Curriculum Overview

The goal of science education is to develop scientifically literate citizens who are prepared to live responsibly today and adapt to a future characterized by rapid change. This science curriculum is designed to offer courses which are current, meaningful, challenging, and designed with the students' abilities and learning styles as key components.

The science department curriculum for grades 6-12 is the product of many years of labor by all of the science teachers in the district. The original curriculum design dates back to 1992, with revisions in most of the subsequent years. It is aligned with the latest revisions in the Oklahoma Priority Academic Student Skills (PASS) for science, with some electives drawing upon outcomes from the Oklahoma Science Teachers Association and the College Board. The state PASS focus on both science content and science process skills.

The web version of this curriculum was designed and implemented by Granger Meador, who has served as Science Department Chair from Fall 1994 to Spring 1996, Fall 1999 to Spring 2003, and Fall 2004 to present.

Course Objectives

The objectives for each course include the state content PASS (if any), and any additional local objectives. Resources available to teachers to address each objective are listed, along with suggested teaching strategies and timeframes.

Core Labs

Each course has 16 core labs reserved for it which address the course objectives as well as the state's PASS science process skills. Each lab is briefly summarized in this curriculum, with hard copies of each entire lab kept on file for teacher use. There is a Process Skills Checklist for each course which identifies which PASS process skills are addressed by each core lab.

Quarterly Assessments

In all courses taught by more than one teacher the course objectives are now identified by quarter. Students in those courses take a curriculum assesment at the end of each quarter to assess their achievement of the learning objectives. Students in 8th Grade Earth Science take a state criterion-referenced test in the 4th quarter to assess their mastery of all middle school science Priority Academic Student Skills. Students in any flavor of Biology I take a state end-of-instruction test at the end of the course to assess their mastery of the state Biology I Priority Academic Student Skills.

Texts

General information on the text adopted for each course is shown, along with links to companion websites offering supplemental material, corrections, and so forth.

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