Curriculum

SOLID Start (Science Oral Language and Literacy Development from the Start of School) curricula are guided by a driving question and puzzling phenomena that engage young students and elicit their natural curiosities. The units are designed to support young students’ science learning and oral language and literacy development.

Black learners are subject to systemic physical, symbolic, and epistemological violence in mathematics classrooms. Such violence has negative ramifications for Black children’s mathematics learning and identity development. The authors argue that space should be made within the mathematics classroom to repair the harm caused by this violence. This article describes an identity-based curriculum, Mathematics for Justice, Identity, and meta-Cognition (or MaJIC), that provides a form of mathematics therapy through a restorative justice framework.

How should we expect growing understandings of the nature of mathematical practice to inform classroom mathematical practice? We address this question from a perspective that takes seriously the notion that mathematics education, as a societal enterprise, is accountable to multiple sets of stakeholders, with the discipline of mathematics being only one of them. As they lead instruction, teachers can benefit from the influence of understandings of mathematical practice but they also need to recognize obligations to other stakeholders.

The LEAP program is the first early algebra curriculum for students in grades 3-5. The program includes 18-20 one-hour lessons at each grade level and teacher support and assessment. Professional development  is also available. 

Transforming Engineering Education for Middle Schools (TEEMS) is a free engineering curriculum for gr. 6-8 learners. TEEMS is based on theories of learning that encourage the use of story to promote engagement. The curriculum includes two 2-week engineering units on (1) the engineering design process and (2) materials and tools and six 1-4 day lessons that connect engineering to NGSS science topics of waves, matter and its interactions, body systems, Earth’s systems, Earth’s place in the universe, and evolution. 

Transforming Engineering Education for Middle Schools (TEEMS) is a free engineering curriculum for gr. 6-8 learners. TEEMS is based on theories of learning that encourage the use of story to promote engagement. The curriculum includes two 2-week engineering units on (1) the engineering design process and (2) materials and tools and six 1-4 day lessons that connect engineering to NGSS science topics of waves, matter and its interactions, body systems, Earth’s systems, Earth’s place in the universe, and evolution. 

The American Astronomical Society’s WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is a visualization program that enables a computer to function as a virtual telescope—bringing together archival imagery from the world’s best ground- and space-based telescopes for the exploration of the universe. It is a powerful resource for astronomy education. In this chapter, we describe curricula developed by the authors that use WWT in teaching key topics in Astro 101 and K–12 science, including parallax, Hubble’s Law and large-scale structure in the universe, seasons, Moon phases and eclipses, and life in the universe.

Web-Based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE)

Web-Based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE)

Web-Based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE)