Welcome to the Amplify Science Community Showcase!
Amplify Science for grades K–8 invites students to figure out how the world works by blending hands-on investigations, literacy-rich activities, and interactive digital tools. As they learn to think, read, write, and argue like scientists and engineers, they encounter real phenomena and real investigations—and step into their roles as real scientists in the making.
Discover inspiring classroom examples and teacher resources from educators nationwide who are bringing Amplify Science to life.
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Kindergarten
In kindergarten, students explore sunlight and weather through careful observations, meaningful questions, growing vocabulary, and Classroom Walls that make their scientific discoveries visible, joyful, and celebrated.

Kindergarten: Sunlight and Weather
Color-coded sections for three grades make the Key Concepts and thinking easy to follow, while clothespins mark each class’s progress through Chapter 1.
Credit: Rebecca Steindler O’Brien, P.S. 51 The Elias Howe School, NY
Grade 1
In grade 1, students explore how animals and plants defend themselves, investigate how light creates shadows, discover how sound comes from vibrations, and consider how structures and behaviors help living things thrive.


Grade 1: Animal and Plant Defenses
With their own animal defenses on display, students explore how structures and behaviors help animals protect themselves.
Credit: Veeh Nguyen, Belle Chasse Academy, LA

Grade 1: Animal and Plant Defenses
Student vocabulary, questions, and representations show ideas about animal and plant defenses taking shape on the Classroom Wall.
Credit: Veeh Nguyen, Belle Chasse Academy, LA

Grade 1: Animal and Plant Defenses
Unit questions and student work capture the class’s developing ideas about how plants and animals survive.
Credit: Christina Nelson, William Howard Taft Elementary School, OH

Grade 1: Light and Sound
Shadows stretch across the classroom as students investigate the relationship between light and objects.
Credit: Brittney Gooden, LaSalle Elementary School, LA

Grade 1: Light and Sound
Students investigate vibrations as they explore how sound is produced and transmitted.
Credit: Jennifer Baker, Poland Junior High School, LA

Grade 1: Light and Sound
A student-created puppet show gives the class a chance to demonstrate what they have learned about light and sound.
Credit: Anna Dardar, Ball Elementary School, LA

Grade 1: Light and Sound
Questions and student thinking about shadows and light make the Light and Sound unit visible on the Classroom Wall.
Credit: Brittney Gooden, LaSalle Elementary School, LA

Grade 2
In grade 2, students explore changing landforms by comparing sand, modeling how water shapes the land, creating scientific diagrams, and crafting clay petroglyphs that celebrate their growing understanding of Earth’s dynamic surface.

Grades 2: Properties of Materials
A multi-grade Classroom Wall organizes thinking with color-coded sections, unit questions, key concepts, vocabulary, and displays for units.
Credit: Kristina Sandstrom, Tartan Elementary School, NV

Grade 2: Changing Landforms
With spray bottles, chalk, and water, students model how landforms near water can change over time. Their diagrams connect the hands-on investigation to nonfiction text features, helping them represent what they observe.
Credit: Connor Carson, Jonathan Burr Elementary School, IL

Grade 2: Changing Landforms
Sand samples give students a hands-on way to investigate how landforms can change over time.
Credit: Rebecca Steindler O’Brien, P.S. 51 The Elias Howe School, NY

Grade 2: Changing Landforms
After observing four kinds of sand as geologists, students created their own petroglyphs.
Credit: Cindy Price, Colonial School District, DE
Grade 3
In grade 3, students investigate balancing forces with magnets, explore how traits are inherited, study hummingbirds and survival, and analyze rainfall data to build vivid ideas about weather and climate.


Grade 3: Balancing Forces
A hands-on magnet challenge has students testing and demonstrating the forces they observe.
Credit: Maureen Patt, Broad Street Elementary School, NH

Grade 3: Inheritance and Traits
Clay creatures give students a creative way to investigate how traits appear in real organisms.
Credit: Maribel Ramos, Esperanza Academy Charter School, PA

Grade 3: Inheritance and Traits
Student-created drawings capture students’ explanations of inherited traits.
Credit: Sandi O’Brien, Parkmead Elementary School, CA

Grade 3: Inheritance and Traits
Students compare pigeon offspring with parent pairs as they look for similarities in inherited traits.
Credit: Sandi O’Brien, Parkmead Elementary School, CA

Grade 3: Inheritance and Traits
A celery investigation helps students see how the environment can affect traits.
Credit: Sandi O’Brien, Parkmead Elementary School, CA

Grade 3: Environments and Survival
Ruby-throated hummingbirds with different traits become models for how organisms meet their needs for food.
Credit: Sandi O’Brien, Parkmead Elementary School, CA

Grade 3: Weather and Climate
Rainfall data fills the classroom as students collect, measure, and compare patterns in weather and climate.
Credit: Sandi O’Brien, Parkmead Elementary School, CA

Grade 3: Weather and Climate
Weather and climate thinking grows across the Classroom Wall as students connect observations, data, and explanations about changing weather patterns.
Credit: Buffy Scott Marcantel, Maplewood Elementary, LA

Grade 4
In grade 4, students explore energy conversions through solar panels, LEDs, and wind turbines; investigate how light supports vision; and create models and scientific explanations to illuminate the world around them.

Grade 4: Energy Conversions
Students construct and test wind turbines designed to power an LED, exploring how an alternative energy source can be converted into electricity.
Credit: Ashley LaPierre, P.S. 343 Peck Slip School, NY

Grade 4: Energy Conversions
Solar panels, alligator clips, wires, an LED, and a buzzer come together in student-built energy systems.
Credit: Sandi O’Brien, Parkmead Elementary School, CA

Grade 4: Energy Conversions
Paper-plate wind turbines turn students’ ideas about energy conversions into a classroom display.
Credit: Sandi O’Brien, Parkmead Elementary School, CA

Grade 4: Vision and Light
Students plan vision models as they work to represent how light enables seeing.
Credit: Maribel Ramos, Esperanza Academy Charter School, PA

Grade 4: Vision and Light
Scientific explanations show students connecting evidence to what they understand about vision and light.
Credit: Chrissy Campenni, Wyoming Area Intermediate Center, PA

Grade 4: Vision and Light
Student work and colorful gecko drawings bring the Vision and Light unit to life as the class investigates how light affects vision in a rain forest.
Credit: Chrissy Campenni, Wyoming Area Intermediate Center, PA
Grade 5
In grade 5, students explore patterns in earth and sky, investigate mixtures and substances, model freshwater systems, and build terrariums and food webs that reveal the connections within ecosystems.


Grade 5: Patterns of Earth and Sky
Students investigate daytime and nighttime as they look for patterns.
Credit: Sandi O’Brien, Parkmead Elementary School, CA

Grade 5: Patterns of Earth and Sky
Hands-On Flextension: Student-created artifacts make patterns visible.
Credit: Adriana Barrera, J.W. Bishop Elementary School, TX

Grade 5: Patterns of Earth and Sky
A growing collection of questions and explanations captures students’ thinking.
Credit: Christy Flynn, South Grant Elementary School, LA

Grade 5: Modeling Matter
Hands-on tests with different substances give students a close look at how materials’ properties can be observed, compared, and described.
Credit: Halli Trinker, John Hill School, NJ

Grade 5: Modeling Matter
Flavor ingredients become evidence as students test and compare the properties of different substances.
Credit: Kevin Butters, Stolley Park Elementary, NE

Grade 5: Modeling Matter
Students test ingredients to create salad dressing and observe how substances interact.
Credit: Sandi O’Brien, Parkmead Elementary School, CA

Grade 5: Modeling Matter
Classroom discussion and work show students investigating solubility and attraction.
Credit: Cristina Cullen, Stanton Elementary School, CA

Grade 5: Modeling Matter
Vocabulary, unit questions, and student artwork show the class making sense of mixtures, substances, and the properties of matter.
Credit: Cristina Cullen, Stanton Elementary School, CA

Grade 5: Modeling Matter
A Modeling Matter Classroom Wall captures students’ thinking about why salad dressing ingredients separate after mixing.
Credit: Shannon Cox, Zwolle Elementary School, LA

Grade 5: The Earth System
As students mix substances in sealed bags, they observe heat, color change, gas formation, and a changed smell, experiencing the evidence that a reaction has occurred.
Credit: Stacey King, Gonzales Primary School, LA

Grade 5: The Earth System
Freshwater system designs show students applying their understanding of how Earth’s systems interact.
Credit: Sandi O’Brien, Parkmead Elementary School, CA

Grade 5: Ecosystem Restoration
During terrarium observation, students closely examine their grass-filled ecosystems and record evidence of how living things interact within a model ecosystem.
Credit: Shannon Cox, Zwolle Elementary School, LA

Grade 5: Ecosystem Restoration
Students build terrariums to model how living things interact within an ecosystem.
Credit: Elizabeth DeBoo, St. Frances Cabrini Academy, MO

Grade 5: Ecosystem Restoration
The Leaves and Roots game gives students a hands-on way to explore relationships in an ecosystem.
Credit: Cyndi Crouch, Eagle Heights Elementary School, MO

Grade 5: Ecosystem Restoration
Stuffed animals become the basis for student-created food web models.
Credit: Halli Trinker, John Hill School, NJ

Grade 6
In grade 6, students explore microorganisms through microscopes, investigate how body systems use energy, and develop climate thinking by examining ocean currents, air parcels, thermal energy, and weather patterns.

Grade 6: Microbiome extension activity
Before beginning the Microbiome unit, students step into Robert Hooke’s role by using a virtual microscope to observe specimens and sketch what they see at increasing magnifications. Their drawings make the changing detail visible as they study specimens at 4x, 10x, 40x, and 100x.
Credit: Jessica Kruger, Gardner International Magnet School, MI

Grade 6: Microbiome
Scale drawings help students represent microorganisms at a size they can study and discuss.
Credit: Elizabeth DeBoo, St. Frances Cabrini Academy, MO

Grade 6: Microbiome
Hands-On Flextension: Students investigate microscopic evidence of life as they look for signs of living things.
Credit: Elizabeth DeBoo, St. Frances Cabrini Academy, MO

Grade 6: Metabolism
Water, phenol red, baking soda, and calcium chloride give students a way to investigate chemical reactions.
Credit: Jessica Kruger, Gardner International Magnet School, MI

Grade 6: Metabolism
A classroom body systems model helps students represent how the body obtains and uses energy.
Credit: Elizabeth DeBoo, St. Frances Cabrini Academy, MO

Grade 6: Metabolism Engineering Internship
Healthy bars showcase students’ work as they apply ideas about energy and the body.
Credit: Elizabeth DeBoo, St. Frances Cabrini Academy, MO

Grade 6: Metabolism
This Classroom Wall brings together student questions, models, and explanations about how the body obtains and uses energy.
Credit: Joshua Ryan Abellera, Fertitta Middle School, NV

Grade 6: Metabolism
Handwritten questions and vocabulary make the connections among body systems, energy, and metabolism visible across the Wall.
Credit: Crystal Cuaron Baker, Mesa Middle School, NM

Grade 6: Metabolism
Unit Questions and student work document a class developing explanations about metabolism and energy.
Credit: Jessica Kruger, Gardner International Magnet School, MI

Grade 6: Metabolism
A 12-foot bulletin board gives Sheyenne Cahalan’s sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students their own spaces to display Unit Questions, vocabulary, and key concepts, with borders separating each grade’s section.
Credit: Sheyenne Cahalan, Knox County R-1 School District, MO

Grade 6: Thermal Energy
Hot and cold water simulations give students a way to observe thermal energy in motion.
Credit: Whitney Stewart, Bolton Academy, LA

Grade 6: Ocean, Atmosphere, and Climate
With current tanks, predictions, and observation sheets, students investigate how water moves and record what happens as they test different ocean current conditions.
Credit: Jessica Kruger, Gardner International Magnet School, MI

Grade 6: Ocean, Atmosphere, and Climate
As students play Ocean Currents, they model the interactions between the ocean, atmosphere, and climate.
Credit: Elizabeth DeBoo, St. Frances Cabrini Academy, MO

Grade 6: Weather Patterns
Two sponges and water containers make the relationship between surface water, air parcels, and precipitation visible as students compare how much water each sponge can hold.
Credit: Andrea Golden, Franklin Township Community School Corporation, IN

Grade 6: Weather Patterns
A warm air parcel model helps students explain how weather patterns develop.
Credit: Elizabeth DeBoo, St. Frances Cabrini Academy, MO

Grade 6: Earth’s Changing Climate
Students organize their developing thinking about the causes and effects of Earth’s changing climate using key concepts, the Unit Question, and vocabulary.
Credit: Karen Wynne, Portola Middle School, CA
Grade 7
In grade 7, students investigate water on Mars, model atoms and molecules, design tsunami-alert systems, and explore how yeast populations change, celebrating science through creative models, engineering, and evidence-based thinking.


Grade 7: Geology on Mars
The Flowing Water Model puts evidence of water on Mars into students’ hands.
Credit: Kim Eich, Oakview Middle School, MN

Grade 7: Geology on Mars
The Flowing Water Model captures the class’s investigation of evidence for water on Mars.
Credit: Kim Eich, Oakview Middle School, MN

Grade 7: Plate Motion Engineering Internship
During the Tsunami Alert Challenge, students compare designs, calculate cost-per-minute ratios, and engineer systems to warn communities about approaching tsunamis.
Credit: Kim Eich, Oakview Middle School, MN

Grade 7: Plate Motion Engineering Internship
Tsunami wave models and student-designed solutions capture the engineering challenge of preparing communities for plate-motion hazards.
Credit: Elizabeth DeBoo, St. Frances Cabrini Academy, MO

Grade 7: Plate Motion
The Unit Question, chapter questions, fossil-evidence maps, plate-boundary diagrams, key concepts, and vocabulary show students building an explanation of how Earth’s plates move and shape its surface.
Credit: Anna Radef, Ralph Cadwallader Middle School, NV

Grade 7: Chemical Reactions
Close observation of changing substances helps students distinguish chemical reactions from other changes.
Credit: Ashlie Beals Arkwright, SCAPA at Bluegrass, KY

Grade 7: Chemical Reactions
Chapter questions, atom and molecule models, and a periodic table make the class’s thinking visible as students investigate how substances change and atoms rearrange during chemical reactions.
Credit: Lindsey Hampf, Upper Township Middle School, NJ

Grade 7: Populations and Resources
A yeast experiment gives students a close-up look at how populations grow and use available resources.
Credit: Elizabeth DeBoo, St. Frances Cabrini Academy, MO

Grade 7: Solar oven extension activity
Foil-lined pizza boxes become student-built solar ovens as students track temperature changes and test whether sunlight can heat marshmallows for s’mores.
Credit: Ryan Rudkin, Valley View Charter Montessori Middle School, CA

Grade 7: Matter and Energy in Ecosystems
A carefully organized Classroom Wall brings together Unit Questions, vocabulary, models, and diagrams that make photosynthesis, cellular respiration, and carbon cycling visible.
Credit: Ashley Wood, Grand Blanc West Middle School, MI

Grade 8
In grade 8, students explore human energy, force, and light while investigating moon phases, changing populations, and evolutionary history through engaging models, hands-on investigations, and evidence-based scientific thinking.

Grade 8: Harnessing Human Energy
Energy systems and movement models show how the human body harnesses energy.
Credit: Lisa Anglim, Elizabeth Ustach Middle School, CA

Grade 8: Harnessing Human Energy
This Classroom Wall keeps the Unit Question, chapter questions, key concepts, and vocabulary easy to display and revisit. Peel-and-stick plastic desk calendar corners hold the cards securely to a bulletin board.
Credit: Lisa Anglim, Elizabeth Ustach Middle School, CA

Grade 8: Harnessing Human Energy
A carefully organized Classroom Wall brings the Unit Question, chapter and investigation questions, key vocabulary, and students’ thinking about potential and kinetic energy into view.
Credit: Maria Katsanos, P.S./I.S. 268, NY

Grade 8: Harnessing Human Energy
As an educator who teaches both grades 7 and 8, Erica Fernandez makes students’ scientific thinking visible throughout the classroom.
Credit: Erica Fernandez, Elsinore Middle School, CA

Grade 8: Force and Motion
Different objects become test cases as students investigate how forces affects motion.
Credit: Elizabeth DeBoo, St. Frances Cabrini Academy, MO

Grade 8: Force and Motion Engineering Internship
Student-designed egg-drop models put collision protection to the test.
Credit: Elizabeth DeBoo, St. Frances Cabrini Academy, MO

Grade 8: Force and Motion
For visual learners, self-designed anchor charts turn concepts from each chapter into colorful, easy-to-reference images.
Credit: Natalia Seoane, Heritage Intermediate School, CA

Grade 8: Magnetic Fields
Hands-On Flextension: Electrostatic force becomes visible through hands-on exploration of forces acting at a distance.
Credit: Melanie Wenger, Lincoln Park Middle School, NJ

Grade 8: Light Waves
Students observe light changing materials as they watch for changes in color, temperature, and movement.
Credit: Gloria Davis, Dolores S. Whitley Elementary School, CA

Grade 8: Light Waves
Students investigate what happens to light as it travels.
Credit: Gloria Davis, Dolores S. Whitley Elementary School, CA

Grade 8: Light Waves
In a fishbowl discussion, students share observations and evidence about light waves.
Credit: Gloria Davis, Dolores S. Whitley Elementary School, CA

Grade 8: Earth, Moon, and Sun
Paper moon-phase models help students explain the Moon’s changing appearance.
Credit: Elizabeth DeBoo, St. Frances Cabrini Academy, MO

Grades 8: Natural Selection
Questions, vocabulary, and key concepts show a class making sense of how traits and populations change over time.
Credit: Anna Radef, Ralph Cadwallader Middle School, NV

Grade 8: Evolutionary History
Hands-On Flextension: Reconstructed owl pellet skeletons give students evidence for investigating relationships among organisms over time.
Credit: Elizabeth DeBoo, St. Frances Cabrini Academy, MO