UCLA Science Project believes that making sense of the world around us is foundational for science. Sense-making is the mental and physical practices to generate a deep understanding of events or processes in our environment. These science-at-home explorations were created for synchronous and asynchronous learning and were developed with the following principles guiding our thinking:

  • Focusing on big ideas from your grade level provides students opportunities to deepen their understanding and connect to areas of their interest and community. You may choose to focus on big ideas present in your Instructional Segments rather than each individual Performance Expectation.
  • In the classroom, students are able to safely and equitably access the same supplies and explorations. The Big Idea might be discovered with different materials and experiences. Embrace diverse learning styles, needs and circumstances.
  • Science learning requires the active engagement in multiple Science and Engineering Practices (synchronously or asynchronously).
  • Structure lessons to provide students with choices to explore phenomena. This will encourage students to pursue areas of expertise and interest.