Science at Home

Framing our Science at Home Explorations

We believe that making sense of the world around us is foundational for science. Sense-making is the mental and physical practices to generate a deep understanding of events or processes in our environment. These science-at-home explorations were created for synchronous and asynchronous learning and were developed with the following principles guiding our thinking:

  • Focusing on big ideas from your grade level provides students opportunities to deepen their understanding and connect to areas of their interest and community. You may choose to focus on big ideas present in your Instructional Segments rather than each individual Performance Expectation.
  • In the classroom, students are able to safely and equitably access the same supplies and explorations. The Big Idea might be discovered with different materials and experiences. Embrace diverse learning styles, needs and circumstances.
  • Science learning requires the active engagement in multiple Science and Engineering Practices (synchronously or asynchronously).
  • Structure lessons to provide students with choices to explore phenomena. This will encourage students to pursue areas of expertise and interest.

Elementary Explorations

How do plants move their seeds?

How do plants move their seeds?
2nd Grade

Why are flowers so important?

How can people predict the weather?

How do things move?
Kindergarten

How do things move?
Grades 1-2

How do things move?
3rd Grade

How do things move?
Grades 4-5

Do plants need sunlight and water to grow?

Water Drops

Drops on a Penny

Family Talk Bingo

Family Science Bingo

Light – What can you see?

Light -What can you see?
1st Grade

What is sound?

Is gravity that powerful?

Could our drought be someone else’s flood? Part 1

Could our drought be someone else’s flood? Part 2

How do animals survive in their environment? Part 1

How do animals survive in their environment? Part 2

Middle School & High School Explorations

What is Sound? Part 1

Middle School

What is Sound? Part 2

Middle School

What is Sound? Part 3

Middle School

Nutrition & Energy

High School

Why is Death Valley so Hot? Part 1

Middle School

Why is Death Valley so Hot? Part 2

Middle School

Why is Death Valley so Hot? Part 3

Middle School

Where Does All My Food Go?

Middle School

What does it mean to be alive?

Middle School

Why have hundreds of millions of California’s trees died?

Middle School

Teacher Resources

Sustaining an Equitable Online Community for Sensemaking

Science at Home Planning Guide

This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Check @UCLAScienceProj for more activities!