The Pathway to Science Interest
5th Grade: Introduction to Inquiry Science Learning
- Students will participate in YES – Youth Explorations in Science. This Out of School Time (OST) program addresses engineering and technology standards in a way that involves both children and their parents. The basic formula consists of a small club setting in which four students and one adult or young adult (such as a high school or college student) engage in a hands-on science experiment or project. The children then take the projects home to complete construction with their parents. The program aligns with Massachusetts State and U.S. National science standards, and reinforces classroom science learning.
6th – 8th Grade: Field-Based Learning
- Through UEI’s 6th-8th grade Field Studies Program in Out of School Time, students can access numerous in-school and out-of-school opportunities to study science in a way that reinforces earlier learning and stimulates interest and engagement. By using the city as a laboratory, the science that students learn and practice in the field is made relevant to their daily lives. The program’s curricular modules will be integrated with BPS’s YES Program and with the in-school elementary life science curriculum. Students will receive Greentimes, the eight-page more senior version of the science newsletter written by high school students. As with Greentimes JR, the newsletter content and the accompanying Teacher’s Guide will be aligned with BPS curriculum.
- Eighth graders will take part in an “Ecoscenario” based in the Boston ecosystem for the Populations and Ecosystems unit of the nationally-implemented FOSS (Full Option Science Survey) science kits used by eighth grade teachers throughout BPS. The existing Ecoscenario unit uses national parks and pristine natural areas as the context for study. At the request of the BPS Science Department, UEI is developing an Ecoscenario more relevant to Boston students, by designing an ecoscenario that presents the city as a functioning biological ecosystem, explicitly connecting the FOSS curriculum to the students’ own neighborhoods.
- Students in the 6th-8th grade pathway will be supported by LEAH Mentors. Mentors are high school students transitioning from studying science to actually teaching others in the study of science. Students are selected via an application process, then they participate in trainings that cover science knowledge, as well as work place skills and other topics related to youth leadership. These mentors are placed in the middle school UEI Boston Community Learning Center sites and provide an important peer-guidance and support for our 5th-8th grade science pathway.
