Science Techbook for Florida for Middle School Classrooms

In the Evaluate lessons, you will find Concept Summative Assessments. The question types in these assessments are written to test item specifications. Automatic remediation assets, such as reading passages and videos, are accessible via the student report dashboard.  

The curriculum also includes Statewide Practice Assessments for Grade 8. These practice tests were informed by the test item specification documents developed by the FL DOE and aim to mimic the look and feel of the Florida State Science Assessment.  

Many assessments are auto-graded, and instructors can view individual student and class performance in the Concept Assessment Results section. Students, teachers, and parents can access real-time data on student progress via the dashboard. 

In Elaborate lessons, students expand on the scientific ideas within each Concept by making connections and applying ideas to real-world experiences through STEM projects and STEM careers. Now that students have acted like scientists and engineers, they can learn how professional scientists and engineers study the same evidence they uncovered in your classroom.

Science Techbook for Florida authentically engages students through the Nature of Science, across each unit, to better prepare students for success on these benchmarks. By using creativity in their methods, processing, and questioning, students think and act like a scientist and discover that scientific inquiry is a multifaceted activity. Science Techbook for Florida is designed to support students’ understanding that the processes of science include the formulation of scientifically investigable questions, the construction of investigations into those questions, the collection of appropriate data, the evaluation of the meaning of those data, and the communication of this evaluation.

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At the close of each Explore lesson, students complete formative assessments called, “What Did You Figure Out?” and “Check For Understanding.”  “What Did You Figure Out?” provides an opportunity for students to synthesize, reflect on, and apply their learning across every lesson. Students demonstrate understanding of the key lesson objectives, which are written from the Florida State Standards for Science. With “Check for Understanding” questions, educators can quickly assess mastery of the learning objectives with several machine-scored items directly aligned to the standards and learning objectives. 

Additionally, Phenomenon Check-Ins serve as another formative check for understanding that allow students to reflect on their sensemaking. Students continuously connect their lessons to the phenomenon under study as they add evidence gathered over time, building on their overall understanding.  As students generate and analyze data, these artifacts allow teachers to monitor student progress. 

After students have completed a variety of multi-literacy and hands-on lessons in which they have collected evidence and new ideas, assign the Claim-Evidence-Reasoning Scientific Explanation assessment. Here students revise their initial claims with evidence from their lessons to refine their thinking and connect their reasoning.  

Many of the formative assessments are auto-graded with built-in scaffolded supports for instant feedback.

In each Concept, students are presented with a real-world phenomenon. The Engage lessons are carefully crafted to solicit student curiosity and encourage them to ask questions related to the core concepts for the FL Standards associated with the concept.

Using the CER framework, students synthesize the evidence they gathered while completing hands-on activities, interactives, and literacy activities in the Explore lessons.

They evaluate the validity of this evidence to answer their original questions about the phenomenon from Engage and revise their initial claims and models.

Rubrics and the ability to provide personal feedback to their peers help students continue to improve the rigor of their explanations over time.

Teachers can easily access materials in print or within the digital course and take advantage of a wide variety of options that support them and their students at every step of the learning journey. Point-of-Use McREL-Aligned Instructional Strategies include: 

• Differentiated Instruction supports Approaching, Advanced Learners, and Multilingual Students.   
• English Language Development Support helps students access the text, and scaffolded reading, speaking, and writing skills are provided at four levels: Beginning, Developing, Expanding, and Bridging.  
• Setting the Purpose includes prompts and discussion topics to activate prior knowledge.  

• Common student Misconceptions are included in strategies for prevention.  
• Research-based, instructional Spotlight on Strategies (SOS) are embedded in lessons to support student development of literacy skills, background knowledge and comprehension, and scientific vocabulary.  
• Lesson Objectives and Lesson Standards at point-of-use keep lessons on track.   
• Discussion questions with suggested answers encourage student discourse.   
• Answers to assessment prompts are readily available.  
• Hands-on-Activity Walkthrough Videos prepare educators for upcoming activities and make it quick and easy to implement hands-on learning experiences more often.     
• Seamless Digital and Print Experience offer a seamless instructional experience from print to digital by scanning QR codes or using Quick Codes for easy transitions.  

Science Techbook for Florida includes embedded support tools that cater to the learning needs of diverse students, especially multilingual learners, and is available online, offline, printed, and with read-aloud options.  

• Complete Spanish Curriculum : Science Techbook for Florida is available in English and authentically translated Spanish both in print and digital. The language toggle allows users to easily change text, video narration, interactives, vocabulary, and assessments items from English to Spanish.  
• Immersive Reader for 130 Languages: The embedded Microsoft Immersive Reader offers text translation in 130+ languages, a picture dictionary, the ability to customize font size, color, and spacing, and the option to hear text read aloud.  
• Interactive Glossary: The Interactive Glossary fosters the acquisition of academic language and domain-specific vocabulary. Within each lesson, students can hear, read, and practice vocabulary related to each Concept.  
• Lexile Level Toggle: Students and families can easily switch between two Lexile reading levels in grades 3-8. Teachers can also assign specific reading levels to students as needed.  
• Relevant Student Connections: Opportunities for student discourse are a foundational component of the program. These productive discussions allow multilingual students to comfortably share their understanding and help develop rich connections to scientific content, prior knowledge, and their everyday lives.