Amplify Science is terrible...

[Anonymous]

...and families need to be asking questions about it.

I'm a DCPS science teacher. Amplify is almost entirely screen-based and hands-on activities are simple and poorly-designed. Assessments are long (15 pages printed), numerous (at least two dozen a year), and poorly-written. There are critical omissions in the actual content. Kids hate it. Teacher concerns have been ignored.

Ask your kids and your principal - or, better yet, your cluster instructional superintendent. Ask to see the assessments. Ask to observe an Amplify class. We're going to be stuck with it if families don't start learning about it and speaking up. Charter families - you too. My understanding is that it's already in several charter schools.

[Anonymous]

Can you share some screenshots and examples of poorly written, an example of those critical omissions? This is so alarming and we need to see and know more about what’s going on.

[Anonymous]

Np— Off the top of my head:

The Genetics unit skips DNA structure, dominant and recessive genes as well as Punnett Squares.

The human body unit skips the nervous, urinary, and reproductive systems.

Food chains don’t start with producers.

Human cells are shown as rectangular in a lot of diagrams.

[Anonymous]

I think there’s a thread elsewhere on DCUM that goes over a lot of the issues. It’s fairly well documented.

[Anonymous]

The unit on climate change barely talks about humans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think there’s a thread elsewhere on DCUM that goes over a lot of the issues. It’s fairly well documented.

It's not that specific in other threads, though the alarm was raised in them

If teachers can be very specific here, parents can use that as they reach out to the council/mayors office/chancellor/media. We can help with this.

[Anonymous]

As a teacher, I'm not comfortable posting assessment items in a public forum. The assessments are the worst part, though, and families need to be asking to see them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, I'm not comfortable posting assessment items in a public forum. The assessments are the worst part, though, and families need to be asking to see them.

I agree. However, in my Aspen gradebook you can download some of the 12 page assessment items. It’s the same 4 questions again and again with just the species changed. They are terribly wordy and lack any actual vocabulary.

[Anonymous]

email the curriculum chief of DCPS and share your concerns.

[Anonymous]

thanks for the heads up OP. That's really disappointing.

[Anonymous]

My DD is in 7th, so she is in the cohort that has had Amplify for 2 years now.

I asked her about Amplify and she said, "It's terrible. I don't learn anything. Everybody gets 100s on the pre-unit assessments and then they teach the unit anyway."

She said that she learned that "If 2 fossils are more alike than a third fossil, then a third fossil, then they are more alike."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD is in 7th, so she is in the cohort that has had Amplify for 2 years now.

I asked her about Amplify and she said, "It's terrible. I don't learn anything. Everybody gets 100s on the pre-unit assessments and then they teach the unit anyway."

She said that she learned that "If 2 fossils are more alike than a third fossil, then a third fossil, then they are more alike."

Correcting my editing fail:

She said that she learned that "If 2 fossils are more alike than a third fossil, then they are more alike."

[Anonymous]

Wow, thanks for the heads up OP. That’s atrocious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD is in 7th, so she is in the cohort that has had Amplify for 2 years now.

I asked her about Amplify and she said, "It's terrible. I don't learn anything. Everybody gets 100s on the pre-unit assessments and then they teach the unit anyway."

She said that she learned that "If 2 fossils are more alike than a third fossil, then a third fossil, then they are more alike."

Please make noise.

[Anonymous]

Which grades is this curriculum? This is horrible! I’m not a science person, but what op shared is alarming. I have not been impressed with ELA curriculum either. My kids are in 7th and 10th.