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Grade Level Curricular Details

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AdvancingSTEM is a K-5 complete STEM curriculum for the NGSS/NYS Science Learning Standards classroom. 

The Advancing STEM curriculum was written by certified New York State education specialists and reviewed by content area specialists.  Our STEM Educators started with the New York State Science Standards in designing the AdvancingSTEM curriculum.  Each curriculum title is build upon specific standard areas and is dedicated to delivering hands-on, constructivist experiences to your students.   

​The New York State Education Department has defined standards for each grade level, Kindergarten through Grade 5.  Outlined below are our curriculum titles for each grade level and for each standard topic area.  

There are four curriculum titles for each grade level.  Implementing all four titles during the school year will ensure your students are exposed to all standards,  science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts.

Contact us to review our curriculum manuals and student notebooks.  

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The materials were very accessible and thoughtfully chosen, including the literary and informational titles included. ​

​- Jenny Conklin-Frank, Cattaraugus-Little Valley Central School
The materials are highly motivating for me and my students. The student manual supports the new curriculum wonderfully.

- Heather Keller, Hinsdale Central School
Love the monthly challenges! Everything is easy to locate. Really appreciate the extra videos provided. ​ 

- Leah Scoville, Bolivar-Richburg Central School
The curriculum and materials are highly engaging. I can't wait to use them in my classroom!

- Leah Klahn, Ellicottville Central School

I like how engaging and interesting this kit is!

​- Katie Gleason, Franklinville Central School

Kindergarten

  • Curriculum Titles
  • Curriculum and Standards Story
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Click on the curriculum titles and their connection to NYS Standards.  Project members have access to all curriculum manuals, student notebooks, timelines, materials lists, and other electronic instructional materials.
Spot the Differences:  Changes to the Environment
NYS Standard Topic:  Matter and Its Interactions
  • Construct an argument supported by evidence for how plants and animals (including humans) can change the environment to meet their needs.
  • Communicate solutions that will reduce the impact of humans on living organisms and non-living things in the local environment. *

Unit Overview
Students build on their intuitive sense of patterns as they sort a variety of collections noting similarities, differences, and repeating patterns within animals’ and plants’ needs.  Students explore patterns in their daily activities and in the world around them, and discuss patterns that repeat in longer cycles of time. From these patterns, students will communicate solutions and ideas of how humans can reduce the impact of their environment.
 
Scheduling
This kit contains two strands and an engineering design challenge.
  • Strand One focuses on how plants and animals can change the environment to meet their needs. The first strand contains eight sessions.
  • Strand Two focuses on how humans can reduce the impact they have on the environment. The second strand contains ten sessions.
  • The Engineering Design Challenge focuses on communicating solutions to help the environment. It is composed of at least six sessions.
  • Please note that a session may take more than one class period.
  • There are no live materials in this kit.
​
It's a Matter of Pushing or Pulling:  How Objects Move
NYS Standard Topic:  Forces and Interactions:  Pushes and Pulls
  • Plan and conduct an investigation to compare the effects of different strengths or different directions of pushes and pulls on the motion of an object. 
  • Analyze data to determine if a design solution works as intended to change the speed or direction of an object with a push or a pull.*
​
Overview
Students will explore patterns in different systems that move and how they operate, as each system moves in a different but predictable pattern. Students will then design and build a contraption to change the speed or direction of an object with a push or a pull. As a result, students build a grade-level-appropriate concept of systems and an understanding of moving objects.
 
Scheduling
This kit contains one strand and an engineering design challenge.
  • Strand One focuses on pushes and pulls and their effect on objects.  The strand contains six sessions.
  • The Engineering Design Challenge will task students with analyzing data to determine if a design solution works as intended to change the speed or direction of an object with a push or pull and will take one session to complete.
  • Please note that a session may take more than one class period.
  • There are no live materials in this kit. 
​
One Under the Sun:  Plant and Animal Interactions with the Sun and Their Environments
NYS Standard Topic:  Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems:  Animals, Plants, and Their Environment
  • Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.
  • Construct an argument supported by evidence for how plants and animals (including humans) can change the environment to meet their needs.
  • Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants or animals (including humans) and the places they live.
  • Communicate solutions that will reduce the impact of humans on living organisms and non-living things in the local environment. * 
Students will interact with these core ideas again in grades 1, 2, 3, and 5. 

Overview
Students will make observations about plants and animals to learn that they need food, light, and water to live and grow. Students will also learn that these essential needs are provided by the environment where they live. Using knowledge learned, students will design a structure that helps protect plants, animals, or humans from the heat of the sun. 
​
Scheduling
This kit contains one strand and an Engineering Design Challenge. 
  • Strand One focuses on the essential needs of plants and animals. This strand allows students analyze relationships between a plant/animal and their environment exploring how an environment contains the essential needs of the plants and animals that live there. The first strand contains eight sessions. 
  • The Engineering Design Challenge focuses on students building a structure that helps protect plants, animals, or humans from the heat of the sun. It is composed of at least five sessions. 
  • Please note that a session may take more than one class period. 
  • There are no live materials in this kit. 
​
Eyes to the Sky:  Investigating Weather Patterns
NYS Standard Topic:  Weather and Climate
  • ​Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time.
  • Plan and conduct an investigation to test the claim that different kinds of matter exist as either solid or liquid, depending on temperature. 
  • Ask questions to obtain information about the purpose of weather forecasting to prepare for, and respond to, severe weather.*
​
Overview
What is the weather like today and how is it different than yesterday? In this unit, students will develop a solid foundation for understanding weather and its impact on their daily life. Students will observe, explore, discuss, measure and formulate definitions and explanations.
 
Scheduling
This kit contains one strand and an engineering design unit assessment.
  • The strand completely focuses collecting general weather information.
  • There are seven total sessions. Please note that a session may take more than one class period.
  • There are five sessions in the engineering design unit assessment. 
  • This unit of study requires the collection of weather observations over a period of approximately six weeks.
  • There are no live materials in this kit.
​

Grade 1

  • Curriculum Titles
  • Curriculum and Standards Story
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Click on the curriculum titles and their connection to NYS Standards.  Project members have access to all curriculum manuals, student notebooks, timelines, materials lists, and other electronic instructional materials.
What's under our feet?:  ANTS and PLants
NYS Standard Topic:  Matter and Its Interactions
  • Make observations to construct an evidence-based account that some young plants and animals are similar to, but not exactly like, their parents.
  • Read texts and use media to determine patterns in behavior of parents and offspring that help offspring survive.
  • Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.*​

It's just a phase:  patterns in the sky
NYS Standard Topic:  Forces and Interactions:  Pushes and Pulls
  • Make observations (firsthand or from media) to construct an evidence-based account that objects can be seen only when illuminated. 
  • Analyze data to determine if a design solution works as intended to change the speed or direction of an object with a push or a pull.*

Lend me your hears:  discovering sound properties
NYS Standard Topic:  Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems:  Animals, Plants, and Their Environment
  • Plan and conduct investigations to provide evidence that vibrating materials can make sound and that sound can make materials vibrate.
  • Use tools and materials to design and build a device that uses light or sound to solve the problem of communicating over a distance.*

Watt's so bright?:  discovering light properties
NYS Standard Topic:  Weather and Climate
  • ​Make observations (firsthand or from media) to construct an evidence-based account that objects can be seen only when illuminated.
  • Plan and conduct an investigation to determine the effect of placing objects made with different materials in the path of a beam of light. 
  • Use tools and materials to design and build a device that uses light or sound to solve the problem of communicating over a distance.*


Grade 2

  • Curriculum Titles
  • Curriculum and Standards Story
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Click on the curriculum titles and their connection to NYS Standards.  Project members have access to all curriculum manuals, student notebooks, timelines, materials lists, and other electronic instructional materials.
Matter matters:  Properties of matter
Science Standards
  • Plan and conduct an investigation to describe and classify different kinds of materials by their observable properties.
  • Analyze data obtained from testing different materials to determine which materials have the properties that are best suited for an intended purpose.*
  • Make observations to construct an evidence-based account of how an object made of a small set of pieces can be disassembled and made into a new object.
  • Construct an argument with evidence that some changes caused by heating or cooling can be reversed and some cannot. ​
A bird's eye view over land and Water: Models, Maps, and Patterns
NYS Standard Topic:  Forces and Interactions:  
  • Develop a model to represent the shapes and kinds of land and bodies of water in an area.
  • Obtain information to identify where water is found on Earth and that it can be solid or liquid.    ​
lean on me:  plant and animal dependency
NYS Standard Topic:  Matter and Its Interactions
  • Plan and conduct an investigation to determine if plants need sunlight and water to grow.
  • Develop a simple model that illustrates how plants and animals depend on each other for survival.*
  • Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats.
Weathering the change:  Erosion Processes
NYS Standard Topic:  Weather and Climate
  • Use information from several sources to provide evidence that Earth events can occur quickly or slowly.
  • Compare multiple solutions designed to slow or prevent wind or water from changing the shape of the land.*
The table below shows how standard topics, science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts are distributed across curriculum titles.
1 - Strand One, 2 - Strand Two, A - Assessment Strand
Note - number of strands vary from title to title.

Picture
(download Standards Map in PDF)
​
The four Grade 2 curriculum units cover the breadth and depth of every Grade 2 level New York State Standard.  All four standard topics are explored in the depth appropriate for the Grade 2 student. 

The performance expectations in second grade help students formulate answers to questions such as: “How does land change and what are some things that cause it to change? What are the different kinds of land and bodies of water? How are materials similar and different from one another, and how do the properties of the materials relate to their use? What do plants need to grow? How many types of living things live in a place?”

Students are expected to develop an understanding of what plants need to grow and how plants depend on animals for seed dispersal and pollination. Students are also expected to compare the diversity of life in different habitats. An understanding of observable properties of materials is developed by students at this level through analysis and classification of different materials. Students are able to apply their understanding of the idea that wind and water can change the shape of the land to compare design solutions to slow or prevent such change. Students are able to use information and models to identify and represent the shapes and kinds of land and bodies of water in an area and where water is found on Earth.

The crosscutting concepts of patterns; cause and effect; energy and matter; structure and function; stability and change; and influence of engineering, technology, and science on society and the natural world are called out as organizing concepts for these disciplinary core ideas.

In the second grade performance expectations, students are expected to demonstrate grade appropriate proficiency in developing and using models, planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, constructing explanations and designing solutions, engaging in argument from evidence, and obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information. Students are expected to use these practices to demonstrate understanding of the core ideas. 


Grade 3

  • Curriculum Titles
  • Curriculum and Standards Story
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Click on the curriculum titles and their connection to NYS Standards.  Project members have access to all curriculum manuals, student notebooks, timelines, materials lists, and other electronic instructional materials.
Forced to stick with it: motion and magnetism
NYS Standard Topic:  Forces and Interactions
  • Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence of the effects of balance and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object.
  • Make observations and/or measurements of an object's motions to provide evidence that a pattern can be used to predict future motion.
  • Ask questions to determine cause and effect relationships of electric or magnetic interactions between two objects not in contact with each other.
  • Define a simple design problem that can be solved by applying scientific ideas about magnets.*​

Unit Overview
In this unit, students will explore the role of forces.  They will discover the impact gravity, electric, and magnetic forces have on objects in the world.  Using this knowledge, students will apply ideas to solve a real-world problem.  This is part of the Engineering Design Challenge and will task students with creating a system to propel and stop a train at specific locations using magnets.​
Hand-me-down genes:  life cycles and traits of butterflies
NYS Standards Topic:  Earth's Systems: Processes that Shape the Earth
  • Develop models to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death.
  • Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of these traits exist in a group of similar organisms.
  • Use evidence to support the explanation that traits can be influenced by the environment.
  • Use evidence to construct an explanation for how the variations in characteristics among individuals of the same species may provide advantages in surviving, finding mates, and reproducing.

Unit Overview
This unit covers the life cycle of a butterfly and then expands upon that concept. The students will journal the development of the Painted Lady from egg until butterfly. The kit also covers inherited vs. acquired traits and how the traits are exhibited in an organism. Students will explore how traits can cause or lead to natural selection within a species. 
Weather around the world: Data trends, Climate, water cycle, and hazards
NYS Standard Topic: Weather and Climate
  • Represent data in tables and graphical displays to describe typical weather conditions expected during a particular season.
  • Obtain and combine information to describe climates in different regions of the world.
  • Plan and conduct an investigation to determine the connections between weather and water processes in Earth systems.
  • Make a claim about the merit of a design solution that reduces the impacts of a weather-related hazard.*
 
Unit Overview
Students are introduced to the causes of weather and climate, and also study how the water cycle plays an important role in a region’s climate. They begin the unit by building mystery weather tools (thermometer, anemometer, psychrometer, and barometer) and examine the tools as they learn to collect weather data.  Students will deduce, by comparing their collected weather data using scientific instruments, which mystery tool their group has created.  Throughout the unit, students collect weather data and graph their data on charts.  Students also build a water cycle model and relate their new learning of the water cycle to weather conditions.  They explore how different regions of Earth can be heated unevenly, causing specific weather patterns in different climates.  By the end of the unit, students make the connection between the effects of weather on humans and how we can predict and prepare for hazardous weather.
I will survive: Organisms surviving in different environments
NYS Standard Topic:  Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems
  • Analyze and interpret data from fossils to provide evidence of the organisms and the environments in which they lived long ago.
  • Construct an argument that some animals form groups that help members survive.
  • Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
  • Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changes and the types of plants and animals that live there may change.*

Unit Overview
Students explore the diversity of living organisms, a significant element of a healthy environment.  Students explore changes among living things on Earth when the environment changes by exploring different fossils.  Throughout the unit, they observe and investigate how characteristics, such as living in groups, can help animals/plants around the world survive in different environments.
The table below shows how standard topics, science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts are distributed across curriculum titles.  
1 - Strand One, 2 - Strand Two, A - Assessment Strand

Note - number of strands vary from title to title.
Picture
(Download Standards Map in PDF)
​
The four Grade 3 curriculum units cover the breadth and depth of every Grade 3 level New York State Standard.  All four standard topics are explored in the depth appropriate for the Grade 3 student. 

The performance expectations in third grade help students formulate answers to questions such as: “What is typical weather in different parts of the world and during different times of the year? How can the impact of weather-related hazards be reduced? How do organisms vary in their traits? How are plants, animals, and environments of the past similar or different from current plants, animals, and environments? What happens to organisms when their environment changes? How do equal and unequal forces on an object affect the object? How can magnets be used?”

Students are able to organize and use data to describe typical weather conditions expected during a particular season. By applying their understanding of weather-related hazards, students are able to make a claim about the merit of a design solution that reduces the impacts of such hazards. Students are expected to develop an understanding of the similarities and differences of organisms’ life cycles. An understanding that organisms have different inherited traits, and that the environment can also affect the traits that an organism develops, is acquired by students at this level. In addition, students are able to construct an explanation using evidence for how the variations in characteristics among individuals of the same species may provide advantages in surviving, finding mates, and reproducing. Students are expected to develop an understanding of types of organisms that lived long ago and also about the nature of their environments. Third graders are expected to develop an understanding of the idea that when the environment changes some organisms survive and reproduce, some move to new locations, some move into the transformed environment, and some die. Students are able to determine the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object and the cause and effect relationships of electric or magnetic interactions between two objects not in contact with each other. They are then able to apply their understanding of magnetic interactions to define a simple design problem that can be solved with magnets.

The crosscutting concepts of patterns; cause and effect; scale, proportion, and quantity; systems and system models; interdependence of science, engineering, and technology; and influence of engineering, technology, and science on society and the natural world are called out as organizing concepts for these disciplinary core ideas.

In the third grade performance expectations, students are expected to demonstrate grade-appropriate proficiency in asking questions and defining problems; developing and using models, planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, constructing explanations and designing solutions, engaging in argument from evidence, and obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information. Students are expected to use these practices to demonstrate understanding of the core ideas. 


Grade 4

  • Curriculum Titles and Downloads
  • Curriculum and Standards Story
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Click on the curriculum titles and their connection to NYS Standards.  Project members have access to all curriculum manuals, student notebooks, timelines, materials lists, and other electronic instructional materials.
Makin' Waves: Patterns of waves and information Transfer
NYS Standard Topic:  Waves and Information Processing
  • Develop a model of waves to describe patterns in terms of amplitude and wavelength and that waves can cause objects to move.
  • Generate and compare multiple solutions that use patterns to transfer information.*
  • Develop a model to describe that light reflecting from objects and entering the eye allows objects to be seen.

Unit Overview
Students explore wave properties and their regular patterns of motion.  Students will make a model of waves of the same type to show differences in amplitude and wavelength.  They will explore the idea of how an object can be seen when light reflected from its surface enters the eyes through different mediums. As a culmination, students will generate and compare how digitized information can be transmitted over long distances using patterns of waves.

Scheduling
This kit contains two strands.
  • Strand One focuses on how waves of the same type can exhibit different properties and wave interference.  The first strand contains seven sessions.
  • Strand Two focuses on how objects can only be seen when light enters the eye.  The second strand contains six sessions.
  • The Engineering Design Challenge focuses on generating and comparing solutions to transfer digitized information.  It is composed of at least five sessions.
  • Please note that a session may take more than one class period.
full of potential:  The effects of Energy
NYS Standard Topic:  Energy
  • Use evidence to construct an explanation relating the speed of an object to the energy of that object.
  • Make observations to provide evidence that energy is conserved as it is transferred and/or converted from one form to another.
  • Ask questions and predict outcomes about the changes in energy that occur when objects collide.
  • Apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another.*

Unit Overview
Students explore the effects of energy on their lives.  Throughout the unit students will be asked to explore some of the basic elements of energy like conservation and transfer of energy.  Students will explore these ideas through a series of four experiments and application to their lives.  Students will collect evidence from these experiments to build on their overall concepts of energy and how it can be used.  Finally, students will explore multiple types of energy by building a working solar updraft tower.

Scheduling
This kit contains one strand and an Engineering Design Challenge.
  • Strand One focuses on how energy is used, and how it can be conserved, transferred, and generated.  The first strand contains seven sessions.
  • Strand One contains four experiments that will help students explore and solidify the concept of energy.
  • During the Engineering Design Challenge students will build a working Solar Updraft Tower that converts heat energy into mechanical energy.  Students will conduct a test to improve their design.
  • Please note that a session may take more than one class period.
  • There are no live materials in this kit.
Parts of a Whole: Internal and External Plant and Animal Structures
NYS Standard Topic:  Structure, Function, and Information Processing
  • Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
  • Use a model to describe that animals receive different types of information through their senses, process the information in their brain, and respond to the information in different ways.

Unit Overview
The unit is designed to enhance students’ knowledge of how plants’ and animals’ internal and external structures support their survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.  Students must learn to construct an argument that explains how these internal and external structures support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.  The kit will require students to engage in argument from evidence as they state their claims, provide evidence, and justify their claims with scientific reasoning.  The kit culminates with a project-based assessment activity in which the students must present their choice of plant or animal to their classmates and answer the driving question, what internal and external structures do plants and animals have that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction?

Scheduling
This kit contains one strand. 
  • Strand One focuses on how organisms internal and external structures function and that animals have sense receptors to process different types of information.
  • Please note that a session may take more than one class period.
  • There are live materials in this kit.
Centuries of change: processes that shape the earth
NYS Standard Topic:  Earth's Systems: Processes that Shape the Earth
  • Identify evidence from patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers to support an explanation for changes in a landscape over time.
  • Make observations and/or measurements to provide evidence of the effects of weathering or the rate of erosion by water, ice, wind, or vegetation.
  • Analyze and interpret data from maps to describe patterns of Earth's features.
  • Generate and compare multiple solutions to reduce the impacts of natural Earth processes on humans.*
  • Obtain and combine information to describe that energy and fuels are derived from natural resources and their uses affect the environment.

Unit Overview
Students explore processes that shape the earth as we know it today by exploring how a variety of environmental factors.  Students will look at how evidence from patterns in rock formations and fossils found in those layers help us explain changes to landscapes over a long period of time.  Students will also look at how analyzing patterns in maps of Earth’s features help us to determine and predict features of plate tectonics, including continental boundaries, mountains, volcanoes, and earthquakes.  Students will also explore how elements such as weathering, erosion, and the use of fossil fuels will transform the landscape for future generations.

Scheduling
This kit contains two strands and an Engineering Design Challenge.
  • Strand One focuses on how we can explain changes in Earth’s landscape over time by examining map and fossil patterns in rock formations.  The first strand contains six sessions.
  • Strand Two focuses on weathering, erosion, and the use of natural resources impact our changing Earth.  The second strand contains six sessions.
  • The Engineering Design Challenge tasks students with defining the criteria for a good solution to designing a weathering and erosion resistant structure.  It is composed of at least five sessions.
  • Please note that a session may take more than one class period.
  • There are no live materials in this kit.
The table below shows how standard topics, science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts are distributed across curriculum titles.  
1 - Strand One, 2 - Strand Two, A - Assessment Strand

Note - number of strands vary from title to title.
Picture
(Download Standards Map in PDF)
​
The four Grade 4 curriculum units cover the breadth and depth of every Grade 4 level New York State Standard.  All four standard topics are explored in the depth appropriate for the Grade 4 student. 

The performance expectations in fourth grade help students formulate answers to questions such as: “What are waves and what are some things they can do? How can water, ice, wind and vegetation change the land? What patterns of Earth’s features can be determined with the use of maps? How do internal and external structures support the survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction of plants and animals? What is energy and how is it related to motion? How is energy transferred? How can energy be used to solve a problem?”

Students are able to use a model of waves to describe patterns of waves in terms of amplitude and wavelength, and that waves can cause objects to move. Students are expected to develop understanding of the effects of weathering or the rate of erosion by water, ice, wind, or vegetation. They apply their knowledge of natural Earth processes to generate and compare multiple solutions to reduce the impacts of such processes on humans. In order to describe patterns of Earth’s features, students analyze and interpret data from maps. Fourth graders are expected to develop an understanding that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction. By developing a model, they describe that an object can be seen when light reflected from its surface enters the eye. Students are able to use evidence to construct an explanation of the relationship between the speed of an object and the energy of that object. Students are expected to develop an understanding that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents or from object to object through collisions. They apply their understanding of energy to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another.

The crosscutting concepts of patterns; cause and effect; energy and matter; systems and system models; interdependence of science, engineering, and technology; and influence of engineering, technology, and science on society and the natural world are called out as organizing concepts for these disciplinary core ideas.

In the fourth grade performance expectations, students are expected to demonstrate grade-appropriate proficiency in asking questions, developing and using models, planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, constructing explanations and designing solutions, engaging in argument from evidence, and obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information. Students are expected to use these practices to demonstrate understanding of the core ideas. 


Grade 5

  • Curriculum & Downloads
  • Curriculum & Standards Story
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>
Click on the curriculum titles and their connection to NYS Standards.  Project members have access to all curriculum manuals, student notebooks, timelines, materials lists, and other electronic instructional materials.
Chemistry in the Kitchen: Structure and properties of Matter
NYS Standard Topic:  Structure and Properties of Matter
  • Develop a model to describe that matter is made of particles too small to be seen.
  • Measure and graph quantities to provide evidence that regardless of the type of change that occurs when heating, cooling, or mixing substances the total amount of matter is conserved.
  • Make observations and measurements to identify materials based on their properties.
  • Conduct an investigation to determine whether the mixing of two or more substances results in new substances.

Unit Overview


Scheduling

​
A Light Snack: Energy and Matter in Ecosystems
NYS Standard Topic:  Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems
  • Use models to describe that energy in animals' food (used for body repair, growth, motion, and to maintain body warmth) was once energy from the Sun.
  • Support an argument that plants get the materials they need for growth chiefly from air and water.
  • Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants (producers), animals (consumers), decomposers, and the environment.

Unit Overview
Students explore the relationships between the flow of energy and cycling of matter in an ecosystem.  Students will make models of energy flows and matter within ecosystems showing how organisms rely on the sun for repair, growth, motion, and warmth.  They will explore the importance of plants in an ecosystem and support an argument of where plants get their materials for growth.  Concurrently, students will set up and observe ecosystem models and how the individual components benefit the entire system.

Scheduling
This kit contains two strands. 
  • Strand One focuses on how plants get their materials they need for growth chiefly from air and water in six sessions.
  • Strand Two looks at energy flowing and matter cycling through ecosystems in seven sessions.
  • Please note that a session may take more than one class period. 
Models of the Earth: Earth's Systems and Water Resources
NYS Standard Topic:  Earth's Systems
  • Develop a model using an example to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and/or atmosphere interact.
  • Describe and graph the amounts of salt water and fresh water in various reservoirs to provide evidence about the distribution of water on Earth.
  • Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect Earth's resources and environment. 

Unit Overview
The lessons are designed to enhance students’ knowledge of the four major spheres of the Earth and how water is distributed in the hydrosphere. Students must learn to construct an argument that explains how the four spheres interact with each other.  The kit will require students to engage in argument from evidence as they state their claims, provide evidence, and justify their claims with scientific reasoning.  The kit culminates with an engineering design assessment activity in which the students must research and create a simple water filter.  

Scheduling
This kit contains two strands and an engineering design challenge.
  • Strand One focuses on modeling and studying the interactions of the biosphere, geosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere in six sessions.
  • Strand Two looks at describing and graphing the amount of freshwater that is available to us as compared to saltwater on the Earth and looking at the impact of humans on freshwater resources through six sessions.
  • The Engineering Design Challenge focuses on creating a water filter.
  • Please note that a session may take more than one class period.​
Space Systems

COMING SOON!

NYS Standard Topic:  Structure and Properties of Matter
  • Support an argument that the gravitational force exerted by Earth on objects is directed down.
  • Support an argument that differences in the apparent brightness of the Sun compared to other stars is due to their relative distances from Earth.
  • Represent data in graphical displays to reveal patterns of daily changes in length and direction of shadows, day and night, and the seasonal appearance of some stars in the night sky.​
​​
TABLE COMING SOON!

The table below shows how standard topics, science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts are distributed across curriculum titles.  ​
1 - Strand One, 2 - Strand Two, A - Assessment Strand

Note - number of strands vary from title to title.
(Download Standards Map in PDF)
​
The four Grade 5 curriculum units cover the breadth and depth of every Grade 5 level New York State Standard.  All four standard topics are explored in the depth appropriate for the Grade 5 student. 

The performance expectations in fifth grade help students formulate answers to questions such as: “When matter changes, does its weight change? How much water can be found in different places on Earth? Can new substances be created by combining other substances? How does matter cycle through ecosystems? Where does the energy in food come from and what is it used for? How do lengths and directions of shadows or relative lengths of day and night change from day to day, and how does the appearance of some stars change in different seasons?”

Students are able to describe that matter is made of particles too small to be seen through the development of a model. Students develop an understanding of the idea that regardless of the type of change that matter undergoes, the total weight of matter is conserved. Students determine whether the mixing of two or more substances results in new substances. Through the development of a model using an example, students are able to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and/or atmosphere interact. They describe and graph data to provide evidence about the distribution of water on Earth. Students develop an understanding of the idea that plants get the materials they need for growth chiefly from air and water. Using models, students can describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment and that energy in animals’ food was once energy from the sun. Students are expected to develop an understanding of patterns of daily changes in length and direction of shadows, day and night, and the seasonal appearance of some stars in the night sky.

The crosscutting concepts of patterns; cause and effect; scale, proportion, and quantity; energy and matter; and systems and systems models are called out as organizing concepts for these disciplinary core ideas.

In the fifth grade performance expectations, students are expected to demonstrate grade-appropriate proficiency in developing and using models, planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, using mathematics and computational thinking, engaging in argument from evidence, and obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information; and to use these practices to demonstrate understanding of the core ideas. 

The table below shows how standard topics, science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts are distributed across curriculum titles.
1 - Strand One, 2 - Strand Two, A - Assessment Strand
Note - number of strands vary from title to title.

Picture
(download Standards Map in PDF)
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The four Grade 1 curriculum units cover the breadth and depth of every Grade 1 level New York State Standard.  All four standard topics are explored in the depth appropriate for the Grade 1 student. 

The performance expectations in first grade help students formulate answers to questions such as: “What happens when materials vibrate? What happens when there is no light? What are some ways plants and animals meet their needs so that they can survive and grow? How are parents and their children similar and different? What objects are in the sky and how do they seem to move?”

Students are expected to develop understanding of the relationship between sound and vibrating materials as well as between the availability of light and ability to see objects. The idea that light travels from place to place can be understood by students at this level through determining the effect of placing objects made with different materials in the path of a beam of light. Students are also expected to develop understanding of how plants and animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs as well as how behaviors of parents and offspring help the offspring survive. The understanding is developed that young plants and animals are like, but not exactly the same as, their parents. Students are able to observe, describe, and predict some patterns of the movement of objects in the sky.

The crosscutting concepts of patterns; cause and effect; structure and function; and influence of engineering, technology, and science on society and the natural world are called out as organizing concepts for these disciplinary core ideas.

In the first grade performance expectations, students are expected to demonstrate grade-appropriate proficiency in planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, constructing explanations and designing solutions, and obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information. Students are expected to use these practices to demonstrate understanding of the core ideas. 

​The table below shows how standard topics, science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts are distributed across curriculum titles.
1 - Strand One, 2 - Strand Two, A - Assessment Strand

Note - number of strands vary from title to title.
Picture
(download Standards Map in PDF)
​

The four Kindergarten curriculum units cover the breadth and depth of every Kindergarten grade level New York State Standard.  All four standard topics are explored in the depth appropriate for the Kindergarten student. 

​The performance expectations in kindergarten help students formulate answers to questions such as: “What happens if you push or pull an object harder? Where do animals live and why do they live there? What is the weather like today and how is it different from yesterday?”

Students are expected to develop understanding of patterns and variations in local weather and the purpose of weather forecasting to prepare for, and respond to, severe weather. Students are able to apply an understanding of the effects of different strengths or different directions of pushes and pulls on the motion of an object to analyze a design solution. Students are also expected to develop understanding of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive and the relationship between their needs and where they live.

​The crosscutting concepts of patterns; cause and effect; systems and system models; interdependence of science, engineering, and technology; and influence of engineering, technology, and science on society and the natural world are called out as organizing concepts for these disciplinary core ideas.

​In the kindergarten performance expectations, students are expected to demonstrate grade-appropriate proficiency in asking questions, developing and using models, planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, designing solutions, engaging in argument from evidence, and obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information. Students are expected to use these practices to demonstrate understanding of the core ideas. 


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