In partnership with the Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and the legislature-funded ClimeTime program, the Gonzaga Climate Center has created the Climate Literacy Fellows program. This lesson was developed in collaboration with the Gonzaga Science in Action! program.  The Science in Action! Program helped test the kits included in these lessons and helped guide Gonzaga undergraduates in developing the accompanying lessons. We thank Gonzaga SIA! for their collaboration and support!  

In partnership with the Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and the legislature-funded ClimeTime program, the Gonzaga Climate Center has created the Climate Literacy Fellows program.  This lesson was developed in collaboration with the Gonzaga Science in Action! program.  The Science in Action! Program helped test the kits included in these lessons and helped guide Gonzaga undergraduates in developing the accompanying lessons. We thank Gonzaga SIA! for their collaboration and support!

In partnership with the Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and the legislature-funded ClimeTime program, the Gonzaga Climate Center has created the Climate Literacy Fellows program. Through this program, the Climate Center hires and trains exceptional Gonzaga undergraduates to deliver high-impact climate literacy activities in elementary school classrooms (grades K-8).This lesson will introduce camouflage and adaptations, enabling students to be able to identify the importance of animals adapting in a changing climate.Author: Grace Fletcher, Gonzaga Class of 2024

Elementary Science and Integrated Subjects is a statewide Clime Time collaboration among ESD 123, ESD 105, and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Development of the resources is in response to a need for research- based science lessons for elementary teachers that are integrated with English language arts, mathematics and other subjects such as social studies. The template for Elementary integration can serve as an organized, coherent and research-based roadmap for teachers in the development of their own NGSS aligned science lessons.  Lessons can also be useful for classrooms that have no adopted curriculum as well as to serve as enhancements for  current science curriculum. The EFSIS project brings together grade level teams of teachers to develop lessons or suites of lessons that are 1) focused on grade level Performance Expectations, and 2) leverage ELA and Mathematics Washington State Learning Standards.

In partnership with the Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and the legislature-funded ClimeTime program, the Gonzaga Climate Center has created the Climate Literacy Fellows program. This lesson was developed in collaboration with the Gonzaga Science in Action! program.  The Science in Action! Program helped test the kits included in these lessons and helped guide Gonzaga undergraduates in developing the accompanying lessons. We thank Gonzaga SIA! for their collaboration and support!  

In partnership with the Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and the legislature-funded ClimeTime program, the Gonzaga Climate Center has created the Climate Literacy Fellows program. This lesson was developed in collaboration with the Gonzaga Science in Action! program.  The Science in Action! Program helped test the kits included in these lessons and helped guide Gonzaga undergraduates in developing the accompanying lessons. We thank Gonzaga SIA! for their collaboration and support!

Elementary Science and Integrated Subjects is a statewide Clime Time collaboration among ESD 123, ESD 105, and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Development of the resources is in response to a need for research- based science lessons for elementary teachers that are integrated with English language arts, mathematics and other subjects such as social studies. The template for Elementary Integration can serve as an organized, coherent and research-based roadmap for teachers in the development of their own NGSS aligned science lessons.  Lessons can also be useful for classrooms that have no adopted curriculum as well as to serve as enhancements for  current science curriculum. The EFSIS project brings together grade level teams of teachers to develop lessons or suites of lessons that are 1) focused on grade level Performance Expectations, and 2) leverage ELA and Mathematics Washington State Learning Standards.

In partnership with the Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and the legislature-funded ClimeTime program, the Gonzaga Climate Center has created the Climate Literacy Fellows program. Through this program, the Climate Center hires and trains exceptional Gonzaga undergraduates to deliver high-impact climate literacy activities in elementary school classrooms (grades K-8).This lesson aims to teach students the difference between food webs and food chains, as well as how toxins in our environment affect large predators through bioaccumulation.  Authors: Zoe Driml Gonzaga University Class of 2023

Elementary Science and Integrated Subjects is a statewide Clime Time collaboration among ESD 123, ESD 105, and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Development of the resources is in response to a need for research- based science lessons for elementary teachers that are integrated with English language arts, mathematics and other subjects such as social studies. The template for Elementary integration can serve as an organized, coherent and research-based roadmap for teachers in the development of their own NGSS aligned science lessons.  Lessons can also be useful for classrooms that have no adopted curriculum as well as to serve as enhancements for  current science curriculum. The EFSIS project brings together grade level teams of teachers to develop lessons or suites of lessons that are 1) focused on grade level Performance Expectations, and 2) leverage ELA and Mathematics Washington State Learning Standards.

In conjunction with a synchronous presentation, this course supports middle school educators in developing lessons for incorporating green chemistry and sustainable design into their classroom teaching.  The course explores a variety of topics and resources, providing many links to freely available curriculum and resources. 

This is a two day presentation that kicked off the beginning of the Growing Elementary Science Project in October of 2019. This was a teacher professional learning session with the goal of increasing teacher content and pedagogical content knowledge through engagement in a learning cycle to answer the question "Where does a seed get the material it needs to become a plant and produce more seeds?" Teachers also experienced a structured planning session to support them in developing a garden centric science unit to do with their students. The resource includes the template and a completed model to explore. 

This is a two day presentation given to elementary teachers in the Growing Elementary Science Project in October 2019. The presentation contains a science immersion experience for the teachers learning about how a seed gets the materials it needs to become a plant and make more seeds. The learning highlights the use of phenomena within the context of a learning arc over the course of the two days to develop elementary teacher content knowledge related to living systems. Teachers were also supported in planning a science unit using the schoolyard garden context as an anchor for investigations. 

This task by ClimeTime educators, is designed for high school students studying the impacts of human activities on the carbon cycle and/or global warming. Given two people with different human activities, students compare and contrast the behaviors that impact climate change.
This resource includes a student task document, teacher guide, and task facilitation slides.

In this assessment task from ClimeTime educators, students explore data relevant to the claim “A change in air quality can affect rates of asthma-related hospitalizations.” using the Department of Health’s Washington Tracking Network (WTN). Students develop an argument based on the evidence they gather that supports or refutes the claim.
Resource includes a student task document, teacher guide, and task facilitation slides.

The High School Integrated Conceptual Science Program (ICSP) is a NGSS-aligned curriculum that utilizes the conceptual progressions model for bundling of the NGSS, High School Conceptual Model Course 1 and strategies from Ambitious Science Teaching (AST) to focus on teaching practices needed to engage students in science discourse and learning. Course 1 is the High School Integrated Physics and Chemsitry Course.   The goal of these units is to encourage students to continue in STEM by providing engaging and aligned curriculum. The focus of this year long course is on the first year of high school (freshman).  While the course is designed to be taught as a collection of the units, each unit could be taught as a separate unit in a science course.  A video about the new course shared its unique approach to learning and teaching. Wenatchee School District, one of the participating districts, wanted a way to share the program with the community. https://youtu.be/9AGk19YUi2oCourse 1 of the ICSP development was funded by Northwest Earth and Space Sciences Pipeline (NESSP) which is funded through the NASA Science Mission Directorate and housed with Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium at the University of Washington.

In their continued support of climate science education, the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) created these sample bundles of Washington State Learning Standards from multiple content areas that teachers could use to center their classroom instruction around climate change and climate science. 

The development of systems and network concepts for students can begin with this highly interactive inquiry into cell phone networks. Cell phones serve as a handy knowledge base on which to develop understanding. Each cell phone represents a node, and each phone’s address book represents an edge, or the calling relationships between cell phones. Students conceptualize the entire cell phone network by drawing a graphic that depicts each cell phone in the class as a circle (node) connected by directional lines (edges) to their classmate’s cell phones in their address book. Students are queried on the shortest pathway for calling and calling pathways when selected phones are knocked out using school and classroom scenarios.

Students then use a simulation followed by Cytoscape, visually graphing software, to model and interrogate the structure and properties of the class’s cell phone network. They investigate more advanced calling relationships and perturb the network (knock out cell towers) to reexamine the adjusted network’s properties. Advanced questions about roaming, cell towers and email focus on a deeper understanding of network behavior. Both the paper and software network exercises highlight numerous properties of networks and the activities of scientists with biological networks.

Target Audience:
This is an introductory module that we recommend teaching before each of our other modules to give students a background in systems. This module can be applied easily to any content area and works best as written for students between 6th and 12th grades but can be adapted for other ages. The lessons work best when in-person with students. If you are looking for an Introduction to Systems for remote learning, please use our Systems are Everywhere module.

During this course, participants will learn how to center investigations of local scientific phenomena in a Next Generation Science Standards storyline. Course educators will offer instructional strategies and climate and community data to help teachers connect to the interests and identities of students and support understanding of the impacts of climate change. In collaboration with fellow teachers, participants will imagine possibilities for this kind of teaching and learning in their own classrooms through brainstorming possible phenomenon-based storylines local to their own students.

Overview: In partnership with the Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and the legislature-funded ClimeTime program, the Gonzaga Climate Center has created the Climate Literacy Fellows program. Students will learn about where different types of food comes from, why nutrition is important, and how to grow their own food. Students will also learn the basic conditions required for plants to grow, and the importance of human action in maintaining the availability of these conditions.  Authors: Jordan Kremer Gonzaga University, Class of 2025

This OSPI resource provides curated collections of free activities, lessons, units, and informational "texts" (articles, passages, e-books, videos, podcasts) to support every NGSS Performance Expectation (standard) in grades K-5.  This resource is intended to support teachers with teaching science while also integrating science and ELA to grow student knowledge, thinking, application, and skills in both content areas.  Materials are organized into units based on the topics and essential questions in each grade. Resources listed are all freely available online, with some requiring teachers to create free accounts to access.  Some trade books are also listed that might be accessed through a library system. Gratitude is expressed to the Washington State Science Fellows, Science Fellows Emeriti, and ELA Fellows who contributed to curating the informational texts.  For questions or comments contact OSPI Elementary Science at Kimberley.Astle@k12.wa.us.