Open Educational Resources
Nonprofit Releases Free Middle School Science Instruction Materials
Nonprofit OpenSciEd was launched in 2018 to improve the supply and demand for high-quality education materials in the K-12 space. Now, the effort launched by 10 partner states, a consortium of curriculum developers and four philanthropic organizations is debuting its first freely available instructional materials for middle school science.
The three units of instruction are Thermal Energy, Metabolic Reactions and Sound Waves. Each of the units cover approximately six weeks of classroom time.
The materials are freely available in print-ready PDFs and as editable Google Docs. The curriculum developers involved in OpenSciEd are from BSCS Science Learning, Northwestern University, Boston College, The Charles A. Dana Center and Digital Promise.
"It's a privilege to provide schools with rigorous science instructional materials that combine the expertise of a world-class development consortium and the wisdom of current teachers, administrators and state leaders,” said Jim Ryan, executive director of OpenSciEd. “These first three units are just the beginning of this initiative, and we will continue to release instructional materials every six months until there is a complete middle grades program in early 2022."
More information about the OpenSciEd instruction materials can be found here.
About the Author
Sara Friedman is a reporter/producer for Campus Technology, THE Journal and STEAM Universe covering education policy and a wide range of other public-sector IT topics.
Friedman is a graduate of Ithaca College, where she studied journalism, politics and international communications.
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