Phenomena-based 6鈥�8 elementary science curriculum
Amplify Science for grades 6鈥�8 is a phenomena-based science curriculum that is designed to give middle school students engaging, realistic experiences that mirror how scientists and engineers actually work. To do this, the and Amplify created a middle school science program that includes compelling hands-on investigations, print resources, and digital modeling tools and simulations that work seamlessly together to enable students鈥� investigations and explorations.
Year at a glance
Amplify Science is organized around units where students are introduced to compelling phenomena and real-world problems, develop and strengthen claims by collecting evidence and testing assumptions, and apply their learning in new contexts.
Units at a glance
Each unit of Amplify Science engages students in a relevant, real-world problem where they investigate scientific phenomena, engage in collaboration and discussion, and develop models or explanations in order to arrive at solutions.
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Grade 6 Units
1
Microbiome
There is evidence to suggest that the approximately 100 trillion bacteria living on and in the human body may correlate to many different health conditions. Further, altering one鈥檚 microbiome can result in altering one鈥檚 health for better or worse. Most notably, a treatment known as a fecal transplant鈥攁 transplant that involves using microorganisms from one person鈥檚 healthy gut microbiome to cure another person who is suffering from a potentially deadly infection鈥攈as been under review. Students take on the role of student researchers to figure out why a fecal transplant cured a patient suffering from a C. difficile infection.
2
Metabolism
Through inhabiting the role of medical students in a hospital, students are able to draw connections between the large-scale, macro-level experiences of the body and the micro-level processes that make the body function as they first diagnose a patient and then analyze the metabolism of world-class athletes. They uncover how body systems work together to bring molecules from food and air to the trillions of cells in the human body.
3
Metabolism: Engineering Internship
Students act as food engineering interns to design a health bar to feed people involved in natural disasters, with a particular emphasis on two populations who have health needs beyond what can be provided by emergency meals: patients and rescue workers. These plans must meet three design criteria: 1) addressing the metabolic needs of a target population; 2) tasting as good as possible; and 3) minimizing costs while serving as many people as possible. Students focus on the practice of considering trade-offs while designing solutions to deepen their understanding of metabolism. They also consider questions of scale, proportion, and quantity as different proportions of types of molecules affect a body鈥檚 health and metabolism.
4
Traits and Reproduction
Scientists and engineers are investigating possible ways spider silk can be used for medical purposes, such as for artificial tendons. Students act as student geneticists to investigate what causes variation in spider silk traits. Specifically, they explain 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.
5
Thermal Energy
In their role as student thermal scientists, students work with the principal of the fictional Riverdale School to help the school choose a new heating system. They compare a system that heats a small amount of water with one that uses a larger amount of cooler groundwater. Students discover that observed temperature changes can be explained by the movement of molecules, which facilitates the transfer of kinetic energy from one place to another. As they analyze the two heating system options, students learn to distinguish between temperature and energy, and to explain how energy will transfer from a warmer object to a colder object until the temperature of the two objects reaches equilibrium.
6
Ocean, Atmosphere, and Climate
Students act as student climatologists helping a group of farmers near Christchurch figure out the cause of significantly colder air temperatures during the El Ni帽o climate event. To solve the puzzle, students investigate what causes regional climates. They learn about energy from the sun and energy transfer between Earth鈥檚 surface and atmosphere, ocean currents, and prevailing winds.
7
Weather Patterns
Weather is a complex system that affects our daily lives. Understanding how weather events, such as severe rainstorms, take place is important for students to conceptualize weather events in their own community. Students play the role of student forensic meteorologists as they discover how water vapor, temperature, energy transfer, and wind influence local weather patterns in a fictional town called Galetown. They use what they have learned to explain what may have caused rainstorms in Galetown to be unusually severe in recent years.
8
Earth's Changing Climate
In the role of student climatologists, students investigate what is causing ice on Earth鈥檚 surface to melt in order to help the fictional World Climate Institute educate the public about the processes involved. Students consider claims about changes to energy from the sun, to the atmosphere, to Earth鈥檚 surface, or in human activities as contributing to climate change.
9
Earth's Changing Climate: Engineering Internship
Students act as civil engineering interns to design a plan to modify a city鈥檚 roofs in order to reduce the city鈥檚 impact on climate change. These plans must meet three design criteria: 1) reducing impact on the climate; 2) preserving the city鈥檚 historic character; and 3) minimizing costs. Students focus on the practice of isolating variables in planning and conducting tests to deepen their understanding of climate change. They also learn about the cause-and-effect mechanisms involved as changes to albedo and combustion of fossil fuels affect climate.
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Grade 7 Units
1
Geology on Mars
Evidence that water was once present on a planet is evidence that the planet may once have had living organisms. In their role as student planetary geologists working to investigate the planet Mars, students investigate whether a particular channel on Mars was caused by flowing water or flowing lava. Along the way, students engage in the practices and ways of thinking particular to planetary geologists, and learn to consider a planet as a system of interacting subsystems.
2
Plate Motion
Students play the role of geologists working for the fictional Museum of West Namibia to investigate Mesosaurus fossils found both in southern Africa and in South America. They learn that the surface of the Earth has changed dramatically over the Earth鈥檚 history, with continents and ocean basins changing shape and arrangement due to the motion of tectonic plates. They also learn that as the Earth鈥檚 surface changes, fossils that formed together may be split apart.
3
Plate Motion: Engineering Internship
Students act as mechanical engineering interns to design a tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean region. These warning systems must meet three design criteria: 1) giving people as much warning time as possible to move to safety; 2) causing as few false alarms as possible; and 3) minimizing costs as much as possible. Students communicate like engineers and scientists do as they use their understanding of plate motion and patterns in data to create and justify their designs.
4
Rock Transformations
Taking on the role of student geologists, students investigate a geologic puzzle: Two rock samples, one from the Great Plains and one from the Rocky Mountains, look very different but are composed of a surprisingly similar mix of minerals. Did the rocks form together and somehow get split apart? Or did one rock form first, and then the other rock form from the materials of the first rock? To solve the mystery, students learn about how rock forms and transforms, driven by different energy sources.
5
Phase Change
Taking on the role of student chemists working for the fictional Universal Space Agency, students investigate the mystery of a disappearing methane lake on Titan. One team of scientists at the Universal Space Agency claims that the lake evaporated, while the other team of scientists claims that the lake froze. The students鈥� assignment is to determine what happened to the lake. They discover what causes phase changes, including the role of energy transfer and attraction between molecules.
6
Phase Change: Engineering Internship
Students act as chemical engineering interns to design an incubator for low-birthweight babies. Phase change materials (PCMs) are substances that store and release large amounts of energy during the phase changes of melting and freezing. Since they can easily be reused, PCMs are useful for everyday situations that require temperature control. Students select a combination of PCMs and an insulating lining material, applying concepts about phase change and energy transfer.
7
Chemical Reactions
In the role of student chemists, students explore how new substances are formed as they investigate a problem with the water supply in the fictional town of Westfield. They analyze a brown substance that is in the water, the iron that the town鈥檚 pipes are made of, and a substance from fertilizer found to have contaminated the wells that are the source of the town鈥檚 water. Students use their findings to explain the source of the contaminating substance.
8
Populations and Resources
Glacier Sea has seen an alarming increase in the moon jelly population. In the role of student ecologists, students investigate reproduction, predation, food webs, and indirect effects to discover the cause. Jellyfish population blooms have become common in recent years and offer an intriguing context to learn about populations and resources.
9
Matter and Energy in Ecosystems
Students examine the case of a failed biodome, an enclosed ecosystem that was meant to be self-sustaining but ran into problems. In the role of ecologists, students discover how all the organisms in an ecosystem get the resources they need to release energy. Carbon cycles through an ecosystem due to organisms鈥� production and use of energy storage molecules. Students build an understanding of this cycling鈥攊ncluding the role of photosynthesis鈥攁s they solve the mystery of the biodome collapse.
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Grade 8 Units
1
Harnessing Human Energy
Energy-harvesting backpacks, rocking chairs, and knee braces are just a few of the devices that have been created to capture human energy and use it to power electrical devices. Students assume the role of student energy scientists in order to help a team of rescue workers find a way to get energy to the batteries in their equipment during rescue missions. To do so, students learn about potential and kinetic energy, energy conversions, and energy transformations.
2
Force and Motion
In the role of student physicists, students help solve a physics mystery from outer space. A pod returning with asteroid samples should have stopped and docked at the space station. Instead, it is now moving back away from the station, and the video feed showing what happened in the seconds during which it reversed direction has been lost. Did the pod reverse before it got to the space station, or did it hit the station and bounced off? Students explore principles of force, motion, mass, and collisions as they solve this mystery.
3
Force and Motion: Engineering Internship
Students act as mechanical engineering interns to design delivery pods鈥攑ods of emergency supplies that will be dropped in areas experiencing a natural disaster. These delivery pods must meet three design criteria: 1) limiting the amount of damage to the cargo during the drop; 2) reusing the pod鈥檚 shell as much as possible (for example, as emergency shelter); and 3) minimizing the cost of the pod as much as possible. Students focus on the practice of analyzing data to deepen their understanding of force and motion. They also learn about how structure and function are interrelated to determine the integrity and, therefore, success of their pods.
4
Magnetic Fields
As student physicists consulting for the fictional Universal Space Agency, students work to understand the function of a magnetic spacecraft launcher (a simplified version of real technology currently under development). In particular, they seek to explain why a particular test launched the spacecraft much faster than expected. To do this, they investigate how magnets move some objects at a distance, the source of the energy for that movement, and what causes differences in the energy and forces involved.
5
Light Waves
Australia has one of the highest skin cancer rates in the world: More than half of the people who live there will be diagnosed with skin cancer in their lifetime. In their role as student spectroscopists, students gain a deeper understanding of how light interacts with materials, and how these interactions affect our world鈥攆rom the colors we see, to changes caused by light from the sun such as warmth, growth, and damage. Students use what they learn about light to explain the causes of Australia鈥檚 skin cancer problem.
6
Earth, Moon, and Sun
Students take on the role of student astronomers, advising an astrophotographer who needs to take photographs of the moon. In order to provide this advice, students investigate where the moon鈥檚 light comes from, what causes the characteristic changes in the appearance of the Moon that we observe, and what conditions are required to view phenomena such as particular moon phases and lunar eclipses.
7
Natural Selection
According to local legend around Oregon State Park, three unfortunate campers were found dead at their campsite and investigators found only one clue鈥攁 rough-skinned newt inside the coffeepot that the campers used to make their morning coffee. Student biologists investigate what caused the roughskinned newts of Oregon State Park to become so poisonous by uncovering mechanisms of natural selection鈥攊nvestigating variation in populations, survival and reproduction, and mutation.
8
Natural Selection: Engineering Internship
Students act as biomedical engineering interns to design a malaria treatment plan. These treatment plans must reduce the population of malaria plasmodia while meeting three design criteria: 1) limiting the amount of the drug-resistance trait that develops in the population; 2) minimizing the side effects caused by the treatment; and 3) minimizing the treatment costs while treating as many patients as possible. Students focus on the practice of analyzing data to deepen their understanding of natural selection. They also learn about the cause-and-effect mechanisms involved when rates of death and reproduction can lead to increased drug resistance in the plasmodia population.
9
Evolutionary History
Students act as student paleontologists to discover the evolutionary history of a mystery fossil. Is this species more closely related to wolves or whales, and how did all three species change over time? Students learn how to interpret similarities and differences among fossils, investigate how natural selection can lead to one population becoming two different species, and investigate evolution over vast periods of time.
Print & digital components
The program includes instructional guidance and student materials for a year of instruction, with lessons and activities that keep students engaged every day.
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Teacher materials
Component Format Teacher's Guides
Available digitally and in print, the Teacher’s Guides contain all of the information teachers need to facilitate classroom instruction, including detailed lesson plans, high-level overview documentation, differentiation strategies, standards alignments, materials and preparation steps, teacher support strategies and in-context professional development, possible student responses, and more.
Print and digital 
Hands-on materials kits
Hands-on learning is interwoven throughout Amplify Science. Each hands-on activity is supported through clear instructions for the teacher, as well as easily accessible materials in unit-specific kits. Each kit contains hands-on materials, both consumable and nonconsumable, and various print materials (e.g., Vocabulary and Key Concept cards). With Amplify Science, students are able to actively participate in science, gathering evidence, thinking critically, making observations, and communicating their claims.
Kit 
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Student materials
Component Format Student Investigation Notebooks with Article Compilations
Available for every unit, the Student Investigation Notebooks contain instructions for student activities and space for students to record data, reflect on ideas from texts and investigations, and construct explanations and arguments. A full compilation of all unit articles are also included.
Print and digital 
Digital student experience
Students can interact with the digital student experience as they conduct hands-on investigations, engage in active reading and writing activities, participate in discussions, record observations, and craft end-of-unit scientific arguments. Students access the digital simulations (鈥渟ims鈥�) and modeling tools through the digital student experience. Developed exclusively for Amplify Science, these digital tools serve as venues of exploration and data collection, allowing students to explore scientific concepts that might otherwise be invisible to the naked eye.
Digital 
Units at a glance
Amplify Science is organized around units where students are introduced to compelling phenomena and real-world problems, develop and strengthen claims by collecting evidence and testing assumptions, and apply their learning in new contexts.
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