When do schools start doing more science? (Elementary)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids are grown. As I recall when they developed Curriculum 2.0, they tried to incorporate some science and social studies into the reading curriculum, which I think has been replaced. You may be left with the lousy science curriculum my kids had before that. To compensate, my school’s PTA allowed an outside enrichment group called Hands on Science to come in and offer an after-school enrichment program, which was wildly popular. You might check with your PTA and see if that program, or something similar, might be available at your school.

The STEM magnets are great and I think the specialty programs are generally good too. The very limited info I had on the standard MCPS middle school science classes are that they weren’t great, but at least there were formal classes, which is an improvement over your current elementary science program.

Here are some other resources:

Hoagie’s has links to websites for enrichment for all subjects and ages:
https://www.hoagiesgifted.org/science.htm
https://www.hoagiesgifted.org/links.htm

Brainpop has great animated lessons in many subjects, but does charge a fairly significant fee.

Rockville has an annual science day in the Spring. I don’t see 2024 info yet, but here’s info from 2023.
https://www.rockvillesciencecenter.org/rockville-science-day

I had kids before and after Curriculum 2.0 and Curriculum 2.0 meant the end of all science. We at least had gotten dedicated science time in the old curriculum.

[Anonymous]

My 2nd grader's schedule contains 20 mins science/social science/health every day, so a total of 100 minutes every week. Math occupies 75 mins, and ELA takes 105 mins! I never know ELA is so serious for low ES.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 2nd grader's schedule contains 20 mins science/social science/health every day, so a total of 100 minutes every week. Math occupies 75 mins, and ELA takes 105 mins! I never know ELA is so serious for low ES.

Doesn't it make sense there would be a lot of time spent on reading and writing?

[Anonymous]

My 2nd grader has 45 min for science/social studies a day. Its first thing in the am. Last hear they split weeks and one week was science and one week was social studies. They have 2 hrs foe ELA this year. Its critical 2nd graders become proficient readers since in 3rd they are expected to read to learn things like science etc.

[Anonymous]

Pp again. I recall in 1st they used some ELA time to read first sources and non fiction items to study historical figures as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
https://www.youtube.com/@besmart
and similar channels.

I’m sorry but I will never force my kid to watch something called “Be Smart.”

And the weirdo who keeps trying to make herself feel better constantly posting about private schools in an MCPS forum really needs to find something better to do with her life.

My 4th grader seems to have more science in their schedule compared to when they were in lower ES.

[Anonymous]

Are they still doing the Young Scholars Program through the Saturday School?

YSP in 3rd-5th was the best science my kid had until Honors Physics in 9th grade. She was lukewarm on the math part (although she found the enrichment more fun than compacted math), but absolutely adored the science lessons.

None of it really tied into the curriculum, probably because there really wasn’t much of one to begin with. But at least it let her know that science existed, was interesting and fun, and didn’t have to be an afterthought.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are they still doing the Young Scholars Program through the Saturday School?

YSP in 3rd-5th was the best science my kid had until Honors Physics in 9th grade. She was lukewarm on the math part (although she found the enrichment more fun than compacted math), but absolutely adored the science lessons.

None of it really tied into the curriculum, probably because there really wasn’t much of one to begin with. But at least it let her know that science existed, was interesting and fun, and didn’t have to be an afterthought.

Pathetic that that’s where you had to go to get exposure to science.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 2nd grader has 45 min for science/social studies a day. Its first thing in the am. Last hear they split weeks and one week was science and one week was social studies. They have 2 hrs foe ELA this year. Its critical 2nd graders become proficient readers since in 3rd they are expected to read to learn things like science etc.

Oh interesting, so 225 minutes a week split between science and social studies? That's way more than other folks have been saying. I guess it must just be up to the school?

Does anyone know if MCPS sets minimums of class time spent on certain subjects in elementary (I imagine they must) and if so, where to find them?

[Anonymous]

I don’t understand why there aren’t better integrated programs for language arts/ science for elementary.

Lab instructions can be simple to read and lab reports are also relatively easy to write and illustrate. It seems like it would be easier to check reading comprehension on text that is fact-based too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why there aren’t better integrated programs for language arts/ science for elementary.

Lab instructions can be simple to read and lab reports are also relatively easy to write and illustrate. It seems like it would be easier to check reading comprehension on text that is fact-based too.

Because MCPS doesn’t care about subjects that aren’t on state tests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are they still doing the Young Scholars Program through the Saturday School?

YSP in 3rd-5th was the best science my kid had until Honors Physics in 9th grade. She was lukewarm on the math part (although she found the enrichment more fun than compacted math), but absolutely adored the science lessons.

None of it really tied into the curriculum, probably because there really wasn’t much of one to begin with. But at least it let her know that science existed, was interesting and fun, and didn’t have to be an afterthought.

Pathetic that that’s where you had to go to get exposure to science.

Yep. We did lots of fun stuff at home, of course, but school was pretty much a wasteland, science-wise. Even the little bit they did do in elementary school sort of petered out after about January or February every year.

But the YSP program was invitation-only, and it took a ton of digging to even figure out what it was before we accepted, so it's hardly a universal option (if it even still exists). I fully expected my DD to want quit after the first year, once she started at what was then called an HGC in 4th, but even there the science was pretty minimal. Possibly a bit more interesting, but still minimal. So we dragged our butts out of the house for two more years of Saturday mornings, all in the name of science.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is not very fond of academics in general but loves science, so I'm looking forward to her getting to spend more time on that so school feels a little less boring to her. She's in 2nd grade this year and it looks like she'll only have 1.5 hours a week that'll be split between science, social studies, and health, so very little time on science again this year. When might we expect this to increase, and by how much? Are there countywide guidelines for this or is it up to the individual school? How much time do your elementary school students spend on science?

Our school had a science fair. We just did a kitchen science project. We just taught our 8-year-old how salted water changes the boiling temperature of water. Through experiments, they learned how to make measurements, write down results, test hypotheses, and look up what heat capacity is. They also learned how to make a bar charts and how to communicate the results. It is so much fun. If I am home schooling my kid, I would do one such experiment per week. I do not understand why this can't happen at school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is not very fond of academics in general but loves science, so I'm looking forward to her getting to spend more time on that so school feels a little less boring to her. She's in 2nd grade this year and it looks like she'll only have 1.5 hours a week that'll be split between science, social studies, and health, so very little time on science again this year. When might we expect this to increase, and by how much? Are there countywide guidelines for this or is it up to the individual school? How much time do your elementary school students spend on science?

Here is how much Science people outside USA is learning:
Geography starts at 5th grade and lasts until 8th grade.
Biology starts at 5th grade and lasts until 11th grade.
Physics starts at 6th grade and lasts until 12th grade.
Chemistry starts at 7th grade and lasts until 12th grade.

In all of these science classes, kids learn applied math. The reason why Chinese kids' have advanced math, is partly due to their early exposure to Physics.
Of course, physics is a required class even for social science and humanity majors.

[Anonymous]

Even the freshman level HS classes are pretty basic. Once in HS, aim for AP sciences courses as early as possible (probably sophomore year).

OP-- I'm sure this sounds like a lifetime away. Look at things like the Johns Hopkins CTY program or similar for extra curricular science opportunities.