Middle School STEM Instructional Materials

Our work in developing open educational resources for NGSS began in 2016 by bringing together middle school science and STEM teachers from across the 30 districts served by ESD112. This group developed, reviewed and adapted potential OER materials using the EQuIP rubric to support bundles of performance expectations and collaborated on integrating OER into existing STEM kits that the ESD STEM Center provides regionally. These original storylines are designed with a driving question and phenomenon, and built around project-based learning as the instructional method.

Tornado Alley!

Tornado Alley!

This unit explores Performance Expectations MS-ESS2-5 and MS-ESS2-6 to engage students in constructing an explanation through modeling and analyzing data for why so many tornados occur in the United States, and specifically ‘Tornado Alley!

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Is my Local Stream a Healthy Habitat?

Is my Local Stream a Healthy Habitat?

This unit explores Performance Expectations MS- LS2-4, LS2-5 by having students collect local ecosystems data with a variety of computational tools: pH sensors, turbidity, oxygen levels and temperature – and to develop a presentation to communicate how and why their stream is a healthy habitat, or not!

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