Last updated August 2024

Overview

Our mission in DCPS is for our students to think and behave the way scientists and engineers do, which means that we should see students engaging daily in one or more of the Science and Engineering Practices of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) to gather, reason, and communicate their own understandings of the natural world.  

Curriculum and Assessment

STEMscopes is the primary DCPS curricular resource for science in grades K-5 and grades 8-12. STEMscopes is a digital resource that was intentionally designed to address the NGSS. Content is organized into 5E lesson sequences called scopes, each of which are grounded in an anchoring phenomenon that addresses a single NGSS performance expectation.  

Amplify Science is a new middle school curriculum that we began implementing in grade 6 Earth Science in SY23-24, with expansion to grade 7 (in SY24-25) and grade 8 (in SY25-26). Amplify Science is a phenomenon-based science curriculum that blends hands-on investigations, literacy-rich activities, and interactive digital tools to empower students to do what real scientists and engineers do every day. 

Science Curriculum Guides for middle school and select high school courses (Anatomy & Physiology, Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, and Physics) include specific guidance for Tier 1 instruction. Additionally, the curriculum guides include suggestions for supplemental resources and activities to support Tier 2, Tier 3, and acceleration. 
 

Major Units of Study

Elementary School
Kindergarten Science	Grade 1 Science	Grade 2 Science	Grade 3 Science	Grade 4 Science	Grade 5 Science
Animal Needs, Plant Needs, & Reducing Human Impact  Weather Conditions, Weather Patterns, Weather Hazards, & Energy from the Sun  Habitats, Organisms’ Impact on Environments, & Uses of Natural Resources  Speed & Direction, & Pushes & Pulls	Parts of Animals & Plants, & Animal & Plant Survival  Sound, Behavior of Light, & Communication  Seasonal Patterns & Patterns in Space  Protecting the Young, & Animal & Plant Trait Inheritance & Variation	What Plants Need, Animal & Plant Dependence, & Diversity of Living Things Quick & Slow Changes to Land, & Effects of Wind & Water   Mapping Our World, & Forms of Water on Earth  Properties & States of Matter, Properties of Materials, Building Blocks of Matter, & Changes from Heat	Life Cycles, & Social & Group Behavior  Inheritance & Variation of Traits, Environmental Traits, Adaptations, & Environmental Changes & Effects  Plant & Animal Extinction, Fossils, & Survival of the Fittest  Weather & Climate, & Processes & Impacts of Natural Hazards  Objects & Motion, & Electric & Magnetic Forces	Plant & Animal Parts, & Sense Receptors  Rock Patterns, Changing Land, Plate Tectonics, Renewable & Nonrenewable Resources, & Natural Processes  Energy & Speed, Energy Transfer & Electric Currents, Transfer of Energy in Collision, & Using Stored Energy  Motion of Waves, Wavelength & Amplitude, Light Reflection, & Information Technologies	Energy Transfer, Matter & Energy in Plants, Food Webs, Matter Cycles, & Ecosystems  Earth’s Rotation, Observing the Stars, Objects in the Sky, & Gravity  Earth’s Systems Interactions, Water Sources, & Reducing Human Footprint  Matter is Everywhere, Properties of Matter, Changes to Matter, & Mixtures

 

Middle School
Grade 6 Earth Science	Grade 7 Life Science	Grade 8 Physical Science
Geology on Mars  Plate Motion  Rock Transformations  Earth, Sun, and Moon  Ocean, Atmosphere, and Climate  Weather Patterns  Earth’s Changing Climate	Structure, Function, and Information Processing  Growth and Development of Organisms  Inheritance and Variation of Traits  Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity  Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems	Structure and Properties of Matter  Energy Transfer in Temperature  Chemical Reactions  Kinetic and Potential  Energy  Forces and Motion  Waves and their Application

 

High School
Anatomy & Physiology	Biology	Chemistry	Environmental Science	Physics
Cytology and Histology  Support and Movement  Transport  Absorption, Excretion, and  Hormonal Balance	Molecules of Life  Ecosystems and the Environment  Organization of Systems and Genetics  Evolution	Understanding Matter and Energy  Thermodynamics and Periodicity  Interactions of Matter  Equilibrium	Ecology and the Natural World  Resources from Air, Water, and Land  Earth’s Resources and Energy  Sustainability	The Physics of Motion  Forces at a Distance  Energy  Waves

District Partnerships

Community partnerships help make science learning meaningful and relevant by offering students and educators a chance to engage with dynamic organizations and local phenomena. Notable partnerships include: 

• The National Energy Education Development (NEED) Project provides professional learning opportunities and materials for student exploration in sustainability, energy efficiency, renewable energy, climate change, and energy careers.  NEED, in partnership with Pepco and the Exelon Foundation, provide the Energizing Student Potential Program (ESP) and the Exelon Foundation STEM Leadership Academy for students in DC and the surrounding area.
• EcoRise works with DCPS schools to engage local students and teachers in promoting sustainability and develop climate leaders through a range of curricula and programs for students and teachers designed to advance environmental literacy, sustainable schools, and equitable access to green career pathways.
• MIT Scheller Teacher Education partners with DCPS to design, pilot, and launch a series of inquiry-driven lessons and learning experiences that integrate block coding and computational modeling into all high school science classes.  Students develop computer models to simulate and study complex systems using mathematical data and use scientific principles in real-world inquiry driven experiences.

Program Highlights

We know from research that students learn best through a combination of first-hand experience and many opportunities for reflection about their work. To that end, we have made major commitments to ensuring that students have ample opportunities to design investigations, engage in scientific reasoning, manipulate equipment, record data, analyze results, and discuss their findings. In 2022, the district invested in hands-on materials to support STEMscopes and Amplify curricula. In addition, the district also invests in supplemental resources such as ExploreLearning Gizmos (interactive science simulations that help reinforce lab experiences) and Activate Learning (another digital curricular resource for high school Chemistry and Physics, which includes access to OpenSciEd, an open-source science curriculum for Biology, Chemistry, and Physics).  

Contact Information

James Rountree, Director of K-12 Science

Kaila Ramsey Garza, Director, Elementary Math & Science