Three Reasons to teach Science:
Science is an enterprise that can be harnessed to improve the quality of life on a global scale.
Science may provide a foundation for the development of language, logic, and problem- solving skills in the classroom.
A democracy demands that its citizens make personal, community- based, and national decisions that involve scientific information.
Being proficient in Science does not mean knowing the answers. It must involve a link between content and process. This is vital because scientific processes almost always take place when students are considering specific scientific content. When children use their ideas about the natural world to design investigations or argue about evidence, it strengthens their understanding of both phenomena and the means used to investigate those phenomena. Students who understand science as a process of building theories from evidence develop many of the skills and practices that scientists demonstrate. Our students must use a wide array of methods to develop hypotheses, models, and formal and informal theories based on the data they collect from experiments or observations. When the data conflicts with a hypothesis or theory, that idea must be modified or abandoned and other explanations must be sought that can incorporate or take account of the new evidence.
As students better understand the interrelations among central scientific concepts and use them to build and critique scientific arguments they begin to show critical thinking skills. Rather than memorizing definitions, our goal is for our students to demonstrate proficiency with scientific explanations to apply the concept in novel scenarios.
Curricular Materials come from Smithsonian Science Education Center, Amplify Science, and Engineering is Elementary.
CT Model Science for Kindergarten – Grade 6
Next Generation Sci Standards- K-5 ETS Evidence Statements June