High School - Gateway 3

The materials reviewed for High School do not include strategies for informing all stakeholders, including students, parents, or caregivers about the program and suggestions for how they can help support student progress and achievement.

There are limited instances of how students are informed about the science they are learning. An example,

• In Unit 1, Chapter 1, Lesson 1: How can bacteria make us so sick?, students are introduced to the program in the course launch and discuss the question, “What will our science class be like this year?”. Afterwards the teacher is instructed to “Let students know that in this course, we will frequently share our ideas with one another and draw on our experiences, both in and outside class, to help us figure things out together.” Students discuss the headlines that demonstrate the societal connections to science. Teacher guidance includes, “After students share their ideas about the four headlines, tell students that throughout this year they will investigate issues similar to those you have just highlighted.” 

There are a few instances where students are encouraged to share artifacts created/discuss what they are learning with family at home and there is one instance where students are encouraged to share something they learned/created in class with their families. However, there are no instances of communication with families that speak another language.

• In Unit 1, Chapter 2, Lesson 7: How do we know when we’re sick?, students identify the symptoms that indicate sickness in relation to figuring out how Zach got so sick. They are asked to consider their own experience with indicators of sickness, “How did you know you were sick and what happened?”. Suggested answer prompts include students sharing their own symptoms and interactions with parents/caregivers.

• In Unit 1, Chapter 3, Lesson 16: How can we work together with medical professionals to be better stewards of antibiotics?, students develop an appointment checklist of activities/behaviors informed patients should remember to do. In the Teacher Edition for this lesson, teachers are instructed to “Display Slide Z. Have students silently reflect on how they might share this useful tool with their family or other people in their lives.”

Materials designated for the course are feasible and flexible for one school year. 

The materials provide pacing information throughout the Teacher Edition and in the Course Pacing Document including at the Unit and Lesson levels. 

• In Unit 1, Chapter 1, Lesson 1: How can bacteria make us so sick?, the Teacher Edition indicates that the lesson should take four 50-minute class periods. In the Lesson Snapshot, located in the Lesson 1 Teacher Edition, each section of learning is titled and given an estimated time. For example, the Creating Initial Models part of the lesson is indicated to take 20 minutes. Also within the Lesson Snapshot, suggested class period breaks are given. For example, after students discuss personal experiences about when they were sick (10 min), watch a video with Zach’s story, a teen who experienced a life threatening illness, and record noticings and wonderings on a timeline student sheet 1.1B (40 min), a class period break is suggested.

The scope and sequence provides a breakdown of the Topics and NGSS Performance, Expectations, DCIs, and focal SEPs and CCCs for each unit. A feasible number of each dimension students are expected to use in each unit as relevant to the phenomenon or societal issues is listed. Certain SEPs and CCCs are listed as focal despite others being present sporadically in each unit at the lesson-level. 

• In Unit 1: How can bacterial infections make us so sick?, the focal SEPs are SEP 2: Developing and Using Models, SEP 4: Analyzing and Interpreting Data, SEP 7: Engaging in Argument from Evidence, and SEP 8: Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating information. These practices are used frequently throughout the unit. However, In Unit 4 Chapter 10, Lesson 3: How might the removal of a top predator affect other populations?, students use SEP 5: Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking, to consider the mathematical expression for population growth of bacteria from Unit 1, and coyotes (from Unit 4), and then compare the graph representations with text describing possible explanations for changes in carrying capacity.

The course pacing guide shows a breakdown of each chapter. It includes the minimum days to teach, in this case 160, which is reasonable for a school-year. For example, Unit 4 is listed to take 37 days/7–8 weeks. This is further broken into chapters, Chapter 10 takes 12 days, Chapter 11 takes 12 days, Chapter 12 takes 13 days. At the lesson level, pacing is provided in the Lesson Snapshot which includes estimated times for each activity as well as suggestions for where to break the lesson into multiple days. Further, teachers are provided with guidance for which activities may be assigned for home learning if there is not enough time in class. 

• In Unit 1, Chapter 1, Lesson 2: What are bacteria and where are they?, teachers are provided with alternate activities for bacterial investigation in case time or supplies are limited. Teachers are instructed which sections can be skipped “If completing the alternative activity, students skip the steps of the Gather Evidence routine marked with a specific image.”

• In Unit 1, Chapter 2, Lesson 9: How can the body control its response?, students reflect on how their ideas about the immune system have changed. “Have them respond to the questions on the slide in their science notebooks. Alternatively, this can be done as home learning using Student Sheet 1.9.F: How Has Your Thinking Changed?” 

• In Unit 3, Chapter 7, Lesson 4: If food is so useful for building our bodies, why do some atoms from food leave our bodies?, teachers are provided with a note for how to reduce the time spent on modeling the inputs and outputs of cellular respiration using legos as manipulatives. “To save class time, link 6 black, 12 white, and 6 red LEGO bricks together to represent a glucose molecule and 6 sets of 2 red LEGO bricks together to represent 6 molecules of oxygen, for each pair of students.”

• In Unit 3, Chapter 8, Lesson 8: How do producers get all the matter and energy they need?, teachers are provided with a note for how to modify the materials to reduce the time spent if the formative assessment reveals that students do not need practice building molecules “If you feel that students do not need to practice building representations of molecules and/or to save class time, place 8 pre-assembled carbon dioxide molecules, 8 pre-assembled water molecules and 8 pre-assembled oxygen molecules in each bag.“

The materials reviewed for High School include assessments that offer limited accommodations that allow students to demonstrate their knowledge and skills without changing the content of the assessment. 

There are few instances where information is present about specific accommodations for groups of students. Instead, the program includes support for all students, and in some instances specific support for multilingual learners and below-level readers. The various supports are explicitly and intentionally modeled early in the program and used in a less directed way as students move through the units. In summative assessment situations, students are reminded to use these supports and routines explicitly in the assessment. Additionally, there are directions in the scoring guides for chapter assessments which may serve to prompt teachers to be aware of places where students may experience difficulty.   

In the teacher materials, routines are used throughout the program in instruction. They are highlighted in assessment minimally, often with just a reminder to teachers. For example, the teacher materials for the Chapter 1 assessment state, “Remind students of the I2 strategy and Science Close Read Protocol. Tell students that they may use the strategies and protocols they have learned during the chapter. The items will point out particular places where these strategies and protocols will be helpful.” Sample responses are in use with and without these strategies.

• In Unit 1, Chapter 1, Lesson 3: What do bacteria need to live and grow?, the I2 (Identify and Interpret) strategy is called out, both at the beginning of the lesson and at the appropriate time in the lesson. Students analyze growth model graphs and distinguish between a factor and a trend as they interpret the meaning of the data.

  • In Unit 1, Chapter 1: How can bacteria cause infections?, the chapter assessment prompts students to use this strategy during the assessment, “Redraw a larger copy of the graph you selected and annotate it (you may choose to use the I2 strategy if it helps) to communicate what is happening to the cells over time. Be sure to indicate what is happening at least two different times. • Reminder: the I2 strategy involves writing ‘what I see/what it means’ statements.”

• In Unit 1, Chapter 1, Lesson 4: Why do some bacteria cause us problems?, the Science Close Read Protocol is modeled entirely. Each portion of the before, during, and after reading process is modeled and done as a class. As students move through the program this is done in a less directed way.

  • In Unit 2, Chapter 4: What is cholesterol and what could cause it to be high?, the chapter assessment prompts students to use this strategy during assessment, “Read the paragraphs below. Use the Science Close Read Protocol if it helps you.”

In the scoring guides for the chapter summative assessments, specific look fors are provided for correct student responses. Additionally, there are examples of responses that may indicate that a student is having difficulty and may require some support from the teacher. 

• In Unit 1, Chapter 1: How can bacteria cause infections?, the scoring guide for Item 2 in the chapter assessment states, "Students may have difficulty with the amount of text in this item and may require extra support. An alternative to 2b is to ask students to highlight the relevant information in the passage instead of writing it out" and "Students may not be familiar with the spleen and may not know what organ system it is a part of or what function it serves."

The materials reviewed for High School include varied approaches to learning tasks over time and variety in how students are expected to demonstrate their learning with opportunities for students to monitor their learning. 

The instructional design allows students to follow a pattern across a unit. Each unit consists of three chapters with 5-6 lessons each. The first chapter follows the lesson pattern of Anchor, Investigate (3 lessons), and Synthesize. The second chapter follows the lesson pattern of Gap Analysis, Investigate (3 lessons), and Synthesize. The third chapter follows the lesson pattern of Gap Analysis, Investigate (3 lessons), Synthesize, and Culminating Task. Within this structure, the materials provide varied approaches to learning tasks over time and variety in how students are expected to demonstrate their learning with opportunities for students to monitor their learning. In each unit students have opportunities to ask questions, create models, discuss ideas with peers, revisit past models when new ideas or evidence is gathered, conduct investigations, use argument tools to support claims, read multiple texts such as articles, infographics, data sets etc., gather information, and generate scientific explanations while using model trackers to keep track of the big ideas and crosscutting concepts used to explain phenomena and problems.

Examples of multi-modal opportunities for students with a variety of formats and methods:

• In Unit 2, Chapter 4, Lesson 1: Why do some people get heart disease and not others, and what can we do to prevent it?, students generate models both individually and as a class to explain phenomena and reflect on questions they still need to answer. Students develop an initial model to explain why some people get heart disease and not others and explore ways to prevent it. Students then compare their initial models in pairs, before deciding on a class consensus model to describe their understanding of the connections between symptoms, risk, and outcome. Students identify gaps that their class consensus model cannot explain and use this, plus other wonderings they have collected throughout the lesson, to generate questions they have that need to be answered before they can explain the unit phenomenon.

• In Unit 2, Chapter 6, Lesson 11: How can people with similar genes have very different health outcomes?, students conduct collaborative investigations and read multiple types of text to gather evidence. Students read and annotate an article about twins and how they can be useful for figuring things out in science. Students discuss and create a twin timeline from the reading. Next they look at a broader data set beyond the identical twins from the patient case studies and heart disease. Finally, the class returns to the timeline to update it and attempt to map out where different risk factors begin to affect a patient’s outcome. This supports students in figuring out why some people are at higher risk for heart disease. 

• In Unit 4, Chapter 10, Lesson 1: Why are so many species declining now while a few seem to be expanding, and why does it matter?, students develop a Driving Question Board (DQB) based on their own wonderings. Students explore the phenomenon that human and coyote populations are increasing while other species are experiencing population decline. They attempt to model their initial ideas as to how or why this is happening and look at mass extinction data. Then students create a DQB for the unit based on their noticings and wonderings from the preceding activities and gaps in their understanding that they were not able to explain in their initial models. Students generate questions as a class in a running notice/wonder chart by comparing initial models to the notice/wonder chart. From this, students identify that there is even more they have questions about, and then record individual questions on sticky notes. Students then share their individual questions in a Scientists Circle to construct the unit DQB. 

Examples of opportunities for students to share, compare, demonstrate, and apply their thinking:

• In Unit 1, Chapter 2, Lesson 9: How can the body control its response?, students are provided with opportunities to reflect on how their thinking has changed over time. Students are provided with four question prompts to help them reflect on how their ideas about the immune system have changed and how these ideas made it easier or harder to understand the information in the current lesson.

• In Unit 2, Chapter 4, Lesson 1: Why do some people get heart disease and not others, and what can we do to prevent it?, students share ideas with each other directly. Once students have finished reading the coach’s story about a high school track coach who passed away unexpectedly, students discuss “which parts of the story provoked questions for you and what questions might you have for the coach, the doctor and the students about their experiences?”. 

• In Unit 2, Chapter 5, Lesson 6: What explains why some people have a family history of high cholesterol, but no LDLR mutation?, students have opportunities to compare their previous thinking, that a defective LDL receptor which disrupts LDL processing in the cell causes high cholesterol, with new ideas. Students figure out in this lesson that while some people with high cholesterol do have the LDL gene mutation, others do not. The Teacher Edition states, “Purpose: to help plant the seed that there is more than one protein involved in the synthesis of LDL cholesterol, and that multiple genes could be responsible for high LDL cholesterol.” Student Sheet 2.3C states, “Students return to LDL processing and consider other ways it could be disrupted.” 

• In Unit 3, Chapter 8, Lesson 10: Why do some eating patterns require more land than others?, students respond to open-ended questions that focus on the strength of evidence used to support claims. Students use the Argument Tool Critique Student Sheet to evaluate the evidence used to support a claim about “Which solution best solves the problem of reducing food waste?” by explaining why the evidence is or is not linked to the claim, if there is enough evidence, if the source is biased, and any additional limitations of the evidence. 

• Students generate models both individually and as a class to articulate what they learned, keep track of their progress, and show how their thinking has changed over time. 

  • In Unit 2, Chapter 4, Lesson 1: Why do some people get heart disease and not others, and what can we do to prevent it?, students individually generate an initial explanatory model to explain why some people get heart disease and not others The Teacher Edition states “The initial models will be collected and turned back in the Synthesize Lesson for this chapter as a way for students to reflect on how their ideas have changed.” 

  • Unit 2, Chapter 6, Lesson 15: What contributes to heart disease and other complex diseases and how much influence do we have over outcomes?, the Teacher Edition states “Students return to their revised argument from Lesson 10 for “What is cholesterol, and what can cause it to be high?”. After comparing their updated Class Consensus Model to the claim they previously supported, students use the Argument Tool to engage in a critique of their argument, compile new evidence, decide if their question should be broader, consider alternative claims, and decide if and how to revise their argument.” 

Examples of opportunities for students to review, practice, self-reflect, and engage in feedback:

• In Unit 3, Chapter 7, Lesson 5: How does a variety of eating patterns provide all our bodies’ requirements for food?, students revisit the DQB in the Synthesis lesson. The Teacher Edition states “Students review the questions on the DQB, identify some that we might have answered, and consider if we know enough now to explain more about why humans have basic nutritional requirements.” 

• In Unit 3, Chapter 8, Lesson 7: Why do plant-based foods tend to require less land to produce?, students engage in self-assessment using their Model Tracker. The Teacher Edition states, “Students will use the Model Tracker Self-Assessment and Feedback Tool to monitor their own progress in modeling the learning they are doing.”

• In Unit 4, Chapter 10, Lesson 1: Why are so many species declining now while a few seem to be expanding, and why does it matter?, students engage in ongoing review. The Teacher Edition states “Students consider what they have learned in the first three units of this curriculum and consider how this knowledge might help us investigate the phenomena of biodiversity loss. The class adds these ideas to the notice and wonder chart and considers how vocabulary is used in their Then and Now stories.” 

Examples of guidance for multiple strategies of feedback:

The teacher is provided guidance for oral and written feedback, specifically with the Model Tracker Formative Assessment Tool. These exist for each unit and the Teacher Edition contains callouts with specific guidance. 

• In Unit 2, Chapter 6, Lesson 13: How do environmental factors affect risk of heart disease and how do those factors interact with genetics?, the Teacher Edition states,”As students are working together, use the teacher’s question stems for text-based discussions to support and probe student thinking as well as their use of the close-reading protocol. Suggested prompts: What did you notice about the text? Images? Graphics? How are you refocusing your minds when they begin to wander? What did you learn from your partner by reading this together that you couldn’t have learned on your own?”. 

• In Unit 3, Chapter 8: Why do some eating patterns require more land than others?, the Model Tracker Formative Assessment Tool states “After class, review each student’s Model Tracker entries for this chapter using the Model Tracker Formative Assessment Tool available as an online resource. Enter individual feedback into that student’s Model Tracker Self-Assessment and Feedback Tool (attached at the very front page of the notebooks).”

Students are also provided opportunities to share feedback with each other directly. 

• In Unit 4, Chapter 11, Lesson 10: What explains why scientists are concerned we are experiencing a 6th mass extinction?, students use an Argument Tool individually to choose and support a claim about how we can tell if a species population has recovered. In partners, students exchange each other’s arguments and read them. Students evaluate the strength of the argument by evaluating the evidence and considering alternative claims and provide written critiques in response to evaluation prompts. Students respond to feedback by revising their argument or providing a written response as to why the critique is not valid. Teachers are provided guidance to “Look for students to have feedback that again has their partner think about ideas and examples of things they have done in this chapter. If you notice students have not provided examples from the chapter, probe students to think about how what they added as evidence could be supported by specific work they have done in this chapter.” 

Students also evaluate their own progress with the Model Tracker Self-Assessment and Feedback Tool. This occurs in a  majority of lessons across the units in the materials.

• In Unit 3, Chapter 7, Lesson 4: If food is so useful for building our bodies, why do some atoms from food leave our bodies?, students individually add to their model tracker the ideas they figured out about the cellular respiration system transferring energy in the foods we eat. Students use the Model Tracker Self-Assessment and Feedback Tool to evaluate and refine their representations. Students also use this tool to respond to feedback from their teacher for each chapter provided in the Model Tracker Formative Assessment Tool where teachers collect the model trackers from each student in the Synthesize lesson.

Examples of opportunities for students to monitor and move their own learning:

Recurring lesson types, including the Synthesize and Gap Analysis lessons, embedded in the materials provide a clear path for students to monitor their own learning.

• Gap Analysis Lesson: This lesson type occurs twice in each unit after the end of each chapter. In this lesson type, students take stock of what they figured out and what they still need to know to figure out the phenomenon or problem. 

  • In Unit 1, Chapter 2, Lesson 6: What is the body doing when we get an infection?, students develop a model to discuss and explain their different ideas about how the body and its immune system respond to a bacterial infection. They realize that they do not have a common understanding of symptoms and how we know we are sick as they move to the next activity. 

• Synthesize Lesson: This lesson type occurs three times in each unit, at the end of each chapter. These lessons are key moments where students have figured out several key ideas. They focus on consensus building to help make connections between ideas and use this to revise an explanation or model of a phenomenon or problem to propose. They revise solutions for problems. 

  • In Unit 1, Chapter 1, Lesson 5: How can bacteria cause infections?, students develop a model to figure out how all the ideas from the chapter connect with each other to explain how and why bacteria can sometimes make us sick.

Routines also exist within the lesson types. The Navigate Routine exists in all lesson types and is used to track progress and establish the purpose for the next lesson. 

• In Unit 4, Chapter 12, Lesson 12: How do we rely on and benefit from biodiversity?, the Teacher Edition states “Students reflect on the perspectives they read in the previous lesson. Students reflect on a couple of prompts about the perspectives in Lesson 11. They discuss with a partner ideas they have about services and ecosystem functioning. Purpose: to motivate the need to look at evidence for effects of biodiversity loss and impacts it may have on things humans rely on or benefit from.“

The Model Tracker Self-Assessment and Feedback Tool helps students keep track of progress and is used in each unit. Students keep it at the front of their science notebook where they can refer to it throughout the unit. 

• In Unit 3, Chapter 8: Why do some eating patterns require more land than others?, the Teacher Edition states, “provide individual students with feedback and to provide you with information about students’ readiness for the Synthesize Lesson”.

The materials reviewed for High School include opportunities for teachers to use a variety of grouping strategies. 

Across the materials, students interact with one another in groups through various methods which include jigsaw tasks, whole group consensus models, collaborating construction of Driving Question Boards (DQB), turn-and-talk, and the class discussion using the Scientists Circles protocol where students engage as scientists when asked to share ideas. 

Across each unit there is a balance of whole group, small group, partner, and individual instruction when appropriate. For example,

• In Unit 2: Why do some people get heart disease and not others, and what can we do to prevent it?, students engage in as a whole group through consensus modeling, a small group through jigsaw and turn-and-talk, and in individual instruction as they complete graphic organizers to contextualize and begin creating a narrative about a patient’s data. 

The materials also provide a balance of whole group, small group, and individual instruction at the lesson level. For example,

• In Unit 3, Chapter 7, Lesson 2: What is food and what happens to food when we eat?, the Student Edition provides symbols that indicate when students will engage in their task on their own, with the class, with a partner, and with a group. 

The materials prompt teachers about when and how to use a particular grouping strategy by calling out the specific strategy at the point when it is expected to be used to further student learning. For example,

• In Unit 4, Chapter 12, Lesson 15: How are changes to biodiversity affecting ecosystems and why does it matter?, the materials indicate specific guidance for teachers in a section labeled “Preparation”. The “Preparation” section of the materials indicates that teachers should divide students into groups of four or five, print the correct number of materials for all group members, and organize the groups so that there will be equal numbers of groups with each Species Conservation Profile.

Other examples of grouping strategies present in the materials:

• In Unit 1, Chapter 1, Lesson 1: How can bacteria make us so sick?, students use the jigsaw method to obtain information about types of bacterial infections before working as a group to develop generalized models.  Students use jigsaw again in this same lesson to gather information from different perspectives about six additional cases of people from a variety of demographics who got serious antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. Later in the lesson, students engage in a whole group grouping strategy where students develop and update their DQB to reflect their understanding of what makes Zach sick. 

• In Unit 2, Chapter 4, Lesson 2: Why is high cholesterol an indicator of heart disease?, students use whole group consensus models to engage in sensemaking and develop initial ideas as they work together to decide what they do and do not know about different factors that cause patients to have a different risk of heart disease. 

• In Unit 3, Chapter 8, Lesson 10: Why do some eating patterns require more land than others?, students participate in a class discussion about the questions they have figured out so far. This grouping strategy is denoted in the Student Edition with an icon that states “with your class.”  

• In Unit 4, Chapter 11, Lesson 7: When there is an environmental change, what conditions make adaptations?, students use the turn-and-talk grouping strategy to share their ideas with another student about what they think might impact some populations' ability to adapt to environmental change.

The materials reviewed for High School include a balance of images or information about people, representing various demographic and physical characteristics. 

Throughout the units, chapters, lessons, and assessments, the materials include minimal depictions of humans. Those that are included are diverse and are mostly adults, rather than students, such as marathon runners or Indigenous men and women discussing their perspectives. In instances where names are mentioned, they are also diverse in many ways. There are no examples where people are shown in a negative light or misrepresented. Although depictions of people are rare, when present, they represent people across various demographics and physical characteristics.

Examples of images or information about people, representing various demographic and physical characteristics:

• In Unit 2, Chapter 5, Lesson 7: Are there other genes that could affect cholesterol?, a student handout contains a list of fictitious patients with a variety of names including the first names of Maria, Marques, and Amir and last names like Wu, Zahra, Smith, Saleem, and Rodriguez.

• In Unit 2, Chapter 6, Lesson 13: How do environmental factors affect risk of heart disease and how do those factors interact with genetics?, a student handout contains an image of two males with similar characteristics, the only set of twins in the world where one was sent to space.

• In Unit 3, Chapter 7, Lesson 4: If food is so useful for building our bodies, why do some atoms from food leave our bodies?, Slide Q contains an image with four females of different ethnicities, two males of different physical characteristics, and one person in a wheelchair. The slide is used as part of the classroom materials when students engage in a partner discussion about the different activities featured on the slide.

• In Unit 3, Chapter 7: What do we need from food?, the chapter assessment contains images of diverse individuals exercising or getting their hair cut. 

• In Unit 3, Chapter 9, Lesson 16: How can we develop and evaluate our design to improve one aspect of our local food system?, a video of an Indigenous man and woman, self identified in the video as Oglala Lakota Knowledge Keepers, share their perspective around food and food use.

• In Unit 4, Chapter 10, Lesson 1” Why are so many species declining now while a few seem to be expanding, and why does it matter?, Slides C and J contain images of two females, with different physical characteristics, engaged in conversation. The slides are used as part of the classroom materials when students engage in a turn and talk.

The materials reviewed for High School do not include materials designed to encourage teachers to draw upon student home language to facilitate learning. 

While there are callouts called Attending to Equity and Literacy and Multilingual Learner Support, in nearly every lesson to support students, only some of them are intended to support multilingual learners specifically, and further miss the opportunity to incorporate students' home language. Overall, guidance for incorporating students’ home languages is limited and callouts attend to the support of classroom culture as well as the support of students reading, writing, listening, and thinking. In one instance, in Unit 3, Chapter 9, Lesson 16: How can we develop and evaluate our design to improve one aspect of our local food system?, the Attending to Equity callout reminds teachers not to ask students to speak for their nation or culture, but to welcome contributions and connections that are volunteered. Though not strictly language focused, cultural knowledge and perspectives are highlighted. 

The instructional materials reviewed for High School include guidance to encourage teachers to draw upon student cultural and social backgrounds to facilitate learning. 

Through the three phenomena and one problem present in the units, support is present to connect student interests to what they are learning, commonly through the Attending to Equity callouts of the Teacher Edition. There are various images, activities, and topics throughout the program that provide opportunities for connections to student interest, such as athletics, food, animals, etc.

Examples of connections to and leveraging of linguistic and cultural diversity to support learning and facilitation of learning in science:

• In Unit 1, Chapter 1, Lesson 2: What are bacteria and where are they?, the Attending to Equity callout box provides guidance on how to engage culturally diverse students in the learning of science. “For some cultures, it is disrespectful to use spiders and other organisms as specimens. Make it clear that the class will not be catching these types of animals during class.” 

• In Unit 1, Chapter 3, Lesson 16: How can we work together with medical professionals to be better stewards of antibiotics?, student partners turn and talk about youth involvement in healthcare. In the Attending to Equity callout box, teachers are guided to be mindful of the differences in how families approach healthcare due to religious, cultural, or economic reasons as well as that adopted students or those in foster care may not have access to medical history. The call out box emphasizes that teachers should focus on an individual's ability to take action on being an informed patient regardless of their family situation. 

• In Unit 2, Chapter 4, Lesson 1: Why do some people get heart disease and not others, and what can we do to prevent it?, the Attending to Equity callout box guides teachers to be mindful that students may have different interpretations of the word diet and also to recognize that eating patterns differ from person-to-person, regionally, and culturally.

• Unit 2, Chapter 4, Lesson 1: Why do some people get heart disease and not others, and what can we do to prevent it?, the Attending to Equity callout box gives teacher guidance regarding the differing levels of knowledge students may have about their family health histories and their possible reluctance to share. Additionally, teachers are told that students may have negative experiences with healthcare, or that their families may choose to treat illnesses differently than western treatments and that “All of these individual experiences will be important to consider and respect as students learn about and explore topics in this unit.”.

• In Unit 2, Chapter 6, Lesson 16: How can we engineer our shared environment to reduce health risks?, the Teacher Edition provides support to leverage the diverse cultural and social background of students. In the What students figure out section, it states “When we design plans that impact communities, these plans can have intended and unintended consequences.”. Later in the lesson students read about “blue zones” and discussion prompts are provided including, ”In what ways do we think our own community (at home, at school, or in our city) makes it more or less challenging to follow the recommendations from “blue zones?””, and “Which environmental recommendations seem most useful to try in our own communities (in our homes, at our school, or in our city)?”.

• Unit 3, Chapter 8, Lesson 6: Where do foods come from and does that affect how many resources they require to produce?, students watch a video on Indigenous perspectives when considering food systems. Students connect and discuss the Indigenous perspective video and consider how it expands the class’s ideas about food and the organisms that provide it. Students discuss three questions related to how this perspective connects to what they already figured out about food, how it expands their ideas about food and the organisms that provide them, and how this helps us in decision-making.

• In Unit 3, Chapter 8, Lesson 9: What affects how we can use land to produce food?, students watch a video showing one perspective from a Lakota elder and knowledge keeper about bringing back bison. Groups explore how some food production methods may regenerate soil fertility, utilize less productive lands to produce protein, or restore productivity to areas. They sort the scenarios based on categories they designated regarding land use. The Attending to Equity callout box guides teachers to support the unit culture and perspectives each Indigenous student brings into the classroom, that they may want to reemphasize to students that ”indigenous is a broad term comprising over 574 federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and more than 200 unrecognized; each one uniquely connected to their own land nations with their own language, culture and way of life”. Finally, teachers are guided to be mindful of not asking (or allowing peers to ask), Indigenous students to speak “for” their nation but to welcome any volunteered contributions or connections students may make to the speaker in the video. 

• In Unit 4, Chapter 12, Lesson 11: How might the loss of biodiversity affect our lives?, in groups, students are assigned to read one of five narratives that provide different perspectives on the importance of maintaining biodiversity including medical experts, agriculture, Indigenous peoples, and conservationists. The Attending to Equity callout box guides teachers to be mindful of which groups are assigned each perspective in order to avoid any students feeling singled out or stereotyped for any aspect of their personal identity. Additionally, teachers are encouraged to ensure that the assignments appear to be totally random. Teachers are reminded that while the perspectives provide insight into how different people might feel and understand the concepts of biodiversity, they are not intended as a summary of how all people who identify with characteristics of the perspective holders feel or understand these concepts. 

• In Unit 4, Chapter 12, Lesson 13: How can perspectives affect our interactions as part of ecosystems?, students prepare to take on a perspective they read about in a previous lesson and argue from this perspective in a conservation debate in the next class by responding to reflection prompts in Student Sheet 4.13.C Taking on Perspectives. For students taking on the perspective from Student Sheet 4.11.C There Is So Much to Be Learned, as part of their reflection they will also watch the video What does it mean that we are all related?. The Attending to Equity callout box guides teachers to remind students that while this individual is Indigenous, they are speaking as an individual and do not necessarily speak on behalf of all Indigenous peoples or the nations they are part of.

The instructional materials reviewed for High School include some supports for different reading levels to ensure accessibility for students. 

The Teacher Handbook provides explanations of strategies to engage students in reading scientific texts including the Science Close Read Protocol, Science Reading Annotation Stems, and the I2 (Identify, Interpret) Strategy. The Science Close Read Protocol has three phases: before, during, and after reading, and is used whenever a text has significant challenges and is used as a key resource in an investigation. The Science Reading Annotation Stems provide sentence stems for different categories used in reading text such as setting a purpose and summarizing. The I2 Strategy also has three phases: what I see, what it means, and caption, and is used to help students make sense of graphs and other visual displays of information. Students also have opportunities to use a Word Wall, where students add "words they have earned' after experiencing and developing them.

When appropriate, students are provided with these supports as they encounter reading opportunities in the materials. In addition to these supports, there is also a mix of videos and images on student sheets to support students with accessing the material. However, there are limited supports for multiple entry points that present a variety of representations to help struggling readers access and engage in grade-band science and the materials do not provide the reading levels for informational text components.

Examples of strategies to engage students in reading and accessing grade-band science:

• In Unit 1, Chapter 1, Lesson 3: What do bacteria need to live and grow?, students use the I2 Strategy to analyze growth model graphs and infer changes that occur in a population that has constraints.

• In Unit 2, Chapter 5, Lesson 6: What explains why some people have a family history of high cholesterol, but no LDLR mutation?, students use the Science Reading Annotation Stems to analyze a chart of other patient cases to identify patterns about their cholesterol levels (phenotype) in relation to having the LDLR mutation (genotype).

• In Unit 4, Chapter 12, Lesson 14 How can human activity promote ecosystem health and resilience?, students use the Science Close Read protocol to read case studies and consider the perspectives of the different stakeholders involved.

The instructional materials reviewed for High School integrate limited interactive tools and dynamic software across the series, when applicable. 

The majority of the program is designed for in-person engagement, leveraging digital engagement only as necessary. Examples of digital tools for the teacher include a test generator for creation and distribution of an antibiotic use survey in Chapter 3, and an innate learning management system where teachers can use the digital versions of the student sheets provided to create assignments that students can submit digitally rather than on paper. The materials do not provide tools that are innate to the program for students; however, the materials suggest using tools from other providers such as Google Sheets, Forms, or Jamboards to facilitate student collaboration and sensemaking when using DCIs, SEPs, and/or CCCs. There are also some digital interactives or simulations referenced or utilized that leverage other technologies external to the materials. When digital tools are used, most of the guidance for teachers is centered around the facilitation of the tools for students to use in context with the lesson. 

Examples of digital technology and interactive tools:

• In Unit 1, Chapter 1, Lesson 2: What are bacteria and where are they?, students use a digital interactive about cell size and scale interactive (created by Learn.Genetics.utah.edu)as one of multiple representations of viruses and bacteria and their relative sizes to compare cells. They also use student sheet 1.2C to explore cell sizes. Students integrate information from the interactive with text and diagrams from student sheet 1.2C and use the relationship between size and cells and how that impacts virus and bacteria function and classification within a larger system.

• In Unit 1, Chapter 3, Lesson 11: Why aren’t antibiotics working as well as they used to?, students take the Test Antibiotic Use Survey that is available in the test generator that teachers have digital access to through the publisher website. This is used as a data collection tool to capture every student’s initial ideas about what antibiotics are and how they are supposed to be used. Students return to these data in a later lesson in the unit, after investigating how antibiotic resistance evolves, to inform their design for how to improve the survey to distribute to their peers.

The instructional materials reviewed for High School contain a few instances of inclusion of or reference to digital technology that provides opportunities for teachers and/or students to collaborate with each other, when applicable. 

The materials often suggest or require using tools from other providers such as Google Sheets, Forms, or Jamboards to facilitate digital and in-person student collaboration. The materials are consistently designed for in-person student collaboration. 

Examples of digital technology that provides opportunities for teachers and/or students to collaborate with each other:

• In Unit 1, Chapter 3, Lesson 16: How can we work together with medical professionals to be better stewards of antibiotics?, students review the design of the Antibiotic Use Survey they took in Lesson 11 and collaboratively work to design their own survey to find out more about what their peers, who haven’t had this unit, know about important concepts for being an informed patient. Using Google Forms, or another online survey platform, allows students to collaborate on building the survey and makes data collection and analysis immediate. Students analyze the data from peer responses to their survey identifying specific gaps in knowledge that seem important to address.

• In Unit 2, Chapter 4, Lesson 1: Why do some people get heart disease and not others, and what can we do to prevent it?, students use medical record data to group patients in case studies into different groups according to risk-level. As the unit progresses students move the patients into different groups based on new understandings. Teachers are provided guidance for how to use a digital tool such as a Jamboard or Powerpoint slide, if wall space in the classroom is limited, to allow students access and be able to manipulate the groupings later in the unit. “You might choose to take photos of each representation and create a digital copy using a jamboard or a powerpoint slide. With a digital representation, it will be important to be able to move the individual cases around so students can consider different groupings throughout the unit.”

The instructional materials reviewed for High School include a visual design that supports students in engaging thoughtfully with the subject, and is neither distracting nor chaotic. The organization of both teacher and student materials are consistently clear and accurate. 

The Student Editions are printed in a separate guide per unit. They contain a table of contents and are broken into chapters, lessons, and reference readings. Each lesson includes student procedures that provide step-by-step instructions that are simple and easy to follow. More guidance is given for individual and group work than whole class work as the Teacher Edition has detailed instructions for how to facilitate the whole group activities. The instructions also follow in sequence with the slides for the unit. The Student Edition includes the icons for different activities and protocols, which provide consistent expectations for students across all units in the course. Graphs and images are printed in the materials when relevant and in color. 

In the Student Edition, guidance is provided for each activity as well as how students should engage with each other (e.g. on your own, turn and talk, with your group, with your class, etc.). Icons are used to represent student engagement methods and colors are used consistently with each icon/text also corresponding to a color. These icons are consistent with the lesson slides, however the colors in the Student Edition are not used in the slides, just the icon and text.  Student sheets relevant to the directions being provided to students are listed and use the same naming convention. There is appropriate use of title case, bold words, and bullets for chunking information and highlighting key ideas. The unit and chapter number, along with the lesson title are listed at the lower right of each page making the materials easy to navigate. Reference readings are included as a support for absent students, they include text and appropriate images related to what students figured out from activities that the student may have missed in class.

The teacher materials follow the same structure across units for chapters, lessons, and assessments. The visual design uses consistent colors, bolded text patterns, tables, and titles/colors for callout boxes. Images and thumbnail references are included as visuals to support teachers in locating ancillary materials and are available as larger pop outs in the digital Teacher Edition. Section headers and tables use consistent formatting that allows teachers to locate information easily while instructing students, such as discussion prompts and student responses to listen for.

The teacher materials and their organization are consistently clear and accurate. Each unit provides Front Matter in the Teacher Edition to support teachers in understanding multiple aspects of the unit and its design. The Unit Overview provides an introduction to the phenomenon and societal issue and includes educative components and important information for enactment and/or adjustment, and alignment to the NGSS. The Front Matter also includes an outline of the unit storyline called the unit skeleton for which NGSS Performance Expectations students will be building towards. This includes short lesson descriptions and icons that designate which of the five lesson types each lesson is. The Unit Storyline follows the skeleton which describes in more detail the lesson question, big idea, key activities, and a list of what students figure out and how they represent it for each lesson. This Unit Storyline also includes the number of days required for each lesson. Additionally, the Front Matter includes Teacher Background that includes an adult-level explanation of the phenomenon and societal issue and the prerequisites from the 6-8 grade band at the elemental level that the unit builds upon. Important information for enactment and/or adjustment of the lesson is also provided along with an Assessment System Overview and a Unit Materials table showing if the material is consumable, which lesson it is used in, and the quantity needed per class of 32 students. Units also include alignment tables related to the elements of NGSS Dimensions for each lesson with accompanying rationale for how they are included in the lesson, Lab Materials lists as necessary, and Video Links as necessary. A Teacher Handbook is available separately, and includes protocol information relevant to student work and expectations and routines used throughout the program (e.g., Communicating in Scientific Ways and Navigation Routine). Following the Front Matter, each chapter has a chapter overview, which includes a chapter-level learning goal, what students figure out, alignment to NGSS at the chapter level, and a words we earn table that includes which lesson the word is earned in. Following the chapter overview, each lesson follows that same format: lesson overview, lesson snapshot, detailed narrative with easy to find sections that are bolded, icons that indicate the routine being used, thumbnails of slides that relate to the narrative, embedded sample representations for model trackers, color coded callout boxes for the NGSS dimensions, and callout boxes for Attending to Equity, Common Students Ideas, Literacy and Multilingual Learners, and Formative Assessments. Each lesson ends with a section for references, which are hyperlinked in the digital version of the teacher edition.

The instructional materials reviewed for High School provide some teacher guidance for the use of embedded technology to support and enhance student learning, when applicable. 

The guidance present is mostly around using the simulations or computer interactives and how to facilitate the related activities. Suggestions for time spent on a simulation are offered in the Lesson Snapshot as well as how to assist students with the outcomes (making observations, asking questions, collecting data, discussions, etc.) in the Teacher Edition narrative. Suggestions for how students should view the technology (main screen vs. individual) are also present.

Examples of guidance for using embedded technology to support and enhance student learning:

• In Unit 1, Chapter 1, Lesson 2: What are bacteria and where are they?, guidance is provided for the teacher for how to use the cell size simulation to support and enhance student learning, when applicable. ”Project the Cell Size and Scale interactive (created by Learn.Genetics.utah.edu) and explain that you will be leading them through it several times. Students should create a Notice and Wonder T-chart in their science notebooks to make notes. The first time, students should simply watch and pay attention to what is happening. When you get to the smallest object, a carbon atom, give students time to record two to three things in their Notice and Wonder T-chart. Slowly move from the coffee bean to the view of the amoeba and the grain of salt. Point out that one square of that 1-mm section they started with represents 100 micrometers. They can see a pattern emerge as you move down to the 10-micrometer view to see a skin cell then the 1 micrometer view and rest on the E. coli bacterium. Finally, linger a bit on the 100-nm view of the various viruses. Have students return to their Notice and Wonder T-chart to add more information.” There are also discussion prompts and possible student answers to listen for to lead a discussion around the simulation observations. There is also a callout box with common student ideas related to numbers and exponents in the scale bar and suggestions for how to redirect students to focus more on the comparative size than the actual size value. 

• In Unit 1, Chapter 3, Lesson 11: Why aren’t antibiotics working as well as they used to?, there is no guidance for how to use the test generator or how to create the questions in a different digital form. However, there is guidance for how to introduce students to the purpose of the survey and remind students to think about why they chose each of their responses. There is also guidance on how to connect the ideas from the survey results to Zach’s timeline, “Suggest to students that if we look back at Zach’s timeline we see what antibiotics he took and when he took them to help us understand how they affect a bacterial infection. Allow students a few minutes to revisit the timeline and consider the questions on the slide, then bring the class together to facilitate the following discussion.”.  Discussion prompts and possible student answers to listen for are provided.