Description

The Materials and Forces Module provides kindergartners with integrated experiences with physical science, earth science, and engineering core ideas that relate to students’ interests. Students investigate that objects are made of materials—wood, paper, and fabric—and how material properties determine their use. Students use those materials to engineer structures, applying physical science ideas of energy transfer. Students investigate the source of natural materials and how they can be reused and recycled. Students come to understand that humans use natural resources for everything they do and that people impact the world around them. Students investigate these phenomena and related problem:

• Anchor phenomenon 1—Snacks getting hot on the playground
• Anchor problem 2—Keeping snacks and water cool
• Anchor phenomenon 3—Changes to the environment
• Anchor phenomenon 4—Balls roll in different directions

After building a repertoire of practices with natural materials students use some of those materials to investigate the effect of pushes and pulls on objects, and apply their intuitive notion of the concept of variables to change the speed and direction of rolling balls to achieve specific outcomes.

Students engage in science and engineering practices by asking questions, participating in collaborative investigations, observing, recording, and interpreting data to build explanations, and designing objects and systems to achieve outcomes. Students gain experiences with crosscutting concepts: patterns, cause and effect, and systems and system models.