Kindergarten
The Amplify Science kindergarten program progressively builds students’ abilities to meet all grade-level performance expectations through a three-dimensional instructional sequence. The following is an overview of the sequence of units, a description of the progression of student learning across the year, and a summary of how the sequence meets all performance expectations for kindergarten.
Sequence of units
- Needs of Plants and Animals
- Pushes and Pulls
- Sunlight and Weather
Needs of Plants and Animals
There are no monarch caterpillars in the Mariposa Grove community garden since vegetables were planted.
Students take on the role of scientists in order to figure out why there are no monarch caterpillars in the community garden since vegetables were planted. They investigate how plants and animals get what they need to live and grow, and make a new plan for the community garden that provides for the needs of the monarch caterpillars in addition to producing vegetables for humans.
- K-LS1-1: Survival Needs
- K-ESS2-2: Impacting Environment
- K-ESS3-1: Qualities of a Habitat
- K-ESS3-3: Reducing Impacts
- K-2-ETS1-1: Defining the Problem
- K-2-ETS1-2: Developing Possible Solutions
Pushes and Pulls
Pinball machines allow people to control the direction and strength of forces on a ball.
Students take on the role of pinball machine engineers as they investigate the effects of forces on the motion of an object. They conduct tests in their own prototypes (models) of a pinball machine and use what they learn to contribute to the design of a class pinball machine. Over the course of the unit, students construct a foundational understanding of why things move in different ways.
- K-PS2-1: Pushes and Pulls
- K-PS2-2: Change Speed and Direction
- K-2-ETS1-1: Defining the Problem
- K-2-ETS1-2: Developing Possible Solutions
- K-2-ETS1-3: Comparing Different Solutions