The Syzygy Science Elementary line is LIVE now on Teachers Pay Teachers!
Five graphic organizer packs, one for each grade band from preschool through grade 5. Two full labs: the mold life cycle for grade 3, seeds and light for grade 2. Three free samples. For educators teaching multiple grades, the Super Pack gathers the whole line into one volume: every NGSS aligned graphic organizer in the series, PK through grade 5, 281 pages.
The packs reach all seventy K-5 science performance expectations. Each pack prints its performance expectations in full and connects each one to the student activity it accompanies. That connection encourages teachers and students to see learning through the three-dimensional lens of the NGSS.
The labs and activities are non-linear and inquiry-based, designed from the ground up based on the NGSS disciplinary core ideas. They are built to model how scientists actually work: gathering evidence from a variety of sources and following their interests as ideas develop, and drawing conclusions from that evidence.
I taught high school science for twelve years. The habits that decide whether a student can reason from evidence form earlier than that, in rooms where teachers may struggle to find quality science material that fits their overpacked schedule. The skills developed in elementary school form the foundation for future scientific inquiry. Even if the content is forgotten, good habits endure.
A worksheet asks for an answer. These pages ask for the work behind the answer: what the student noticed first and how that first idea changed as the evidence pushed on it. Each organizer comes in three ways. A completed model shows the thinking. A guided page contains the data printed on it, so the student can practice the move with support. The blank master is where the student does it alone. A burrowing owl named Curio marks the kind of page a student is on. The marks are a code a child can use before she can read the headings.
The labs run on the same design. The phenomenon comes first, and the standard stays out of view until the class has something to reason about. Students keep their early explanations on the page, so a change of mind stays visible after the discussion ends. The assessment at the end swaps in a situation the class has not seen. A memorized answer travels badly across that swap. Reasoning builds.
The rule under all of it is the one Syzygy started with: evaluate the thinking process and the results. Syzygy holds students accountable for both. Process is the harder of the two to evaluate, and correct answers are the easier, so classrooms drift toward answers. These pages exist to make the thinking visible enough to evaluate. A finished page can now be produced in under a minute with the tools on a student's phone. The trail behind the page is harder to fake, and it gives a teacher more to teach from.
Prices are flat. The packs are $8, the labs are $9, and the Super Pack is $29. The free sample pack includes one complete organizer from each grade band, and each lab offers its first session free, so the structure can be reviewed before anything is purchased. Everything is listed on Teachers Pay Teachers, and the Teacher Resources page on this site carries the whole line with links.
The content will be forgotten. The habits endure, and they are what a student carries into a problem she has never seen.
This is the first release in the Syzygy Science product line. We built it to give teachers standards aligned resources that empower and inspire their students' learning.
