First Grade - Science

First-grade students in SFUSD do, talk, read, and write to figure out how the world works. They engage in 45 minutes of science instruction four times a week, starting with a five-lesson launch unit, then three 22-lesson content units. Alternate with history/social studies units throughout the year.

Students begin to develop their science identities and foundational skills in Launch Unit 0, and then build on them and their content knowledge in the life, physical, and earth and space science units that follow. 

Prioritize using science to model a sense of awe and wonder about the natural and designed world, and guide students to ask questions, design simple investigations, and use their observations, data, and text to construct explanations and design solutions to problems.

SEPs are behaviors scientists and engineers engage in to figure out and deepen their understanding of content. First-grade students predominantly practice:

• Asking questions based on observations about the natural or designed world(s)
• Developing and using models to make sense of science concepts
• Planning and carrying out investigations with guidance and peer collaboration
• Analyzing and interpreting data to describe patterns
• Designing solutions to solve specific engineering problems

DCIs are the fundamental scientific ideas in the four domains: Life, Physical, Earth & Space Science, and Engineering.

(Continue to view the disciplinary core ideas students figure out through the four first-grade science units.)

Scientists observe, wonder, and record their thinking through drawing and writing in science notebooks.

All living things must meet their basic survival needs: getting food, water, and oxygen, and avoiding being eaten. Animals and plants use their body parts in ways that enable them and their offspring to survive.

Light and sound are all around us. Light allows us to see. It comes from a source and travels to a surface. Just like light, sound travels from a source. Vibrations cause sound and allow us to hear. 

The sun makes a pattern in the sky which we experience as daytime and nighttime. As Earth spins, people in different regions experience all the times of day, but not all at the same time. 

CCCs are thinking tools that help students connect the ideas they are learning to ideas used across all domains of science. Questions that guide first graders to think across domains include:

• Structure and Function: What parts of a tortoise help it catch and eat food? (Animal and Plant Defenses)
• Cause and Effect: What makes shadows? (Light and Sound) 
• Patterns: What do you always see in the daytime? (Spinning Earth)

• Engage in a Real World Problem
• Collect Evidence from multiple sources (through doing, talking, reading, writing, and visualizing)
• Construct Increasingly Complex Explanations
• Apply Knowledge to Solve a Different Problem

• Mistakes help us grow
• We talk to each other about science
• We can show science and engineering ideas in different ways

Science notebooks are a valuable thinking tool. They allow students to construct their understanding over time through drawing and writing, share their thinking with others, and develop language skills. They act as a storehouse for student observations, questions, and ideas throughout the year!

As scientists and engineers, first-grade students work with others while doing science. They carry out investigations, read and talk about science in pairs so that they can construct knowledge and develop language collaboratively.