Science

Next Generation Science Standards

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are a new set of science standards for kindergarten through high school. The NGSS were designed with the idea that students should have a science education that they can use in their lives. It should empower students to be able to make sense of the world around them. And it should give students the critical thinking, problem solving, and data analysis and interpretation skills they can use in any career, and that will help them make decisions that affect themselves, their families, and their communities.

In order to accomplish this, the NGSS call for science learning in which students do not just memorize a set of science facts, but rather engage in figuring out how and why things happen. Core ideas in life science, Earth science, physical science, and engineering are intentionally arranged from kindergarten through twelfth grade so that students can build their understanding over time, and see the connections between different ideas and across disciplines. To figure out these core ideas, students engage in the same practices that real scientists and engineers do. For example, students develop and use models, analyze data, and make evidence-based arguments. They also learn to make sense of core ideas using crosscutting concepts, such as Systems or Cause and Effect, which are useful ways of thinking about and making connections across different areas of science and engineering. The NGSS website provides additional information and resources for families.

The NGSS call for these three dimensions—core ideas, practices, and crosscutting concepts—to work together in science classes. For example, students could analyze data (a science practice) to identify patterns (a crosscutting concept) in traits among parents and offspring (a core science idea). In each Amplify Science unit, students figure out a real world problem by assuming the role of a scientist or engineer. Students engage in the three dimensions of the NGSS as they build their understanding of concepts and skills, which they can use in their lives.

Amplify Units

Students take on the role of biomimicry engineers to explore how an organism’s traits affect its chances of survival, especially when environments change. Using a population of grove snails as their main example, students investigate why certain shell types help some snails survive better than others and how shifts in the environment can change which traits are most helpful. Through hands-on models, reading, data analysis, discussion, and digital tools, students build evidence-based explanations about how organisms meet their needs and how adaptive traits increase the likelihood of survival. They also learn the difference between traits organisms are born with and designs engineers intentionally create. At the end of the unit, students apply their learning in an engineering design challenge, creating and testing robot structures inspired by animal traits and improving their designs through the engineering design process.

Students take on the role of wildlife biologists to investigate why one wolf, Wolf 44, looks and acts differently from others in its pack. As they explore similarities and differences among wolves and other organisms, students learn that some traits are inherited from parents, some are influenced by the environment, and some are shaped by both. Through hands-on investigations, reading, analyzing data, and writing scientific explanations, students gather evidence to explain how traits are passed down and why variation exists within a species. By the end of the unit, they apply what they’ve learned to make and support predictions about the traits of another animal’s offspring, building a strong understanding of how inheritance and environment work together to shape living things.

Students investigate how a floating train—powered by magnetic levitation—can rise, hover, and move without touching the track. Acting as problem-solvers for a fictional city, students explore how different forces, including pushes and pulls, magnetic force, and gravity, affect an object’s motion. Through hands-on investigations, building physical and diagram models, analyzing data, reading informational texts, and engaging in discussion, students discover that forces can cause objects to start moving, stop moving, or stay stable when forces are balanced. By the end of the unit, students use evidence to explain how magnetic force can balance the force of gravity, allowing the train to float, and how changes in forces can cause it to rise or fall.

Students take on the role of meteorologists working to help a fictional organization choose the best location for an orangutan reserve. As they investigate weather on several islands, students learn how to measure temperature and precipitation, analyze data using graphs and maps, and identify patterns over days, months, and years. They develop an understanding of the difference between weather (short-term conditions) and climate (long-term patterns) and use evidence to make predictions about future conditions. Through hands-on investigations, digital tools, reading, math connections, and engineering challenges—such as designing storm-resistant structures—students build skills in data analysis and scientific argumentation while learning how weather and climate affect living things around the world.

Mystery Science

Mystery Science is designed for the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). It covers key performance expectations while engaging students in a full year of fun, engaging, hands-on science!

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