Yavapai News

The Prescott Unified School District Governing board voted to adopt a new curriculum for the district's science classes during the governing body's meeting on May 2.

PUSD officials received a presentation by Kelsey Secor, director of instructional support, on the science curriculum they plan to implement for K-12 students this fall.

Secor explained that part of the reason for the new science program was that it hadn't been changed in the district since 2006, despite changes in funding in the intervening years. As part of the new plan, science courses will rely less on textbook reading and planned outcome experiments, allowing for greater inquiry and independent experimentation from students, science instructor Diane Ryan added.

“So, when I went to school, you did a lot of memorization and regurgitation of facts that you memorized," Ryan said. "We're trying to change that. We're trying to get kids to actually think and to come up with questions that they want answered about something and to basically participate in their learning.”

The instructors further explained the phenomena feature, another key aspect of the curriculum, which is something that occurs in nature that causes scientists to examine how or why it happens. Classroom examples ranged from rainbows to solar energy, fog machines to explosions, the lunar cycle to spider webs.

“So, as mentioned in the previous slides, our new science standards focus on three-dimensional learning approach rather than just memorization. So, we want to get the kids actively engaged with the learning using phenomena. To start our units, we are able to engage students in science and engineering practices,” Prescott High biology teacher Suzette Jaggers said.

The science team was confident in the alignment of the materials to state standards and the district's ability to encourage students to dig deeper and take control of their own learning experience, Secor said. They are in the process of creating vertical alignments between schools to create a unified experience all the way through the district. Secor also noted that “Prescott Unified is in the top 14% of test scores for science in the state. That is something to celebrate," she said. "That's a huge victory. And to look at this group of science teachers and to know that they did that [while] creating materials on their own is incredibly impressive.”

The proposed curricula are: K-5th Grade: McGraw Hill Inspire Science; Grades 6-8, Savvas Elevate Science; Biology: Savvas Miller and Levine Biology; Chemistry: Savvas Experience Chemistry; Physics: Savvas Experience Physics; Marine Science: Savvas The Dynamic Ocean Anatomy; Pearson (Savvas) Human Anatomy and Physiology; Engineering: Pearson (Savvas) Introduction to Engineering.

The McGraw Hill and Savvas materials will be on display until June 23.