Home Curriculum Science
At Park Day School, students learn to approach the world with curiosity, applying the scientific method to make discoveries for themselves.
Pinball Machine Design
What can you make with a cardboard box, popsicle sticks, a rubber band, and a ball? Kindergarten designers create their own pinball machines and learn that to keep the ball moving requires forces, pushes and pulls, which can change the speed and direction of the marble.
Barn owl pellet dissection
Student scientists dissect owl pellets to find skulls, ribs, tibias, and much more. On sorting mats, we match bones to different prey and utilize the scientific process, making hypotheses, gathering data, and drawing conclusions.
Taxonomy Study - Fieldscopes
Students study the taxonomic chart to classify organisms in each category: Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species. Taxonomists choose a plant in our garden to observe and study, labeling each category to see how their scientific names are broken down. We use fieldscopes that we design and build in the Innovation Workshop to get a magnified and more detailed view of our plant of choice.
Genetics
6th graders explore the science of genetics by simulating meiosis to create marshmallow baby “Fun Bugs.” Through the flip of a coin, they explore how traits are inherited through dominant and recessive genes. This hands-on activity helps them understand the principles of heredity and genetic variation.
In Lower School, specific study areas are assessed and selected using student interest, local and global events, the availability of local resources, and field trip opportunities. Next Generation Science Standards help guide the scope and sequence. Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs) are the key ideas in science that have broad importance within or across multiple science or engineering disciplines. These core ideas build on each other as students progress through grade levels and are grouped into the following four domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science, and Engineering.
In Middle School, students examine patterns, cause and effect, system models, and structures in a way that blends with systems of oppression, democracy, and personal choices. Science class highlights how personal choices can impact individuals, communities, and the wider world. 6th grade focuses on heredity, genetics, and earth sciences. 7th grade moves into structure and properties of matter, the food and digestive system, and viruses, bacteria and the immune system along with human development and body systems. 8th grade primarily focuses on energy transformation, circuits, and coding all while applying scientific principles to investigations, models, and analysis.
Climate change and environmental ecology play a significant role in our scientific studies school wide. Ethics in science and the government’s role in science are integral aspects of the curriculum and teachers work collaboratively with specialists in the Learning Garden and Innovation Workshop to blend student interests, and explore emerging ideas in science education.