Science Techbook for Texas for Middle School Classrooms

At the close of each lesson, students complete formative assessments called “What Did You Figure Out?” and “Check For Understanding.” Available in print and digital modalities, these assessments provide a quick opportunity for students to demonstrate their understanding.

Phenomenon Check-Ins serve as another formative check for understanding that allows students to reflect on their sensemaking. As students generate and analyze data, these artifacts allow teachers to monitor student progress. Many formative assessments are auto-graded with built-in scaffolded supports for instant feedback.

For more information on assessments, click here.

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 TEKS associated with the concept.

Using the CER framework, students synthesize the evidence 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 improve the rigor of their explanations over time.

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 uncover in your classroom.

The Explore More Resources section supports educators in developing their own understanding of more advanced grade-level concepts. These sections include linked additional resources with background knowledge. Also available for grades 6-8 are Hands-on Activity videos that support educators as they facilitate an engaging, active learning experience.

Yes! The curriculum not only includes misconceptions relevant to the core scientific ideas found in each Concept but also provides those misconceptions for teachers at the point in Explore lessons that are the critical place in the 5E learning cycle where teachers can address the misconception. Each teacher misconception feature includes an explanation and practical strategy to support students in overcoming barriers to conceptual development.

The middle school student curriculum is available in authentically translated Spanish to support Emergent Bilinguals.

Embedded strategies for Emergent Bilinguals aligned to the ELPS are available at point-of-use within the teacher materials. These include guidance for linguistic accommodations (communicated, sequenced, and scaffolded) commensurate with various levels of English language proficiency as defined by the ELPS.

Numerous lessons within the concept include detailed teacher support for how they can facilitate and encourage the use of students’ first language, alongside the acquisition of the English language. These features provide four scaffolded strategies that can be employed based on the language proficiency level of the students in the classroom.

Students and instructors can also take advantage of the Immersive Reader located within the interactive glossaries. Immersive Reader provides personalized access to the curriculum with features such as read-aloud, line focus, translation, and grammar markings, as well as the ability to adjust the size, style, and color of the font. Immersive Reader also authentically translates the text into over 100 languages. For more information on our multilingual resources, click here.