Science STEM Achievement in Baltimore Elementary Schools (SABES) is an NSF-funded collaboration between Baltimore City Public Schools and Johns Hopkins University to improve educational outcomes in STEM disciplines throughout Baltimore City's elementary schools with a target focus on community engagement in three neighborhoods.
Morrell Park EMS instructs scholars using the SABES Curriculum. Scholars in Grades K - 5 benefit from this wonderful Science curriculum, which covers the Next Generation Science Standards. The following units are covered over the specific grade levels: Kindergarten
Unit 1: Weather and Climate
Unit 2: Ramps and Pathways
Unit 3: Plants and Animals
1st Grade
Unit 1: Sunrise, Sunset
Unit 2: Can You See the Light?
Unit 3: Wonders of Life
Unit 4: Call of the Wild
2nd Grade
Unit 1: What Do Plants Need
Unit 2: The Changing Earth
Unit 3: What Do Plants Need?
Unit 4: Hermitropolis
3rd Grade
Unit 1: Insect Encounter
Unit 2: Magnetism
Unit 3: What Makes Me, ME?
Unit 4: Survival of the Fittest
Unit 5: Sheep in a Jeep
Unit 6: Weather Watchers
4th Grade
Unit 1: It’s Electric!
Unit 2: Music to My Ears
Unit 3: Roller Coaster
Unit 4: Extreme Earth
Unit 5: Where in the World?
Unit 6: Hot! Hot! Hot!
5th Grade
Unit 1: Patterns in the Sky
Unit 2: Remarkable Reactions
Unit 3: The Water Cycle
Unit 4: Conserving the Earth’s Resources
Unit 5: Save the Bay!
Unit 6: Amazing Adaptations
IQWST® (Investigating and Questioning our World through Science and Technology), which transforms adolescents into scientists, was developed over a decade by science education, literacy, and learning science specialists from the University of Michigan, Northwestern University, Michigan State University, and the Weizmann Institute of Science, supported by funding from the National Science Foundation. Students investigate questions relevant to their lives by conducting investigations; collecting and analyzing data; developing and using models to explain phenomena, and engaging in argument from evidence, all in a literacy and discourse-rich environment.
Lessons are organized into thematic units such as Can I Believe My Eyes? (Physical Science) and What's Going on Inside Me? (Life Science), that support students as they build understanding of core ideas in science as well as understanding and use of scientific practices. Students also pursue their own original questions in units that integrate the fundamentals of Physical Sciences, Life Science, and Earth & Space Science.
As research indicates, and the Framework for K-12 Science Education and NGSS describe, students learn best when they use coherent materials that support them in building understanding over time. Examples include:
Sixth-graders learn about species interactions in ecosystems by investigating data from real-world examples of invasive species.
Seventh-graders explore properties, chemical reactions, and the conservation of mass by making their own soap materials they have investigated across multiple lessons.
Eighth-graders race, jump, and crawl in the classroom to measure properties of motion and create graphs based on physics equations.
Eighth-graders use a computer program to investigate a drop in the Galapagos Islands’ finch population.
The following units are covered over the specific grade levels: 6th Grade Unit 1: Can I Believe My Eyes? Unit 2: How Can I Smell Things From a Distance? Unit 3: Where Have All the Creatures Gone? Unit 4: How Does Water Shape our World? 7th Grade Unit 1: How Can I Make New Stuff from Old Stuff? Unit 2: Why Do Some Things Stop While Others Keep Going? Unit 3: What Makes the Weather Change? Unit 4: What is Going on Inside of Me? 8th Grade Unit 1: How is the Earth Changing? Unit 2: Why Do Organisms Look the Way They Do? Unit 3: How Will it Move? Unit 4: How Does Food Provide My Body with Energy