Planning for the unit

• Unit Overview: A few paragraphs outlining the unit, including what the unit is about, why it was written this particular way, and how students experience the unit.
• Unit Map: A short one-page summary of the unit, showing how student investigations grow increasingly sophisticated over the course of the unit.
• Progress Build: A thorough explanation of the unit’s learning progression (i.e. Progress Build).
• Materials and Preparation: A complete list of the materials found inside this particular unit’s kit, including which materials are consumable, and in which lesson each material is used.
• Science Background: A teacher-facing document that gives valuable science content information and calls out common student misconceptions and preconceptions.
• Standards at a Glance: A quick one-page summary of all the targeted standards in this unit.

Teacher references

• Lesson Overview Compilation: 1–2 pages on each lesson in the unit, facilitating planning and explaining the logic behind lesson sequencing.

• Standards and Goals: An in-depth explanation of the targeted NGSS performance expectations, DCIs, emphasized science and engineering practices, and focal crosscutting concepts in the unit, as well as a list of appropriate CCSS ELA and CCSS Math standards.

• 3-D Statements: See section on 3-D Statements.

• Assessment System: An in-depth explanation of the assessments within that unit, including an explanation of the NGSS alignment of that unit’s assessments.

• Embedded Formative Assessments: An organized table of information identifying which lessons in the unit contain Critical Juncture and On-the-Fly assessments, and what content each one assesses.

• Apps in This Unit: A description of all the simulations and other digital tools included in the unit, as well as a step-by-step tutorial on using them.

• Articles in This Unit (grades 6-8): A brief description of all the readings included in the unit.

Printable resources

• Coherence Flowcharts: These help teachers visualize how all of the different parts of a chapter (e.g. questions that drive students’ experiences, the evidence they gather, the ideas they figure out, the new questions that those ideas generate, etc.) connect and flow into one another so that students are able to figure out a nuanced, sophisticated understanding of the unit phenomena.
• Investigation Notebook: A downloadable PDF that contains all lesson instructions and essential activities for a given unit. For grades 6–8, students have the ability to access the same content online. Pre-printed and bound Investigation Notebooks are also available for purchase from Amplify.

• Article compilation (grades 6–8): This downloadable PDF compiles all of the unit’s science articles into one document.

• Copymaster Compilation: Some lessons call for printed handouts. This PDF compiles all of those “copymasters” in one place, enabling teachers to download them all at once, rather than individually from each respective lesson, if desired.

• Print Materials: A digital copy of the Print Materials included in the Unit Kit, in case replacement of any of those materials becomes necessary.