What can a well-designed, inquiry-based science curriculum do for a school? Look at El Centro, California. By focusing on K–8 science, it raised student achievement districtwide across the content areas. Scaffolding Science Inquiry Through Lesson Design leads you, step by step, through El Centro’s approach and demonstrates how to make it work for you and your students.

Scaffolding Science Inquiry Through Lesson Design helps you see the big picture of a powerful science curriculum as well as the details of daily instruction. Michael Klentschy and Laurie Thompson frame the goals and standards of science education through lesson design. Their research-based blueprint aligns the three stages of any curriculum:

• the intended curriculum—what you want to teach
• the implemented curriculum—what you actually taught
• the achieved curriculum—what students learn.

Klentschy and Thompson show how to scaffold your curriculum with science notebooks and classroom discussion. And they illustrate their ideas with annotated student work, sample lesson plans, and lesson-planning templates. You’ll find ways to create opportunities for authentic learning, meet content standards, and help students own important ideas. Best of all Scaffolding Science Inquiry Through Lesson Design shares studies that support the efficacy of its approach with textbook- and kit-based curriculums.

Don’t experiment. Discover the findings of a school that’s made a science of success. Read Scaffolding Science Inquiry Through Lesson Design and summon the untapped power that science has to boost your students’ achievement.