Amplify Science
Hands on Engagement is Foundation of New K-5 Science Curriculum
Ping pong balls are flying, bouncing and rolling all over Donna Dooley’s kindergarten classroom! The Increase Miller students have just made pinball machine models from precut cardboard boxes and big rubber bands. They are exploring how to control the way a pinball moves; it's instinctive to place a ping pong ball against the rubber band and pull.
The first tentative tries bonk balls against the backs of the cardboard boxes. When one student’s ball flies across the table, it launches an era of innovation in rubber band placement and power pulls. One student even figures out how to send her ball backwards!
The kindergarteners are pinball engineers, experimenting with the forces of push and pull, cause and effect, and the design cycle, and having a great time.
Increase Miller Pinball Engineers
students step into a story and get to work
This year, Katonah-Lewisboro elementary students have been thinking like conservation biologists; biomimicry engineers, glue scientists and more. One of the most engaging aspects of Amplify, the district’s new K-5 science curriculum, is that it invites students to be scientists and engineers engaged in real-world situations. They step into a story and get to work.
“It’s a very hands-on curriculum,” said Melissa Brady, the district staff developer for sustainability and STEAM. "Students develop models or explanations in order to arrive at solutions." She highlights the curriculum’s focus on teaching students to think like scientists and engineers, grapple with core scientific principles and apply concepts that cut across domains.
“My students would be happy doing science all day long,” said fourth grade teacher Bebhinn Fahy. "They love it."
meadow pond geologists
Content words allow students to access and communicate scientific knowledge
The second grader aims the spray bottle directly at the chunk of chalk sitting in the center of a plastic container and presses the lever. Streams of water hit the rock again and again. The chalk doesn’t seem any different, but the students notice that the water collecting in the container is now milky colored. Something is changing.
Kate Hernandez’s Meadow Pond class is exploring erosion. They began the unit by meeting the director of the fictional Oceanside Recreation Center. Its flagpole is a foot closer to the edge of the cliff than when the center opened. The students’ job is to figure out why.
Hernandez introduces the students to content words including landform, stable and model. All students have a chance to spray the rock. Some students shake their basin, making pretend ocean waves hit the chalk and break pieces off. They think about the rec center; shaping ideas using new vocabulary.
units develop over the course of several weeks
The maker space in Katonah Elementary smells terrific. Fifth grade teacher Lynn Garofolo and Staff Developer Brady have turned the room into a food lab stocked with lemons, olive oil, vinegar, honey, Dijon mustard and a variety of seasonings.
The students are food scientists for Good Food Production, Inc. Their assignment: to develop a salad dressing that won’t separate.
The previous week, the students had mixed oil and vinegar, and observed how the mixture separated. The fifth graders hypothesized that some molecules need emulsification and agitation to blend into a homogeneous mixture. They are testing the theory today. Each group of students creates its own recipe, adding honey or Dijon—or both, shaking the mixture well. They observe - and taste - the results.
Katonah Elementary Food Scientists
group discussion
group reflections and independent journaling help students make sense of evidence
“What did you observe?” Ms. Dooley asks the pinball engineers gathered on the carpet, after collecting the ping pong balls from all over the classroom.
“My ping pong ball moved because the rubber band exerted a force on it,” said one kindergartener. “The ball goes further when you pull the rubber band back further,” said another. “I doubled up my rubber band,” said the student who sent his ball flying first. “That created a stronger force.”
“I like what I’m hearing. Engineers think of a plan and try out their ideas,” said Ms. Dooley. “They also record their work, so they can refer to it and talk about it with others.”
The engineers return to their tables and open their Science Journals to a diagram of a pinball machine model. They draw their rubber band placement and use arrows to show ball movement, capturing information for the next stage of work.