenomenon: An ancient artifact depicts what we see in the sky at different times of the day, but it appears to be missing a piece.
Unit 2
Vision and Light
Student role: Conservation biologists
Phenomenon: The population of Tokay geckos in a rain forest in the Philippines has decreased since the installation of new highway lights.
Unit 3
Waves, Energy, and Information
Student role: Marine scientists
Phenomenon: Mother dolphins in the fictional Blue Bay National Park communicate with their calves despite the distance between them.
Unit 4
Ecosystem Restoration
Student role: Ecologists
Phenomenon: The jaguars, sloths, and cecropia trees in a reforested section of a Costa Rican rain forest are not growing or thriving.
Middle school
Get started by watching this class share what they’re figuring out with Amplify Science. >
When you’re ready:
- Find a summary of each unit below including each unit’s student role and anchor phenomenon.
- Download some helpful resources to support your review.
- Explore the digital Teacher’s Guide by clicking the orange “Review now” button.
CORE
Rock Transformations
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Rock samples from the Great Plains and from the Rocky Mountains — regions hundreds of miles apart — look very different, but have surprisingly similar mineral compositions.
CORE
Phase Change
Domains: Physical Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Chemists
Phenomenon: A methane lake on Titan no longer appears in images taken by a space probe two years apart.
ENGINEERING INTERNSHIP
Phase Change Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Physical Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Chemical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Designing portable baby incubators with different combinations of phase change materials can keep babies at a healthy temperature.
CORE
Thermal Energy
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Thermal scientists
Phenomenon: One of two proposed heating systems for Riverdale School will best heat the school.
LAUNCH
Microbiome
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Microbiological researchers
Phenomenon: The presence of 100 trillion microorganisms living on and in the human body may keep the body healthy.
CORE
Metabolism
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Medical researchers
Phenomenon: Elisa, a young patient, feels tired all the time.
ENGINEERING INTERNSHIP
Metabolism Engineering Internship
Domains: Life Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Food engineers
Phenomenon: Designing health bars with different molecular compositions can effectively meet the metabolic needs of patients or rescue workers.
LAUNCH
Harnessing Human Energy
Domains: Physical Science, Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Energy scientists
Phenomenon: Rescue workers can use their own human kinetic energy to power the electrical devices they use during rescue missions.
CODING SCIENCE INTERNSHIP
Coding Science Internship: Coral Restoration (Optional)
Domains: Life Science, Coding Science
Unit type: Coding Science Internship
Student role: Coding science interns
Phenomenon: Implementing a restoration project to improve the health of coral reef populations in Hawaii.
CORE
Ocean, Atmosphere, and Climate
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Climatologists
Phenomenon: During El Niño years, the air temperature in Christchurch, New Zealand is cooler than usual.
CORE
Weather Patterns
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Forensic meteorologists
Phenomenon: In recent years, rainstorms in Galetown have been unusually severe.
CORE
Earth’s Changing Climate
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Climatologists
Phenomenon: The ice on Earth’s surface is melting.
ENGINEERING INTERNSHIP
Earth’s Changing Climate Engineering Internship
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Civil engineers
Phenomenon: Designing rooftops with different modifications can reduce a city’s impact on climate change.
CORE
Earth, Moon, and Sun
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Astronomers
Phenomenon: An astrophotographer can only take pictures of specific features on the Moon at certain times.
CORE
Chemical Reactions
Domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Forensic chemists
Phenomenon: A mysterious brown substance has been detected in the tap water of Westfield.
CORE
Light Waves
Domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Spectroscopists
Phenomenon: The rate of skin cancer is higher in Australia than in other parts of the world.
CORE
Populations and Resources
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biologists
Phenomenon: The size of the moon jelly population in Glacier Sea has increased.
CORE
Matter and Energy in Ecosystems
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Ecologists
Phenomenon: The biodome ecosystem has collapsed.
CODING SCIENCE INTERNSHIP
Coding Science Internship: Coral Restoration (Optional)
Domains: Life Science, Coding Science
Unit type: Coding Science Internship
Student role: Coding science interns
Phenomenon: Implementing a restoration project to improve the health of coral reef populations in Hawaii.
LAUNCH
Geology on Mars
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Planetary geologists
Phenomenon: Analyzing data about landforms on Mars can provide evidence that Mars may have once been habitable.
CORE
Plate Motion
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Mesosaurus fossils have been found on continents separated by thousands of kilometers of ocean, even though the Mesosaurus species once lived all together.
ENGINEERING INTERNSHIP
Plate Motion Engineering Internship
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Mechanical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Patterns in earthquake data can be used to design an effective tsunami warning system.
CORE
Force and Motion
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Physicists
Phenomenon: The asteroid sample-collecting pod failed to dock at the space station as planned.
ENGINEERING INTERNSHIP
Force and Motion Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Physical Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Mechanical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Designing emergency supply delivery pods with different structures can maintain the integrity of the supply pods and their contents.
CORE
Magnetic Fields
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Physicists
Phenomenon: During a test launch, a spacecraft traveled much faster than expected.
CORE
Traits and Reproduction
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biomedical students
Phenomenon: Darwin’s bark spider offspring have different silk flexibility traits, even though they have the same parents.
CORE
Natural Selection
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biologists
Phenomenon: The newt population in Oregon State Park has become more poisonous over time.
ENGINEERING INTERNSHIP
Natural Selection Engineering Internship
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Student role: Clinical engineers
Phenomenon: Designing malaria treatment plans that use different combinations of drugs can reduce drug resistance development while helping malaria patients.
CORE
Rock Transformations (optional)
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Rock samples from the Great Plains and from the Rocky Mountains — regions hundreds of miles apart — look very different, but have surprisingly similar mineral compositions.
CORE
Evolutionary History
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Paleontologists
Phenomenon: A mystery fossil at the Natural History Museum has similarities with both wolves and whales.
CODING SCIENCE INTERNSHIP
Coding Science Internship: Coral Restoration (Optional)
Domains: Life Science, Coding Science
Unit type: Coding Science Internship
Student role: Coding science interns
Phenomenon: Implementing a restoration project to improve the health of coral reef populations in Hawaii.
Resources to support your review
Select a topic below to explore helpful resources with more information about Amplify Science, the program’s development, and pedagogy.
[Video] Planning in action (K–5)
Watch how easy it is for Amplify Science teachers to prep their 3-D instruction.
[Video] Planning in action (6–8)
Watch how easy it is for Amplify Science teachers to prep their 3-D instruction.
[Video] Simulations and modeling tools (K–5)
Watch how students investigate phenomena with the help of digital tools.
[Video] Simulations and modeling tools (6–8)
Watch how students investigate phenomena with the help of digital tools.
Summary of Investigations (K–5) coming soon
Explore the types of investigations that students conduct.
Summary of Investigations (6–8) coming soon
Explore the types of investigations that students conduct.
Remote and hybrid learning guide
Amplify is here to help! Amplify Science will soon feature product enhancements and new resources that will help manage the new landscape of back-to-school 2020.
Students ready for more
Learn how we make learning more rigorous for students ready for a challenge.
NGSS Benchmark assessments
Learn more about the Next Generation Science Standards Benchmark assessments created by Amplify.
Ready to explore with digital access and physical samples?
Start your digital review and request physical samples with these three easy steps.
- Note these Ohio specific login credentials for your digital access.
Username: t.ohscience@tryamplify.net
Password: AmplifyNumber1 - Click Review now.
- Complete the form and select Log in with Amplify to input the Ohio specific login.
Contact an Amplify representative
For any questions, fill out the form to the right and a member of our sales team will reach out to you soon.
Katie Cannon
Senior Account Executive
Casie Rayes
Account executive
Matt Paupore
Senior Account Executive
Welcome, Nebraska educators!
Designed from the ground up for the NGSS to teach students to think, read, write, and argue like real scientists and engineers, Amplify Science combines literacy-rich activities with hands-on learning and digital tools to engage students in exploring compelling phenomena in every unit.
Overview
Developed by UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science, our program features:
- A phenomena-based approach where students construct a more complex understanding of each unit’s anchor phenomenon.
- A blend of cohesive storylines, hands-on investigations, rich discussions, literacy-rich activities, and digital tools.
- Newly crafted units, chapters, lessons, and activities designed to deliver true 3-dimensional learning.
- An instructional design that supports all learners in accessing all standards.
Hear what these educators have to say about the program. >
Explore your grade level
Get started by watching this class share what they’re figuring out with Amplify Science. >
Then select your grade level below to learn more about how we make this type of rich learning accessible to all students at every grade.
Elementary school
When you’re ready:
- Find a summary of each unit below including each unit’s student role and anchor phenomenon.
- Download some helpful resources to support your review.
- Explore the digital Teacher’s Guide by clicking the orange “Review now” button.
Unit 1
Needs of Plants and Animals
Student role: Scientists
Phenomenon: There are no monarch caterpillars in the Mariposa Grove community garden ever since vegetables were planted.
Unit 2
Pushes and Pulls
Student role: Pinball engineers
Phenomenon: Pinball machines allow people to control the direction and strength of forces on a ball.
Unit 3
Sunlight and Weather
Student role: Weather scientists
Phenomenon: Students at one school are too cold during morning recess, while students at another are too hot during afternoon recess.
Unit 1
Animal and Plant Defenses
Student role: Marine scientists
Phenomenon: Spruce the Sea Turtle will soon be released back into the ocean, where she will survive despite predators.
Unit 2
Light and Sound
Student role: Light and sound engineers
Phenomenon: A puppet show company uses light and sound to depict realistic scenes in puppet shows.
Unit 3
Spinning Earth
Student role: Sky scientists
Phenomenon: The sky looks different to Sai and his grandma when they talk on the phone at night.
Unit 1
Plant and Animal Relationships
Student role: Plant scientists
Phenomenon: No new chalta trees are growing in the fictional Bengal Tiger Reserve in India.
Unit 2
Properties of Materials
Student role: Glue engineers
Phenomenon: Different glue recipes result in glues that have different properties.
Unit 3
Changing Landforms
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: The cliff on which Oceanside Recreation Center is situated appears to be receding.
Unit 1
Balancing Forces
Student role: Engineers
Phenomenon: The fictional town of Faraday is getting a new train. Unlike typical trains, this one floats, which is causing some concern among the town’s citizens.
Unit 2
Inheritance and Traits
Student role: Wildlife biologists
Phenomenon: An adopted wolf in Graystone National Park has some traits in common with one wolf pack in the park and other traits in common with a different pack.
Unit 3
Environments and Survival
Student role: Biomimicry engineers
Phenomenon: Over 10 years, a population of grove snails has changed. Populations with yellow shells have decreased, while those with banded shells have increased.
Unit 4
Weather and Climate
Student role: Meteorologists
Phenomenon: Three different islands, each a contender for becoming an orangutan reserve, experience different weather patterns.
Unit 1
Energy Conversions
Student role: System engineers
Phenomenon: The fictional town of Ergstown experiences frequent blackouts. Their electrical system seems to be failing.
Unit 2
Vision and Light
Student role: Conservation biologists
Phenomenon: The population of Tokay geckos in a rain forest in the Philippines has decreased since the installation of new highway lights.
Unit 3
Earth’s Features
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: A mysterious fossil is discovered in a canyon within the fictional Desert Rocks National Park.
Unit 4
Waves, Energy, and Information
Student role: Marine scientists
Phenomenon: Mother dolphins in the fictional Blue Bay National Park communicate with their calves despite the distance between them.
Unit 1
Patterns of Earth and Sky
Student role: Astronomers
Phenomenon: An ancient artifact depicts what we see in the sky at different times of the day, but it appears to be missing a piece.
Unit 2
Modeling Matter
Student role: Food scientists
Phenomenon: Some ingredients dissolve in a salad dressing while others, like oil and vinegar, appear to separate
Unit 3
The Earth System
Student role: Water resource engineers
Phenomenon: East Ferris, a city on one side of the fictional Ferris Island, is experiencing a water shortage, while West Ferris is not.
Unit 4
Ecosystem Restoration
Student role: Ecologists
Phenomenon: The jaguars, sloths, and cecropia trees in a reforested section of a Costa Rican rain forest are not growing or thriving.
Middle school
When you’re ready:
- Find a summary of each unit below including each unit’s student role and anchor phenomenon.
- Download some helpful resources to support your review.
- Explore the digital Teacher’s Guide by clicking the orange “Review now” button.
LAUNCH
Microbiome
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Microbiological researchers
Phenomenon: The presence of 100 trillion microorganisms living on and in the human body may keep the body healthy.
CORE
Metabolism
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Medical researchers
Phenomenon: Elisa, a young patient, feels tired all the time.
ENGINEERING INTERNSHIP
Metabolism Engineering Internship
Domains: Life Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Food engineers
Phenomenon: Designing health bars with different molecular compositions can effectively meet the metabolic needs of patients or rescue workers.
CORE
Traits and Reproduction
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biomedical students
Phenomenon: Darwin’s bark spider offspring have different silk flexibility traits, even though they have the same parents.
CORE
Thermal Energy
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Thermal scientists
Phenomenon: One of two proposed heating systems for Riverdale School will best heat the school.
CORE
Ocean, Atmosphere, and Climate
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Climatologists
Phenomenon: During El Niño years, the air temperature in Christchurch, New Zealand is cooler than usual.
CORE
Weather Patterns
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Forensic meteorologists
Phenomenon: In recent years, rainstorms in Galetown have been unusually severe.
CORE
Earth’s Changing Climate
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Climatologists
Phenomenon: The ice on Earth’s surface is melting.
Engineering Internship
Earth’s Changing Climate Engineering Internship
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Civil engineers
Phenomenon: Designing rooftops with different modifications can reduce a city’s impact on climate change.
LAUNCH
Geology on Mars
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Planetary geologists
Phenomenon: Analyzing data about landforms on Mars can provide evidence that Mars may have once been habitable.
CORE
Plate Motion
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Mesosaurus fossils have been found on continents separated by thousands of kilometers of ocean, even though the Mesosaurus species once lived all together.
ENGINEERING INTERNSHIP
Plate Motion Engineering Internship
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Mechanical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Patterns in earthquake data can be used to design an effective tsunami warning system.
CORE
Rock Transformations
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Rock samples from the Great Plains and from the Rocky Mountains — regions hundreds of miles apart — look very different, but have surprisingly similar mineral compositions.
CORE
Phase Change
Domains: Physical Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Chemists
Phenomenon: A methane lake on Titan no longer appears in images taken by a space probe two years apart.
ENGINEERING INTERNSHIP
Phase Change Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Physical Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Chemical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Designing portable baby incubators with different combinations of phase change materials can keep babies at a healthy temperature.
CORE
Chemical Reactions
Domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Forensic chemists
Phenomenon: A mysterious brown substance has been detected in the tap water of Westfield.
CORE
Populations and Resources
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biologists
Phenomenon: The size of the moon jelly population in Glacier Sea has increased.
CORE
Matter and Energy in Ecosystems
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Ecologists
Phenomenon: The biodome ecosystem has collapsed.
LAUNCH
Harnessing Human Energy
Domains: Physical Science, Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Energy scientists
Phenomenon: Rescue workers can use their own human kinetic energy to power the electrical devices they use during rescue missions.
CORE
Force and Motion
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Physicists
Phenomenon: The asteroid sample-collecting pod failed to dock at the space station as planned.
ENGINEERING INTERNSHIP
Force and Motion Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Physical Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Mechanical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Designing emergency supply delivery pods with different structures can maintain the integrity of the supply pods and their contents.
CORE
Magnetic Fields
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Physicists
Phenomenon: During a test launch, a spacecraft traveled much faster than expected.
CORE
Light Waves
Domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Spectroscopists
Phenomenon: The rate of skin cancer is higher in Australia than in other parts of the world.
CORE
Earth, Moon, and Sun
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Astronomers
Phenomenon: An astrophotographer can only take pictures of specific features on the Moon at certain times.
CORE
Natural Selection
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biologists
Phenomenon: The newt population in Oregon State Park has become more poisonous over time.
ENGINEERING INTERNSHIP
Natural Selection Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Life Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Clinical engineers
Phenomenon: Designing malaria treatment plans that use different combinations of drugs can reduce drug resistance development while helping malaria patients.
CORE
Evolutionary History
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Paleontologists
Phenomenon: A mystery fossil at the Natural History Museum has similarities with both wolves and whales.
Resources to support your review
Select a topic below to explore helpful resources with more information about Amplify Science, the program’s development, and pedagogy.
[Video] Planning in action (K–5)
Watch how easy it is for Amplify Science teachers to prep their 3-D instruction.
[Video] Planning in action (6–8)
Watch how easy it is for Amplify Science teachers to prep their 3-D instruction.
[Video] Simulations and modeling tools (K–5)
Watch how students investigate phenomena with the help of digital tools.
[Video] Simulations and modeling tools (6–8)
Watch how students investigate phenomena with the help of digital tools.
Students ready for more
Learn how we make learning more rigorous for students ready for a challenge.
[Video] Literacy in action (K–5)
Watch students use scientific text to obtain information and practice reading skills, while using writing prompts to create arguments using evidence
[Video] Literacy in action (6–8)
Watch students use scientific text to obtain information and practice reading skills, while using writing prompts to create arguments using evidence.
Literacy-rich science instruction (K–5)
Immersing young students in reading, writing, and arguing like real scientists and engineers.
NGSS Benchmark assessments
Learn more about the Next Generation Science Standards Benchmark assessments created by Amplify.
Remote and hybrid learning guide
Amplify is here to help! Amplify Science will soon feature product enhancements and new resources that will help manage the new landscape of back-to-school 2020.
Ready to start exploring with digital access?
Contact an Amplify representative
Laina Armbruster
larmbruster@amplify.com
(602) 791-4135
Bob McCarty
rmccarty@amplify.com
(435) 655-1731
Kristin McDonald
kmcdonald@amplify.com
(515) 240-0244
Review Materials
Teacher Reference Guides
It’s important that your committee sees the full breadth and depth of our instruction. For that reason, we provided a copy of each of our unit-specific Teacher Reference Guides. Before you panic, rest assured that teachers do not use these robust reference guides for day-to-day teaching. For that, we have a hands-free TG!
- Teacher Reference Guide: Unlike a typical TG that requires a series of supplemental books to support it, our encyclopedic reference guide is chock-full of everything a teacher needs to fully implement our program and the NGSS.
- Ready-to-Teach Digital Lessons: For daily instruction, teachers need their hands free. That’s why we created ready-to-teach lesson slides for every single lesson What’s more, they are editable and include suggested teacher talk and point-of-use differentiation and other instructional tips. Read this help article to learn more.
Hands-on kits
Every unit of our program includes a dedicated hands-on materials kit. Due to the amount of materials involved, we provided your committee two sample kits per grade level. Our unit-specific kits make material management easy for teachers—they grab the tub they need and then put it all back with ease. Plus, items needed for multiple units are duplicated and found in each tub.
Our unit-specific kits:
- Include more materials — We give you enough non-consumable materials to support 200 student uses.
- Are more manageable — Unlike other programs that require large groups of students to share limited sets of materials, our kits include enough to support small groups of 4–5 students.
- Include supportive videos — Each hands-on activity provides clear instructions for the teacher, with more complex activities supported by video demonstrations and illustrations.
Overview
Developed by UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science, our program features:
- A phenomena-based approach where students construct a more complex understanding of each unit’s anchor phenomenon.
- A blend of cohesive storylines, hands-on investigations, rich discussions, literacy-rich activities, and digital tools.
- Cohesive units, chapters, lessons, and activities designed to deliver true 3-dimensional learning.
- An instructional design that supports all learners in accessing all standards.
Hands-on investigations
Literacy integration
Simulations and modeling tools
Classroom discussions
EdReports All-Green
Amplify Science for grades K–8 has been rated all-green by EdReports.
Program structure
Our cyclical lesson design ensures students receive multiple exposures to concepts through a variety of modalities.
As they progress through the lessons within a unit, students build and deepen their understanding, increasing their ability to develop and refine complex explanations of the unit’s phenomenon. It’s this proven program structure and lesson design that enables Amplify Science to address 100% of the NGSS in fewer days than other programs.
Navigating an Engineering Internship (Part 2)
This Part 2 video demonstrates how to use the Futura Workspace to manage the immersive experience of the Engineering Internship units. This includes guidance on how to create student groups, how to review student work, and how to send students targeted feedback on their designs.
Unit sequence
Our lessons follow a structure that is grounded in regular routines while still being flexible enough to allow for a variety of learning experiences.
In fact, our multi-modal instruction offers more opportunities for students to construct meaning, and practice and apply concepts than any other program. What’s more, our modular design means our units can be flexibly arranged to support your instructional goals.
Unit 1
Microbiome
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Microbiological researchers
Phenomenon: The presence of 100 trillion microorganisms living on and in the human body may keep the body healthy.
Unit 2
Metabolism
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Medical researchers
Phenomenon: Elisa, a young patient, feels tired all the time.
Unit 3
Metabolism Engineering Internship
Domains: Life Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Food engineers
Phenomenon: Designing health bars with different molecular compositions can effectively meet the metabolic needs of patients or rescue workers.
Unit 4
Traits and Reproduction
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biomedical students
Phenomenon: Darwin’s bark spider offspring have different silk flexibility traits, even though they have the same parents.
Unit 5
Thermal Energy
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Thermal scientists
Phenomenon: One of two proposed heating systems for Riverdale School will best heat the school.
Unit 6
Ocean, Atmosphere, and Climate
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Climatologists
Phenomenon: During El Niño years, the air temperature in Christchurch, New Zealand is cooler than usual.
Unit 7
Weather Patterns
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Forensic meteorologists
Phenomenon: In recent years, rainstorms in Galetown have been unusually severe.
Unit 8
Earth’s Changing Climate
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Climatologists
Phenomenon: The ice on Earth’s surface is melting.
Unit 9
Earth’s Changing Climate Engineering Internship
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Civil engineers
Phenomenon: Designing rooftops with different modifications can reduce a city’s impact on climate change.
Unit 1
Geology on Mars
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Planetary geologists
Phenomenon: Analyzing data about landforms on Mars can provide evidence that Mars may have once been habitable.
Unit 2
Plate Motion
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Mesosaurus fossils have been found on continents separated by thousands of kilometers of ocean, even though the Mesosaurus species once lived all together.
Unit 3
Plate Motion Engineering Internship
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Mechanical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Patterns in earthquake data can be used to design an effective tsunami warning system.
Unit 4
Rock Transformations
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Rock samples from the Great Plains and from the Rocky Mountains — regions hundreds of miles apart — look very different, but have surprisingly similar mineral compositions.
Unit 5
Phase Change
Domains: Physical Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Chemists
Phenomenon: A methane lake on Titan no longer appears in images taken by a space probe two years apart.
Unit 6
Phase Change Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Physical Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Chemical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Designing portable baby incubators with different combinations of phase change materials can keep babies at a healthy temperature.
Unit 7
Chemical Reactions
Domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Forensic chemists
Phenomenon: A mysterious brown substance has been detected in the tap water of Westfield.
Unit 8
Populations and Resources
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biologists
Phenomenon: The size of the moon jelly population in Glacier Sea has increased.
Unit 9
Matter and Energy in Ecosystems
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Ecologists
Phenomenon: The biodome ecosystem has collapsed.
Unit 1
Harnessing Human Energy
Domains: Physical Science, Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Energy scientists
Phenomenon: Rescue workers can use their own human kinetic energy to power the electrical devices they use during rescue missions.
Unit 2
Force and Motion
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Physicists
Phenomenon: The asteroid sample-collecting pod failed to dock at the space station as planned.
Unit 3
Force and Motion Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Physical Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Mechanical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Designing emergency supply delivery pods with different structures can maintain the integrity of the supply pods and their contents.
Unit 4
Magnetic Fields
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Physicists
Phenomenon: During a test launch, a spacecraft traveled much faster than expected.
Unit 5
Light Waves
Domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Spectroscopists
Phenomenon: The rate of skin cancer is higher in Australia than in other parts of the world.
Unit 6
Earth, Moon, and Sun
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Astronomers
Phenomenon: An astrophotographer can only take pictures of specific features on the Moon at certain times.
Unit 7
Natural Selection
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biologists
Phenomenon: The newt population in Oregon State Park has become more poisonous over time.
Unit 8
Metabolism Engineering Internship
Domains: Life Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Food engineers
Phenomenon: Designing health bars with different molecular compositions can effectively meet the metabolic needs of patients or rescue workers.
Unit 9
Evolutionary History
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Paleontologists
Phenomenon: A mystery fossil at the Natural History Museum has similarities with both wolves and whales.
Access program
Watch the video to the right plus the ones below showing you how to navigate our digital platform. When you’re ready, follow the instructions below to log into our live demo account.
- Click the orange button below to access the platform.
- To explore as a teacher, enter this username (t1.washoemssci@demo.tryamplify.net) and this password ( Amplify1-washoemssci).
- To explore as a student, enter this username (s1.washoemssci@demo.tryamplify.net) and this password ( Amplify1-washoemssci).
- Choose your grade level from the drop-down menu.
Navigating an Engineering Internship (Part 1)
This Part 1 video demonstrates how Engineering Internship units invite students to design solutions for real-world problems as interns for a fictional company called Futura. In the process, they apply and deepen their learning from Core units.
Navigating an Engineering Internship (Part 2)
This Part 2 video demonstrates how to use the Futura Workspace to manage the immersive experience of the Engineering Internship units. This includes guidance on how to create student groups, how to review student work, and how to send students targeted feedback on their designs.
Navigating our reporting tools
Teachers of Amplify Science grades 6–8 have access to a feature called Reporting. When unit assessments are administered digitally, the Reporting tool enables teachers to analyze student performance on the unit assessments.
Differentiation post-assessment
Every core unit of Amplify Science 6–8 features a formal formative assessment opportunity at the mid-way point, or Critical Juncture, of the unit, which provides an important opportunity for differentiation.
Resources
A closer look at grades 6–8
Amplify Science California is based on the latest research on teaching and learning and helps teachers deliver rigorous and riveting lessons through hands-on investigations, literacy-rich activities, and interactive digital tools that empower students to think, read, write, and argue like real scientists.
In the 6–8 classroom, this looks like students:
- Collecting evidence from a variety of sources.
- Making sense of evidence in a variety of ways.
- Formulating convincing scientific arguments.
Is your school implementing the domain model? Click here.
Program structure
Our cyclical lesson design ensures students receive multiple exposures to concepts through a variety of modalities. As they progress through the lessons within a unit, students build and deepen their understanding, increasing their ability to develop and refine complex explanations of the unit’s phenomenon.
It’s this proven program structure and lesson design that enables Amplify Science California to teach less, but achieve more. Rather than asking teachers to wade through unnecessary content, we designed our 6–8 program to address 100% of the California NGSS in fewer lessons than other programs.
Scope and sequence
Every year our grades 6–8 sequence consists of 9 units, with each unit containing 10–19 lessons. Lessons are written to last a minimum of 45-minutes, though teachers can expand or contract the timing to meet their needs.
Unit types
Each unit delivers three-dimensional learning experiences and engages students in gathering evidence from a rich collection of sources, while also serving a unique purpose.
In grades 6–8, there are three types of units:
- One unit is a launch unit.
- Three units are core units.
- Two units are engineering internships.
Launch units
Launch units are the first units taught in each year of Amplify Science California. The goal of the Launch unit is to introduce students to norms, routines, and practices that will be built on throughout the year, including argumentation, active reading, and using the program’s technology. For example, rather than taking the time to explain the process of active reading in every unit in a given year, it is explained thoroughly in the Launch unit, thereby preparing students to read actively in all subsequent units.
Core units
Core units establish the context of the unit by introducing students to a real-world problem. As students move through lessons in a Core unit, they figure out the unit’s anchoring phenomenon, gain an understanding of the unit’s disciplinary core ideas and science and engineering practices, and make linkages across topics through the crosscutting concepts. Each Core unit culminates with a Science Seminar and final writing activity.
Engineering Internship units
Engineering Internship units invite students to design solutions for real-world problems as interns for a fictional company called Futura. Students figure out how to help those in need, from tsunami victims in Sri Lanka to premature babies, through the application of engineering practices. In the process, they apply and deepen their learning from Core units.
Units at a glance
Microbiome
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Microbiological researchers
Phenomenon: The presence of 100 trillion microorganisms living on and in the human body may keep the body healthy.
Metabolism
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Medical researchers
Phenomenon: Elisa, a young patient, feels tired all the time.
Metabolism Engineering Internship
Domains: Life Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Food engineers
Phenomenon: Designing health bars with different molecular compositions can effectively meet the metabolic needs of patients or rescue workers.
Traits and Reproduction
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biomedical students
Phenomenon: Darwin’s bark spider offspring have different silk flexibility traits, even though they have the same parents.
Thermal Energy
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Thermal scientists
Phenomenon: One of two proposed heating systems for Riverdale School will best heat the school.
Ocean, Atmosphere, and Climate
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Climatologists
Phenomenon: During El Niño years, the air temperature in Christchurch, New Zealand is cooler than usual.
Weather Patterns
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Forensic meteorologists
Phenomenon: In recent years, rainstorms in Galetown have been unusually severe.
Earth’s Changing Climate
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Climatologists
Phenomenon: The ice on Earth’s surface is melting.
Earth’s Changing Climate Engineering Internship
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Civil engineers
Phenomenon: Designing rooftops with different modifications can reduce a city’s impact on climate change.
Geology on Mars
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Planetary geologists
Phenomenon: Analyzing data about landforms on Mars can provide evidence that Mars may have once been habitable.
Plate Motion
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Mesosaurus fossils have been found on continents separated by thousands of kilometers of ocean, even though the Mesosaurus species once lived all together.
Plate Motion Engineering Internship
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Mechanical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Patterns in earthquake data can be used to design an effective tsunami warning system.
Rock Transformations
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Rock samples from the Great Plains and from the Rocky Mountains — regions hundreds of miles apart — look very different, but have surprisingly similar mineral compositions.
Phase Change
Domains: Physical Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Chemists
Phenomenon: A methane lake on Titan no longer appears in images taken by a space probe two years apart
Force and Motion Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Physical Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Mechanical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Designing emergency supply delivery pods with different structures can maintain the integrity of the supply pods and their contents.
Chemical Reactions
Domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Forensic chemists
Phenomenon: A mysterious brown substance has been detected in the tap water of Westfield.
Populations and Resources
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biologists
Phenomenon: The size of the moon jelly population in Glacier Sea has increased.
Matter and Energy in Ecosystems
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Ecologists
Phenomenon: The biodome ecosystem has collapsed.
Harnessing Human Energy
Domains: Physical Science, Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Energy scientists
Phenomenon: Rescue workers can use their own human kinetic energy to power the electrical devices they use during rescue missions.
Force and Motion
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Physicists
Phenomenon: The asteroid sample-collecting pod failed to dock at the space station as planned.
Phase Change Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Physical Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Chemical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Designing portable baby incubators with different combinations of phase change materials can keep babies at a healthy temperature.
Magnetic Fields
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Physicists
Phenomenon: During a test launch, a spacecraft traveled much faster than expected.
Light Waves
Domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Spectroscopists
Phenomenon: The rate of skin cancer is higher in Australia than in other parts of the world.
Earth, Moon, and Sun
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Astronomers
Phenomenon: An astrophotographer can only take pictures of specific features on the Moon at certain times.
Natural Selection
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biologists
Phenomenon: The newt population in Oregon State Park has become more poisonous over time.
Natural Selection Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Life Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Clinical engineers
Phenomenon: Designing malaria treatment plans that use different combinations of drugs can reduce drug resistance development while helping malaria patients.
Evolutionary History
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Paleontologists
Phenomenon: A mystery fossil at the Natural History Museum has similarities with both wolves and whales.
Resources
A closer look at grades 6–8 (domain)
Amplify Science California is based on the latest research on teaching and learning and helps teachers deliver rigorous and riveting lessons through hands-on investigations, literacy-rich activities, and interactive digital tools that empower students to think, read, write, and argue like real scientists.
In the 6–8 classroom, this looks like students:
- Collecting evidence from a variety of sources.
- Making sense of evidence in a variety of ways.
- Formulating convincing scientific arguments.
Is your school implementing the integrated model? Click here.
Program structure
Our cyclical lesson design ensures students receive multiple exposures to concepts through a variety of modalities. As they progress through the lessons within a unit, students build and deepen their understanding, increasing their ability to develop and refine complex explanations of the unit’s phenomenon.
It’s this proven program structure and lesson design that enables Amplify Science California to teach less, but achieve more. Rather than asking teachers to wade through unnecessary content, we designed our 6–8 program to address 100% of the California NGSS in fewer lessons than other programs.
Scope and sequence
Every year of our grades 6–8 sequence consists of 9 units, with each unit containing 10–19 lessons. Lessons are written to last a minimum of 45 minutes, though teachers can expand or contract the timing to meet their needs.
Unit types
Each unit delivers three-dimensional learning experiences and engages students in gathering evidence from a rich collection of sources, while also serving a unique purpose.
In grades 6–8, there are three types of units:
- One unit is a launch unit.
- Three units are core units.
- Two units are engineering internships.
Launch units
Launch units are the first units taught in each year of Amplify Science California. The goal of the Launch unit is to introduce students to norms, routines, and practices that will be built on throughout the year, including argumentation, active reading, and using the program’s technology. For example, rather than taking the time to explain the process of active reading in every unit in a given year, it is explained thoroughly in the Launch unit, thereby preparing students to actively read in all subsequent units.
Core units
Core units establish the context of the unit by introducing students to a real-world problem. As students move through lessons in a Core unit, they figure out the unit’s anchoring phenomenon, gain an understanding of the unit’s disciplinary core ideas and science and engineering practices, and make linkages across topics through the crosscutting concepts. Each Core unit culminates with a Science Seminar and final writing activity.
Engineering Internship units
Engineering Internship units invite students to design solutions for real-world problems as interns for a fictional company called Futura. Students figure out how to help those in need, from tsunami victims in Sri Lanka to premature babies, through the application of engineering practices. In the process, they apply and deepen their learning from Core units.
Units at a glance
Geology on Mars
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Planetary geologists
Phenomenon: Analyzing data about landforms on Mars can provide evidence that Mars may have once been habitable.
Plate Motion
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Mesosaurus fossils have been found on continents separated by thousands of kilometers of ocean, even though the Mesosaurus species once lived all together.
Plate Motion Engineering Internship
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Mechanical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Patterns in earthquake data can be used to design an effective tsunami warning system.
Rock Transformations
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Rock samples from the Great Plains and from the Rocky Mountains — regions hundreds of miles apart — look very different, but have surprisingly similar mineral compositions.
Earth, Sun, and Moon
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Astronomers
Phenomenon: An astrophotographer can only take pictures of specific features on the Moon at certain times.
Ocean, Atmosphere, and Climate
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Climatologists
Phenomenon: During El Niño years, the air temperature in Christchurch, New Zealand is cooler than usual.
Weather Patterns
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Forensic meteorologists
Phenomenon: In recent years, rainstorms in Galetown have been unusually severe.
Earth’s Changing Climate
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Climatologists
Phenomenon: The ice on Earth’s surface is melting.
Earth’s Changing Climate Engineering Internship
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Civil engineers
Phenomenon: Designing rooftops with different modifications can reduce a city’s impact on climate change.
Microbiome
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Microbiological researchers
Phenomenon: The presence of 100 trillion microorganisms living on and in the human body may keep the body healthy.
Metabolism
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Medical researchers
Phenomenon: Elisa, a young patient, feels tired all the time.
Metabolism Engineering Internship
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Food engineers
Phenomenon: Designing health bars with different molecular compositions can effectively meet the metabolic needs of patients or rescue workers.
Traits and Reproduction
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biomedical students
Phenomenon: Darwin’s bark spider offspring have different silk flexibility traits, even though they have the same parents.
Populations and Resources
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biologists
Phenomenon: The size of the moon jelly population in Glacier Sea has increased.
Matter and Energy in Ecosystems
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Ecologists
Phenomenon: What caused the mysterious crash of a biodome ecosystem?
Natural Selection
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biologists
Phenomenon: The newt population in Oregon State Park has become more poisonous over time.
Natural Selection Engineering Internship
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Clinical engineers
Phenomenon: Designing malaria treatment plans that use different combinations of drugs can reduce drug resistance development while helping malaria patients.
Evolutionary History
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Paleontologists
Phenomenon: A mystery fossil at the Natural History Museum has similarities with both wolves and whales.
Harnessing Human Energy
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Energy scientists
Phenomenon: Rescue workers can use their own human kinetic energy to power the electrical devices they use during rescue missions.
Force and Motion
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Physicists
Phenomenon: The asteroid sample-collecting pod failed to dock at the space station as planned.
Force and Motion Engineering Internship
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Mechanical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Designing emergency supply delivery pods with different structures can maintain the integrity of the supply pods and their contents.
Magnetic Fields
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Physicists
Phenomenon: During a test launch, a spacecraft traveled much faster than expected.
Thermal Energy
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Thermal scientists
Phenomenon: One of two proposed heating systems for Riverdale School will best heat the school.
Phase Change
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Chemists
Phenomenon: A methane lake on Titan no longer appears in images taken by a space probe two years apart.
Phase Change Engineering Internship
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Chemical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Designing portable baby incubators with different combinations of phase change materials can keep babies at a healthy temperature.
Chemical Reactions
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Forensic chemists
Phenomenon: A mysterious brown substance has been detected in the tap water of Westfield.
Light Waves
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Spectroscopists
Phenomenon: The rate of skin cancer is higher in Australia than in other parts of the world.
Resources
A closer look at grades 6–8
Amplify Science is based on the latest research on teaching and learning and helps teachers deliver rigorous and riveting lessons through hands-on investigations, literacy-rich activities, and interactive digital tools that empower students to think, read, write, and argue like real scientists.
In the 6–8 classroom, this looks like students:
- Collecting evidence from a variety of sources.
- Making sense of evidence in a variety of ways.
- Formulating convincing scientific arguments.
Is your school implementing the domain model? Click here.
Program structure
Our cyclical lesson design ensures students receive multiple exposures to concepts through a variety of modalities. As they progress through the lessons within a unit, students build and deepen their understanding, increasing their ability to develop and refine complex explanations of the unit’s phenomenon.
It’s this proven program structure and lesson design that enables Amplify Science to teach less, but achieve more. Rather than asking teachers to wade through unnecessary content, we designed our 6–8 program to address 100% of the NGSS in fewer lessons than other programs.
Scope and sequence
Every year our grades 6–8 sequence consists of 9 units, with each unit containing 10–19 lessons. Lessons are written to last a minimum of 45-minutes, though teachers can expand or contract the timing to meet their needs.
Unit types
Each unit delivers three-dimensional learning experiences and engages students in gathering evidence from a rich collection of sources, while also serving a unique purpose.
In grades 6–8, there are three types of units:
- One unit is a launch unit.
- Three units are core units.
- Two units are engineering internships.
Launch units
Launch units are the first units taught in each year of Amplify Science. The goal of the Launch unit is to introduce students to norms, routines, and practices that will be built on throughout the year, including argumentation, active reading, and using the program’s technology. For example, rather than taking the time to explain the process of active reading in every unit in a given year, it is explained thoroughly in the Launch unit, thereby preparing students to read actively in all subsequent units.
Core units
Core units establish the context of the unit by introducing students to a real-world problem. As students move through lessons in a Core unit, they figure out the unit’s anchoring phenomenon, gain an understanding of the unit’s disciplinary core ideas and science and engineering practices, and make linkages across topics through the crosscutting concepts. Each Core unit culminates with a Science Seminar and final writing activity.
Engineering Internship units
Engineering Internship units invite students to design solutions for real-world problems as interns for a fictional company called Futura. Students figure out how to help those in need, from tsunami victims in Sri Lanka to premature babies, through the application of engineering practices. In the process, they apply and deepen their learning from Core units.
Units at a glance
Microbiome
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Microbiological researchers
Phenomenon: The presence of 100 trillion microorganisms living on and in the human body may keep the body healthy.
Metabolism
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Medical researchers
Phenomenon: Elisa, a young patient, feels tired all the time.
Metabolism Engineering Internship
Domains: Life Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Food engineers
Phenomenon: Designing health bars with different molecular compositions can effectively meet the metabolic needs of patients or rescue workers.
Traits and Reproduction
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biomedical students
Phenomenon: Darwin’s bark spider offspring have different silk flexibility traits, even though they have the same parents.
Thermal Energy
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Thermal scientists
Phenomenon: One of two proposed heating systems for Riverdale School will best heat the school.
Ocean, Atmosphere, and Climate
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Climatologists
Phenomenon: During El Niño years, the air temperature in Christchurch, New Zealand is cooler than usual.
Weather Patterns
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Forensic meteorologists
Phenomenon: In recent years, rainstorms in Galetown have been unusually severe.
Earth’s Changing Climate
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Climatologists
Phenomenon: The ice on Earth’s surface is melting.
Earth’s Changing Climate Engineering Internship
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Civil engineers
Phenomenon: Designing rooftops with different modifications can reduce a city’s impact on climate change.
Geology on Mars
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Planetary geologists
Phenomenon: Analyzing data about landforms on Mars can provide evidence that Mars may have once been habitable.
Plate Motion
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Mesosaurus fossils have been found on continents separated by thousands of kilometers of ocean, even though the Mesosaurus species once lived all together.
Plate Motion Engineering Internship
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Mechanical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Patterns in earthquake data can be used to design an effective tsunami warning system.
Rock Transformations
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Rock samples from the Great Plains and from the Rocky Mountains — regions hundreds of miles apart — look very different, but have surprisingly similar mineral compositions.
Phase Change
Domains: Physical Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Chemists
Phenomenon: A methane lake on Titan no longer appears in images taken by a space probe two years apart
Force and Motion Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Physical Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Chemical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Designing portable baby incubators with different combinations of phase change materials can keep babies at a healthy temperature. Domains: Engineering Design, Physical Science
Chemical Reactions
Domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Forensic chemists
Phenomenon: A mysterious brown substance has been detected in the tap water of Westfield.
Populations and Resources
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biologists
Phenomenon: The size of the moon jelly population in Glacier Sea has increased.
Matter and Energy in Ecosystems
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Ecologists
Phenomenon: The biodome ecosystem has collapsed.
Harnessing Human Energy
Domains: Physical Science, Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Energy scientists
Phenomenon: Rescue workers can use their own human kinetic energy to power the electrical devices they use during rescue missions.
Force and Motion
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Physicists
Phenomenon: The asteroid sample-collecting pod failed to dock at the space station as planned.
Force and Motion Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Physical Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Chemical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Designing emergency supply delivery pods with different structures can maintain the integrity of the supply pods and their contents.
Magnetic Fields
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Physicists
Phenomenon: During a test launch, a spacecraft traveled much faster than expected.
Light Waves
Domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Spectroscopists
Phenomenon: The rate of skin cancer is higher in Australia than in other parts of the world.
Earth, Moon, and Sun
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Astronomers
Phenomenon: An astrophotographer can only take pictures of specific features on the Moon at certain times.
Natural Selection
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biologists
Phenomenon: The newt population in Oregon State Park has become more poisonous over time.
Natural Selection Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Life Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Clinical engineers
Phenomenon: Designing malaria treatment plans that use different combinations of drugs can reduce drug resistance development while helping malaria patients.
Evolutionary History
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Paleontologists
Phenomenon: A mystery fossil at the Natural History Museum has similarities with both wolves and whales.
Resources
A closer look at grades 6–8 (domain)
Amplify Science is based on the latest research on teaching and learning and helps teachers deliver rigorous and riveting lessons through hands-on investigations, literacy-rich activities, and interactive digital tools that empower students to think, read, write, and argue like real scientists.
In the 6–8 classroom, this looks like students:
- Collecting evidence from a variety of sources.
- Making sense of evidence in a variety of ways.
- Formulating convincing scientific arguments.
Is your school implementing the domain model? Click here.
Program structure
Our cyclical lesson design ensures students receive multiple exposures to concepts through a variety of modalities. As they progress through the lessons within a unit, students build and deepen their understanding, increasing their ability to develop and refine complex explanations of the unit’s phenomenon.
It’s this proven program structure and lesson design that enables Amplify Science to teach less, but achieve more. Rather than asking teachers to wade through unnecessary content, we designed our 6–8 program to address 100% of the NGSS in fewer lessons than other programs.
Scope and sequence
Every year our grades 6–8 sequence consists of 9 units, with each unit containing 10–19 lessons. Lessons are written to last a minimum of 45-minutes, though teachers can expand or contract the timing to meet their needs.
Unit types
Each unit delivers three-dimensional learning experiences and engages students in gathering evidence from a rich collection of sources, while also serving a unique purpose.
In grades 6–8, there are three types of units:
- One unit is a launch unit.
- Three units are core units.
- Two units are engineering internships.
Launch units
Launch units are the first units taught in each year of Amplify Science. The goal of the Launch unit is to introduce students to norms, routines, and practices that will be built on throughout the year, including argumentation, active reading, and using the program’s technology. For example, rather than taking the time to explain the process of active reading in every unit in a given year, it is explained thoroughly in the Launch unit, thereby preparing students to actively read in all subsequent units.
Core units
Core units establish the context of the unit by introducing students to a real-world problem. As students move through lessons in a Core unit, they figure out the unit’s anchoring phenomenon, gain an understanding of the unit’s disciplinary core ideas and science and engineering practices, and make linkages across topics through the crosscutting concepts. Each Core unit culminates with a Science Seminar and final writing activity.
Engineering Internship units
Engineering Internship units invite students to design solutions for real-world problems as interns for a fictional company called Futura. Students figure out how to help those in need, from tsunami victims in Sri Lanka to premature babies, through the application of engineering practices. In the process, they apply and deepen their learning from Core units.
Units at a glance
Geology on Mars
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Planetary geologists
Phenomenon: Analyzing data about landforms on Mars can provide evidence that Mars may have once been habitable.
Plate Motion
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Mesosaurus fossils have been found on continents separated by thousands of kilometers of ocean, even though the Mesosaurus species once lived all together.
Plate Motion Engineering Internship
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Mechanical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Patterns in earthquake data can be used to design an effective tsunami warning system.
Rock Transformations
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Rock samples from the Great Plains and from the Rocky Mountains — regions hundreds of miles apart — look very different, but have surprisingly similar mineral compositions.
Earth, Sun, and Moon
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Astronomers
Phenomenon: An astrophotographer can only take pictures of specific features on the Moon at certain times.
Ocean, Atmosphere, and Climate
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Climatologists
Phenomenon: During El Niño years, the air temperature in Christchurch, New Zealand is cooler than usual.
Weather Patterns
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Forensic meteorologists
Phenomenon: In recent years, rainstorms in Galetown have been unusually severe.
Earth’s Changing Climate
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Climatologists
Phenomenon: The ice on Earth’s surface is melting.
Earth’s Changing Climate Engineering Internship
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Civil engineers
Phenomenon: Designing rooftops with different modifications can reduce a city’s impact on climate change.
Microbiome
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Microbiological researchers
Phenomenon: The presence of 100 trillion microorganisms living on and in the human body may keep the body healthy.
Metabolism
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Medical researchers
Phenomenon: Elisa, a young patient, feels tired all the time.
Metabolism Engineering Internship
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Food engineers
Phenomenon: Designing health bars with different molecular compositions can effectively meet the metabolic needs of patients or rescue workers.
Traits and Reproduction
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biomedical students
Phenomenon: Darwin’s bark spider offspring have different silk flexibility traits, even though they have the same parents.
Populations and Resources
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biologists
Phenomenon: The size of the moon jelly population in Glacier Sea has increased.
Matter and Energy in Ecosystems
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Ecologists
Phenomenon: What caused the mysterious crash of a biodome ecosystem?
Natural Selection
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biologists
Phenomenon: The newt population in Oregon State Park has become more poisonous over time.
Natural Selection Engineering Internship
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Clinical engineers
Phenomenon: Designing malaria treatment plans that use different combinations of drugs can reduce drug resistance development while helping malaria patients.
Evolutionary History
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Paleontologists
Phenomenon: A mystery fossil at the Natural History Museum has similarities with both wolves and whales.
Harnessing Human Energy
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Energy scientists
Phenomenon: Rescue workers can use their own human kinetic energy to power the electrical devices they use during rescue missions.
Force and Motion
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Physicists
Phenomenon: The asteroid sample-collecting pod failed to dock at the space station as planned.
Force and Motion Engineering Internship
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Mechanical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Designing emergency supply delivery pods with different structures can maintain the integrity of the supply pods and their contents.
Magnetic Fields
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Physicists
Phenomenon: During a test launch, a spacecraft traveled much faster than expected.
Thermal Energy
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Thermal scientists
Phenomenon: One of two proposed heating systems for Riverdale School will best heat the school.
Phase Change
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Chemists
Phenomenon: A methane lake on Titan no longer appears in images taken by a space probe two years apart.
Phase Change Engineering Internship
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Chemical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Designing portable baby incubators with different combinations of phase change materials can keep babies at a healthy temperature.
Chemical Reactions
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Forensic chemists
Phenomenon: A mysterious brown substance has been detected in the tap water of Westfield.
Light Waves
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Spectroscopists
Phenomenon: The rate of skin cancer is higher in Australia than in other parts of the world.
Resources
Your Beyond My Years 2024 recap!
In August of last year, our teaching podcast Beyond My Years took its first steps—and in no time we were exploring a lot of new territory on our journey to soak up teacher advice and wisdom from seasoned educators across the globe. Their experiences became our experiences. So let’s recap some of the top moments of 2024.
In 2024 on Beyond My Years we:
Traveled 3,469 miles to Stasia, Alaska.
We ventured all the way to the northernmost part of Alaska alongside Patti and Rod Lloyd to teach in a rural indigenous community. Joining such a rich and unique culture as outsiders taught Patti and Rod the importance of learning from their students.
“Even though they’re coming to me at five and six years old, they are coming with a lot of rich knowledge that I don’t have. And if I remain open and work with them, I’ve got a lot to learn.” —Rod Lloyd
Went back to school at the age of 80.
When the United Kingdom put out a call in 2020 for retired educators to return to aid a national shortage, Eric Jones knew he still had more left to teach, even at the age of 80! He knows that to stay in the education field as long as he has you need to celebrate and honor all areas of what a teacher does. When you honor every piece of the work you can do, you can make sure every moment stays aligned with your goals and serves your students.
“I like teaching kids things they didn’t know before and now they’re excited about. I love the idea that they will then move on into realms of industry and economic success that I would never dream of.” —Eric Jones
Shared our first Amplify podcast episode entirely in Spanish.
We even had our first bonus episode entirely in Spanish with Luz Selenia Muñoz. She taught us that some things transcend language—like the importance of knowing the “why” behind student behavior. According to Luz, whether your classroom is monolingual or multilingual, it is important to make connections with your students. You will see what they need and know what their triggers are. Behavior improves when you understand what your kids are going through.
“Yo creo que le diría que tenga paciencia. Paciencia. Que respire. Que las cosas van a mejorar cada día.” —Luz Selenia Muñoz
“I think I would tell them to be patient. Be patient. Breathe. Things will change for the better with every passing day.” —Luz Selenia Muñoz
Took time for ourselves.
Kamphet Pease called out the overachiever in all of us educators. An important piece of teacher advocacy: We all took a hard look at our school to-do lists together and recognized that we have to do better at prioritization—including prioritizing self-care.
“Make sure you take care of yourself as well. Take the time to go for a walk, take the time to take a bubble bath, cook for yourself, whatever you find enjoyment in.” —Kamphet Pease
Want even more of the best of the best from season one of Beyond My Years, which is brought to you by the team that produces Science of Reading: The Podcast? Download our key takeaways, a curated collection of invaluable wisdom and practical guidance from our lineup of inspiring educator guests.
More to explore:
Welcome to Amplify Science!
Amplify Science is a highly engaging, phenomena-based program for grades K–8 that integrates the latest practices in science teaching and learning, as well as interactive digital tools and hands-on activities, to teach students how to think, read, write, and argue like real scientists and engineers.
About the program
Each unit of Amplify Science engages students in a relevant, real-world problem where they investigate scientific phenomena, engage in collaboration and discussion, and develop models or explanations in order to arrive at solutions.
The program includes hands-on activities, print materials, and powerful digital tools to support online and offline teaching and learning. Highly adaptable and user-friendly, the program gives schools and individual teachers flexibility based on their technology resources and preferences.
In every unit, students take on the role of scientists or engineers—marine biologists, geologists, water resource engineers, and more—to solve a real-world problem. These engaging roles and problems provide relevant contexts through which students investigate phenomena.
A powerful partnership
Amplify Science was developed by the science education experts at UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science and the digital learning team at Amplify. As the Hall’s first curriculum designed to address the new science standards, Amplify Science reflects state-of-the-art practices in science teaching and learning.
Amplify Science is rooted in the Lawrence Hall of Science’s Do, Talk, Read, Write, Visualize model of learning. This research-based approach presents students with multiple modalities through which to explore the curriculum.
K–5 sample
In Balancing Forces, students are challenged to figure out how a floating train works in order to explain it to the citizens of the fictional city Faraday.
- Learn more about phenomena and the student roles of scientists and engineers across all units in grades K–5.
- Learn more about the Student Books written exclusively for Amplify Science for grades K–5.
- Learn more about the program structure of Amplify Science for grades K–5.
Hear from teachers about why they love Amplify Science:
6–8 sample
Metabolism (Grade 6/Life Science)
Inhabiting the role of medical students in a hospital, students are able to draw the connections between the large-scale, macro-level experiences of the body and the micro-level processes that make the body function as they first diagnose a patient and then analyze the metabolism of world-class athletes.
- Learn more about phenomena and the student roles of scientists and engineers across all units in grades 6–8.
- Learn more about the digital simulations in grades 4–8 of Amplify Science.
- Learn more about the program structure of Amplify Science for grades 6–8.
Hear from teachers about why they love Amplify Science:
Learn more
Ready to learn more?
Fill out the form to talk with a program expert, request a physical sample, or simply receive additional educational emails about Amplify Science.
Write better feedback for better math learning.
Research suggests that Black and Latino students pay attention to what teachers say about their work in math class, and that teacher feedback can affect their learning, motivation, and sense of belonging. Learn how to give better feedback with AI.
Overview
With support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Amplify researched the features of effective feedback for underrepresented minority students and used that research to create a generative AI tool that helps teachers give students feedback about math.
This project resulted in the following work:
- Two literature reviews about feedback in mathematics, especially for underrepresented minority students.
- A prompt for a large language model (LLM) that would take in written feedback and offer feedback on the feedback, helping its author learn principles of effective feedback using principles of effective feedback.
- A professional development activity in the Desmos Classroom platform that engages teachers in writing feedback messages about student thinking and receiving feedback on their feedback via an API call to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Literature reviews
We asked researchers to review literature about feedback, especially for underrepresented minority students. The researchers compiled the following literature reviews:
Stereotype Threat and Feedback (Picho-Kiroga)
Teacher Feedback: A Brief Literature Review (Good)
LLM prompt
We wrote an LLM prompt designed to take in the following context:
- The text of a math problem
- A student’s response to the problem
- A teacher’s feedback to the student
- The principles of effective feedback we distilled from the literature reviews
The prompt gives teachers feedback on their feedback, helping them learn to give effective feedback using the principles of effective feedback. The prompt and sample response:
You are a helpful and patient mathematics instructional coach who needs to support teachers who are trying to give feedback to their students on mathematics problems.
You will give feedback to teachers helping them give more effective feedback to their students. Your goal is to help teachers improve their feedback using several principles. It is important that you also use these principles when you give feedback to the teachers.
First, feedback must communicate high standards and the message that a person is capable of meeting high standards. Those responses might look like:
- “I am giving you these comments because I have very high expectations and I know that you can reach them.”
- “The expectations in this course are high and I know you can do great work. The feedback here is designed to help you get there.”
Second, feedback must emphasize mastery goals rather than performance goals. Feedback that incorporates mastery goals:
- Is specific and substantive rather than one that is comparative/fosters competition.
- Encourages perseverance, focuses on development of competence on the relevant topic and/or domain.
- Acknowledges (praises) effort, improvement, and tells the person what is right about their work.
- Emphasizes achieving a standard relative to mastery of content and prior performance, rather than focusing on relative performance (comparison to others).
Third, feedback needs to be in language that the person receiving it can easily understand. Feedback to students should be written at a level that a grade 6 student can read and understand. Feedback to teachers should be written at a level that a grade 12 student can read and understand.
The feedback should be concise. It should not tell the teacher the exact feedback to offer. Rather it should ask a question designed to help them think more about the principles of effective feedback we have described above.
For context, you will receive a [mathematics problem], [student response], [teacher feedback message]. Here is an example of how you can support a teacher with providing feedback that follows the principles of effective feedback:
[mathematics problem] Write the equation of this line. The line is given by the equation y = ⅔ x + 4
[student response] y = 3/2 x + 4
[teacher feedback message] That is incorrect. Try again.
Your feedback to the teacher might be:
Giving effective feedback is challenging and all of us can learn it. Here you told the student their answer is incorrect, which is important information, but doesn’t tell them what part of the task they got right. Can you change your feedback to emphasize an area where they are correct or, if you don’t see anything correct, to give them a first question to help them start?
Given the following a [mathematics problem], [student response], and [teacher feedback message], write a three-to-five sentence message to the teacher that gives them feedback on their feedback and provides an example.
Teacher professional development activity
The OpenAI ChatGPT interface could help teachers develop more effective feedback, but working with it is more complex too. Teachers must input a math question, a student answer, and their original message into the context window.
We wanted to simplify that process by embedding an API call to ChatGPT in an environment that automatically collects and injects the context information. To do that, we used the Desmos Classroom Activity Builder, the same platform we use to author our Desmos Math 6-A1 curriculum.
In the professional development activity we created, teachers think about how students might respond to common math questions in middle school. They brainstorm their own responses to common wrong answers. And then they receive feedback from a helpful generative AI agent.
Prototype: AI-enhanced Feedback Support
Desmos Math contains an interface that lets teachers write feedback to students through its software platform. We created an activity that would a) help teachers learn how to give asset-based mathematics feedback, b) introduce educators to the affordances of AI in their practice.
To use the activity:
- Click this activity link.
- Log in with a Google or Amplify account.
You will interact with ideas about feedback and several incorrect student answers. When you give your feedback on those student answers, you’ll receive AI-generated feedback on your feedback. You can revise and resubmit multiple times.
User Testing: Report of Results
We invited middle school mathematics teachers to participate in this teacher feedback activity through one of our email communications. 95 teachers responded affirmatively and 44 of them ultimately participated. They accessed the activity and completed a survey about their experience.
Overall, we have significant qualitative evidence in survey responses that teachers are interested in learning more about giving effective feedback and that they are at least curious about generative AI. This particular instantiation has significant room for improvement and we will continue to investigate ways to improve the kinds of feedback Black and Latino students receive from their teachers. Read more in the below report.
Asset-oriented AI feedback for Black & Latino students at scale: Results of user testing
Contact us
What does problem-based math learning unlock for students? Part 1
Webinar series recap, part 1 of 3
Problem-based math learning helps teachers set the stage for memorable learning experiences and transfer the responsibility for the learning to students, which has been shown to help develop students’ problem-solving and math reasoning skills.
Our webinar series explores how this type of instruction engages all students in grade-level math every day, and how instructors can go about implementing problem-based learning in the classroom. In part 1 of the webinar series, award-winning teacher Kristin Gray asks—and answers—the question: What does problem-based learning unlock for students?
Experience and explanation form a learning cycle
Imagine you’ve just gotten a new piece of technology: a phone, a TV, a computer. How do you learn to use it? Do you read the entire user guide first? Jump in and never touch the guide? Or turn it on and try some things, referencing the guide as needed?
If the last option sounds like you, that’s very common—and it’s an example of learning through problem-solving.
“It’s something we naturally do,” says Gray. “We’ve had a phone before so we would pick up this new phone and try doing things that we know worked on our last phone, and then we would experiment: Does it work the same on this phone? This bouncing between experience and explanation is really the foundation of how we learn through problem-solving.”
What learning through problem-solving looks like in the math classroom
If we think of instructional methods in the math classroom along a spectrum, on one end we might have a classroom where students are left to solve a problem and discover the relevant math on their own. On the other end, the instructional method might be to show students how to get the answer and then practice doing similar problems.
The methods at both extremes are challenging, and it’s hard for instructors to go from one to the other, says Gray. “We need to install a soft landing space in the middle of these extremes—and we can think of that space as learning through problem-solving, or problem-based learning.”
What does that look like in the math classroom?
Students will tackle interesting problems, raise questions about the math required, receive an explanation, and apply it back to the problem—as with the example of learning new technology.
“When we show students how to get the answer, we send the message that math is solely about answer-getting and learning processes. Answers are important, but we want to use problems to teach the math, not just teach students to get the answer,” says Gray.
Practice is also key, she adds: “This place in the middle pulls the best from both extremes and puts them into a structure that supports teachers in teaching and students in learning.”
Why students should learn through problem-solving
Learning through problem-solving has the potential to engage all learners in math, says Gray. It influences the way teachers and students think of themselves as mathematicians and what it means to know and do math.
In the 2000 NAEP survey, 70 percent of fourth and eighth graders reported that they enjoy activities that challenge their thinking, and enjoy thinking about problems in new ways.
“Students are already naturally curious and like solving challenges and trying things in new ways, so that’s a great start,” says Gray.
“No matter how kindly, clearly, patiently, or slowly teachers explain, they cannot make students understand,” says Gray. “Understanding takes place in the student’s mind as they connect new information with previously developed ideas. Teachers can help, but understanding is a by-product of solving problems.”
Add understanding is motivating. It inspires perseverance and confidence. It supports making connections, not learning concepts in isolation.
When students are given a new problem and are able to use prior knowledge to help solve it, that “promotes the development of autonomous learners,” says Gray.
How Amplify Math supports problem-based learning
Amplify Math supports teachers in the planning and delivery of problem-based lessons. It also enables teachers to monitor student progress and differentiate instruction based on real-time data.
Lessons start with warm-ups that tap into prior knowledge and move into problems that require collaboration to solve. Teachers monitor, engage, and ultimately synthesize student work into the main idea. There are also ample opportunities for practice and reflection.
Learn more about Amplify Desmos Math.
Register to watch the rest of the series here.
Visit Gray’s site, Math Minds, here.
The power of phenomena in the science classroom
In conversation, something “phenomenal” is something exceptional, extraordinary.
But in science, an event does not have to be “phenomenal” for it to be a phenomenon.
In fact, a phenomenon in science can be as ordinary and predictable as gravity.
To qualify as a scientific phenomenon, an event simply has to be observable.
That is, a scientific phenomenon is an observable event that occurs in the universe. It’s something we can use our science knowledge to explain or predict. Examples of science phenomena include the erosion of dunes or soil, or the formation of bubbles or ice.
And you know what else is observable? The positive impact of phenomena-based learning on the science classroom. That’s why phenomena-based learning is baked into the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
Let’s take a look at why the power of science phenomena to deliver engagement and learning is, dare we say, extraordinary!
The power of phenomena-based learning in science
Many of us learned science a different way, by starting with a general or abstract principle then applying it in the real world.
But when you start with phenomena in science, you start with the observable real-world event. You ask questions: Why is brown water coming out of the pipes built for drinking water? Where did all the monarch butterflies go? You help students see why science is relevant, right from the outset of the inquiry.
Even everyday phenomena—like sunburns, or vision loss—can generate real learning opportunities. Explaining phenomena and designing solutions helps students learn in context, leading to deeper and more transferable knowledge.
The challenge of predicting or explaining the phenomenon becomes the motivation for learning. And it has the added benefit of being how real scientists proceed with their work!
The power of phenomena science lies in its capacity to bring real life into the classroom. A phenomena-based science curriculum engages students by starting with the real and relatable rather than the abstract. It also trains students to be inquisitive, expansive, critical thinkers.
When you shift to a phenomena-based approach, you help students shift from learning about to figuring out.
How the NGSS support phenomena-based learning
The NGSS help students make sense of phenomena in the natural world and in human-designed machines and products.
Learning to explain phenomena and solve problems is the main way that students engage in the three dimensions of the NGSS—they use Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs) to develop and apply Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs) and Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs).
Phenomena-centered classrooms also help teachers monitor student progress. As students work toward explaining phenomena, three-dimensional formative assessment is easily embedded throughout instruction.
How to bring phenomena into the science classroom
The power of phenomena-based learning lies in real-world relevance. Also, phenomena don’t generate learning all by themselves—student questions about phenomena guide teaching and learning.
That’s why it’s helpful to make sure students can connect to the phenomenon at hand. The following are a few steps you can take to integrate this approach into your classroom:
- Ask students what they’re curious about. Why do leaves change color? What is lightning? Why do ice cubes stick to my finger?
- Connect iterations of a given phenomenon to students’ lives. When discussing how sunlight warms the earth, a teacher might use examples of the sun heating sand, or asphalt depending on where students live.
- Use one broad anchor phenomenon for the focus of a unit, and investigate related phenomena that relate to students’ interests and experiences. For example, exploring what we see in the sky will lead to different investigations depending on whether students live in an urban area or far from city lights.
Note that an engaging phenomenon does not have to be flashy or unexpected. Even if students think they already know why it rains, they may discover that they actually can’t explain it. Pushing students to inquire more will help them go beyond repeating things they’ve read, and go from learning facts to asking questions that reveal more about the world around them.
How Amplify Science can help
Amplify Science employs phenomena-based learning throughout the curriculum, which is itself phenomena-based and designed around the NGSS.
In one example, 6th graders take on the role of medical students in a hospital, working to diagnose a patient and analyze the metabolism of world-class athletes. In another, 8th graders work to explain Australia’s high skin cancer rates by investigating how light works and interacts with the world it shines on.
And what’s more, Amplify Science for grades 6–8 received an all-green rating from EdReports!
Learn more.
- Phenomenon Based Learning in NGSS Curriculum | Amplify Science
- What is Phenomenon Based Teaching & Learning? | Amplify Science
- What’s so phenomenal about phenomena?
- Amplify: Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
- Engineering in the Next Generation Science Standards
- What’s included in our phenomena-based science curriculum for elementary schools
- What’s included in our phenomena-based science curriculum for middle schools
Instructional strategies for integrating literacy into your science classroom
Do you ever feel like science is the underdog in your school or district? You’re not alone.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, we know that science can overdeliver. That’s especially true when educators successfully integrate it with other subjects.
You can dive into the power of integrating science and literacy with the latest season of Science Connections. Here’s a sneak peek at what we explore in the first few episodes of Season 3 of our podcast.
Rooting for the underdog
In what sense is science seen as an underdog? Just ask Eric Banilower and Courtney Plumley of Horizon Research, a consulting firm that supports educational improvement and policy development. Host Eric Cross interviews them in Season 3, Episode 1.
As you know, an underdog is generally a weaker or less favored person or entity. Banilower and Plumley find that science instruction often fits that mold.
One thing they found: elementary school teachers’ schedules allow for less instruction of science than math and ELA. They also note that when there’s a break in routine—a special assembly or early dismissal—science is often “the first thing to go,” says Plumley.
They also note that instructors (like many others) are often expected to design their own curriculum.
The conversation offers some solutions for shifting these practices, as well as supporting science instructors in general.
“You don’t ask doctors to develop new treatments and tests. Their job is to get to know their patient, assess what’s going on, and then use research-based methods to develop a plan of action. That analogy [suggests] a scalable approach for raising…the quality of science education,” Banilower says.
What is that approach? According to Banilower, “Giving teachers research-based, high-quality instructional materials that they can use to meet the needs of their students would allow them to focus on getting to know their students, seeing their strengths, [finding areas where they have] room for growth, and…help[ing] those students progress.”
The power of integrating science and literacy into the science classroom
Science does not need to stay in a silo. As we illuminate in Episodes 2 and 3, bringing literacy work into the science classroom can supercharge students’ work in both. (We also explore the topic in this blog post.)
“We know we need to dramatically improve literacy rates in this country, and as we’ll show in the coming episodes, science can be a key ally in that goal,” says our host, Eric Cross.
It goes the other way, too. Language development and literacy instruction can support science. “Win-win, folks,” says Cross.
In Episode 2, senior science educator Dr. Susan Gomez Zwiep described how bilingual and multilingual students in her school accelerated their English speaking and learning when they were excited to discuss science phenomena.
Indeed, she notes, the NGSS provides rich linguistic opportunities for students. We used to talk about language in science as all technical, but that’s changed. “Language is now developed through the science learning experiences,” says Gomez Zwiep.
Two key approaches you can use:
- Think of science lessons as a narrative. Gomez Zwiep suggests you ask yourself, “What’s the story arc of my science lesson? How are the science ideas building over time?”
- Welcome language that’s comfortable and conversational for your students. “This expansion of language, including non-standard dialects and even home language, is really important for letting students bring their whole selves into the classroom,” she says.
More ways to enhance literacy in science
Don’t worry—you don’t need to take a second job. “It’s not that you have to become a reading specialist to integrate literacy into science,” says Douglas Fisher, Ph.D., professor and chair of educational leadership at San Diego State University. “It’s how our brains work.”
It’s also how science works. “Science teachers and scientists do a lot of reading, writing, speaking, and listening and viewing. They use the five literacy processes all the time,” says Fisher, our guest on Episode 3.
Some strategies Fisher offers:
- Invite multiple aspects of literacy. Think: What role do speaking, listening, reading, writing, and viewing, play in your class? Provide opportunities for students to do those things each time you meet with them.
- Read challenging texts. “Science is an ideal place to get students reading things that are hard for them. Doses of struggle are good for our brains,” Fisher says. “Complex texts that don’t give up their meanings easily allow students to reread the text, mark it, talk to peers about it, and answer questions with their groups.”
- Get them writing, even in short bursts. “Writing is thinking,” he says. “While you are writing, your brain cannot do anything else.” So if your students understand a given concept, have them write about it.
And that’s just the beginning. Tune in—and stay tuned—for more strategies for encouraging literacy integration in a science classroom.
More ways to learn
- Subscribe to Science Connections to catch up on this eye-opening season.
- Download our Science Connection study guides that highlight tips and strategies for each episode and offer additional resources.
Welcome, Idaho K-8 Science Reviewers!
Thank you for taking the time to review Amplify Science. On this site, you’ll find all the resources you need to learn more about this engaging and robust NGSS program. Below, you will also have the opportunity experience our program firsthand with a demo account to access the digital platform.
Amplify Science for grades K–8 has been rated all-green by EdReports. Read the review on EdReports.
Overview
With Amplify Science, students don’t just passively learn about science concepts. Instead, they take on the roles of scientists and engineers to actively investigate and make sense of real-world phenomena. They do this through a blend of cohesive and compelling storylines, hands-on investigations, collaborative discussions, literacy-rich activities, and interactive digital tools.
Listen to these educators share how the program empowers students to think, read, write, and argue like real scientists and engineers every day.
Grades K–5
Grades 6–8
Amplify Science Grades K-5 Tour for Idaho Educators
Amplify Science Grades 6-8 Tour for Idaho Evaluators
Program structure
Our cyclical lesson design ensures students receive multiple exposures to concepts through a variety of modalities. As they progress through the lessons within a unit, students build and deepen their understanding, increasing their ability to develop and refine complex explanations of the unit’s phenomenon. It’s this proven program structure and lesson design that enables Amplify Science to teach less, but achieve more.
Rather than asking teachers to wade through unnecessary content, we designed our program to address 100 percent of the NGSS and Idaho Standards in fewer days than other programs:
- In just 120 lessons at grades 6–8
- In just 66 lessons at grades K–2
- In just 88 lessons at grades 3–5
Unit types
Each unit delivers three-dimensional learning experiences and engages students in gathering evidence from a rich collection of sources, while also emphasizing a particular science and engineering practice.
Investigation units
Investigation units focus on the process of strategically developing investigations and gathering data to answer questions. Students are first asked to consider questions about what happens in the natural world and why, and are then involved in designing and conducting investigations that produce data to help answer those questions.
Modeling units
Modeling units provide extra support to students engaging in the practice of modeling. Students use physical models, investigate with computer models, and create their own diagrams to help them visualize what might be happening on the nanoscale.
Engineering Design units
Engineering design units provide opportunities for students to solve complex problems by applying science principles to the design of functional solutions, and iteratively testing those solutions to determine how well they meet preset criteria.
Argumentation units
Argumentation units are introduced at grade 3 and provide students with regular opportunities to explore and discuss available evidence, time and support to consider how evidence may be leveraged in support of claims, and independence that increases as they mount written arguments in support of their claims.
Launch units
Launch units are the first units taught in each year of Amplify Science. The goal of the Launch unit is to introduce students to norms, routines, and practices that will be built on throughout the year, including argumentation, active reading, and using the program’s technology. For example, rather than taking the time to explain the process of active reading in every unit in a given year, it is explained thoroughly in the Launch unit, thereby preparing students to read actively in all subsequent units.
Core units
Core units establish the context of the unit by introducing students to a real-world problem. As students move through lessons in a Core unit, they figure out the unit’s anchoring phenomenon, gain an understanding of the unit’s disciplinary core ideas and science and engineering practices, and make linkages across topics through the crosscutting concepts. Each Core unit culminates with a Science Seminar and final writing activity.
Engineering Internship units
Engineering Internship units invite students to design solutions for real-world problems as interns for a fictional company called Futura. Students figure out how to help those in need, from tsunami victims in Sri Lanka to premature babies, through the application of engineering practices. In the process, they apply and deepen their learning from Core units.
Idaho Science Standards Alignment
Amplify Science was built from the ground up to fully embrace the instructional shifts outlined in A Framework for K-12 Science Education (2012), the same framework on which Idaho Science Content Standards were founded. Most grade levels’ respective set of Amplify Science units therefore fully address the necessary Idaho Science Content Standards (see correlation). Grade 1 teachers should plan to also use the companion mini-lesson provided below to achieve full standards coverage for their grade.
Grade 1 Companion
Standard: 1-LS-1.3 Use classification supported by evidence to differentiate between living and non-living things.
Recommended placement: Following Lesson 1.1 of the Animal and Plant Defenses unit.
Resources: Classroom Slides
Science (Middle School Physical Science) Evaluation Form
Science (Middle School Life Science) Evaluation Form
Science Evaluation Form Middle School Earth and Space Science
Needs of Plants and Animals
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Investigation
Student role: Scientists
Phenomenon: There are no monarch caterpillars in the Mariposa Grove community garden since vegetables were planted.
Pushes and Pulls
Domains: Physical Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering design
Student role: Pinball engineers
Phenomenon: Pinball machines allow people to control the direction and strength of forces on a ball.
Sunlight and Weather
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Life Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Modeling
Student role: Weather scientists
Phenomenon: Students at Carver Elementary School are too cold during morning recess, while students at Woodland Elementary School are too hot during afternoon recess.
Animal and Plant Defenses
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Modeling
Student role: Marine scientists
Phenomenon: Spruce the Sea Turtle lives in an aquarium and will soon be released back into the ocean, where she will survive despite ocean predators.
Light and Sound
Domains: Physical Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering design
Student role: Light and sound engineers
Phenomenon: A puppet show company uses light and sound to depict realistic scenes in puppet shows.
Spinning Earth
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Investigation
Student role: Sky scientists
Phenomenon: The sky looks different to Sai and his grandma when they talk on the phone.
Plant and Animal Relationships
Domains: Life Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Investigation
Student role: Plant scientists
Phenomenon: No new chalta trees are growing in the fictional Bengal Tiger Reserve in India.
Properties of Materials
Domains: Physical Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering design
Student role: Glue engineers
Phenomenon: Different glue recipes result in glues that have different properties.
Changing Landforms
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Modeling
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: The cliff that Oceanside Recreation Center is situated on appears to be receding over time.
Balancing Forces
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Modeling
Student role: Engineers
Phenomenon: The town of Faraday is getting a new train that floats above its tracks.
Inheritance and Traits
strong>Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Investigation
Student role: Wildlife biologists
Phenomenon: An adopted wolf in Graystone National Park (“Wolf 44”) has some traits that appear similar to one wolf pack in the park and other traits that appear to be similar to a different wolf pack.
Environments and Survival
Domains: Life Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering design
Student role: Biomimicry engineers
Phenomenon: Over the last 10 years, a population of grove snails has changed: The number of grove snails with yellow shells has decreased, while the number of snails with banded shells has increased.
Weather and Climate
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Argumentation
Student role: Meteorologists
Phenomenon: Three different islands, each a contender for becoming an Orangutan reserve, experience different weather patterns.
Energy Conversions
Domains: Physical Science, Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering design
Student role: System engineers
Phenomenon: The fictional town of Ergstown experiences frequent blackouts.
Vision and Light
Domain: Physical Science, Life Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Investigation
Student role: Conservation biologists
Phenomenon: The population of Tokay geckos in a rain forest in the Philippines has decreased since the installation of new highway lights.
Waves, Energy, and Information
Domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Modeling
Student role: Marine scientists
Phenomenon: Mother dolphins in the fictional Blue Bay National Park seem to be communicating with their calves when they are separated at a distance underwater.
Patterns of Earth and Sky
Domains: Physical Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Investigation
Student role: Astronomers
Phenomenon: An ancient artifact depicts what we see in the sky at different times — the sun during the daytime and different stars during the nighttime — but it is missing a piece.
Earth’s Features
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Argumentation
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: A mysterious fossil is discovered in a canyon within the fictional Desert Rocks National Park.
Modeling Matter
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Modeling
Student role: Food scientists
Phenomenon: Chromatography is a process for separating mixtures. Some solids dissolve in a salad dressing while others do not. Oil and vinegar appear to separate when mixed in a salad dressing.
The Earth System
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering Design
Student role: Water resource engineers
Phenomenon: East Ferris, a city on one side of the fictional Ferris Island, is experiencing a water shortage, while West Ferris is not.
Ecosystem Restoration
Domains:Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Argumentation
Student role: Ecologists
Phenomenon: The jaguars, sloths, and cecropia trees in a reforested section of a Costa Rican rain forest are not growing and thriving.
Geology on Mars
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Planetary geologists
Phenomenon: Analyzing data about landforms on Mars can provide evidence that Mars may have once been habitable.
Earth, Moon, and Sun
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Astronomers
Phenomenon: An astrophotographer can only take pictures of specific features on the Moon at certain times.
Thermal Energy
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Thermal scientists
Phenomenon: One of two proposed heating systems for Riverdale School will best heat the school.
Ocean, Atmosphere, and Climate
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Climatologists
Phenomenon: During El Niño years, the air temperature in Christchurch, New Zealand is cooler than usual.
Weather Patterns
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Forensic meteorologists
Phenomenon: In recent years, rainstorms in Galetown have been unusually severe.
Populations and Resources
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biologists
Phenomenon: The size of the moon jelly population in Glacier Sea has increased.
Matter and Energy in Ecosystems
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Ecologists
Phenomenon: The biodome ecosystem has collapsed.
Traits and Reproduction
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biomedical students
Phenomenon: Darwin’s bark spider offspring have different silk flexibility traits, even though they have the same parents.
Microbiome
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Microbiological researchers
Phenomenon: The presence of 100 trillion microorganisms living on and in the human body may keep the body healthy.
Metabolism
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Medical researchers
Phenomenon: Elisa, a young patient, feels tired all the time.
Force and Motion
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Physicists
Phenomenon: The asteroid sample-collecting pod failed to dock at the space station as planned.
Force and Motion Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Physical Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Mechanical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Designing emergency supply delivery pods with different structures can maintain the integrity of the supply pods and their contents.
Plate Motion
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Mesosaurus fossils have been found on continents separated by thousands of kilometers of ocean, even though the Mesosaurus species once lived all together.
Rock Transformations
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Rock samples from the Great Plains and from the Rocky Mountains — regions hundreds of miles apart — look very different, but have surprisingly similar mineral compositions.
Natural Selection
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biologists
Phenomenon: The newt population in Oregon State Park has become more poisonous over time.
Evolutionary History
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Paleontologists
Phenomenon: A mystery fossil at the Natural History Museum has similarities with both wolves and whales.
Harnessing Human Energy
Domains: Physical Science, Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Energy scientists
Phenomenon: Rescue workers can use their own human kinetic energy to power the electrical devices they use during rescue missions.
Phase Change
Domains: Physical Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Chemists
Phenomenon: A methane lake on Titan no longer appears in images taken by a space probe two years apart.
Phase Change Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Physical Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Chemical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Designing portable baby incubators with different combinations of phase change materials can keep babies at a healthy temperature.
Chemical Reactions
Domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Forensic chemists
Phenomenon: A mysterious brown substance has been detected in the tap water of Westfield.
Magnetic Fields
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Physicists
Phenomenon: During a test launch, a spacecraft traveled much faster than expected.
Light Waves
Domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Spectroscopists
Phenomenon: The rate of skin cancer is higher in Australia than in other parts of the world.
Earth’s Changing Climate
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Climatologists
Phenomenon: The ice on Earth’s surface is melting.
Earth’s Changing Climate Engineering Internship
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Civil engineers
Phenomenon: Designing rooftops with different modifications can reduce a city’s impact on climate change.
Access program
In addition to the grade-level sample boxes that we provided, we’ve also created custom demo accounts just for Idaho reviewers.
To access the digital portion of the program, click the link below, select “Log In with Amplify,” and then refer to the Start here digital access flyer for your personalized login credentials.
Tutorial videos
Check out these videos for support on how to navigate the Amplify Science curriculum website, teacher’s guide, materials kits, and more!
Resources
S3-01: Science as the underdog, and the research behind it
Get ready for season 3 of Science Connections: The Podcast!
In our first episode, we unpack the research around our season theme of science as the underdog with Horizon Research, Inc. Vice President Eric R. Banilower and Senior Researcher Courtney Plumley. Eric and Courtney dive into the research they’ve found and their experiences as former educators to show how science is often overlooked in K–12 classrooms. We discuss how the science classroom compares to other subjects in terms of time and resources, how schools are a reflection of society, and what’s needed to change science and its impact on a larger scale.
We hope you enjoy this episode and explore more from Science Connections by visiting our main page!
Courtney Plumley (00:00):
We asked teachers how much science, professional development, they’ve had in the last three years, and nearly half of elementary teachers said none.
Eric Cross (00:10):
Welcome to Science Connections. I’m your host, Eric Cross. I am super-excited to be kicking off the third season with the show. This entire season will be exploring the theme of science as the underdog. And we’re gonna make the case for science, by showing how and why it can be used more effectively. In the coming episodes, we’re gonna talk about how science can be better integrated into other content areas like literacy and math, and explore some of the benefits that you might not be thinking about good science instruction. But first, science as the underdog. I bet some of you out there feel like science is the underdog in your community at school. I know I have at times. To kick off this season, I’m gonna talk to two people who really studied this question by looking at the state of science instruction across the US. Eric Banilower is Vice President of Horizon Research and Courtney Plumley is Senior Researcher at Horizon Research. Eric was the principal investigator and Courtney an author of the latest in a series of studies called “The National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education.” We’re gonna dive into the findings of their most recent report to see what the data’s showing us. Please enjoy my discussion with Eric Banilower and Courtney Plumley. Courtney, hello. And thank you so much for joining us.
Courtney Plumley (01:25):
Hi Eric. It’s nice to be here.
Eric Cross (01:26):
And Eric, welcome.
Eric R. Banilower (01:27):
We’re thrilled to be here, so thank you for having us.
Eric Cross (01:30):
I was reading through the report. Four hundred…a very thorough report, 471 pages, I think, as I got it?
Eric R. Banilower (01:37):
And that’s only one of the many reports from that study.
Eric Cross (01:40):
Yeah. You all have done your work, so I’m really excited to to talk to you about this. And on this season of the show, we’re exploring the theme of science as the underdog. And I think a lot of our listeners, we feel like science is an underdog either in their school or in their district. But you’ve actually done some research on this, in a 2018 study, “The National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education.” So I wanna talk about this report. But first I was hoping you can kind of set the stage. How did you come to work on this report, and then, big picture, what were you hoping to find out?
Eric R. Banilower (02:10):
So the 2018 study that you just mentioned was actually the sixth iteration of a series of studies dating back to 1977. And we collect data every decade or so—you know, plus or minus a few years. And really, what we’re trying to do is get a snapshot of what the science and math education system looks like in in the nation. So my role grew. I started working at Horizon in about 1998, after teaching high school for five years in California. And then going to graduate school. And right about that time, the company was doing the 2000 iteration of the survey. And I worked on it with the team here at Horizon. And then we did it again in 2012. And I had a much more prominent role in that study, and became the kind of leader of the study. And in 2018, the most recent version, we just did it again. So the goal of this study is really to kind of examine key aspects of the K–12 STEM education system. And the main audience of the work has traditionally been policy makers, researchers, and practitioners who work at the federal, state, and district level.
Eric Cross (03:30):
So this study, you took kind of a sample size, but it’s reflective of trends that we tend to see across the nation as a whole. Would that be fair to say?
Eric R. Banilower (03:38):
Yes, definitely it is. It is a random sample of schools in the country. So we start with a list of all the public and private schools in the nation, and then do a random sample of those schools, and then work really, really hard to recruit schools to agree to be in the study. And that has gotten harder every time we’ve done the study, for many understandable reasons. And then once we have schools on board, we sample teachers within schools. So we don’t even survey every teacher in a school. It’s really a sub-sample. So that we can make inferences about the nation as a whole.
Eric Cross (04:14):
Makes sense. And so Courtney, what did you find out about the time spent on science instruction in US schools?
Courtney Plumley (04:22):
So, I’m gonna talk about elementary teachers to begin with.
Eric Cross (04:26):
Because that was your past life, right?
Courtney Plumley (04:28):
I am a former elementary teacher, yeah. So that’s kind of where my head is. And that’s relatable for me. Right? So we asked teachers, like, how many days of the week or weeks of the year that they teach elementary school. And fewer than 20% teach science every day of the school year. They kind of do one or two things, for the most part. They teach a couple days a week or they teach every day of the week, but only for, like, maybe six weeks, and then they swap with social studies and they kind of do that across the school year. Which is really different from, like, math, right? We also asked elementary teachers, how often do they teach math, and it’s every day of the year. Then we also asked them how many minutes they teach when they’re teaching, and we kind of did the math to figure out, all right, if they taught science every day of the school year, how many minutes would it be in a single day, so that we could make a more comparable comparison with math and ELA. If you were to work it out, how many minutes of science an elementary teacher teaches across the year, and break it down to per day, it’s like 18 minutes for the lower elementary grades, 27 for the upper elementary grades. Which is not a lot. But it’s pretty much an hour a day in math, and 80 plus minutes in ELA. So, a lot less. And then, you know, when I was teaching, the first thing to go was always science, right? If there was an assembly, if there was early release or whatever, that was the first thing to go. So those numbers might even be higher. Just because they aren’t factoring that kind of thing in, too.
Eric Cross (06:05):
So, now I’m curious. That is something that I’ve seen just anecdotally, science being the first thing to go. I feel like I’ve seen that almost…it’s almost become a meme, that I’ve heard that so often. Just in your experience, why do you think that is that huge disparity between the two?
Courtney Plumley (06:26):
Well, I mean, when I was teaching, I was teaching third grade. I had an end-of-grade test in math and ELA for my kids. I didn’t have one in science. So the administration said, “Hey, if you’re gonna drop something, drop something that’s not tested.”
Eric Cross (06:41):
Simple as that. And Eric, you, past life: physics teacher. High school. What did you see? ‘Cause our listeners run the gamut from elementary all the way up to high school. What did you see, as far as relative science instruction in the secondary level?
Eric R. Banilower (07:00):
Sure. You know, secondary is just a whole different situation than elementary. Rght? Because you have departmentalization. I taught science. I didn’t have to teach other subjects. And students had periods, and they still do, sorry, they still have periods, even though it’s been a long time since I taught. And you know, they rotate from one class to another. So all the classes were essentially the same length. So, you know, when I was teaching, it was about 50-minute periods. So in terms of minutes of a class or minutes on a subject, it’s not really different. But what is different is what students are required to take in order to graduate high school. One of the things we asked schools about in this study was how many years of a subject do students have to take in order to graduate? And what we saw was in mathematics, over half the schools in the nation require students to take four years of mathematics to graduate. OK? And the vast majority of the rest, about 44%, require three years in science. Most schools require three years. Very few require four years. And many, or a fair number, still only require two years to graduate. So the expectation of what students are taking is lower in science than it is in mathematics.
Eric Cross (08:20):
So you were seeing the same trend in secondary, essentially.
Eric R. Banilower (08:24):
Yes.
Eric Cross (08:24):
The amount of time devoted to the instruction of science…we’re kind of seeing it mirrored just across K–12 across the board.
Eric R. Banilower (08:33):
That’s correct.
Eric Cross (08:34):
And that’s across the country. ‘Cause the sample size represents teachers from Alaska, Hawaii, the South, SoCal, everywhere. So what’s been the reaction to that number? Like 18 to 20 minutes is…I mean, it’s, it’s half of my lunch at our school. What’s been the reaction to that number since this data has been published?
Eric R. Banilower (08:58):
I don’t know, Courtney, if you want to take that…
Courtney Plumley (09:00):
It’s a lot of what you just did. Like, what??? Like, how is it possible to teach all the things you need to teach in such a little amount of time?
Eric R. Banilower (09:08):
What’s really kind of surprising to me, though — though now that I’ve worked on three iterations of the study, it no longer surprises me, but it did at first — is that these numbers really aren’t changing since we’ve started doing this study. You know, people thought maybe with No Child Left Behind and the increase in accountability, time on science might actually go down, because there was more testing in math and English Language Arts. It didn’t happen. It was pretty much constant, that this has been kind of the state of science education for a long time.
Eric Cross (09:44):
So Eric, if I’m hearing you right: The past studies, we’re not seeing an increase or a decline. This has been this way for how many years, roughly, would you say? Since it’s been studied?
Eric R. Banilower (09:54):
You know, I’d have to go back to the 1977 report to get the numbers, but I’m gonna say since then, it has not changed much, if at all.
Eric Cross (10:03):
So this has kind of been entrenched. This has been the norm for almost for the career of a teacher, almost generationally. We’re looking at anyone who’s been in the highest levels of leadership to someone just entering the classroom, this has been the way it’s always been. This is kind of for many people what they’ve only known.
Eric R. Banilower (10:20):
Right.
Eric Cross (10:21):
Kind of become the norm.
Courtney Plumley (10:21):
We didn’t even have science when I was in elementary school. We had science on a cart that came by, you know, every other week.
Eric Cross (10:28):
Was that like a food truck, but like the science version of it? It shows up and does quick science and takes off?
Courtney Plumley (10:35):
And New York was, I mean — we always watched Voyage of the Mimi. I don’t know if you ever watched that. But that’s what we watched every single time the Science on the Cart came. So it’s like a marine biology show. Ben Affleck was on it when he was a kid.
Eric Cross (10:48):
<laugh> Really? For me it was, Mr. Wizard. For some of my students, even now, Bill Nye. You know, the Bill Nye show or something would come on. So what happens when you look at less wealthy districts? Is there a relationship between community resources and science instruction, or is it pretty much equal no matter what the district resources are, the school’s resources are? Did you see any data there?
Eric R. Banilower (11:12):
Yes. We actually did a lot of disaggregating the data by community type, student demographics in the schools, to look to see whether there were areas of inequities across the country. And, you know, one of the factors we looked at was kind of a measure of socioeconomic status. You know, wealth in the community. By looking at percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. And interestingly, in terms of time on science instruction, there is actually not a relationship between income level and how much time is spent at the elementary level on science, which actually surprised us.
Eric Cross (11:54):
Because you might have expected it to be the other way now. And granted, it’s 18 to 20 minutes, there isn’t much more to shave off off of that. But were there other differences, like when you compared those communities? Maybe it wasn’t the amount of science instruction, but was there anything else, like teacher preparedness, resources? Were there anything else that you did see discrepancies in? Or was it equal across the board?
Eric R. Banilower (12:13):
No, unfortunately there, there have been, and still are, a number of areas where community resources are related to pretty substantial differences in educational opportunities that students have. So, you know, we’re talking about the high school science requirements. One of the things that we saw was that high schools in less wealthy communities tend to offer less rigorous science courses than high schools in better-off-financially communities. So they may not be AP courses or second year advanced courses to the same extent that there are in the wealthier communities. That’s one big difference that we saw. Another one was what you were just saying about, sort of, the teachers who teach in these communities. You know, I think that for many years people have had a feeling that the best teachers go to the better off schools because it’s easier to teach there. Well, we see that the schools with the most poverty, they tend to have the newer teachers, who are just starting their career. They tend to have teachers who are less well prepared to teach their subject. And there’s a host of other differences we found. And you know, you mentioned the report being 400 pages. This other report that looks at these differences is also quite long, and, you know, identified a number of areas where there are these disparities in the system.
Eric Cross (13:43):
Well, we appreciate you synthesizing this for us, because this is super-important. And you’ve fleshed out a lot of things. And the fact that it’s driven by data, we as science teachers, we as scientists, being objective, really, really value that. Because this is actually validating a lot of the things that our listeners and myself, we experience anecdotally. But you don’t have a lot of things to network you. And sometimes, when you see this, you wonder if it’s just you, or is are other people experiencing this? And so as you start talking about this data, realizing, oh wow, this is not something in isolation. This is systemic. This is something that’s impacted. And then Eric, what you said about schools that were lower-income, that were under-resourced, and didn’t offer those advanced classes, what are some of the impacts of that, maybe downstream, of doing that? Not having those AP classes? I just kind of wanted to put that out there and ask you.
Eric R. Banilower (14:31):
You know, this is a really…this is a current debate right now, about what the goals of schooling K–12 should be. You know, are all kids meant to go to college? Should there be alternative paths? And you know, I know when I was teaching, I would have students say, “Why do I need to know this? I’m not gonna go into science. I’m not gonna study physics. Why do I need to take this?” And, you know, the answer I used to give them was, “You never know where your life is gonna end up and what opportunities you’ll have. And by having these educational experiences, you have more opportunities available to you. Whether or not you choose to go down those paths, you have opportunities. And when you don’t take this kind of coursework, you know, even if you don’t want to go to college, you limit your potential careers. Because so many careers nowadays require some technical knowledge, some knowledge of science, even if it’s not explicitly a science job. It is embedded in our society now. We are a technological and science-based society.”
Eric Cross (15:37):
It reminds me of something that I’ve told my students, that if you become a scientist, that’s awesome. I love that. But if you don’t, and you want to be a dancer or an actor or a lawyer or anything that may not be directly related to STEM, I want you to choose it because it was a choice, and not a lack of options. So as long as you’re choosing not to go in STEM, and you don’t make that decision because you can’t, or because you weren’t given the opportunity. So that’s how I’ve always had this mindset as a teacher. And I’ve explained it to my students. So if you say, “Cross, you know what I want to do, I wanna be an awesome chef,” which, you know, low-key that’s science, right? <laugh> Molecular gastronomy, we know that. But like, you be the best chef. But as long as you’re being a chef because you choose that, and you’re like, “I love science, but I don’t wanna go that direction,” we’re good.
Eric R. Banilower (16:26):
Right. And if you think about, a lot of social justice issues with pollution and climate change, and you look at which communities are more affected by some of these larger environmental problems and challenges, it tends to be the lower socioeconomic communities, the more poverty-stricken communities have worse water, have worse air quality. And so if, if people from these communities are going to make informed decisions about who they’re gonna vote for, about what policies they’re gonna support, those are science topics that you have to have some understanding in order to make informed decisions in your life.
Eric Cross (17:09):
Courtney, you were one of the Swiss Army Knife teachers. This is how I perceive it for elementary. You had to teach everything. And shout out to all of my elementary school teachers that have to be mathematicians and grammar whizzes and scientists and PE instructors and social emotional, all of those different things. you also looked at teacher preparedness. How did teachers feel about teaching science compared to other subjects like language arts and math? Did you see anything there?
Courtney Plumley (17:39):
We did, we did. And I’m glad you said, “How did they feel about it?” Because one thing that, you know, in a survey you can’t really do is capture how someone actually…how good someone actually…the quality of someone’s instruction. But you can ask them how prepared they feel. And you can even ask them like stats, like, “What did you major in in college?” You know. But you really are going on based on what what they say. So we ask them how prepared they feel to teach all the core subjects. And two-thirds of elementary teachers felt very well prepared to teach reading. They felt very well prepared to teach math. But when it comes to science, it’s less than a third felt very well prepared. And you know, like you said, when you’re teaching elementary school, you’re teaching all the subjects. But also in science, there’s usually four main instructional units in a school year. And they’re all from different science disciplines. So not only are you going on, like, “Maybe in college took a lot of bio classes, but I didn’t take any physics classes, and now I have to teach physics to my kids and I have no experience there.” So, you know, we also ask them how well-prepared they felt in these different disciplines. And the numbers are even smaller, you know. Fewer than a quarter felt very well-prepared in life science. And like 13% felt very well-prepared in physical science. So there’s definitely a big difference between how much teachers feel prepared for ELA and math versus science.
Eric Cross (19:08):
And just from a human perspective, when we don’t feel prepared for something, we’re not really gonna probably lean into it as much as we are into our strengths. Like, that’s just kind of how we are across the board.
Courtney Plumley (19:18):
Yeah.
Eric Cross (19:18):
I’m even like that with my own chores in the house. Or when I have things I need to get done, and I might not be as good at doing those things—it’s gonna be a heavy cognitive load; I’m gonna have to do some background research—I tend to find other areas to excel in. Like, I’m gonna be productive in this other area. I’m gonna really crush it here. But this other thing gets put to the back burner.
Courtney Plumley (19:36):
Totally. And the same reason I might skip science today, <laugh> ’cause it’s scary.
Eric Cross (19:41):
Yeah, exactly. But I love this book. <Laugh> Or we could do this math, and let’s really, really dive deep into it. Now, did you also look at professional development and instructional resources that are being provided?
Courtney Plumley (19:53):
We did.
Eric Cross (19:54):
And on the whole, how was the amount—and I’m seeing a trend here, so I’m kind of feeling like I know where this might go—but I wanted to ask it, did the amount of professional development and resources for science, was there much of a difference between that and other subjects?
Eric R. Banilower (20:10):
Well, I’ll start on this, and Courtney, feel free to jump in. You know, one of the things that we asked was how much kind of discretionary funding do schools devote to science and how much to mathematics? So, for consumables or equipment and supplies or computer software for teachers to use in the classroom. And it’s hard to compare, I think, across subjects because the demands for this kind of supplies, et cetera, is very different, I think, in science than it is in mathematics. Right? We have a lot of, you know, equipment for doing investigations, consumable supplies in science. And those things need to be replenished on a regular basis. It turns out, when we look at the data for school discretionary spending on this kind of stuff, the median school spends less than $2 per student at the elementary level on science, compared to over $6 for mathematics. At the high school level, it’s kind of reversed. Schools spend more money on high school science than they do on high school math. but even still, at the high school, it’s less than $7 per student. Which is not a lot of money being devoted to thinking about all the materials, supplies, chemicals, et cetera, that you need to teach science well, at the high school level. More disturbing is the fact that, you know, we were talking about inequities before, schools that serve less well-off communities spend less than schools that serve wealthier communities, by quite a big amount.
Eric Cross (21:46):
So essentially the per-student thing just kind of popped out to me: So, like, an expensive Starbucks drink is what we’re spending on science per student.
Eric R. Banilower (21:57):
At the high school level. Yes.
Eric Cross (21:58):
At the high school level. And I get those catalogs in the mail, from all of those big science companies. You can’t get much for seven bucks. At least, nothing high-level. And I know I do a lot of 99-cent store science. I go down the street, go to the 99-cent store. Thankfully we could do a lot of awesome science with just, you know, cheap things. But a lot of the higher level experiences, they’re pricey. But the experiences are so rich! And $7 at the high school level is nothing. It’s not much at all.
Eric R. Banilower (22:28):
Yeah. It is definitely, you know, kind of shocking to think about what we’re investing in our children’s future.
Eric Cross (22:37):
Now, just to put you both on the spot, ’cause I feel like that we’ve identified some…we’re seeing a trend here, we’re seeing a pattern. We’re talking about, you know, being science teachers. There’s a pattern going on here. Do you think it’s fair to characterize science as the underdog?
Courtney Plumley (22:52):
I think in elementary school, it is a fair statement. Because, like we said before, I mean they’re gonna preference math and ELA almost all the time. I mean, the other thing you’d asked a little bit ago was about professional development, too. And we do have some data on that. And we ask teachers, you know, how much science professional development they’ve had in the last three years. And nearly half of elementary teachers said none. And I know I didn’t have any science professional development. If I was gonna pick from among the catalog, I was picking one that I needed more, like math. Math and ELA. I keep making that statement, but just over and over, it’s the truth.
Eric Cross (23:31):
And going back to what you said earlier, because that’s where the accountability was, right? And that kind of came top-down.
Courtney Plumley (23:38):
Yes.
Eric Cross (23:38):
And influenced everything else.
Eric R. Banilower (23:40):
Yeah. Now, really interesting thing that we did, a year or so ago, ’cause someone asked us, you know, “Hey, could you look at this?” is we compared elementary science instructional time among states where science counted towards accountability versus states where science doesn’t count towards accountability. And at the upper elementary grades, more time was spent on science in schools in states where they had science accountability. Now I’m not arguing for adding science to accountability systems. But that’s a pretty telling piece of data.
Eric Cross (24:19):
What gets measured gets done.
Eric R. Banilower (24:20):
Yeah.
Eric Cross (24:20):
Or what was getting evaluated was getting done. And that raises, that opens up a myriad of other questions about testing, and what that reveals, and all of those different things. But at the end of the day, what you’re finding is that the things that were getting tested were the things that were getting the priority.
Eric R. Banilower (24:36):
That’s right.
Eric Cross (24:37):
How did we get to this point? And Eric, you said it goes back at least to ’77, but we look at society and we’re…I wanna say we’re post-pandemic, but we’re we’re not. but we’re trying to, we’re trying to get past that. But we’re looking at…we had innovations in biology, we have innovations right now in green energy and electric cars and all of these things that are STEM-based. We know that these are things that have moved humanity forward. And we look at the pipeline of people who are in STEM and we, we see the disparities and things like that. Why was science given less of a priority? I’m just curious. Maybe, Courtney, we could start with you, if you have any ideas. Or Eric. Either one. But how did we get here?
Eric R. Banilower (25:22):
<laugh> I think Courtney wants me to take that one. I’m older so I’ve seen more <laugh>. So, you know, I have the gray hair. She doesn’t. I think it’s complicated. And I know this sounds cliche, but but schools are a reflection of society, right? And, and so science education, you know, if you think back when Sputnik was launched, there became this great demand in America to improve and produce more scientists and engineers in response to this Cold War threat. Right? And then in the ’80s there was rising, oh, the gathering storm was an economic argument that we needed to increase science and math, you know, education and people going into those fields in order to compete economically against the global competitors. And I think that America has always produced a fair number, a large number, of high-quality scientists and engineers, you know. And we still lead the world in many ways. But where we’ve identified as a problem is who has those opportunities to go into those fields. You know, it used to be a very select, a very male-dominated, white male-dominated field. Right? And other people didn’t have the opportunity, or they were shown the way out pretty early. And we, I think, have come to realize as a country that, you know, the, the greater the diversity of thought that we can get into these discussions, the more innovative we can be and the more productive as a society we can be. And so I think we’ve had this shift in the country to, instead of thinking about just the quality for the select few, but to be thinking about the quality for everyone. And so that makes it seem like some of these challenges are greater than they used to be. And I think they’re different challenges, right? We’ve evolved as a society and I think schools have evolved.
Eric Cross (27:40):
There is a conversation I was in on a plane with a person who was a materials manager for a company that made the adhesive for sandpaper. And we were flying…I was flying to Denmark and he was flying to some other Scandinavian country. And we were just talking about it. And he came from another industry, and somehow the conversation led to science. I don’t know how that happened. But somehow I just started talking about science and I asked him about, Eric, kind of what you said about the US kind of leading the way in science innovation versus the rest of the world. And I asked him why. And he said one of the reasons why is because the heterogeneous thought. The different groups of people that are coming to a problem actually create more innovative and novel solutions. Versus when it’s more homogeneous. And everyone’s either culturally or just for whatever reason, kind of thinks a certain way. While they might have a more efficient way, the variety of solutions are not as varied and not as novel. I was reminded of that story based on what you just said. So it’s really interesting. So it seems to be that it benefits if we have more heterogeneous groups, more folks who are contributing to STEM, because that’s gonna be solving the next problem more efficiently. Or I guess maybe in my head it seems like the next we need…we do really well when we have a dragon to slay. I mean, it seems like we come together when that’s the case, right? Like, I dunno.
Eric R. Banilower (29:06):
No, I think that’s…I think that’s accurate.
Eric Cross (29:09):
Later on the season of the podcast, we’re gonna explore ways to better integrate science with other subjects like literacy and math. Were you able to study at all any more integrated approaches to science instruction? Does any of your research support that approach?
Courtney Plumley (29:25):
Not on the national survey, we didn’t study that. And it’s something that we’ve talked about before, because it’s difficult to get teachers to…we were talking about instructional time. It’s hard for teachers to put a number on it when they’re integrating, because, you know, it’s not like I have my science block from 3 to 3:30 anymore. Now it’s kind of scattered about. But it’s something that has been in the ether. We’ve been looking at it in a couple of projects. So there’s some evidence that it can be effective, especially for getting more, you know…the idea is you can get more time for science if you are integrating with other subjects. But one thing to kind of caution is like, students need to have opportunities to learn each discipline when they’re doing integrated instruction. So you don’t wanna just have, like, math in your science. Kids already know to just, like, support it. Then it’s hard to take time from math to put it into science when they’re not actually learning anything new. That’s the easy thing to do, though, is say, “Oh, my kids already know how to measure. We did that in a previous unit. So now we’ll we’ll do it as part of our science instruction.” So it’s a lot of work to make it so they’re learning something new, mathematics and science, at the same time. And it’s not really something that we think that teachers should be having to do on their own, with all the other things that teachers have to do. The last thing they need to do is be creating their own, you know, curriculum. Something that’s already…you know, it’s not straightforward. So we’ve been talking about it, we think it’s really something that instructional materials maybe need to be focusing on instead of teachers having to do that on their own,
Eric Cross (31:01):
Teachers would implement it, but asking them to create it is a whole different thing, and it’s a huge ask.
Courtney Plumley (31:08):
Yes.
Eric Cross (31:08):
Yeah. And, did I hear you right? So the ideal situation would’ve been the students learning a newer math concept, but embedded in a science kind of context? Or was that the better way? Versus, “I’m gonna take a math concept they already know and then just put it into the science setting?”
Courtney Plumley (31:26):
Well, if the idea is that you can get more science time if you’re, you know, integrating things, so you can maybe take time away from a specific math block by putting it with science, or whatever, then if the math is something that the kids already know, now you’re just taking away. I think that that has to be new in both cases, in order to justify having more time.
Eric Cross (31:49):
Right. Eric, in the secondary level, any thoughts on that? On integrating these disciplines together?
Eric R. Banilower (31:56):
I think, you know, just like at the elementary level, it can be challenging to do it well. When I taught, I taught my last couple years in a kind of school-within-a-school kind of situation, where our goal was to try to integrate science, mathematics, and language arts. And it’s hard to do that in a meaningful way. And we did not have curriculum materials given to us to help us do this. We were trying to figure out how to do this on our own, while we were teaching 200 kids a day in our subjects. Right? And five preparations. And you know, it’s a big ask of any teacher. And there are teachers who thrive on this and are great at this. And, you know, that’s one thing I wanna, make clear: our data is about the system, and we are former teachers. Almost everyone who works at Horizon is a former teacher. We have the greatest respect for teachers and what they do. And what our data is showing is are kind of like areas where the system isn’t providing teachers and their students the opportunities to do great things. I think at the high school level, there has been this idea of project-based learning where students are bringing together different skills, different ideas from across disciplines. And I think there’s, again, a lot of potential in doing that. But trying to develop those experiences so that they are doing service to the different subjects, so students are learning what they’re supposed to learn in English Language Arts, that they’re learning, important mathematics, and that this is in a science context, where they are getting to do and understand what science is and how science, as a discipline, operates…that’s just a really hard thing to develop.
Eric Cross (33:53):
So what I’m hearing—and I really appreciate the nuance in this, because it’s not a simple “Yes. Integrated is better,”—I’m hearing “Yes. Quality control.” “Yes. It needs to be written not by teachers; they’re the practitioners.” It’s “Yes. And,” not just simply binary. Which…it’s so easy to wanna chunk things and say yes or no on things. But this one seems a much more nuanced approach. And in a future episode, you mentioned project-based learning, we’re gonna try and talk to people who have thoughts on this. And I really appreciate that you talked about project-based learning, because also, how do you evaluate that? How do you evaluate whether or not it is high quality? Is this is something I see? You know, high-quality standards, highest quality science teaching, highly qualified teachers. It’s something that I see often. Now, based on all your research, this is kind of the 30,000-foot view. What advice might you have for people who are thinking about changing the way science is taught in this country? Which hasn’t changed since 1977, at least since we’ve been measuring it. Any advice for people who do want to act? Another way to ask, it might be, if you were given a magic wand, <laugh>, you have all power, what might you do if you can control the entire vertical system?
Eric R. Banilower (35:07):
Yeah, so a clarification, I do think science instruction has changed. It has evolved. I think there’s a lot of really good things going on in different pockets of the country. One of the challenges is bringing those good ideas and good practices to scale. Right? There are approximately 1.2 million teachers of science K–12 in this country. That’s a lot of people. And about 80% of those are elementary teachers who are responsible for teaching other subjects as well. So my thinking is often about, “How do we take what we know and that we’ve learned through decades of research is effective, and impact a large number of teachers, and therefore a large number of students?” And you know, Courtney I think has hinted at this already. And you’ve mentioned it too, Eric, is that teaching is a profession, right? And it’s a craft. But in no other profession do practitioners have the expectation that they’re developing their own tools and methods for their work. I know when I was in my teacher preparation program, and it’s still extremely common, one of the assignments perspective teachers are given is to develop a unit and develop a lesson, right? You don’t have doctors being asked to develop new treatments and new tests to use. Their job is to get to know their patient, assess what’s going on, and then using research-based methods to develop a plan of action, right? And I think that analogy works really well in education and is a way that we could have a scalable approach for kind of raising the floor across the country for the quality of science education. Giving teachers research-based materials, high-quality instructional materials, that they can then use and adapt to meet the needs of their students, would allow them to focus on getting to know their students, seeing what their strengths are, seeing where they have room for growth, and using the materials they’re given to help those students progress. And I think that is definitely a way where we could have a big impact at a large scale.
Eric Cross (37:39):
Courtney, same question: Magic wand, all power. You can change systems from the elementary perspective. What would you do? I’m assuming part of it’s gonna be changing that 18 to 20 minute time. But even for that to happen, what would you do? What would you change?
Courtney Plumley (37:57):
Well, I don’t know. Like, for it to change, I don’t know the answer to that. But yes, increasing the time would be great. And like Eric was saying, giving teachers— ’cause again, I’m coming in, not enough probably background in science—and then, you know, when I was, when I was teaching, we had one set of textbooks for the entire grade. Six classes, right? Like, share them. But third graders aren’t gonna read textbooks anyway, right? So instead I’m going to the teacher store. I’m pulling things off the shelf. And like, “OK, yeah, sure, I’ll use this.” And nowadays, teachers are going to Teachers Pay Teachers or whatever. Because I didn’t have anything good to use. So like Eric is saying, if I had instructional materials that were good instructional materials that were gonna teach my kids, that they were gonna be engaged, that they weren’t sitting and listening to science, but they were doing science, you know, and I had professional development to actually help me do it? That’s what I think we need to have. And I mean, I know there are some people out there that are working on that, but it’s not a lot. I mean, if you look at Ed Reports, they rate how well-aligned science curriculum are to standards. And there are two right now that have Ed Reports green lights. There’s Amplify and there’s OpenSciEd. You know, so there’s not much out there for teachers to use. And, so it’s hard. It’s hard. Where am I gonna go and get this stuff if it doesn’t exist? And so I’m making it up by myself. Which we already said is not the best use of teachers’ time, when they’ve got so many other demands on their time.
Eric Cross (39:27):
Eric and Courtney, listening to both of your responses, it created a visual in my mind. And Eric, I loved your analogy of…I started thinking of a chef, a welder, and a farmer. And I thought about the chef saying like, “You’re a great chef! Now, can you go farm, and make your own food, so that you can cook it?” Or the welder who has to make his own welding tools and go smelting. You know, making the different rods. I’m not a welder. But you know, all those different parts. Or the farmer who has to build his own tractor and innovate all that stuff. You’re absolutely right, the way you articulated that. And then Courtney, you essentially said, “Give them the tools and then teach them how to use it so they can go and actually be effective with it, because you’re in front of kids doing so many different things.” There’s only so much time in the day, and teachers want to do these things; they want to, but you end up having to triage when you’re asked to. Going back to Eric’s analogy, if you’re in the ER, but you’re also creating the vaccines and you’re also doing the research on which types of vaccines are gonna be the most effective, that’s, that’s a lot to ask. And so, I appreciate both your responses on that. Now, last question, what are you both working on now? This report came out in 2018. What’s, what’s next on the horizon? Actually literally, that’s no pun intended. <laugh> What’s next? <laugh> What’s next for, for you both? What are you working on?
Eric R. Banilower (40:42):
Well, you know, we would love to do another national survey, in a few years. We have to get funding to do it. And you know, that’s always something that takes effort and isn’t a guarantee. We’ve written grants to do these studies in the past, and there’s also the dealing with the reality of the situation. I think a lot of schools, still coming off the tail end of dealing with Covid, are overwhelmed. And we’ve had a hard time, I mentioned before, recruiting schools, and it gets harder every time, just ’cause they have so much on their plate. And I couldn’t see going to a school now and saying, “Hey, one more thing. Do you mind?” So I think we have to kind of wait a little bit for things to settle down before we can do another one of these studies. It just doesn’t seem feasible right now. But we’d love to in the not-too-distant future. Other than that, Courtney and I actually work on some projects together and some projects not together. One of the things that we’re working on together is a study of a fifth grade science curriculum that was developed by Okhee Lee at NYU and her colleagues, that is both aligned with the NGSS and purposely designed to support multilingual learners in developing both their science knowledge and skills as well as their language skills. And we’ve been working with the crew at NYU to study this curriculum and try to figure out, how well it’s working and under what circumstances. So that’s been a really interesting project that’s going on right now.
Courtney Plumley (42:26):
I recently worked on a report with the Carnegie Corporation in New York that actually I think, compliments what we’ve been talking about a lot. It’s about the status of K–12 education in the US—or science education in the US! <Laugh>—and so as part of that report we interviewed like 50 science education experts across the country. We surveyed teachers, people in the university settings, researchers, and everything to kind of get a little bit more update of the state of science education right now. And so a lot of the things we’ve been talking about, we still are talking about with the people in this report four years later. So, work in progress. <Laugh>
Eric Cross (43:09):
And again, going back to 1977, based on what Eric was saying earlier, we’re looking at these large systems, these systemic changes don’t happen overnight.
Eric R. Banilower (43:20):
That’s right.
Eric Cross (43:21):
It’s very slow-moving.
Eric R. Banilower (43:22):
That’s right. I would say there is progress. I think we’ve learned a lot. We are getting better. Are we there yet? No, we’re not happy with where we are. But I think, you know, I think it’s important to be hopeful about the direction things are going in.
Eric Cross (43:37):
Well-said. I agree. Courtney. Eric, thank you so much for unpacking that report that speaks to, that validates what so many teachers across the country are experiencing. And thank you for your advocacy for high-quality science education and your passion for supporting teachers and being that voice from a data-driven perspective of what teachers experience and then advocating for solutions for them. It’s super-encouraging for me, and I know it’s gonna be really encouraging for a lot of our listeners. So thank you.
Eric R. Banilower (44:10):
Thank you for having us.
Courtney Plumley (44:12):
Yeah. Thank you, Eric.
Eric Cross (44:15):
Thanks so much for listening to my conversation with Eric Banilower, Vice President of Horizon Research, and Courtney Plumley, Senior Researcher at Horizon Research. For much more, check out the show notes for a link to the 2018 National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education. And please remember to subscribe to Science Connections wherever you get podcasts, so that you’re not missing any of the upcoming episodes in Season three. Next time on the show, we’re gonna start laying out the road map for using science more effectively. And we’ll start by looking at the how and the why of integrating literacy instruction.
Susan Gomez Zwiep (44:49):
When we look at Science First and build language development around it, the experience tends to be more authentic and organic.
Eric Cross (44:58):
That’s next time on Science Connections: The Podcast. Thanks so much for listening.
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Meet the guests
Eric R. Banilower is a Vice President at Horizon Research, Inc. (HRI), and has worked in education for over 30 years. Eric was previously a high school physics and physical science teacher before he joined HRI in 1997, where he has worked on a number of research and evaluation projects. Most recently, he has been the Principal Investigator of the 2012 and 2018 iterations of the National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education, a nationally representative survey focusing on the status of the K–12 STEM education system.
Courtney Plumley is a Senior Researcher at Horizon Research, Inc. She began her career in education as an elementary school teacher before starting at HRI in 2009. In her time at HRI she has worked on many K-12 STEM research and evaluation projects. Most recently, Ms. Plumley has worked with Carnegie Corporation of New York on mapping the landscape of K-12 science education in the US and is managing the field test for the OpenSciEd elementary materials.
About Science Connections
Welcome to Science Connections! Science is changing before our eyes, now more than ever. So…how do we help kids figure that out? We will bring on educators, scientists, and more to discuss the importance of high-quality science instruction. In this episode, hear from our host Eric Cross about his work engaging students as a K-8 science teacher.
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Phenomenon: The size of the moon jelly population in the fictional Glacier Sea has experienced a puzzling increase.
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Matter and Energy in Ecosystems
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Natural Selection
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Phenomenon: The rough-skinned newt population in Oregon State Park has become more poisonous over time.
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Natural Selection Engineering Internship
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Phenomenon: Designing malaria treatment plans that use different combinations of drugs can reduce drug resistance development.
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Evolutionary History
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Phenomenon: A mystery fossil at the Natural History Museum has similarities with both wolves and whales.
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S1-04: Connecting with students and caregivers in the science classroom: Ryan Rudkin
In this special episode, our host Eric Cross sits down with veteran middle school teacher Ryan Rudkin. Ryan shares her expertise after almost two decades in the classroom, discussing ways to incorporate aspects of problem-based learning into the K–8 science classroom. Eric and Ryan talk about how to increase parent engagement, involve community members, and add excitement to lessons.
Explore more from Science Connections by visiting our main page.
Ryan Renee Rudkin (00:00):
I know there’s other goals in mind, you know, standards and test scores. But at the end of the day, I wanna come back and I want them to come back.
Eric Cross (00:35):
My name’s Eric Cross, host of our science podcast, and I am with Ryan Rudkin, middle-school teacher out here in California just to the north up near Sacramento? El Dorado Hills?
Ryan Renee Rudkin (00:46):
Yeah. 20 miles east of Sacramento.
Eric Cross (00:49):
Nice. And I am down here in San Diego. And so Ryan, to start off, what I wanna do is ask you about your origin story, like a superhero. So how did you become a middle-school science teacher to become part of this elite profession of science folks that get to do awesome things with kids?
Ryan Renee Rudkin (01:08):
I would agree with you that it is definitely an elite profession. I got my credential and I thought I was gonna teach third or fourth grade elementary school. And the second day I got called for a sub job for middle school. And I just thought, “We’ll take it,” you know? And by second period, I knew: This is where I belong. The kids, middle school, students are just a species of their own. And you have to appreciate them. And if you do appreciate them, then you’re in the right spot. And I quickly looked at my coursework and I was able to get authorizations in science, history, and English, and I love science. So I chose science. And the rest is history. It’s been a wild ride and I wouldn’t have changed or asked for anything different. I love it.
Eric Cross (02:02):
I definitely agree with you. So, your history—you’ve been in various middle-school classrooms. Can you tell us a little bit about that? What classrooms have you been in? What disciplines of science have you taught or are currently teaching?
Ryan Renee Rudkin (02:14):
I was hired for seventh grade life science, and then I did that for a few years and then I got moved into eighth physical science, and I was there for 12 years. Love eighth grade science. I love eighth graders. Chemistry and physics are my favorite. There’s just so much opportunity for just awesome labs, great conversations, student discourse, all of that. And then the past three years I’ve been in sixth grade and now we’re integrated. So,a sixth grade integrated science and I also teach social studies and a technology design class.
Eric Cross (02:52):
Oh, nice. What do you do in your technology design class? That sounds cool.
Ryan Renee Rudkin (02:56):
Right now it’s mostly internet media and we use WeVideo, it’s an editing-video program, and we produce and put on our school weekly news bulletin. And then we weave in other projects. We do some interdisciplinary projects. Right now my students are working on a mythology God, Goddess, and Monster project that relates to our social studies curriculum. And we’re learning about Greece. So yeah, we just try to give them added projects and they’re using the WeVideo platform. By sixth grade, they’re coming to us now with wonderful skills with all the tech. I mean, if I need help, I ask them like, “How do you do something on Google Docs?” Or, “How do you do something on Drive?” The kids are definitely tech-savvy.
Eric Cross (03:49):
They must love being the teacher in the classroom. They get to—it kind of switches power roles, where they get to teach the teacher something.
Ryan Renee Rudkin (03:56):
Yes. And especially WeVideo, sometimes we’ve had some hiccups, and the kids show everybody, and that’s part of the design class. They’re trying to solve—we’re teaching them how to solve their own problems. So if there’s any kind of issue with anything with the technology, honestly, I usually tell them, “Go ask a friend,” or we kind of shout out, “Hey, who knows how to troubleshoot this?” And the kids are eager to help each other, which is nice.
Eric Cross (04:21):
And they have this authentic experience where they’re actually doing real problem-solving, as opposed to something that we manufactured. Like, those are real things that we have to deal with in life. And that’s exactly like how we solve it, right? We just go ask people! We look it up, and the ahas are genuine too. Throughout!
Ryan Renee Rudkin (04:36):
Yes, especially thinking on the fly. Especially yesterday, I was in the middle of teaching and my laptop froze, and it’s like, “OK, everybodytake a couple minutes, you know, work on this, this, or that while I switch out laptops!” And so I’m modeling, too, how to solve my own problems. And I think it teaches the kids how to do that too.
Eric Cross (04:59):
I’ve always thought it was interesting that when teachers get to teach in real time, how do we handle stress and frustration when it’s really happening? And I think the tech—at times, failure is the real one where you feel this chill or this sweat that kind of comes over you and you’re trying to present or cast or the video won’t play and things like that. I think I’ve done enough times in my years of teaching where now my students know what to do, or they want to come up and help, and we’re good with it. But I remember in the beginning when those things would kind of glitch or go wrong or the wifi goes down, and you’re like, OK, what do we need now?
Ryan Renee Rudkin (05:33):
I think it’s honestly, after the fact, when I think in the moment, I’m not thinking of feeling stressed, but just afterwards, then I’m like, “Oh my gosh, this has just been a wild day.” But yeah, you just have to kind of go with it. And that’s just the beast of middle school. I just added to the list of why we love it.
Eric Cross (05:53):
You said something about interdisciplinary work, and I wanna kind of ask about that. Because it sounds like you’ve had your hand in several different areas of science and grade levels. Working, doing design courses, working with tech. Are there certain lessons that are your favorites to teach? The ones that you really enjoy, or that no matter what, you’re like, “We need to do this; this is such a rich experience for students”?
Ryan Renee Rudkin (06:17):
Yeah. I definitely try to do lessons or activities along the way. I like to do projects at the end of my units. When I taught physics, we did a project and it was mainly an assessment tool called the Wheeling and Dealing. The kids, they would all get a different car. And then they to sell their car. And so they had to pretend to be a car salesman, and they did that with their knowledge of the physics unit. So everything we did on forces and speed and motion. So I like doing culminating projects like that. And you’re kind of tricking them into assessing them.
Eric Cross (06:57):
When I think about your car salesman project, I’m thinking of a bunch of students, but they’re like on Shark Tank, but they’re just littler versions. And they’re doing these sales pitches, but they’re speaking in scientific terms as they’re trying to do it. Do you record these or do they just exist in the classroom?
Ryan Renee Rudkin (07:12):
No…And that was a long time ago, when I taught eighth grade. I wish I had; I wish I had recorded. That was definitely—it was fun, ’cause the kids, they would get their little piece of paper and they—some of ’em didn’t know what car it was. And so they’re like “A Boo… A Boo-gatti? What’s a Boo-gatti?” And then someone from across the room would be like, “Ooh, I want it! Here, I’ll trade you my Ford Focus!” And <laugh> so they would kind of wheel-and-deal which car they would…and then once they got their choice, then they would do the project.
Eric Cross (07:44):
So they’re really embodying this persona of a car salesman. The wheeling and doing back-and-forth and trying to trade a Bugatti for a Ford Focus. <Laugh>
Ryan Renee Rudkin (07:53):
I know. <Laugh> I like to make my class, my learning environment, enjoyable. You know, I gotta be there; they gotta be there. So I know there’s other goals in mind—you know, standards and test scores—but at the end of the day, I wanna come back, and I want them to come back. And I just have that as a priority.
Eric Cross (08:18):
Well, based on the projects that you’re doing and the way that you approach education with students, I can see why middle-school students would want to come back, even if they had the option not to. Just because of the cool things that you’re doing. Now we’re on this—hopefully, fingers crossed—tail end of COVID in the classroom and schools, and I know it’s impacted all of us differently. Has student engagement changed since COVID and if so, how, and what have you done in these last two years to maybe adjust your approach, to continue that engagement and that richness that you provide for your kids?
Ryan Renee Rudkin (08:57):
I definitely—I think for me, I recognize that when the students are in my classroom, I want them to, I dunno, for lack of a better word, just escape the noise at home. And I know we’ve always had students that are going through divorce situations or their dog died, other things, but I think with COVID, it’s definitely been compounded. And just creating a safe place for the kids to want to be and…it’s hard. We’ve had a lot of students that have been out, absent, for various reasons and on quarantine. And they’re struggling with doing work from home, ’cause their parents are stressed and their parents are dealing with their work issues. And so I think just having grace for the kids and just keeping…I don’t know, I guess like I said, I’ve always had student engagement as top of my list.
Eric Cross (10:06):
It sounds like—the things I hear you say really have to do with who these students are as people.
Ryan Renee Rudkin (10:12):
Yeah.
Eric Cross (10:13):
And then as a second, who they are as students. How do relationships fit into your engagement? ‘Cause I’m hearing this connection that you seem to be making with kids as you’re talking about things that are beyond academics: their home life, how they’re impacted.
Ryan Renee Rudkin (10:28):
Yes.
Eric Cross (10:28):
Is there anything that you do to build these relationships, or to connect with your students, to make them feel wanted or feel connected to the classroom or to you?
Ryan Renee Rudkin (10:37):
Yeah, I do. I do a few things to build those connections. And again, this timeframe in their life is so out of their control, their peer relationships, relationships with their parents. And when they’re in my classroom, I want them to feel loved and appreciated. Something I do it’s called Phone Fridays. And in one of the social media groups, someone posted about it, and I’ve been doing it for over a year now, actually. So on Fridays I call parents and give good news. And so I’ll pick maybe one or two students. And it could be academic reasons. It could be behavior, I’ve seen a slight improvement of behavior. Maybe a role model in the classroom. And my goal is to get everybody every trimester. So everybody gets a phone call by the end of the trimester. And it’s funny ’cause sometimes the parents are a little like “Uh-oh”! When they pick up, they see the caller ID, and their school’s calling. ‘Cause Some kids don’t get good calls. So it’s a really—I would say every single parent that I’ve called, I usually get a follow-up email, either to me or my admin, just saying it’s such a cool idea I do this; thank you so much. And yeah, I just call and give good news and just put ’em on the spot. And usually the kids are a little embarrassed, but you can tell, even though they’re kind of—I think they’re faking it, that they’re embarrassed! ‘Cause You know that they got the Phone Friday, and everybody’s like, “Who’s gonna get the phone Friday?!” And so it’s a very big deal in my class.
Eric Cross (12:07):
What a great way to—I mean, it seems like that hits on so many levels. You’re making these positive calls home. You’re praising publicly, which a lot of times can happen where students can get criticized or redirected publicly and then praised privately, which is a lot of times the reverse what we should be doing. But here you are praising them publicly. And then you’re not only building a relationship with yourself, but you’re also connecting them with their parent or whoever is caring for them, because now when they go home, there’s this, “Hey, your teacher called; you’re doing awesome!” So it’s this kind of triangle that’s forming there. I think that’s super-cool and a great thing for teachers to do.
Ryan Renee Rudkin (12:45):
It takes, you know, the last five minutes of my class. I do it every class. And then I have a system. Like I said, I keep track of all the kids. That way, by the end of the trimester I’ve gotten everybody. Sometimes I let the students, whoever I call first, then I let them pick a peer and I tell them, “OK, we have to have a solid reason. Why are we calling?” And a couple times they’ll have a student, like one of my energized ones, they’ll raise their hand. “How About me? How about me?” And I and the kids kind of laugh a little and I said, “Well, how about this? Let’s make a goal. How about next week we’re gonna make a goal and we’re gonna have a reason to call home.” So just working on the kids that need a little push in the right direction. That’s other reasoning to it. But yeah, it’s fun. I love it.
Eric Cross (13:33):
And you have the community. You have this goal setting. We were talking a little earlier about this transition—so you’re becoming this…your school’s going through the IB process, is that right?
Ryan Renee Rudkin (13:44):
Yes.
Eric Cross (13:44):
And we were talking about the ATL skills and one of them is goal-setting management. You already kind of organically do this in your classroom, which is really neat. I know being an IB teacher, a lot of times I find the things that I’ve already been doing and find, “Oh, this is actually an approach to learning!” or “This is something that has a title!” I just thought it was just being helpful! Ah…So the kids are connected. You have this process where you’re calling parents; it’s working; students are involved, so it’s building this community. Now you’re engaging students. Do you have any favorite student engagement tools that you use in your classroom or when you’re teaching that you feel like you get a lot of bang for your buck? There’s so many things out there these days. And so many approaches, tools, web apps. Do you have any favorites that you use?
Ryan Renee Rudkin (14:40):
No. Nothing comes up top of my mind right now. Mostly just projects, like I said. And being excited. I think having my students see me excited about something…and I’m honest when we’re doing something that’s not quite my favorite, then I’m honest about that too. But just having my—like, we just started thermal energy this week and I told my students, I said, “OK guys, I’m gonna weave in some chemistry in there. I’m gonna weave in some particle motion,” and they’re like, “Oh! That’s when you taught eighth grade, huh!” Cause I talk a lot about when I taught eighth grade before. I don’t know, just showing my own enthusiasm, I think, is a good payoff to me. That’s a bang for your buck. Other things…I try to give ’em cool videos and Mark Grober, he’s definitely a favorite of mine I like to show my students. I like to bring in guest speakers from our community. When I taught eighth grade for physics, I always brought in a local CHP officer and they would bring in the radar and lidar guns and the kids would mark off the parking lot and they would calculate their speed. And then they would verify it with the radar gun. Two years ago when I taught math, I brought in a local landscaper company, a father-and-son outfit, and they showed the kids how they would do bids on jobs. And so, relate it to our chapter on volume and area. So just making that connection with real life. Plus it’s just a nice opportunity, too, for the community to come in. With our design class, put on our newscast. And then one of our units in our sixth grade curriculum is weather. And so I brought in a local weatheruh, chief meteorologist. And he actually talked to the students about his job as a meteorologist and then also being on the news and putting on a newscast. So we got him on our green screen and did a little like Mark Finan, you know, little cameo on our newscast for the week for school. So that was kind of cool.
Eric Cross (16:45):
They must have been excited.
Ryan Renee Rudkin (16:47):
Yeah. They’re pretty starstruck by him. So that was pretty fun.
Eric Cross (16:51):
This person was on their local news? So they would know him?
Ryan Renee Rudkin (16:56):
Yeah, he’s on Channel 3 out of Sacramento. Yeah. KCRA Channel 3, Mark Finan.
Eric Cross (17:00):
So all these guest speakers that you have…how do you reach out to these people? And you sound like you get a lot of success. Do you ever get nos? Like if I’m sitting here listening and that inspires me, but you’re getting celebrities and you see a few people…like, how do you reach out to them? And does everybody say yes? How does it go?
Ryan Renee Rudkin (17:21):
Well, usually at my back-to-school night, I always ask the parents if they have a career or hobby that could lend itself to the curriculum. And so sometimes I’ll hear about—students will talk about, like, “My mom’s a doctor.” And so I’ll reach out to parents and just say, “Hey, you know, your kiddo said, you’re a doctor. May I ask what type?” And most of the time the nos that I’ve received are just because of schedule conflicts. You just have to get creative! Look in your community and see what you have. People want to come and talk to kids. I’ve had some presentations that the person is so intelligent and amazing, but they just, weren’t very kid-friendly. I mean, that happens. Butsomeone knows someone. And just ask! I mean, it doesn’t hurt to ask to have ’em come out, come hang out for the day, with my students. Andone time I had a nurse practitioner she was in the cardiac unit. And so she brought in hearts and led a heart dissection with my students. And we did a station set-up. I’ve had elaborate ones like that, or just a mom come in to tell my students about her job as a nutritionist and relate it to our unit on metabolism. And so just did like a little 15-minute Q&A with the kids on nutrition. And I would just say, look at your community and/or post on social media. I always do that. Post in your school’s PTA groups. So the parents know someone, that’s for sure. Or someone’s retired. One time I had—I think he was a grandfather of one of the kids—he was into rocks. And he had a bunch of meteorites <laugh> and brought in his meteorites.
Eric Cross (19:15):
Bring in your rocks!
Ryan Renee Rudkin (19:15):
I know! Right? And he <laugh> just brought in his meteorite collection! I was like, sure, come on in!
Eric Cross (19:23):
That’s one of the things I love about being a middle-school teacher is that my students have such varied interests and I’ll get the Rock Kid every once in a while and he’ll come in and he’ll have all these rocks and crystals. And a lot of times there’s a grandfather that’s responsible for this inherited geologic treasure that they have.
Ryan Renee Rudkin (19:45):
Yeah, something like that—I mean rocks are not my favorites, but I don’t really tell the kids that. I was like, “Sure, yeah, come on in! We can have a whole-day lesson on rocks!”
Eric Cross (19:55):
<Weakly> “This is great!”
Ryan Renee Rudkin (19:58):
Just utilizing your resources. That’s all it’s about.
Eric Cross (20:02):
Well, I think the back-to-school night was really helpful. That’s something that’s super doable. You have a bunch of parents and you just simply ask, “Who do you know? What do you do?” And then just collecting that and then just asking people to come in. I’ve I’ve been reluctant to do it more often than I’ve wanted to, because I haven’t figured out—and maybe you can help me with this—I have three class periods a day plus other class periods that are not necessarily science. And I don’t want to dominate a person’s schedule. Do they tend to be willing to stay all day? Or do you do, one class gets it, and you record it? Like, how do you balance out the speakers with your school schedule?
Ryan Renee Rudkin (20:39):
Mostly they’ll they’ll just come for the whole day. When I taught eighth grade, I had five classes, so that was easy. That was an all-day thing. And then usually I’ll offer to call lunch, have lunch delivered, or snacks during the day. I mean—
Eric Cross (20:53):
Feeding them is key.
Ryan Renee Rudkin (20:54):
Yeah. Just something kind of nice. Donuts in the morning. I mean, you’d be very surprised. Most people that are in the field or retired, like I said, they’re more than willing to come. And even if they have to wait an hour, while you teach another class that doesn’t pertain to it, then they’ll either leave or come back or just hang out in the back and pretend to be a student during that history class that you have.
Eric Cross (21:20):
It’s my own limiting belief where I feel guilty. I don’t think about it. I need to think about it through the perspective that you do, that these people WANT to talk. I just assume everybody’s so busy. But I do know, the times I’ve had speakers come out, at the end of the day, they’re so energized or they’re so happy or they’re so grateful. ‘Cause They’re like, “This is what it’s like to teach every day?” I’m like, “Yeah, this is what it’s like.”
Ryan Renee Rudkin (21:42):
I think too, a lot of parents…usually being being in the stops at elementary. A Lot of parents don’t get the opportunity to come help out in the classroom, because the middle school kids, you know, it’s not very cool or it’s just not needed like in the elementary classes. So a lot of times, like I said, you’d be surprised. A lot of the parents they’re more than happy to come and hang out. And again, some students, they don’t want their mom or dad to be there, but then I talk it up. I’m like, “Everyone’s gonna be so like impressed that your dad’s a doctor,” or “your mom’s a doctor” or —so then I kind of like downplay it. Like, “Oh, whatever, you’re you’re faking it. It’ll be fine. Don’t be embarrassed.” Leading up to their parent coming into the classroom.
Eric Cross (22:36):
Right. Kind of redirect that energy toward something positive. With guest speakers, projects, pacing, all these awesome things that you have going on, how do you find balance as a teacher, as a person? And what encouragement would you give to new or aspiring teachers? We work in a profession that will take as much as you give it. And you fall asleep at night worrying about other people’s kids and we love it. And teachers by personality can just give and give and give and give. But in order for us to last—I’m thinking about those new teachers who are going into it, who are gonna go in and be there before the sun gets up and stay after the sun gets down. How do you maintain balance, taking care of yourself? You’ve been in education for—how long have you been teaching for?
Ryan Renee Rudkin (23:29):
Sixteen. This is my 16th year.
Eric Cross (23:31):
Enough to be that veteran. So how do you find balance? And then, what encouragement would you give to new or aspiring teachers?
Ryan Renee Rudkin (23:39):
I would say each year, pick one or two things to add on. You can’t add on 10 things, even though you’re gonna find 10 things that are awesome. But just make a little list, put ’em in a file, and every year, just get good at what you do and then just add on one or two things. And reflect on what’s not going well that you can get rid of to make room to add something else. Try to be patient with yourself. And don’t reinvent the wheel. There’s so many things out there that you can borrow and make it your own. Again, I think that’s a time-saver, just leaning on your colleagues. And take lots of notes, because then when you do it again next year, you can refresh yourself and, “Oh yeah, this lesson, wasn’t the best…” What can you add in to make it a little bit better? And yeah, I would say just take on one or two things each year. And then by the time you get to, you know, being a veteran, you can do all these awesome things and it’ll feel natural ’cause you’ve been practicing and just adding in one thing at a time. I coached Science Olympiad a bunch of years ago, and Science Olympiad is so rewarding. It’s just so amazing.
Eric Cross (24:59):
What is Science Olympiad, for the people who’ve never heard of it?
Ryan Renee Rudkin (25:03):
Oh, Science Olympiad is so awesome. Google it. I think it’s just ScienceOlympiad.org. It’s 23 different events across all disciplines of science, different topics. And then you have a team of 15 students. And so your 15 students have to cover the 23 events. So for example, if the student’s on the anatomy team, usually there’s a team of two kids they’re gonna study and learn. They provide all the rules and the guidelines. So the students learn and study whatever the parameters are for that year. And then they take a test. And then they compete against other schools. And there’s build events, the engineering events, they can build things like trebuchets matchbox cars or mousetrap cars. Oh gosh, there’s all kinds of things. There’s like a Rube Goldberg device. It changes every year. And it’s so rewarding to see the kids; they pick their area of science that they love. And sometimes you have to put them on an event that they don’t know, and then they end up loving it. It’s so rewarding as a teacher to see these kids that are just on fire and you know that one day they’re gonna go off and do amazing things. They just commit. They commit to their event. And then they blow it outta the water and they win medals and just the recognition…it’s super, it’s just an amazing program.
Eric Cross (26:42):
One of the competitions that’s really low-tech that I’ve taken into my classroom is Write It, Do It. Have you done that one before?
Ryan Renee Rudkin (26:50):
Oh, yes. Yeah. That’s one. Yep.
Eric Cross (26:52):
It’s such a low-tech, simple one to do, but it teaches such great skills. And for those people who haven’t heard of the Write It, Do It project, you create kinda some abstract art out of random crafts. That’s very difficult to describe. You have pipe cleaners and foam and balls and you know, all these different things. And you make it. And then one person on the team is the writer, and they look at it and they write the procedures, and then their teammate, who’s in a different room and doesn’t get to see it, gets all the materials to build it and the procedures, and they have to rebuild it as closely as possible to the actual original. Even though they don’t get to see the original. So they have to rely on their partner’s ability to write procedures step-by-step. And it was fun to watch my students become teammates in that. And they learned how to communicate in a really fun competition. So I expanded it to do it with all of my students as an activity, just to teach them how write descriptively, to write procedurally, to be technical writers. And it’s, it’s fun! It’s fun to see what they build based on what the students say. <Laugh> And it’s also fun to watch them interact with each other, which for seventh graders, usually it’s conflict. <Laugh> But, like, playful conflict. <Laugh> It’s pretty funny to see what they build.
Ryan Renee Rudkin (28:11):
They’re like, “Man, what are you talking about? That doesn’t mean this; it means this!”
Eric Cross (28:16):
<Laugh> I know part of me feels guilty, but not enough to stop the project. ‘Cause I know for some of ’em, it’s gonna be a really trial by fire being able to practice their skills with writing procedures.
Ryan Renee Rudkin (28:27):
But they’re learning among themselves how to provide more details and to be more thorough with their writing and and their thoughts, put their thoughts onto paper. So yeah, that’s a funny event. Definitely.
Eric Cross (28:41):
Earlier you had mentioned something about connecting your kids with kids and students outside of your classroom. What is it that you do with that? Because I thought that was a really cool project. Can you speak to that a little bit?
Ryan Renee Rudkin (28:57):
Yes, I’ve done—they haven’t had it in a few years, but there’s something called the Pringles Challenge. And if you Google that, I’m sure it’s on the Internet still. So you sign your class up, or your classes, and you get partnered with another school somewhere in the U.S., someplace else. And you decide individually teams, whatever they build. And they make a package to ship a single Pringle chip through the mail. And then you actually mail a Pringle chip through the mail. And then your partner team or partner school, they send their chips to you and then you open everything and then you can take pictures and video. And then there was a whole scoring process where you would score when you receive the chips. And then you input all the data on the website so you can see like how your—and most schools would trade pictures, so that the kids found out how their chip survived. March Mammal Madness is so much fun. Again, Google that.
Eric Cross (30:01):
Did you say March Mammal Madness?
Ryan Renee Rudkin (30:02):
Yes.
Eric Cross (30:03):
Like March Madness, with mammals?
Ryan Renee Rudkin (30:05):
Yes.
Eric Cross (30:05):
- What is this?
Ryan Renee Rudkin (30:06):
It starts up in March. And you can sign your students up. And that one—it’s not too interactive with other schools, but this is opportunity to get the kids interacting within your site or within your district. Or if you have teacher friends at other schools. There’s like 60…I think it’s 64 animals? And they have this massive bracket that they post. And then you can have the students, I did it—it would be very time-consuming to have the kids individually research each animal. So I just gave one animal per student and so as a class we researched all the animals and then, I think it’s every three days or so, they have these bouts. And it’s all posted on YouTube. Google it. It’s kind of fun.
Eric Cross (30:56):
I’ve already got the website up, ready to go! Folks, everybody who needs to Google this: <articulates carefully> March Mammal Madness. And is it Arizona State University? Is that the main site, ASU?
Ryan Renee Rudkin (31:04):
Yes.
Eric Cross (31:04):
So people, listen to this. Check it out. March Mammal Madness. Look, I’m doing this! I’m already,—you’ve already sold me on this.
Ryan Renee Rudkin (31:14):
It is so much fun, oh my gosh. And then, then the kids—each round, they pick their pick, just like basketball. They do their picks and then you wait for the video. And they do it live on—I think it’s live on Instagram, or the next day on YouTube. And then the kids get all excited. And then usually the kids, whatever animal they got as their research animal, they’re rooting for that one to win, the whole thing.
Eric Cross (31:42):
But we still have time; we still have time to—
Ryan Renee Rudkin (31:45):
You can jump in anytime. Even if it’s already started, you can jump into it. It usually lasts—I believe it’s a two-week from beginning to end. When they do the first round, the wild card, and then all the way to the winner, I believe it’s a two-week process. Oh, maybe three, actually.
Eric Cross (31:59):
I’m already seeing this lead-up to the video being watched in class to see…I’m already thinking about like, “How do I prevent my students from finding the video?” Or like, “When does it go live so that I could be the one to show them so they didn’t go find it early?”
Ryan Renee Rudkin (32:13):
It takes time out of the class, but I believe it’s one of those things where you have to just…it takes 10 minutes out of the class, but it’s important. So when they each round and then the next day, they release the YouTube video. Last year, when it got down to the final round, we were on spring break. And so I told my students, “You guys, let’s do some optional Zooms. And so I had a bunch of kids log on and we all watched the videos together. So that was kind of fun. And then this year, the other thing, the first time I’ve ever done this and it’s going really well is—on social media, I was talking with one of the teachers from Ohio who teaches science and she and I decided we’re gonna do penpals for our students this year. Paper-And-Pen penpals. So that’s been a lot of fun. We just partnered up all the students, her students and my students, and once a month we send and receive the letters to each other. So that’s been a really cool experience.
Eric Cross (33:14):
If you keep doing that, and you need more teachers to be involved, can my students be penpals with your students?
Ryan Renee Rudkin (33:20):
Yeah!
Eric Cross (33:20):
If you open it up to more people? I think that, to get a letter, old-school? Letter in the mail? It would be so exciting.
Ryan Renee Rudkin (33:28):
It is. We mail them, the teacher and I, we just put them all together in one package. But yeah, it’s an actual handwritten letter.
Eric Cross (33:37):
The only letters I feel like I get in the mail now are bills.
Ryan Renee Rudkin (33:42):
Right? Exactly.
Eric Cross (33:42):
But I feel like the digital version of that is if someone calls me, it’s probably bad news. I don’t know if I’m the only one that’s like that, but I’m like, “Who’s calling me? Why aren’t you texting me? What’s going on? Text me first, then call! I need to know who’s going on, and if you’re unknown, you’re going to voicemail.
Ryan Renee Rudkin (34:00):
Exactly. The penpals has been a lot of fun.
Eric Cross (34:03):
You’ve been in education for a while. You’re on the other side of what it’s like to be a student in the classroom. Which can be surreal in itself, when we think about our own experiences as being a student. Is there a teacher or a learning experience that’s had an impact on you while you were a student in school that really stands out to you? And you can interpret the question however you want. But is there someone that’s memorable or an experience that’s memorable that you still carry with you today?
Ryan Renee Rudkin (34:32):
Definitely. My favorite teacher, and we actually still keep in contact on social media is Mrs. Sheldon. She was my fifth and sixth grade teacher. I had the pleasure when I was in elementary school, I was in an all-day contained GATE class—Gifted and Talented Education class. I vividly remember doing so many amazing projects. We built this big, giant—she brought in a big ol’, like, TV box. It was big, big, big. And you could stick like three kids inside there, standing up shoulder-to-shoulder. And we built this big dragon. The head, and we had the whole rest of the class in a big sheet behind us, and we would do a little parade around the school. And she had that thing for years after. They had to repair it every year, and they would do the little parade around school. She did a lot of traveling and when we would go on vacation and then come back, that was always the big deal: “Where did Mrs Sheldon go?” And she had sand from Egypt and pictures from the rainforest. And later when I became a teacher and then I looked her up and we reconnected I did ask her, “Did you go to those places? Or did you, like, lie about it? <Laugh> To get us engaged?
Eric Cross (35:52):
You went for the real questions!
Ryan Renee Rudkin (35:54):
I did. And she laughed and thought that was funny. And she did travel for real. But yeah, she’s an amazing woman. We still keep in contact. And I remember, you know, little things…like we would be out there doing our PE time and she’d have her long skirt, you know, dress on, with her tennies, and she’s out there playing kickball with us. Just a very kindhearted, smart, amazing woman. I’m very fortunate and I’m grateful that we are able to keep in contact. Love social media for that reason. So.
Eric Cross (36:33):
Yeah. And that’s Miss Sheldon?
Ryan Renee Rudkin (36:35):
Mrs. Sheldon. Marlene Sheldon. Yeah.
Eric Cross (36:37):
Shout-Out to Marlene Sheldon influencing the next generation of teachers, with engagement with your world travels and all those different things.
Eric Cross (37:04):
Ryan, thank you so much for one, serving our students. And in the classroom, our middle-school students who need us. I think that middle school especially, elementary school, those years are when students are really starting to decide, “What am I good at?” And the experiences that we create for our students really shape what they believe they can do. These really cool, engaging experiences, these projects that you’re giving them, whether they’re doing these car sales, Shark Tanks, or they’re doing penpals, or you have guest speakers, or they’re designing planets. These are things that students don’t forget. And then when they move on to higher grades, they remember more than anything, I think, how they felt about something. And it sounds like you’re crafting these awesome experiences. And so I just wanna thank you for your time. I know as a teacher it’s very short. And I thank you for being on the podcast with us.
Ryan Renee Rudkin (38:04):
Thank you. This has been a great experience. I just—I really enjoy my students. And I feel very, very grateful and very blessed for finding where I belong.
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Meet the guest
Ryan Rudkin is a middle school science educator near Sacremento, California. Although she originally thought she would teach elementary students, Ryan connected with middle school and never looked back. Now in her 16th year in the classroom, Ryan also supports teachers in her district with professional development. Ryan’s favorite part of teaching science is seeing students grapple with concepts and explore phenomena.
About Science Connections: The podcast
Welcome to Science Connections: The Podcast! Science is changing before our eyes, now more than ever. So…how do we help kids figure that out? We will bring on educators, scientists, and more to discuss the importance of high-quality science instruction. In this episode, hear from our host Eric Cross about his work engaging students as a K-8 science teacher.
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S5.E6. Why skepticism is essential to the Science of Reading, with Dr. Claude Goldenberg
About the program
Each unit of Amplify Science engages students in a relevant, real-world problem where they investigate scientific phenomena, engage in collaboration and discussion, and develop models or explanations in order to arrive at solutions.
The program includes hands-on activities, print materials, and powerful digital tools to support online and offline teaching and learning. Highly adaptable and user-friendly, the program gives schools and individual teachers flexibility based on their technology resources and preferences.
In every unit, students take on the role of scientists or engineers—marine biologists, geologists, water resource engineers, and more—to solve a real-world problem. These engaging roles and problems provide relevant contexts through which students investigate phenomena.
A powerful partnership
Amplify Science was developed by the science education experts at UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science and the digital learning team at Amplify. As the Hall’s first curriculum designed to address the new science standards, Amplify Science reflects state-of-the-art practices in science teaching and learning.
Amplify Science is rooted in the Lawrence Hall of Science’s Do, Talk, Read, Write, Visualize model of learning. This research-based approach presents students with multiple modalities through which to explore the curriculum.
K–5 sample
In Balancing Forces, students are challenged to figure out how a floating train works in order to explain it to the citizens of the fictional city Faraday.
- Learn more about phenomena and the student roles of scientists and engineers across all units in grades K–5.
- Learn more about the Student Books written exclusively for Amplify Science for grades K–5.
- Learn more about the program structure of Amplify Science for grades K–5.
Hear from teachers about why they love Amplify Science:
6–8 sample
Metabolism (Grade 6/Life Science)
Inhabiting the role of medical students in a hospital, students are able to draw the connections between the large-scale, macro-level experiences of the body and the micro-level processes that make the body function as they first diagnose a patient and then analyze the metabolism of world-class athletes.
- Learn more about phenomena and the student roles of scientists and engineers across all units in grades 6–8.
- Learn more about the digital simulations in grades 4–8 of Amplify Science.
- Learn more about the program structure of Amplify Science for grades 6–8.
Hear from teachers about why they love Amplify Science:
Learn more
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Welcome, Utah K-8 reviewers!
Unlocking reading: Comprehension strategies vs. knowledge building, with Daniel Willingham, Ph.D.
Transcripts and additional resources:
Meet Our Guest(s):
Daniel Willingham, Ph.D.
Daniel Willingham, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia, where he has taught since 1992. Until about 2000, his research focused solely on the brain basis of learning and memory. Today, all of his research concerns the application of cognitive psychology to K–16 education. He is the author of several books, including the best-selling Why Don’t Students Like School? and, most recently, Outsmart Your Brain. His writing on education has appeared in 23 languages. In 2017 he was appointed by President Barack Obama to the National Board for Education Sciences.
Meet our host, Susan Lambert
Susan Lambert is Chief Academic Officer of Literacy at Amplify and host of Science of Reading: The Podcast. Throughout her career, she has focused on creating high-quality learning environments using evidence-based practices. Lambert is a mom of four, a grandma of four, a world traveler, and a collector of stories.
As the host of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Lambert explores the increasing body of scientific research around how reading is best taught. A former classroom teacher, administrator, and curriculum developer, she’s dedicated to turning theory into best practices that educators can put right to use in the classroom, and to showcasing national models of reading instruction excellence.
Quotes
“Your brain is really good at only bringing out the information from long-term memory that is relevant for the context. All of that's happening outside of awareness.”
“When reading is really humming, when it's really working well, it's like visual perception. You're just enjoying the view and you're oblivious to all of the cognitive machinery in the background that's letting you see.”
“Expecting that knowledge-rich curriculum is going to solve all problems… that's [not] what a reading program is. No, a reading program is multifaceted and needs to have lots of components.”
“Knowledge accrues slowly and it's going to take a while. You need to be patient.”