FOSS Middle School Updates

Planetary Science Revision Complete

The FOSS Planetary Science Course has been revised! After years of use in the classroom, the middle school curriculum team used feedback from teachers, recent research on students’ conceptual development, and new findings in astronomy to enhance and improve the course. The revised course starts locally by asking, “Where am I?” using new Google™ Earth tools. Planetary Science then looks at the Earth/Sun relationship by investigating daylight and seasons, moves to the Earth/Moon/Sun relationship to understand Moon phases and more, then journeys into the rest of the Solar System and beyond. The course culminates with the current search for exoplanets and investigates the ongoing Kepler mission. New activities, investigations, and multimedia were developed. Student notebook entries are embedded in each investigation part. A preview workshop will be offered at the NSTA National Conference. See page 19 for details.

FOSS Middle School Science Notebook Folio

The middle school Science Notebook Folio is here! The FOSS Middle School team spent months reviewing the research about how to best support student learning through notebook use. Working closely with the elementary notebook team, they developed a guide that supports FOSS users in understanding how best to implement notebooks with the FOSS program. Download the folio for free at www.FOSSweb.com. Go to the middle school index page and click on a course. Click on For Teachers and Parents: Teacher Resources, and then on the Science Notebook icon. The notebook will be the focus of two workshops at the NSTA National Conference in Philadelphia. See the calendar on page 19 for details.