1. Designed from the ground up for three-dimensional instruction

The Amplify Science curriculum developers at University of California, Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science crafted each unit, chapter, and lesson with the following questions in mind:

• What do we want students to figure out? (What disciplinary core idea (DCI) or part of a DCI?),
• How do we want them to figure it out? (What scientific and engineering practice will they engage in to figure it out?)
• What crosscutting concept can scaffold students’ understanding and connect it to other ideas about the natural world that they have learned?

This resulted in a curriculum that incorporates a strategic, well-balanced integration of the three dimensions.

2. Emphasis on unit coherence

Student learning experiences and assessments are grounded in a unit-specific learning progression called a Progress Build. A Progress Build clearly defines each level of students’ increasingly sophisticated understanding of unit phenomena students should reach as they progress through the unit. Students build that understanding through engagement with science and engineering practices and application of crosscutting concepts over the course of the lessons in the unit. Thus, as students investigate the anchor phenomena for each unit, they construct new knowledge the way scientists do: through engagement with a core set of professional practices and the application of prior knowledge.

• In the middle school Traits and Reproduction unit, students take on the role of student geneticists in order to investigate possible ways spider silk can be used for medical purposes, such as for artificial tendons. Through their investigation, they figure out what causes variation in spider silk traits. Specifically, they explore why parent spiders have offspring with widely varied silk flexibility traits. They uncover the roles of proteins and genes and the way that genes are inherited.
• In the middle school Phase Change unit, students take on the role of student chemists in order to investigate the mystery of a disappearing methane lake on Saturn’s moon, Titan. Through their investigation, they discover what causes phase changes, including the role of energy transfer and attraction between molecules.

4. Multimodal approach

Amplify Science is rooted in the research-based Do, Talk, Read, Write, Visualize model of learning, where students engage with science and engineering practices, figure out disciplinary core ideas, and utilize and apply crosscutting concepts in multiple modalities across thoughtful, structured lessons.

DO: “Do” means collecting firsthand evidence. This can include conducting hands-on investigations, making observations of a video clip, or collecting data using a digital simulation (“sim”), all of which can then be used as evidence in formulating a convincing scientific argument.

TALK: Student-to-student discourse is a key indicator of a productive learning environment, and talking is a key modality for instruction in an Amplify Science class. This is more than just partner activities or group work—though there’s plenty of that, too. For example, reading activities are followed by a student-to-student discussion where students share their insights and questions with each other and with the whole class. Through talking and developing a collaborative environment, students feel comfortable asking questions of one another, challenging assumptions, and learning from each other.

READ: Student texts, all written by the Lawrence Hall of Science, serve multiple purposes: They help students make connections between science concepts and additional real-world contexts; provide students with data to analyze; model science practices; and show real scientists in action. Students also learn to read actively, with explicit instruction on how to record their questions, seek evidence from text, and monitor their understanding as they read.

WRITE: Students in Amplify Science have frequent opportunities to write in order to help them reflect on and make sense of what they are learning. Across the program students learn how to express their scientific thinking by leveraging evidence and using relevant vocabulary as they apply their thinking to writing. Frequent reflective writing helps students to gain a deepening understanding of the genres of scientific arguments and explanations, both of which embody the foundation of scientific understanding and expression.

VISUALIZE: Through a combination of simulations, media, hands-on activities, readings, and digital and physical models, students are empowered to visualize scientific phenomena in ways never possible before.