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The Beckman Foundation has made a commitment to support hands-on science for students in schools across Orange County. The Santa Ana Unified School District is completing its eleventh year of funding in the Beckman@Science program. The District Strategic Plan emphasizes the following five focus areas:
- Implementation of a hands-on standards-based science curriculum for every classroom
- Maintenance of a fully-stocked Science Resource Center to ensure the prompt refurbishment and delivery of science kits to teachers on an as-needed basis
- Regularly scheduled kit trainings for all grade level teachers in the areas of Life, Earth, and Physical Science, as well as Inquiry and Notebooking
- Establishment of a variety of assessment tools, including performance tasks, multiple choice, and written response
- Development of a Community Support System to ensure access to quality local science resources for every student
The Beckman Foundation has allowed the District the opportunity to provide high quality training for teachers at all grade levels, which in turn leads to more confidence and enthusiasm for teaching hands-on science using inquiry-based kits. Science kits that directly align with the grade level standards have been purchased from a variety of sources. Refurbishment materials are ordered in advance, and kits are restocked immediately upon return from the school sites. The District Warehouse provides personnel to compete the refurbishment, delivery, and pick-up of all kits. A Curriculum Guide has been developed which includes all grade level science standards, suggested performance-based tasks to show mastery of the standards, the kit that supports hands-on exploration for that area of science, related textbook pages, websites, strategies to enhance the learning of English, and additional resources. Benchmark tests have been developed for fourth and fifth grade science.
The Beckman Grant has impacted over 90,000 students in Santa Ana over the past eleven years. We have also received funding to expand hands-on inquiry science into our intermediate schools. The secondary science specialist has developed science pacing guides and Benchmark tests for every science course in intermediate and high school. We have seen an increase in higher-level science classes at the secondary level. We are proud of our District Science program, and look forward to the opportunity to expand the learning with new kits and instructional materials in the coming years!
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