Science+
Science+ is a phenomenon-based, hands-on science curriculum designed to engage elementary students in real-world applications. These applications also connect with cybersecurity pop-out lessons that connect the students to cybersecurity careers.
Each module is centered around an anchor phenomenon, which encourages students to ask questions about the natural world. As they seek answers to their questions, students make observations, gather information, and design investigations to test their ideas. Students learn to work in teams, engage in critical reflection, develop models, and share their ideas through speaking and writing. The modules introduce the engineering design process to help students apply concepts and design solutions.
Science+ modules connect to key math, writing, and cybersecurity concepts, and have been mapped to the Next Generation Science Standards covering all standards for each grade level and reaching all three dimensions.
Students will discover how nature can help us design better technology. Students will explore what is happening to bees around the world and how a robotic bee is part of a temporary solution. Students will also learn about the life cycles of various plants and animals to design a robot that can be used to clean up trash on their school playground.
Grades Levels: 3
Students will discover how the environment has changed over time and how those changes affected organisms. The woolly mammoth once roamed North America but is now extinct. Students will research temperatures of different cities in particular seasons to compare the weather patterns around the U.S. Students will also design a solution to help an animal on the endangered species list.
Grades Levels: 3
Students will explore all about sight and how it can vary. Students will also look at other senses and how animals and plants process information using their senses for survival. Researching a sunflower for inspiration, students will design a stand to make a solar panel more efficient. The module concludes with discovering how sight can vary between people.
Grades Levels: 4
Students will learn how long-distance messages were sent in the past and will use technology to understand how long-distance messages are sent currently and can be sent in the future. Students will use block based coding with the BBC micro:bit throughout this module. Students will use a web based coding platform and can utilize a free online simulator when micro:bits are not available.
Grades Levels: 4
Students will discover why safety devices like seat belts and car seats are an important part of high speed travel. In the phenomena picture, Brittany and Sierra are going for a car ride. Brittany wonders why there are laws about using seat belts and car seats for kids.
Grades Levels: 4
Students will explore the physical and chemical changes that took place aboard the Titanic and how some of these changes impacted the ship sinking. Students will also look at mystery items that could have come from the ship and determine what the item is made out of by looking at its properties.
Grades Levels: 5
Students will discover what is needed to sustain life and how energy travels through an ecosystem. Students will develop a model to describe the movement of matter through plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment. Students will also support an argument from their investigations and research that plants get the materials they need for growth chiefly from air and water.
Grades Levels: 5
The focus in this unit is on how we get safe drinking water. Students will explore ways that water is cleaned, what water is made up of, and the different types of water that we have on Earth. Students will study Earth’s major systems and how they interact to better understand what is happening on our planet.
Grades Levels: 5
In this module, students explore how organisms survive weather-related hazards. They will use authentic data to understand trends in temperature and precipitation around the world. Students create their own line graph to show their results. Students will design a structure to decrease the impact of flooding.
Grades Levels: 3
Throughout this module, students will explore how the brightness of the sun and stars is affected by distance from Earth. They will also observe patterns of shadows, day and night, and the seasonal appearance of stars in the sky. Students will apply their learning to design a constellation model and explain why some constellations are not always visible in the night sky.