Lower School
Curious Scientists
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, careers in science, engineering, and math are some of the fastest growing sectors of the American economy. Together with healthcare jobs, they comprise more than 15% of U.S. employment. Science literacy is an increasingly valuable life skill, which makes the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) a game-changer.
The standards, which ROBS is embracing, focus on the importance of learning science by conducting experiments, collecting and recording information, and evaluating evidence. In third grade Science, students delve into rich units on weather and climate, animal survival and heredity, “flower power” (the role of flowers in the lifecycle of plants), and invisible forces like gravity and magnetism. Experiments will enable your child to see how the vortex of a tornado forms, how selective breeding causes animals to change over time, and how pollination and plant domestication impact plant life. Your child will see the powerful effect of forces at work by wrapping rubberbands around a watermelon…until it explodes! Your child is seeing how to connect science to the world around him, thinking about friction as he slides down a playground slide or the invisible force that makes magnets cling to the refrigerator. He is learning to learn.
