A. Overview
- Curriculum Structure & Emphasis
- Overview
- Support for Teachers
- Technology & Materials
- Earth & Environmental Science in Inquiry to Build Content
- Samples of Student Work
- Teacher Prespectives
- Record of Support in Urban Districts
- A three-year science curriculum aligned to the Illinois Learning Standards and the PSAE:
- Biology, 9th grade,
- Biology: A Human Approach (BSCS),
- Chemistry, 10th grade,
- Chemistry in the Community (ACS), and
- Physics, 11th grade,
- Active Physics (It’s About Time).
- Biology, 9th grade,
- Inquiry-based instructional strategies are utilized in each course. Research suggests students who traditionally lag in science achievement perform best in an inquiry-based model.
- The curriculum is integrated across 3 years by revisiting critical concepts (i.e. matter and energy, force and motion) and important skills (i.e. using evidence, communicating scientifically) with a consistent set of instructional practices and materials, lab investigations, technology, and assessment tools.
- Teachers are more engaged in facilitating and managing classroom discussions of student generated ideas and experimental designs.
- Teachers receive intensive and ongoing support in learning how to:
- manage and guide classroom discussion;
- implement a meaningful and consistent strategy for laboratory notebook use;
- use technology and probeware in their classes, and;
- interpret formative assessment items to make informed decisions about pedagogic strategies for classroom activities
- manage and guide classroom discussion;