7th Grade Science
The Equity in Science Education (ESE) Middle Grades Core Curriculum is a strategically sequenced set of projects that utilizes Groupwork and an integrated progression of Performance Expectations through a 5E instructional model. The course emerged from the successes of the Learning Through Performance curriculum project that was developed with educators from Stanford University School of Education at Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, & Equity (SCALE) and Stanford’s Center to Support Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CSET), San Francisco Unified School District and other Bay Area science teachers, and funded by the Educurious. (The full research report for the LTP project can be viewed on SCALE’s science website.)
The Equity in Science Education curriculum uses project-based learning and rigorous curriculum-embedded performance assessments so that each and every student is invested in learning science and are supported to master the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Student learning is enhanced with research-proven groupwork strategies.
The curriculum is organized into four levels: course, unit, subunit, and lesson.
Each grade level course includes four project-based learning units with embedded performance assessments that align with the NGSS and an opening unit called, Groupwork that supports students to work as a team. Each of the four units are strategically sequenced to build towards answering the unit’s driving question and ends with a culminating project. Each unit is further divided into subunits that utilize the 5E Instructional Model. With the 5E structure, students progress through different lesson stages: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate. The 5E Instructional Model allows students to access prior knowledge and to connect their past learning experiences to the present. Students ask questions and define problems about the natural and designed world; design investigations in which they collect and analyze trends and patterns in their data; develop models of physical phenomena; and communicate findings from their investigations. The curriculum emphasizes the use of engineering solutions and evidence-based reasoning for scientific explanations to communicate recommendations to address real-world problems.
Structure of a Unit
The Equity in Science Education Science Middle Grades Core Curriculum (for each grade 6th, 7th, and 8th) consists of five units: four project based learning units, with embedded performance assessments aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards, and an opening unit, Groupwork, that teaches students how to work as a team. Each unit is organized around a Unit Essential Question.
The materials are available as Creative Commons, open educational resources, not for commercial profit resources. To learn more about the project and the materials you can go to our team’s website .
Equity in Science Education Middle Grades Core Curriculum
This is a strategically sequenced set of projects. It is recommended that 6th Grade Science, 7th Grade Science, and 8th Grade Science are taught together.
Structure of a Unit
The Equity in Science Education Middle Grades Core Curriculum (for each grade 6th, 7th, and 8th) consists of five units: four project based learning units, with embedded performance assessments aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards, and an opening unit, Groupwork, that teaches students how to work as a team. Each unit is organized around a Unit Essential Question.
The materials are available as Creative Commons, open educational resources, not for commercial profit resources. To learn more about the project and the materials you can go to our team’s website .
Unit Summaries
How can we use science and engineering practices to explore chemical reactions, geoscience processes, ecosystems, and Earth's natural resources?
Unit 0: Groupwork
How do we work productively in groups? Groupwork is an instructional strategy that helps promote equitable classrooms, provide opportunities for student interactions, and increase science discussions to improve student learning.
Unit 1: Chemical Reactions
How can we combine two substances to make a hot pack or a cold pack? In this unit, students learn to identify when a chemical reaction has occurred and model the change in molecular structure of materials showing that the number and type of atoms (mass) are conserved in a reaction.
Unit 2: Geoscience Processes and Earth's Surface
How can we use our knowledge of geoscience processes to mitigate the effects of earthquakes? In this unit, students consider how geoscience processes have shaped Earth's surface over time.
Unit 3: Ecosystems
What effects does a change to an ecosystem have on the organisms that live there? this unit, students explore how changes in an ecosystem impact local populations of organisms, the flow of energy, and the cycling of matter in that ecosystem.
Unit 4: Earth's Natural Resources
What materials should be used to make utensils for SFUSD cafeterias? In this unit, students explore where natural resources can be found and how these resources are not found in equal amounts around the planet.
Research Proven Strategies
The Equity in Science Education Middle Grades Core Curriculum relies heavily on groupwork. The curriculum uses a framework developed by the Program for Complex Instruction at Stanford University to inform the construction of group tasks. Multiple research projects conducted by the Program for Complex Instruction show that increased learning gains are directly proportional to the level of students’ on-task talk while working in small groups. Specific strategies are employed within this groupwork strategy that enhance the level of student engagement and talking. Students are given roles that help equalize participation within the groups and require students to be more active learners. The activities are open-ended and productively “ill-structured”—meaning that there are no step-by-step procedures for students to follow. This open-ended structure allows for multiple “correct” answers, and/or methods for arriving at an answer, and requires students to make choices and determine how the group will accomplish the work. Teachers take on the role of facilitators and content coaches who continuously focus on how well groups interact, probe and challenge students’ thinking during the activities, and monitor students’ learning throughout the process.
Researchers at CSET found that teachers and administrators in middle school have a positive response to the inquiry-based and groupwork components of this project-based curriculum. Results were gathered from teacher and administrator experience in 2018-2019 with the Equity in Science Education Middle Grades Core Curriculum through classroom observations, surveys, focus groups, and administrators. Here’s what they had to say:
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6th-8th Grade Science is now available. We encourage educators to use all three courses. This curriculum is available as a free open education resource to educators, instructors, and administrators. Sprocket is designed for teacher access only and is not open to students.
We encourage educators to adapt our curriculum to best suit the needs of their classrooms and for them to share it with other members of the Sprocket community.
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