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NGSS Evidence Statements provide educators with additional detail on what students should know and be able to do. These Evidence Statements describe a detailed look at the NGSS performance expectations.

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Inside California Education: Next Generation Science Standards

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Instructional Leadership for Science Practices

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Focal Science Practices:

Asking questions

Developing and using models

Planning and carrying out investigations

Analyzing and interpreting data

Using mathematical and computational thinking

Constructing explanations

Engaging in argument from evidence

Obtaining, evaluating and communicating information

Related NGSS Performance Expectations:
2-ESS2-1: Compare multiple solutions designed to slow or prevent wind or water from changing the shape of the land

This video is courtesy of the Teaching Channel and the video series: Building Towards NGSS Classrooms. Video Link: Making Claims from Evidence

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Focal Science Practices: Asking questions Developing and using models Planning and carrying out investigations Analyzing and interpreting data Using mathematical and computational thinking...

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NGSS - Next Generation Science Standards

Next Generation Science Standards Introduction

Scientific & Engineering Practices

Asking Questions & Defining Problems
Developing & Using Models
Planning & Carrying Out Investigations
Analyzing & Interpreting Data

Mathematics & Computational Thinking
Construct Explanations & Design Solutions
Engaging in Argument from Evidence
Obtain, Evaluate, Communicate Information

Crosscutting Concepts

Patterns
Cause & Effect: Mechanism & Explanation
Scale, Proportion, & Quantity
Systems & System Models

Energy & Matter: Flow, Cycle, Conservation
Structure & Function
Stability & Change

Physical Science Disciplinary Core Ideas

PS1A - Structure & Properties of Matter
PS1B - Chemical Reactions
PS1C - Nuclear Processes
PS2A - Forces & Motion
PS2B - Types of Interactions
PS2C - Stability & Instability
PS3A - Definitions of Energy

PS3B - Energy: Conservation & Transfer
PS3C - Energy & Forces
PS3D - Energy in Chemical Processes & Life
PS4A - Wave Properties
PS4B - Electromagnetic Radiation
PS4C - Information Technologies

Life Science Disciplinary Core Ideas

LS1A - Structure & Function
LS1B - Growth & Development
LS1C - Organization in Organisms
LS1D - Information Processing
LS2A - Relationships in Ecosystems
LS2B - Cycles in Ecosystems
LS2C - Ecosystem Dynamics

LS2D - Social Interactions & Behavior
LS3A - Inheritance of Traits
LS3B - Variation of Traits
LS4A - Evidence of Common Ancestry
LS4B - Natural Selection
LS4C - Adaptation
LS4D - Biodiversity & Humans

Earth & Space Science Disciplinary Core Ideas

ESS1A - The Universe & Its Stars
ESS1B - Earth & the Solar System
ESS1C - History of the Planet Earth
ESS2A - Earth Materials & Systems
ESS2B - Plate Tectonics/Large Scale Systems
ESS2C - Role of Water on Earth

ESS2D - Weather & Climate
ESS2E - Biogeology
ESS3A - Natural Resources
ESS3B - Natural Hazards
ESS3C - Human Impacts on Earth Systems
ESS3D - Global Climate Change

Engineering, Technology & Applications of Science
Disciplinary Core Ideas

ETS1A - Defining & Delimiting an Engineering Problem
ETS1B - Developing Possible Solutions
ETS1C - Optimizing the Design Solution
ETS2A - Interdependence of Science, Engineering & Technology
ETS2B - Influence of Science, Engineering & Technology on Society & the Natural World

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NGSS - Next Generation Science Standards - bozemanscience

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Anatomy and Physiology AP Biology AP Chemistry AP Environmental Science AP Physics Biology Chemistry Earth Science Educational NGSS - Next Generation Science Standards Physics Statistics & Graphing

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The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning, a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. Learn more about the Universal Design for Learning framework from CAST. The UDL Guidelines can be used by educators, curriculum developers, researchers, parents, and anyone else who wants to implement the UDL framework in a learning environment. These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.

Reenvisioning the UDL Guidelines

Because the UDL Guidelines are meant to be informed by feedback from the field as well as new research, they have been updated several times in the past. We are in the process of updating the Guidelines once again in our UDL Rising to Equity initiative.

This update will focus specifically on addressing systemic barriers that result in inequitable learning opportunities and outcomes. CAST aims to develop a transparent, inclusive, and community-driven process. If you are interested in collaborating and staying updated on our progress, we invite you to complete a brief survey.

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The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning, a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. Learn more about the Universal Design for Learning framework from CAST. The UDL Guidelines can be used by educators, curriculum developers, researchers, parents, and anyone else who wants to implement the UDL framework in a learning environment. These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.

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Goalbook Toolkit

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Goalbook develops resources for teachers to differentiate instruction aligned to Common Core using UDL. Our toolkit contains Common Core IEP goals in Reading, Writing, and Math, as well as non-academic goals in Behavior and Autism.

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Scaffolds for writing and talking are supports for communicating in science-specific ways that may seem unnatural for students. We mean for example that writing causal explanations, talking in small groups about how evidence can be used to back up a claim, or critiquing the ideas of one's peers in a whole class setting, are not the kinds of communication that students engage in outside of school. Tools can help-these take the form of sentence frames, guides for how to help ELL students practice final explanations, norms for whole class discussion that are developed by students, roles that students can take up in small group activity, and others. We provide a small sample of the types of scaffolding that are used during ambitious teaching.
Scaffolds for talk Norms for whole class conversations
Classrooms should have norms for civil discussions that are developed-with help from your students-from the first day of school, that are explicitly modeled by the teacher (i.e. the teacher "names" the norm as she/he uses it) and reinforced on a regular basis. Here are some samples of these norms-there are many possibilities:

Anyone can ask questions if they don't understand an idea that is being talked about

We (students and teacher) can critique ideas of others, but personal attacks are out of bounds

Don't talk over your classmates

The teacher will give "think time" before asking for students' ideas

In small group work, everyone will contribute to the conversations

It is helpful to re-visit these norms periodically, asking your students: "How did we do today in our discussion? What do we need to work on?"
Sentence starters to sustain productive whole class conversations
Some students don't participate because they are so unfamiliar with critiquing the ideas of others or adding onto a peer's comments. They don't know how to publicly disagree and some students even feel uncomfortable agreeing with others in class.

For these reasons some of our teachers have developed, with students, a list of sentence starters (structures for student talk) to help them accomplish what seems unnatural. The tool we show is just one of a set of 4 posters that a teacher made, with her students, on the first day of class. This one shows "How do I respectfully disagree with a classmate?" There are three others, including agreeing and adding to another person's ideas, asking a probing question (often asking for evidence) or asking a peer for clarification of an idea or claim.
Role cards for small group interaction
To foster group participation, it is helpful to assign roles to students. Roles should not be simply about managerial duties, such as the note-taker, the supply-getter, the procedure-reader. Roles should be about different students taking responsibility for different parts of the science talk that moves everyone's thinking forward. Here are some examples of roles for intellectual work. We list more here than you would assign to a group of students, and you might combine these roles in some cases. What we show below is not "the list" but some suggestions based on our experience in classrooms. To the right is one of the kinds of cards that we place on tables to help students know what to ask their peers.

Big ideas person. The BI person pulls the group (occasionally) back to the scientific purpose of the activity (often a group will get too wrapped up in the rote execution of the directions).

Asks "How does X (something we are studying, reading, investigating, observing, etc.) relate to the anchoring event?"

Asks: "How does X change the way we're thinking about the anchoring event?"

Asks: "What is the big idea we are trying to understand? Why are we [watching ice melt]?"

Clarifier. This is a role of monitoring everyone's comprehension about one or two key science terms.

Asks: "Do we know what the word ____ refers to?"

Asks: "Can we put it into our own terms?"

Questioner. This person asks probing questions during the activity. These folks listen for questions posed by other group members and then re-voice the questions to make sure that the whole group takes a moment to hear and entertain questions from everyone. This is not a role that students find easy, so it helps to provide them with question stems such as :

Asks: "What does it mean that ____?"

Asks: "How do we know that_____?"

Paraphrases what other have said: "So, what I think you are saying is... Is that right?"

Asks: "What would happen if we changed ____?"

Asks: "What's your evidence?"

Skeptic. This person tries to strengthen the group's work by probing for weaknesses in the developing explanation or model.

Says: "Here's an alternative explanation-is this just as good as the one we have now?"

Asks: "Does it always work this way (the explanation)?"

Asks: "How does our idea match up with what we've just learned?"

Progress monitor. This person ask others to periodically take the measure of the group's progress.

Asks: "What can we say we've accomplished so far?"

Asks: "What do we still need to know/do to accomplish this task?"

Asks: "What can we now add to our explanation that we didn't have before?"

When you stop by a table to listen in on a group, you should expect this person to be able to communicate the ideas of the group members AND attribute ideas to particular people (giving credit where it is due).
"Talk to your partner" routines
Sometimes a tool can be more like a routine a teacher enacts to help students interact. The "A-B partner" routine is one of these. We found in many classrooms that when students were asked to talk in pairs before offering comments in whole class discussion, that most students were not really listening to their partners. Or they viewed their partner's talk as just something to politely sit through until it was their turn to talk. This is where "A-B partners" came in. We asked students in pairs to talk about something substantive, like a hypothesis, or some evidence or an everyday experience that related to the science ideas being taught.

After the pairs talk, the teacher asks a student in the class to express the ideas that their partner had expressed. The difference in this routine from just "turn and talks." In addition, the teacher presses the student to say more than a cursory few words about their partner's idea. We found that this compels students to actively listen to one another and to ask follow up questions of their partners in order to understand their viewpoints. This works particularly well with English Language Learners.
Scaffolds for writing Drafting evidence-based claims
The tool we show below is to support students' writing of evidence-based explanations. This is core to the science practice of argumentation. The tool is accompanied by a routine. The tool is used near the end of a unit where the students have been studying a complex puzzling event (the anchoring event for the unit). They have also done several investigations that have provided data that can support various parts of the final explanation for the anchoring event.

Students work in small groups when using this tool. In the left hand column of the tool, the groups negotiate a claim about a part (just a part) of the full explanation for the event. They then cite evidence from one of the activities they'd done that applies to this claim. In the bottom cell they state the reasoning that links the evidence to the claim. You can see in the cells that there is a designated space to write and there are sentence frames, both of which help students.

But this is not the end of the work. The claim-evidence-reasoning is only the first step. Next the students give their sheet to another group. This group's goal is to look at the argument and try to give feedback so that it strengthens the clarity and credibility. The group giving feedback has drafted their own argument of course, but they may be attempting to explain and provide evidence for a very different part of the anchoring event. In this way, the second group is learning a bit about how the first group is constructing evidence-based arguments for a different aspect of the phenomenon.

Finally, the second group meets with a member of the first group and explains their comments. The first group then takes those comments into consideration and revises their argument.
Upper elementary example of scaffolded writing
The tool below has a number of scaffolds built into it that support young learners in constructing explanations with evidence. At the top there are clear instructions that are explicit about what should be written-this is more than "explain the skateboarder's jump." Below is a checklist of ideas that need to be included (this is more than a vocabulary list!), there are sentence frames below that, and at the bottom there is a rubric that challenges students to achieve a "why" level explanation. These are only a few examples of tools that can support writing, there are many others.

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Tools | Scaffolding for writing & talking science | AST

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Scaffolds for writing and talking are supports for communicating in science-specific ways that may seem unnatural for students. We mean for example that writing causal explanations, talking in small groups about how evidence can be used to back up a claim, or critiquing the ideas of one's peers in a whole class setting, are not the kinds of communication that students engage in outside of school.

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Smarter Tools for Teachers. Discover classroom resources you can use today. Educator-created lessons, activities, strategies, and professional development to help tailor instruction and boost learning.

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The Wonder of Science website aggregates the work of Paul Andersen around the NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards)

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Research - College of Education - Michigan State University

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Access to Kindergarten Curriculum Materials
Access to 1st Grade Curriculum Materials Access to 2nd Grade Curriculum Materials
In the folders for each curricular unit, you will find different documents. In the table below, we list the types of documents, descriptions of each document, and where to find the documents in the folders.

Overview

Provides:
- A general description of the unit,
- Unit objectives
- NGSS performance expectations addressed throughout the unit,
- Teacher background Information,
- Unit Puzzling Phenomena,
- Unit Driving Question,
- Formative Assessment Opportunities,
- Texts, and
- Overview of Lessons

Main Google Drive Folder

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Access to Kindergarten Curriculum Materials Access to 1st Grade Curriculum Materials Access to 2nd Grade Curriculum Materials In the folders for each curricular unit, you will find different documents. In the table below, we list the types of documents, descriptions of each document, and where to find the documents in the folders.

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ATTENTION Educators: Due to a recent Google Drive security update the majority of the links on this webpage including the curriculum guides are currently not working. Our team is working on developing a solution, please be patient as we work to restore access to curriculum materials.

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Instantly access over 40,000 of the best books & videos for kids on Epic

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CHILDREN'S BOOK | Orion and the Dark by Emma Yarlett | READ ALOUD

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STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) has been an important part of the school curriculum for many years now. More recently, art has been added in order to emphasize the importance of creative thinking, and so STEM became STEAM.

This list of multicultural STEAM books for children should have something for everyone: Girls, Boys, Preschool, Elementary School, Middle School - I even found a science board book series for babies!

50+ Multicultural STEAM Books for Children

Babies & Toddlers

"Bird can fly. How does Bird fly?" With accurate facts, yet simple enough for babies and toddlers, Baby Loves Aerospace Engineering! explores the fascinating physics of flight, from birds to aeroplanes and rockets. The visually stimulating illustrations are sure to keep even the littlest readers' attention. ~ African - Babies & Toddlers

More in the Baby Loves Science series: Baby Loves Thermodynamics! // Baby Loves Quarks! // Baby Loves Quantum Physics!

Little scientist Ada has a boundless imagination and curiosity. Why are there pointy things stuck to a rose? Why are there hairs growing inside your nose? When her house fills with a horrific smell, Ada embarks on a fact-finding mission and conducts scientific experiments. Inspired by real-life female scientists, best-selling Ada Twist, Scientist promotes girl power in science with playful rhyme and cartoon illustrations. ~ African - Preschool

More great picture books released in 2016: The 40 Best Multicultural Picture Books of 2016

Move It! explores the physics of why and how things move. Loaded with surprising facts and hands-on activities, this is a fun picture book that taps into young children's fascination with the everyday world and is sure to hold their interest. ~ Diverse - Preschool

Dreaming Up: A Celebration of Building is a fun collection of illustrations, poetry and photographs that shows how young children's constructions, created as they play, are reflected in notable works of architecture from around the world. ~ Diverse - Preschool

"When I grow up, I know what I want to be..." Doc Like Mommy is a new picture book release that teaches little girls that they can be anything they want to be. The cute illustrations will appeal to young readers. ~ African - Preschool

A young boy wants to write a story, just like his big sister, but he only knows letters, not words. "Why don't you start with a letter?", his sister encourages him. So the boy does and soon discovers that he has everything he needs to write his own perfect story. With lively graphic novel style illustrations, A Squiggly Story is a sweet book that celebrates imagination, creativity and self-expression. ~ Diverse - Preschool

"So into the earth, / and into the sky, / we question the how, / the where, when, / and why." With cute illustrations and poetic text, What Is Science? is a fun introduction to the intriguing world of science, from stars and planets to rocks, soil, hurricanes and aeroplanes. Children learn that science is about curiosity: asking questions and exploring possible answers. ~ Diverse - Preschool

Look What Brown Can Do! tells of the accomplishments from yesterday's and today's Black heroes. From painters, dancers and scientists, to musicians, writers, and athletes, this engaging picture book captures a variety of interests and is sure to help children understand that greatness can be achieved in every shade of brown. ~ African - Preschool

The latest book in the award-winning Sunlight series explores how water flows around the Earth and the sun's important role as it changes between liquid, vapour, and ice. With bright artwork and easy-to-understand scientific explanations, Rivers of Sunlight introduces young readers to the water cycle and shows them how to conserve one of our planet's most precious resources. ~ Diverse - Preschool

More from the Sunlight series: Living Sunlight: How Plants Bring The Earth To Life // Ocean Sunlight: How Tiny Plants Feed the Seas // Buried Sunlight: How Fossil Fuels Have Changed the Earth

In a Malawian village, Kondi is determined to make a galimoto - a toy vehicle made of wires. Despite his brother laughing at the idea, Kondi gathers up the wire he needs and starts to construct the push car. By nightfall, his car is finished and all the village children enjoy playing with it. With expressive watercolour illustrations, Galimoto tells of a young boy's creativity and determination. ~ African - Preschool

More books about recycling: 22 Multicultural Children's Books for Earth Day

More books set in Southern Africa: 23 Children's Books set in South Africa

A young boy abandons his beloved digital device when his dad's old-fashioned zigzag ruler causes his imagination to run wild. He turns it into a house, a car, an elephant, a tree, and finally a water-spouting whale. The Carpenter is a beautifully illustrated, wordless picture book that inspires imagination and creativity. ~ African - Preschool

.

All the kids in Mr. Tiffin's class get to have a guess how many seeds there are in a big, a medium, and a small pumpkin. Surprisingly, the smallest one has the largest amount of seeds. Charlie, the smallest boy in the class, happily exclaims: "Small things have a lot going on inside of them!" How Many Seed in a Pumpkin ? is a fun counting book that makes a great read-aloud companion to any maths or science curriculum. ~ Diverse - Preschool

In the first book of this series, Zoey finds a glowing photo and discovers that injured magical animals come to her backyard barn for help. When a sick baby dragon appears, Zoey and her cat Sassafras need to figure out what's wrong before it's too late. With easy-to-read text and cute illustrations, Dragons and Marshmallows balances scientific and fantasy elements perfectly, making it an appealing book for young readers. ~ African - Preschool, Elementary School

More multicultural series: 40+ Multicultural Book Series for Girls & Boys

Swift Walker's speedy legs take him to all the planets in our solar system. Kids can join him on his space adventure with this fun picture books that will power your child's imagination with real information. Swift Walker: A Space Adventure is a perfect book for home, school, and homeschool. ~ African - Preschool, Elementary School

More books in the Swift Walker series: Swift Walker: A Continental Journey // Swift Walker: A Journey Around the Oceans // Swift Walker: World Geography Coloring Book

Elementary School

Clouds encourages children to look up at the sky and observe the clouds in order to find out what the weather will be. With simple text and folk-art style illustrations, this colourful picture book introduces 11 different types of clouds according to their positions in the atmosphere. ~ Diverse - Elementary School

From bean seeds to oak seeds, this charming book explains in simple words how fast different seeds grow. With realistic watercolour illustrations, How a Seed Grows encourages children to follow each aspect of the growing process. ~ African - Elementary School

More books about growing seeds: 21 Multicultural Children's Books: Growing Your Own Food

Roll, Slope, and Slide: A Book About Ramps
by Michael Dahl

Roll, Slope, and Slide is a simple concept book that describes the different kinds, uses, and benefits of inclined planes and ramps. Includes an activity. ~ Diverse - Elementary School

Born just after slavery ended and orphaned at age seven, Sarah Breedlove Walker went on to become the richest African American woman of her time. Going bald as a young woman from years of poor nutrition and hard labour, she created a formula to restore the health of both hair and scalp and built her business into the Mme. C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company, one of the biggest companies in America. Rich in historical detail and with expressive illustrations, Visions of Beauty is the rags-to-riches tale ofa powerful role model for girls and women of all races. ~ African - Elementary School

More books about inspiring female role models: 32 Multicultural Picture Books About Strong Female Role Models //
26 Multicultural Picture Books about Inspiring Women & Girls
Meet Katherine Johnson, the brilliant mathematician whose unparalleled calculations (done by hand!) helped plan the trajectories for NASA's Mercury and Apollo missions (including the Apollo 11 moon landing). Part of the "You Should Meet" series, this Level 3 Ready-To-Read biography teaches children about one of the greatest American minds of all time in a fun way. Includes info on history and math, plus inspiring careers for math lovers. ~ African - Elementary School

If your daughter is dreaming of blasting off into space, being a dancer or a doctor, she should meet Mae Jemison! Despite a lot of discouragement and discrimination, Mae Jemison became the first African American female astronaut. Part of the "You Should Meet" series, this Level 3 Ready-To-Read biography introduces young readers to the amazing achievements of this fascinating multi-talented woman. ~ African - Elementary School

Tyree Guyton loved his childhood home where his grandpa Sam taught him to "paint the world." But with vacant lots, abandoned houses and lots of trash, his old neighbourhood was in trouble. So Tyree started to transform everyday junk into magic trash with his paintbrush, and soon local families joined him in rebuilding their neighbourhood. Magic Trash is a colourful picture book biography that shows the power of community and art. ~ African - Elementary School

More books about community: 12 Multicultural Children's Books about the Power of Community

More books about recycling: 22 Multicultural Children's Books for Earth Day

How do you heal when you cut your skin or break a bone? How does your body keep making new blood or brain cells? How does a plant keep growing larger? Stem Cells Are Everywhere is an engaging introduction to stem cells that keeps the subject simple enough for young readers. ~ Diverse - Elementary School

How Much Is a Million? "Taller Than The Tallest Buildings / Higher Than The Highest Mountains. If you wanted to count from one to a million / It would take you about 23 days." In simple words, supported by busy, whimsical illustrations, Marvelosissimo the mathematical magician explains inconceivable numbers. A magical math class young readers will love! ~ Diverse - Elementary School

Three amazing books in a beautiful box set! With dynamic drawings and enchanting story lines, Creatrilogy celebrates the power of creative thinking. The Dot invites children to express themselves without worrying about the end result, Ishteaches them that thinking "ishly" leads to a far more wonderful outcome than "getting it right", and Sky Color shows them that if we open our eyes and look beyond the expected, inspiration will come. ~ Diverse - Elementary School

This beautiful new picture book tells the inspiring story of brave ichthyologist Eugenie Cark. After seeing sharks at the aquarium for the first time in the early 1930's, 9-year-old Eugenie decided to dedicate her life to studying them and sharing their beauty with the world. She went on to become an internationally respected scientific authority as well as a fierce advocate for the misunderstood predators, earning her the nickname "Shark Lady." ~ Asian - Elementary School

For a more in-depth review, go to: Multicultural Book of the Month: Shark Lady

This stunningly illustrated picture book biography tells the story of modern art phenomenon Jean-Michel Basquiat who shot to fame in the 1980s. With vivid text and bold artwork - inspired by Basquiat's style -, Radiant Child captures the artist's energy beautifully and sends the powerful message to young readers that art doesn't have to be neat or conform to anything to be beautiful. ~ African - Elementary School

For a more in-depth review, go to:Multicultural Book of the Month: Radiant Child

What does your brain really do?This fun and engaging introduction to the anatomy and functions of the brain will empower young readers to stretch and grow their brains. Your Fantastic Elastic Brain shows children that they can strengthen their brains by trying new things and not giving up. ~ Diverse - Elementary School

Little Summer has a big dream: She wants to become a TV Meteorologist. Summer loves sharing weather facts and wonders why everyone laughs at the thought of her on T.V. The Meteorologist in Me is an inspirational story about overcoming fears and gaining the courage to reach for your dreams. ~ African - Elementary School

In a Guatemalan village, the tiny schoolhouse desperately needed expansion. When the money ran out before the project was finished, someone had a creative idea: Why not use readily available soda bottles for the walls? The Soda Bottle School teaches children that thinking outside the box can lead to the perfect solution. ~ Hispanic - Elementary School

Sasha Savvy is a super smart 10-year old who is trying o decide which class to take for summer camp. Her mom, a software developer, suggests she'll give the coding for girls class a try. Sceptical at first, Sasha soon starts to enjoy the class. Written by a black teenage girl, Sasha Savvy Loves to Code is an early reader chapter book that will encourage young girls to try out coding. ~ African - Elementary School

What keeps objects from floating out of your hand? What if your feet drifted away from the ground? What stops everything from floating into space? With beautiful illustrations and simple text, Gravity makes a complex subject accessible for young readers. ~ Diverse - Elementary School

More from the same series: // Grand Canyon // Coral Reefs //Island: A Story of the Galápagos

Voted Best Science Book of 2016, Women in Sciencehighlights the contributions of fifty notable women to STEM fields. Although only ten out of the fifty featured scientists are women of colour, it is still an amazing, strikingly illustrated resource that will inspire young girls to pursue careers in science. Includes a timeline, statistics, infographics, and an illustrated scientific glossary. ~ Diverse - Elementary School
Women in Science: 100 Postcards
More books about amazing women: 26 Multicultural Picture Books about Inspiring Women & Girls // 32 Multicultural Picture Books About Strong Female Role Models

One of the most popular toys of all time, the Super Soaker was invented by Lonnie Johnson entirely by accident. Whoosh! tells the story of the inventor's childhood. A love for rockets, robots, and inventions, coupled with a mind for creativity and a passion for problem-solving became the cornerstones for Johnson's career as an engineer and his work with NASA. ~ African - Elementary School

More great picture books released in 2016: The 40 Best Multicultural Picture Books of 2016

Middle School

In 1960's Cleveland, Sixth-grader Rufus Mayflower bets he can make a gallon of his own toothpaste for the price of one store-bought tube. He experiments, develops a production plan and starts a successful toothpaste making business with his good friend Kate. The Toothpaste Millionaire is a breezy story with a nice subtle message about treating everyone as equal, irrespective of race or gender. 35th-anniversary edition with exclusive author interview and reader's guide. ~ African - Middle School

Basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar introduces kids to little-known African American inventors in this vibrant book. From James West who invented the cell phone microphone to Fred Jones who invented the refrigerated truck and Dr. Percy Julian who synthesized cortisone from soy, What Color Is My World? offers profiles of great black inventors who persevered against all odds, framed by a funny contemporary story featuring two feisty twins. ~ African - Middle School

This inspiring book chronicles the life of May Chinn who succeded against the odds to become one of the first African American female doctors in the U.S. May Chinn tells of the doctor's childhood in New York City through to her 50 years as a medical practitioner and researcher. A fascinating read that teaches children about May Chinn's struggles and accomplishments in the world of science. ~ African - Middle School

Since 2012, the organization Girls Who Code has taught computing skills to and inspired over 40,000 girls across America. Written by its founder, Girls Who Code bursts with dynamic artwork, down-to-earth explanations of coding principles, and real-life stories of girls and women working at places like Pixar and NASA. An inspiring and empowering read for girls! ~ Diverse - Middle School

More 'Girls Who Code' books: The Friendship Code #1 // Team BFF: Race to the Finish! #2 // Code It! Create It!: Ideas & Inspiration for Coding

Hidden Figures tells the amazing true story of four African American female mathematicians at NASA. Known as "human computers", they helped achieve some of the greatest moments in the US's space program by calculating the numbers that would launch rockets into space. ~ African - Middle School

More books about inspiring female role models: 32 Multicultural Picture Books About Strong Female Role Models //
26 Multicultural Picture Books about Inspiring Women & Girls
When William Kamkwamba's family lost their crops in a terrible drought in their Malawian village, he started exploring science books in order to find a solution. He eventually came up with the idea to build a windmill out of scrap metal and old bicycle parts. William's windmill brought electricity to his home and helped his family pump the water they needed to farm the land. The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind is an inspiring memoir that shows how creative thinking can change a desperate situation for the better. ~ African - Middle School

*You can buy any of the books on this site from Amazon USA by clicking on the book titles or images*

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50+ Multicultural STEAM Books for Children - Colours of Us

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STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) has been an important part of the school curriculum for many years now. More recently, art has been added in order to emphasize the importance of creative thinking, and so STEM became STEAM.

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By helping every student think, speak, read, and write like a scientist, teachers can boost engagement and performance-and spark interest in a field calling for more diversity.

Integrating literacy and science can strengthen students' skills in both. To learn more about the research and sources cited in this video, please see the links below:

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4 Ways to Build Literacy Into Science Lessons

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By helping every student think, speak, read, and write like a scientist, teachers can boost engagement and performance-and spark interest in a field calling for more diversity. Integrating literacy and science can strengthen students' skills in both.

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Improve your students' reading comprehension with ReadWorks. Access thousands of high-quality, free K-12 articles, and create online assignments with them for your students.

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Unite for Literacy provides free digital access to picture books, narrated in many languages. Literacy is at the core of a healthy community, so we unite with partners to enable all families to read with their young children.

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Nat Geo Kids makes it fun to explore the world with weird, wild, and wacky videos featuring awesome animals like sharks, tigers and lions, cool science, funny pets, and more! Come back every week for new videos! Fuel kids’ curiosity with magazines designed to inspire and empower children ages 3 an…

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What you will learn from this video What you will learn

We'll discover that when things vibrate they make sound.

That sound can also make things vibrate.

Vibrations are what let us hear each other speak.

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Learn that sound is made by things vibrating and the sound can make things vibrate. Watch us break glass with sound and make sprinkles move around!

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Peep and the Big Wide World - YouTube

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Peep and the Big Wide World gives wings to the innovative idea of teaching science to preschoolers. Set in and around a pond, a bush, and a tin can, the show follows a newly hatched chicken named Peep, and his friends Chirp and Quack (a robin and a duck), on their daily adventures. Surrounding them…

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"science center" science education exhibits museum "los angeles" california "exposition park" teacher educator "online learning" "distance learning" "science...

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The Science Center is open to the public seven days a week, 362 days per year, with free general admission to its permanent exhibit galleries. (excludes IMAX and special paid exhibits.) The facility, which opened in February 1998, spans more than 400,000 sq. feet and includes four major exhibit areas.

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"science for kids" "science for children"

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Welcome to Crash Course Kids! This bi-weekly show from the producers of Crash Course is all about gradeschool science. We’ll look at Earth, Habitats, Space, Chemical Reactions, Engineering, and much much more with host Sabrina Cruz. So, join us every Tuesday and Thursday for new uploads. This series is beginning with 5th grade science, so we’ll be delving into Earth Science, Physical Science, Biology, Geography, Engineering, and Astronomy. Have a look at our playlists on each subject!

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Want students to remember something? Ask them to draw it.

It's long been known that drawing something helps a person remember it. A new study shows that drawing is superior to activities such as reading or writing because it forces the person to process information in multiple ways: visually, kinesthetically, and semantically. Across a series of experiments, researchers found drawing information to be a powerful way to boost memory, increasing recall by nearly double.

Myra Fernandes, Jeffrey Wammes, and Melissa Meade are experts in the science of memory-how people encode, retain, and recall information. At the University of Waterloo, they conducted experiments to better understand how activities such as writing, looking at pictures, listening to lectures, drawing, and visualizing images affect a student's ability to remember information.

In an early experiment, they asked undergraduate students to study lists of common terms-words like truck and pear -and then either write down or illustrate those words. Shortly afterward, participants recalled 20 percent of words they had written down, but more than twice as many-45 percent-of the terms they had drawn. This experiment helped to establish the benefits of drawing.

In a follow-up experiment, the researchers compared two methods of note-taking-writing words by hand versus drawing concepts-and found drawing to be "an effective and reliable encoding strategy, far superior to writing." The researchers found that when the undergraduates visually represented science concepts like isotope and spore, their recall was nearly twice as good as when they wrote down definitions supplied by the lecturer.

Importantly, the benefits of drawing were not dependent on the students' level of artistic talent, suggesting that this strategy may work for all students, not just ones who are able to draw well.

Across a total of eight experiments, the researchers confirmed drawing to be a "reliable, replicable means of boosting performance"-it provided a significant boost to students' ability to remember what they were learning.

Why is drawing such a powerful memory tool? The researchers explain that it "requires elaboration on the meaning of the term and translating the definition to a new form (a picture)." Unlike listening to a lecture or viewing an image-activities in which students passively absorb information-drawing is active. It forces students to grapple with what they're learning and reconstruct it in a way that makes sense to them.

The researchers also suggest that drawing results in better recall because of how the information is encoded in memory. When a student draws a concept, they "must elaborate on its meaning and semantic features, engage in the actual hand movements needed for drawing (motor action), and visually inspect [the] created picture (pictorial processing)."

At a neural level, the strength of a memory depends largely on how many connections are made to other memories. An isolated piece of information-such as a trivial fact-is soon forgotten in the brain's constant effort to prune away unused knowledge. The opposite, however, is also true: The more synaptic connections a memory has, the more it resists eventually being forgotten.

So when we draw, we encode the memory in a very rich way, layering together the visual memory of the image, the kinesthetic memory of our hand drawing the image, and the semantic memory that is invoked when we engage in meaning-making. In combination, this greatly increases the likelihood that the concept being drawn will later be recalled.

This Is Not About Learning Styles

It would be a mistake to think that drawing is beneficial because it taps into a particular learning style. Research has debunked the idea that students learn best when teachers try to match instruction to a single modality.

Instead, what's happening is that drawing taps into multiple modalities-visual, kinesthetic, and semantic-which is superior to tapping into only one. When students draw something, they process it in three different ways, in effect learning it three times over.

In the Classroom

Student-created learning aids: Instead of buying or printing posters that reinforce learning-maps, anchor charts, or diagrams-have students create them.

Interactive notebooks: Don't let students take notes verbatim-push them to be creative. One side of their notebooks can be used for written notes, the other for drawings, diagrams, and charts.

Data visualization: Asking students to collect, analyze, and present data in visual form can deepen their understanding of a topic. Examples include visualizing concepts in math, analyzing classical literature, and exploring fractals.

Bookmaking: Blending academics and art, students at Symonds Elementary create their own books to visually represent topics in subjects ranging from science to English language arts. Students can also create comics books to tell stories or describe events.

Assessing learning through art: Jill Fletcher, a middle school teacher in Hawaii, uses "one-pagers" to challenge students to show their understanding about a topic through art, making it less about finding the "single correct answer" and more about crafting a response they can stand behind. And students at Normal Park Museum Magnet School create travel journals as a visible record of their learning.

There are several ways that teachers can incorporate drawing to enrich learning.

The takeaway: Encourage students to draw. Doing so is a powerful tool to boost student learning because it improves recall by challenging students to explore an idea in different ways.

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Want students to remember something? Ask them to draw it.

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Sense-Making Notebooks in Your Elementary Classroom

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Tap into the power of your visual brain. Sketchnoting is a creative superpower, and I want to help you wield it.Imagine a world where you actually remember and apply the ideas you learn about ... Read More

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The Science Notebook: Blank and Lined pages

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This Science notebook is extra large (8.5 x 11) inches and has blank pages on the left to draw and lined pages on the right to write notes. 110 pages in total.

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Notebooks can be a tool for scientific thinking. Start with scientific observation through sketching, and then incorporate vocabulary building!

Using the table of contents and page headers, students will understand how a notebook is an organizational tool.

What do Bay Area teachers value about science notebooking?

Compare the science notebooks of elementary school students and scientists. What do they have in common?

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Notebooks can be a tool for scientific thinking. Start with scientific observation through sketching!