Course Standards
General Course Information and Notes
General Notes
Access Courses: Access courses are intended only for students with a significant cognitive disability. Access courses are designed to provide students with access to the general curriculum. Access points reflect increasing levels of complexity and depth of knowledge aligned with grade-level expectations. The access points included in access courses are intentionally designed to foster high expectations for students with significant cognitive disabilities.
Access points in the subject areas of science, social studies, art, dance, physical education, theatre, and health provide tiered access to the general curriculum through three levels of access points (Participatory, Supported, and Independent). Access points in English language arts and mathematics do not contain these tiers, but contain Essential Understandings (or EUs). EUs consist of skills at varying levels of complexity and are a resource when planning for instruction.
English Language Development ELD Standards Special Notes Section:
Teachers are required to provide listening, speaking, reading and writing instruction that allows English language learners (ELL) to communicate information, ideas and concepts for academic success in the content area of Science. For the given level of English language proficiency and with visual, graphic, or interactive support, students will interact with grade level words, expressions, sentences and discourse to process or produce language necessary for academic success The ELD standard should specify a relevant content area concept or topic of study chosen by curriculum developers and teachers which maximizes an ELL’s need for communication and social skills. To access an ELL supporting document which delineates performance definitions and descriptors, please click on the following link: https://cpalmsmediaprod.blob.core.windows.net/uploads/docs/standards/eld/sc.pdf.
General Information
- Class Size Core Required
Educator Certifications
Student Resources
Original Student Tutorials
Explore how gravity can be overcome in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore how friction from rubbing objects produces heat with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Help Simone create a science notebook using words, pictures, charts, and graphs to record and organize information from her investigations with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Come a long on this exploration of objects that give off light and heat, in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Discover how radiant energy from the Sun can heat objects and how heat may be lost when the Sun is not present.
This interactive tutorial is part 2 of 2. Click to open Part 1.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how scientific models are one of the most important and central elements of scientific research with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Discover how radiant energy from the Sun is the light and heat that lights and warms the Earth.
This interactive tutorial is part 1 of 2. Click to open Part 2.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how scientific models are similar to the natural world but can never depict it perfectly with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore the process of photosynthesis and the role the Sun, air and water all play in the process with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Discover what a virus is, actions that cause viruses like the flu to spread from one person to another, and strategies to decrease the spread of viruses to others.
This interactive tutorial is part 2 in a two-part series. Click to open part 1.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Discover what a virus is, actions that cause viruses like the flu to spread from one person to another, and strategies to decrease the spread of viruses to others.
This interactive tutorial is part 1 in a two-part series. Click to open part 2.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how science and research use words differently from everyday speech with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Come explore the various ways plants respond to seasonal changes in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Dormancy, migration, molting. Come explore how animals respond to the changing seasons in this interactive tutorial!
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Enter the fascinating world of plants by identifying examples and traits of flowering and non-flowering plants. Since this interactive tutorial is part 3 of a 3-part series, we will also summarize the information from the series.
Click below to open other tutorials in this series.
- Part 2: Seeds or Spores
- Part 3: Flowering or Non-flowering Plants
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Join us as Breanna learns to use a line plot to examine measurement data she needs to create bracelets for her friends, in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Measure and compare temperatures of various things in this interactive tutorial. Then determine if temperature impacts the melting rate of ice cream.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Enter the fascinating world of plant reproduction as we discover more about seed-producing and spore-producing plants.
This is part 2 in a 3-part series. Click below to open other tutorials in this series.
- Part 2: Seeds or Spores
- Part 3: Flowering or Non-flowering Plants
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Enter the fascinating world of plants as we learn about vascular tissue and how to classify plants based on whether or not they have this tissue.
This is part 2 in a 3-part series on plant classification. Click below to open other tutorials in this series.
- Part 1: Vascular or Non-vascular Plants
- Part 3: Flowering or Non-flowering Plants
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how water changes states between liquid an gas in part two of this interactive science tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how water changes states from liquid to solid in this interactive tutorial.
This tutorial is part 1 in a multi-part series.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Help Detective Pup investigate how different types of animals reproduce in this interactive tutorial.
This is the third in a 3-part series. Click below to open the other tutorials in the series.
- Part 2, Animal Classification: Vertebrates and Invertebrates
- Part 3, Animal Classification: Ways That Animals Are Produced
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to identify explicit evidence and understand the meaning of heat, light and sound energy around the campfire in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Help Detective Pup compare and contrast animals that are classified as vertebrates and invertebrates in this interactive tutorial.
This is the second in a 3-part series. Click below to open the other tutorials in the series.
- Part 2, Animal Classification: Vertebrates and Invertebrates
- Part 3, Animal Classification: Ways That Animals Are Produced
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Investigate 11 different groups of animals with Detective Pup and the traits that make each group unique in this interactive tutorial.
This is the first in a 3-part series. Click below to open the other tutorials in the series.
- Part 1, Animal Classification: Groups
- Part 3, Animal Classification: Ways That Animals Are Produced
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore how plants respond to stimuli in the world as you complete this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore the parts that make up many of the plants around you in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to estimate and measure the masses of objects in grams and kilograms in this interactive tutorial with an animal hospital theme.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to identify the sequence of events or ideas in a text and make connections between the events or ideas.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Educational Games
The students will be presented with two shapes and must estimate how many times the smaller will fit in the larger. They will be surprised at some of the results but will quickly learn and make adjustments.
Type: Educational Game
This is a website for those who are teaching the water cycle that allows students to test their knowledge.
Type: Educational Game
Image/Photograph
Presentation/Slideshow
This is a power point presentation my students and I created together to explore some of the things a scientist can be. I started with a list of the things my students thought a scientist was and then we researched it. The headings of the slides are the students ideas and written in their words. It includes helpful teacher and student links embedded in the presentation, the teacher can choose to utilize these or not. The images within the PowerPoint are courtesy of creative commons licensing and are meant to emphasize the topics of each slide. The teacher can simply ask students how they believe the images connect, this can stimulate interesting discussions.
Type: Presentation/Slideshow
Text Resources
This resource provides information about plant parts and their function with an interactive graphic that assists with identifying the parts of many plants we eat and a simulation about how seeds develop into fruit.
Type: Text Resource
This resource provides basic information about electricity, most importantly that electricity is neither a renewable or non-renewable resource.
Type: Text Resource
Tutorial
In this tutorial video from Khan Academy, explore questions such as: What is the volume of a jar of milk? How about a spoon? A swimming pool?
Type: Tutorial
Video/Audio/Animations
This video shows three years of the sun as captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
This interactive activity adapted from Indiana University features time-lapse videos that reveal the movement and growth of plants in their pursuit of light. Although plants have no choice about where they are rooted, they do respond to environmental cues in ways that enable them to survive.
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
The process that moves water around Earth is known as the water cycle. I this ZOOM-adapted video clip, the cast uses a homemade solar still to separate pure water from a saltwater mixture, mimicing this natural process.
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
Virtual Manipulatives
This resource provides a fun and engaging way for you to learn about the world's smallest particle, the quark. A poem accompanies each page in the downloadable coloring book.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
Star Light, Star Bright explores the nature of the electromagnetic spectrum. In a series of four mini-lessons, the different properties of waves and the relationship that exists between energy, wavelength, and frequency will be covered. Activities are "Catch the Waves", "Making Waves", "Heating Up", and "Stellar Encounters." Be sure to view the brain teasers and light facts on each page.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
WebQuests
Did you know that there are many kinds of animals that lay eggs? You can find out about different kinds of egg laying animals on this WebQuest.
Type: WebQuest
The website gives great information on the different biomes and ecosystems of the world.
Type: WebQuest