May 17, 2012
Today the 6th grade Life Science Adoption Team determined that the two supplemental curriculums—Only One Ocean and Focus on Forests , used together—will fill the learning gaps left as a result of the removal of the Wisconsin Fast Plant curriculum from 6th grade materials. This direction will support the decision of the group to focus on the local environment to study living organisms, add rigor to an existing field study, and fulfill state science standards. The team will be taking both supplemental curriculums to the Instructional Materials Committee on June 7th.
April 3, 2012
The 6th grade Life Science Adoption committee conducted a gap analysis that incorporated all of the 6th grade curriculum pieces and made the following determinations:
- While 5th grade instruction focuses on plants as organisms and uses Wisconsin Fast Plants - 6th grade instruction will capitalize on this by focusing on plants as part of the forest ecosystem, further tying their studies to the local watershed and the global responsibility we have for our oceans and forests.
- All schools agreed that more emphasis on connections of "parts to the whole" is necessary for students to be successful on state assessments.
- This approach also meets state Environmental Sustainability Standards.
Over the past two meetings, 10 curriculums were previewed and narrowed to 5 curriculum choices. These were then analyzed with a rubric developed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Two curriculum choices came to the top and will be field tested in classrooms between April 15 and May 15th. These are Focus on Forest -Secondary Environmental Education Module and Only One Ocean- Marine Science for Grades 5-8.
March 27, 2012
The 6th grade Life Science Adoption Team reviewed 10 curriculum "prospects" in an effort to determine which curriculum would fill the life science gap as a result of the 5th grade adoption.
A pre-screen was conducted which eliminated 5 curriculums that were nearly identical to existing Middle School curriculums.
Using a rating tool developed by the American Academy of the Advance of Science (AAAS), the remaining 5 curriculums were evaluated. This process will continue at our meeting on April 3, 2012.
February 16, 2012
The 6th grade Life Science Adoption Team conducted a "gap analysis" after removing the overlapping Organisms, Macro to Micro lessons from the curriculum. It was evident to the team that a supplemental curriculum may suffice with the following possibilities:
- Incorporating the Healthy Waters field study component along with Healthy Forests
- Lessons from Project Wet
- Mountain to Sound Greenway
- Project Learning Tree
- Other supplemental materials from potential vendors (FOSS, STC, GEMS, etc.)
Our next meeting will include reviewing possible curriculum choices and developing a "conceptual map" of science content and cross cutting standards. Teachers would also like to align their curriculum with the state Environmental Systems and Sustainability standards."