Amplify Science is a K–8 science curriculum that blends hands-on investigations, literacy-rich activities, and interactive digital tools to empower students to think, read, write, and argue like real scientists and engineers. Each unit of Amplify Science engages students in a relevant, real-world problem where they investigate scientific phenomena, engage in collaboration and discussion, and develop models or explanations in order to arrive at solutions.
Patterns of the Earth and Sky
Students will learn about the constellations and movements of planets and stars within our solar system. It introduces students to the scientific phenomenon that they will investigate in this unit: why we see stars at different times. Students are introduced to their role as astronomers who are being asked to help determine what the missing piece of an archaeological artifact might look like.
Earth Systems
Students are introduced to the unit and to their role as water resource engineers engaging with a problem: the fictional city of East Ferris is facing a water shortage, and the mayor needs to know why. Students write initial explanations about why they think some areas get more rain than others and what factors may affect rainfall. Investigating how parts of the Earth system interact to explain why some places get more rain than others is central to this unit.
Modeling Matter -
Students are introduced to the Modeling Matter: The Chemistry of Food unit and are invited to think about the kinds of work that food scientists do. Then, students write their initial explanations about why two different substances mixed into two separate containers of the same liquid behaved differently. Figuring out, on a molecular level, why and how mixtures can separate or mix is the central phenomenon students will solve in this unit.
Ecosystem Restoration-
In this unit, students take on the role of ecologists to investigate and figure out what can be done to return an ecosystem to its original healthy state. As ecologists working with Natural Resources Rescue, an organization dedicated to protecting Earth’s fragile ecosystems, students work to explain the anchor phenomenon: that jaguars, sloths, and cecropia trees in a reforested section of a Costa Rican rain forest are not growing and thriving. In order to understand what’s causing the problem, students explore what it means to grow and how living things get the matter and energy they need to grow.