The Amplify Science approach to integration adheres to the letter and spirit of the California Department of Education’s Preferred Integrated Model, which was developed by a Science Expert Panel that included K–12 educators and professional scientists. The integrated model allows students to build knowledge across disciplines in each year so that past learning is connected to new concepts, applied to new phenomena, and further developed in each year. The design of the Amplify Science Middle School curriculum is grounded in the following three-dimensional principles: Ampli Science for grades 6–8: California Integrated Model • Learning organized around the explanation of real-world phenomena. Many real-world phenomena cross the domain boundaries of life, physical, or earth and space science (as well as engineering). Each Amplify Science unit begins with an intriguing real-world phenomenon that poses a problem that needs to be understood and/or solved. By the end of the unit, students will have analyzed the phenomenon across multiple scientific domains, possibly designed and tested an engineering solution, and always applied what they have learned and done in the unit to a different context. This emphasis on phenomena that foster cross-domain connections strengthens the three-dimensional integration. • Careful bundling and sequencing of DCIs to support deep understanding. The California Preferred Integrated Model specifies the performance expectations to be addressed at each grade. In organizing the Amplify Science Middle School units, we have intentionally bundled and sequenced these ideas within each grade level to support the development of deep and coherent understanding. We have also created opportunities to revisit ideas across grade levels when that provides an opportunity to deepen or extend understanding (for example, while PEs related to cellular respiration are placed at Grade 7 in the Preferred Integrated Model, we expose students to these ideas twice: once in the context of human body systems, in the 6th Grade Metabolism unit, and again in the context of ecosystems, in the 7th Grade Matter and Energy in Ecosystems unit.) • Appropriate focus on Crosscutting Concepts. By their very nature, crosscutting concepts integrate across the disciplines. When used wisely, a CCC helps students use prior experience with the same CCC to make sense of the phenomenon they are currently investigating. That experience can also deepen their understanding of the CCC itself, thereby amplifying the explanatory power of that specific CCC as a conceptual tool when encountering a new phenomenon. • Appropriate inclusion and sequencing of Science and Engineering Practices. While each Performance Expectation cites just one SEP, students must explore that PE’s Disciplinary Core Ideas via multiple SEPs across multiple lessons. In each unit, students engage, investigate, explain, argue and apply via a carefully designed bundle of SEPs that lead to deep understanding: engagement in SEPs is authentic to the work of scientists. By consistently, enjoyably and successfully using multiple SEPs to understand phenomena across multiple domains, students experience science as a unified, integrated whole.
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The Amplify Science approach to integration adheres to the letter and spirit of the California Department
of Education’s Preferred Integrated Model, which was developed by a Science Expert Panel that included
K–12 educators and professional scientists. The integrated model allows students to build knowledge across
disciplines in each year so that past learning is connected to new concepts, applied to new phenomena, and
further developed in each year. The design of the Amplify Science Middle School curriculum is grounded in the
following three-dimensional principles:
Amplify Science for grades 6–8: California Integrated Model
• Learning organized around the explanation of real-world phenomena. Many real-world phenomena cross the
domain boundaries of life, physical, or earth and space science (as well as engineering). Each Amplify Science
unit begins with an intriguing real-world phenomenon that poses a problem that needs to be understood and/or
solved. By the end of the unit, students will have analyzed the phenomenon across multiple scientific domains,
possibly designed and tested an engineering solution, and always applied what they have learned and done in
the unit to a different context. This emphasis on phenomena that foster cross-domain connections strengthens
the three-dimensional integration.
• Careful bundling and sequencing of DCIs to support deep understanding. The California Preferred Integrated
Model specifies the performance expectations to be addressed at each grade. In organizing the Amplify
Science Middle School units, we have intentionally bundled and sequenced these ideas within each grade level
to support the development of deep and coherent understanding. We have also created opportunities to revisit
ideas across grade levels when that provides an opportunity to deepen or extend understanding (for example,
while PEs related to cellular respiration are placed at Grade 7 in the Preferred Integrated Model, we expose
students to these ideas twice: once in the context of human body systems, in the 6th Grade Metabolism unit,
and again in the context of ecosystems, in the 7th Grade Matter and Energy in Ecosystems unit.)
• Appropriate focus on Crosscutting Concepts. By their very nature, crosscutting concepts integrate across
the disciplines. When used wisely, a CCC helps students use prior experience with the same CCC to make sense
of the phenomenon they are currently investigating. That experience can also deepen their understanding
of the CCC itself, thereby amplifying the explanatory power of that specific CCC as a conceptual tool when
encountering a new phenomenon.
• Appropriate inclusion and sequencing of Science and Engineering Practices. While each Performance
Expectation cites just one SEP, students must explore that PE’s Disciplinary Core Ideas via multiple SEPs across
multiple lessons. In each unit, students engage, investigate, explain, argue and apply via a carefully designed
bundle of SEPs that lead to deep understanding: engagement in SEPs is authentic to the work of scientists.
By consistently, enjoyably and successfully using multiple SEPs to understand phenomena across multiple
domains, students experience science as a unified, integrated whole.