IQWST
Core Code Alignment
Science
Integrated Science
08050000005: Science (Grade 6)
Integrated Science
08050000005: Science (Grade 6)
Recommendation
Recommended Limited
Evaluation
I would recommend that the Activate Learning Earth Comm curriuclum could be used in a limited capacity. It would make a great resource for online students to use, as it is set up to be used that way. I feel that this aligns with about 80-85% of the Utah standards for Earth and Space Science. There are some chapters in this content that are not a part of the core. The portions of the curriculum that I viewed in depth were missing a few things that are in our core - the use of CER for students to explain what they are looking at and some of our build in design standards. I picked the Plate Tectonics and Astronomy units to look at in depth and looked at Chapter content and selected sections for the other 6 chapters.
A concern in adapting this as a primary resource - the accessability issue for deaf and blind (primarily) students. There are plenty of ways to probably work around this, but I did not see them clearly addressed within the curriculum. My other concern would be the lack of rubrics within the content - there are engineering challenges presented to the students, but there is not a rubric given for students. There are suggested answers provided to teachers but that key piece is missing.
That being said, I would like to see this resource available for our teachers and students to use. Some portions of it are really well put together.
Educators Using These Materials
No educators found.
Rubric : Science 2025
Compliance with State Law (Required)
| Item | 3 - Extensive | 2 - Adequate | 1 - Inadequate | 0 - None | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sensitive Materials and Prohibited Submission 53G-10-103, R277-628 | This item has not been graded. | |||||
| Prohibited discriminatory practices 53G-2-103-5, 53B-1-118 and 67-27-107 | This item has not been graded. | |||||
| Maintaining constitutional freedom in the public schools. 53G-10-202 | This item has not been graded. | |||||
| Free from advertising, e-commerce, or political interest | This item has not been graded. | |||||
Standards
| Item | 3 - Extensive | 2 - Adequate | 1 - Inadequate | 0 - None | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Presence of Three Dimensions of Science: Builds understanding of the science and engineering practices (SEPs), disciplinary core ideas (DCIs), and crosscutting concepts (CCCs). i. Provides opportunities to develop and use specific elements of the SEP(s) ii. Provides opportunities to develop and use specific elements of the DCI(s) iii. Provides opportunities to develop and use specific elements of the CCC(s) | 3 of the Criteria Indicators are met | 2 of the Criteria Indicators are met | 1 of the Criteria Indicators are met | None of the Criteria Indicators are met | ||
| For each of the 8 chapters there is an introductory page that goes through this with the students and on the Teacher Plan section a background knowledge page contains a chart and a description of the 3 components. | ||||||
| Integration of Three Dimensions of Science: Materials integrate elements of the SEPs, CCCs, and DCIs for student sense‐making: Three dimensions of science (SEPs, CCCs, and DCIs) are integrated (consistently utilized in conjunction with each other) to help students make sense of phenomenon and solve problems. | Three dimensions of science (SEPs, CCCs, and DCIs) are consistently integrated. | Three dimensions of science are integrated in certain portions of the instructional material. | Three dimensions of science are rarely integrated in the instructional material. | Three dimensions of science (SEPs, CCCs, and DCIs) are separated and not integrated for student sense making. | ||
| Each Section starts with a 3D learning breakdown which shows the SEPs, DCIs, and CCCs along with learning outcomes. Students would see this at the beginning of each section. | ||||||
| Alignment to Standards: The DCI Concepts (science content) in the instructional materials align to the Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards | DCI concepts (science content) in the instructional material align to 100% the SEEd Standards for the Grade/Course. | DCI concepts (science content) in the instructional material align to 75% the SEEd Standards for the Grade/Course. | DCI concepts (science content) in the instructional material align to 50% the SEEd Standards for the Grade/Course. | DCI concepts (science content) in the instructional material align to less than 50% the SEEd Standards for the Grade/Course. | ||
| In looking at the Earth and Space Science Core, I estimate that about 85% of the DCI concepts in this Earth Comm materials align with our core. There are more DCIs covered than our core for this class - the Minerals, Rocks, and Structure chapters as well as most of the Earth System Evolution chapter. The conent is missing some of our engineering standards. | ||||||
| Scientific Accuracy: Uses scientifically accurate and grade‐appropriate scientific information, phenomena, and representations to support students’ three‐dimensional learning. | Instructional materials are scientifically accurate and grade appropriate. | N/A | N/A | Instructional materials are NOT scientifically accurate and grade appropriate. | ||
| I really like the phenomena that I looked at. There is one for each chapter. and it is revisited after students look at some other content on their own - with some deeper questions asked. There are also reflecting on science portions and understanding and applying sections that use real world examples. | ||||||
Pedagogy
| Item | 3 - Extensive | 2 - Adequate | 1 - Inadequate | 0 - None | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Focus on Phenomena (Science) or Problems (Engineering): Making sense of phenomena and/or designing solutions to a problem drive student learning. i. Student questions and prior experiences related to the phenomenon or problem motivate sense‐making and/or problem solving ii. The focus of the lesson is to support students in making sense of phenomena and/or designing solutions to problems iii. When engineering is a learning focus, it is integrated with developing disciplinary core ideas from physical, life, and/or earth and space sciences | 3 of the Criteria Indicators are met | 2 of the Criteria Indicators are met | 1 of the Criteria Indicators are met | None of the Criteria Indicators are met | ||
| Each section of the 8 chapters contains a phenomena that students need to make sense of. Questions are asked of students and then they do some investigating before coming back to the phenomena. Every chapter contains and engineering design challenge in the middle of the content. | ||||||
| Scaffolding: Identifies and builds on students’ prior learning in all three dimensions i. Provides supports to help students engage in the practices and gradually adjusts supports over time so that students are increasingly responsible for making sense of phenomena and/or designing solutions to problems (Required) ii. Explicitly identifies prior student learning expected for all three dimensions iii. Clearly explains how the prior learning will be built upon | 3 of the Criteria Indicators are met | 2 of the Criteria Indicators are met (i MUST BE MET) | Only Criteria Indicator i has been met | None of the Criteria Indicators are met | ||
| This one is a little harder to consider. There are plenty of scaffolding recommendations given in the Planning section for teachers. This is labelled as Differentiation/Strategies and gives suggestions for Reading and for ELL students. The student content can be customized. As for adjusting for the students, thats the content I am not sure how it would do that without interacting as a student. The learning expected is addressed and the prior learning is within the flow of the chapter contents. | ||||||
| Teacher Supports: Supports teachers in facilitating coherent student learning experiences over time i. Provides strategies for linking student engagement across lessons (e.g. cultivating new student questions at the end of a lesson in a way that leads to future lessons) ii. Providing strategies for ensuring student sense‐making and/or problem‐solving is linked to learning in all three dimensions (e.g. Claim Evidence Reasoning-CER Framework for communicating sense-making, teacher probing questions) iii. Provides additional resources for student learning (e.g. Models, simulations, and/or data sets for students investigation) | 3 of the Criteria Indicators are met | 2 of the Criteria Indicators are met | 1 of the Criteria Indicators are met | None of the Criteria Indicators are met | ||
| There is clear evidence for i, and linking engagement across the lessons within each chapter. The content actually does a really good job with this. There are additional materials suggested as well and student simulations and data sets are included. I did not see any CER type questions. There are lots of spots where students are asked to explain their thinking, but no make a claim, give the evidence, and reason it out ideas. (I could have missed this). | ||||||
| Assessments: Includes formative, summative, and guidance measures for interpreting student performances that assess three‐dimensional science learning. i. Embeds formative assessment processes throughout conceptual development that surfaces student understanding to inform instruction ii. Embeds summative assessment processes following conceptual development that evaluate student learning and measure understanding iii. Includes aligned rubrics or scoring guidelines that provide guidance for interpreting student performance | 3 of the Criteria Indicators are met | 2 of the Criteria Indicators are met | 1 of the Criteria Indicators are met | None of the Criteria Indicators are met | ||
| The first criteria (i) is included. It is found in different places in each section of each Chapter (checking up questions). The are (ii) summative type assessments as well - Quizzes at the end of each section and a Chapter test at the end of the unit. There are also Chapter challenges which could be used as assessments as well. As for iii, I did not observe any rubrics but there were suggested scoring answers, | ||||||
Accessibility
| Item | 3 - Extensive | 2 - Adequate | 1 - Inadequate | 0 - None | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Relevant and Authentic: Engages students in authentic and meaningful scenarios that reflect the practice of science and engineering as experienced in the real world. i. Students experience phenomena or design problems as directly as possible (first-hand or through media representations) ii. Includes suggestions for how to connect instruction to the students' home, neighborhood, community and/or culture as appropriate iii. Provides opportunities for students to connect their explanation of a phenomenon and/or their design solution to a problem to questions from their own experience | 3 of the 4 Criteria Indicators are met | 2 of the 4 Criteria Indicators are met | 1 of the 4 Criteria Indicators are met | None of the 4 Criteria Indicators are met | ||
| The curriculum has a built in phenomena for each unit. There is opportunity for students to consider the phenomena and think about it. Lots of opportunity for reflection is provided. There are sections with engineering design included and a reflection on how would this related to your community. | ||||||
| Teacher Supports for Diverse Learners: Provides guidance for teachers to support differentiated instruction i. Includes appropriate reading, writing, listening, and/or speaking alternatives (e.g., translations, picture support, graphic organizers, etc.) for students who are English language learners, have special needs, or read well below grade level ii. Provides extra support (e.g., phenomena, representations, tasks) for students who are struggling to meet the targeted expectations iii. Provides extensions for students with high interest or who have already met the performance expectations to develop a deeper understanding of the practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts | 3 of the Criteria Indicators are met | 2 of the Criteria Indicators are met | 1 of the Criteria Indicators are met | None of the Criteria Indicators are met | ||
| This is really done well by this curriculum. The teacher section "Plan" has a Differentiation/Strategies section for each section of every chapter that does this. There are audio clips of the content being read included. There are strategies given for accomodating and for augmenting. With the ability to customize the content for the students, there is also a inquiring further section that could be assigned or eliminated based on student needs. There are also suggestions given for ELL students and several learning issues (vocab comprehension, understanding concepts, making predictions, etc) are addressed for each section to give teachers guidance in helping students. | ||||||
| Accessible for all students: Engages students using methods, vocabulary, representations, and examples that are accessible and unbiased for all learners (e.g., Deaf and Blind, English Learners, Gifted and Talented, Special Education). | Instructional Materials are accessible for all students | N/A | N/A | Instructional Materials are NOT accessible for all students | ||
| As this is an online curriculum, it would be harder to use with the blind students. Not every section has the reading provided, that may be something I missed, but I only saw it in the content sections (digging deeper). I think our deaf students could use this - most of the video content had closed captioning available. Our English learners, gifted, and special ed students should be ok since the ability to customize the work is built in. | ||||||
| Physical Characteristics | This item has not been graded. | |||||
| Technical Standards | This item has not been graded. | |||||
| Ethnic Studies- (Ethnic studies in core standards and curriculum should be a narrowly tailored incorporation of age-appropriate opportunities that naturally arise through education without pretextual effort in courses, programs, or activities where ethnic studies is not a primary focus. The material should incorporate a curriculum of people and cultures that reflect the state’s various demographics without commentary that seeks to violate the neutrality standard established in codes: 53B-1-118, 53G-2-103, 53G-2-104, 53G-2-105, 67-27-107, | This item has not been graded. | |||||
| Shared Values and Character Traits | This item has not been graded. | |||||
UTAH STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
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Salt Lake City, UT 84111-3204
Phone: 801.538.7807