Florida Prioritizes Science Education Standards in Early Education (K-2)

Science education is important to a prospering student to establish a well-rounded education.  But how do we know that our students are being properly guided in their science coursework?  State standards were established to provide administrators, classroom teachers, students and parents the guidelines to address appropriate benchmarks in each grade.  This concept of mandated state standards is not just for older students.  In fact, grade-level standards and benchmarks start as early as kindergarten!

 

The state of Florida also mandates learning standards, including science, for early elementary students in kindergarten, 1st grade and 2nd grade.  Thus in February of 2008, Florida adopted the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards (NGSSS).  These standards range from engineering and technology (and infused STEM practices) to life science, Earth science and physical science.

 

With the assistance of the state and the Florida Association of Science Supervisors (FASS), educators have been given the necessary materials, activities and support to teach and assess kindergarten, 1st grade and 2nd grade students in these science topics.  Each county in Florida has the ability to create their own pacing guides to be used throughout the school year and the CPALMS (Curriculum Planning and Learning Management System) is used to find these resources for specific science benchmarks.

 

One specific county, Broward County, the 6th largest school district in the US, has several elementary schools that have been accessing Science4Us.com for over 2 years.  The Science4Us program contains 28 instruction modules that address the NGSSS in science for kindergarten, 1st grade and 2nd grade students.  Through the popular 5E model, Broward County Public School teachers and students can learn, play and swim in critical foundational science concepts.  Science4Us provides these supervisors and classroom teachers with all the information they need to not only teach these skills, but also assess the benchmarks.

 

Science4Us makes learning science benchmarks easy for both students and their teachers.  With mandated state testing around the corner, we strive to make sure our kindergarten, 1st grade and 2nd grade students are ready for the future rigorous science curriculum.