Connect Science Blueprint

Want to use Connect Science with units other than energy and resources or in other grades? Learn more about the Connect Science Blueprint below!

What is the Blueprint?

The Connect Science Blueprint serves as a framework to enable third-fifth grade teachers to create a service-learning experience for students based on their own science standards (aligned with state and/or Next Generation Science Standards) by using Connect Science as a model. By applying the Connect Science Blueprint, teachers learn how to design a unit that engages students in deep learning. The result is a project-based learning unit that integrates science, social and emotional learning, social studies, literacy and more.

Applied in the classroom, the social and collaborative skills that students learn are consistently practiced and used to discuss complex scientific concepts, grapple with ideas in science that do not have easy answers, identify problems in their community or world, and discover solutions to address those problems. Then, with their new knowledge and skills in hand, students are guided by teachers to choose a problem and create a project to solve it.

Why choose the Blueprint?

The Blueprint helps teachers build capacity in designing science units that support students' autonomy and ownership for their own learning. The resulting classroom experience builds students' deep understanding and competence in science. Existing evidence shows that Connect Science boosts students' science achievement and shifts their attitudes and beliefs about energy. In classrooms that used Connect Science well, students show improved social skills as a consequence of the experiences in their classrooms.

Want to learn about using the Blueprint?

Contact Tracy Harkins to learn about upcoming professional development design institutes where teachers receive training around using the Connect Science Blueprint.