Inspiring the next generation of Oklahoma scientists, engineers, and curious citizens

Amplify Science is an engaging K–8 core curriculum designed for three-dimensional and phenomena-based learning.

View the Tulsa Selection Rubric with evidence from Amplify Science.

21st Century Science for Oklahoma

Click your grade-level for a one-stop review resource:

Topic-specific resources to support your review

Oklahoma Academic Standards for Science coverage

Amplify Science was designed from the ground up to meet the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), and the Oklahoma Academic Standards for Science (OASS) are closely aligned to the NGSS at K–8. The guidance below is meant to provide support for integrating additional activities that support full coverage of the OASS. You can view the full K–8 OASS correlation here.

Organized by grade level, each section below will outline:

additional activities that support 100% alignment to the Oklahoma Academic Standards for Science;
the standard being addressed with the activities;
the recommended placement of the activities within a specific Amplify Science unit; and
PDFs of any accompanying materials that are necessary to implement the activities.

Standard: 1.ESS3.1: Communicate solutions that will reduce the impact of humans on the land, water, air, and/or other living things in the local environment.

Recommended placement: Animal and Plant Defenses unit, Chapter 1

Materials: The Student Book Investigating Monarchs from the unit Needs of Plants and Animals

Investigating Monarchs emphasizes the needs of monarch caterpillars and butterflies and shows what happens when these animals are not able to meet their needs. The book first introduces the life cycle of monarchs, explaining that monarch caterpillars must eat milkweed to survive and change into butterflies. Their summer habitat must have milkweed. The butterflies then migrate a long distance, from the United States to a forest in the mountains of Mexico, where they take shelter in the trees. Their winter habitat must have trees. Scientists discovered that the monarch population in Mexico was greatly reduced because people were cutting down the trees. The forest was then protected, but the monarch population did not recover as expected. Scientists in the United States found evidence that this was because fields with milkweed are being replaced by farms and buildings. This book could be read with the class either before or after Chapter 1 of the Animal and Plant Defenses unit, which focuses on what plants and animals need to do to survive. Students could be asked to reflect on what the monarchs need to survive (including food and shelter), and how human activities impacted the monarchs’ ability to meet those needs. After reading the book, students could brainstorm ideas for how to reduce the impact of humans on the local environment.

Standard: MS-PS4-2: Develop and use a model to describe that waves are reflected, absorbed, or transmitted through various materials.

Recommended placement: Metabolism unit, Lesson 3.3, addition to Activity 5

Materials: “What Eyes Can See” science article

As students investigate metabolism and the body systems, the article “What Eyes Can See” should be assigned to deepen their understanding of information processing and sense receptors and connect that understanding to the emerging idea of the interaction of waves with various materials. The article explores how the only thing we can really see is light. Light travels from a light source to the eye, passing through some materials and bouncing off others. Tiny organs inside the eye called rods and cones absorb energy from light, making vision possible. These interactions between light and materials determine our visible world.

Instructions:

Download the PDF “What Eyes Can See” above and remind students of the Active Reading Guidelines. Before students read the article, invite them to share prior experiences. For example, “Have you ever had an experience where something looked different in one kind of light than in another kind of light? Or where something seemed to appear or disappear when the light changed?”

Standard: MS-PS3-1: Construct and interpret graphical displays of data to describe the relationships of kinetic energy to the mass of an object and to the speed of an object.

Recommended placement: Harnessing Human Energy unit, Lesson 1.4, after Activity 4

Materials: Force and Motion Simulation; Activity instructions and copymasters

In this activity, students use the Force and Motion Simulation to investigate the relationship between kinetic energy, mass, and velocity.

Instructions

Download the PDF linked above for the Lesson Guide and copymasters needed for the activity. Note that this investigation is typically implemented during the Force and Motion unit. This means the Lesson Guide will contain some incongruous labeling (e.g., unit name), as well as instructions that are out of context and unnecessary for the purposes of addressing this standard at grade 7. We suggest skipping to step 4 of the Instructional Guide to avoid some of this. Your students will get additional exposure to this activity, and indeed the standard as a whole, when they get to the Force and Motion unit in grade 8.

Standards:

MS-PS2-3: Ask questions about data to determine the factors that affect the strength of electric and magnetic forces.
MS-PS2-5: Conduct an investigation and evaluate the experimental design to provide evidence that fields exist between objects exerting forces on each other even though the objects are not in contact.

Recommended placement: Force and Motion unit, after Lesson 1.5

Materials: Flextension PDF

This hands-on activity builds on and reinforces students’ understanding of forces that act at a distance, with a focus on electrostatic force. Students explore electrostatic forces, prompted by a set of challenges that they try to accomplish. Next, students generate scientific questions based on their observations. Electrostatic force is less predictable and consistent than magnetic force, and investigating it can be both challenging and intriguing. The purpose of this lesson is for students to gain firsthand experience with electrostatic force and to gain experience generating scientific questions based on observations. You might choose to include this Flextension if you would like your students to have more exposure to electrostatic force, and if you would like to challenge your students to explore and ask questions about a challenging type of force.

Instructions:

Download the PDF linked above for a detailed Lesson Guide and the copymasters associated with the activity. Note that this activity is typically implemented as an add-on Flextension during the Magnetic Fields unit. This means that you will see some information that is out of context (e.g., placement information, unit title), but the activity itself also works for the purposes of the Force and Motion unit. If you have any questions, please reach out to our support team via the chat icon in your account or help@amplify.com.

What comes with the program?

Flexible resources that work seamlessly together

Science articles
The middle school science articles serve as sources for evidence collection and were authored by science and literacy experts at the Lawrence Hall of Science.

Student Investigation Notebooks
Available for every unit, the Student Investigation Notebooks provide space for students to:

record data
reflect on ideas from texts and investigations
construct explanations and arguments

Available with full-color article compilations for middle school units.

Digital student experience
Students access the digital simulations and modeling tools, as well as lesson activities and assessments, through the digital student experience. Students can interact with the digital student experience as they:

conduct hands-on investigations
engage in active reading and writing activities
participate in discussions
record observations
craft end-of-unit scientific arguments

Teacher’s Guides
Available digitally and in print, the Teacher’s Guides contain all of the information teachers need to facilitate classroom instruction, including:

Classroom Slides
detailed lesson plans
unit and chapter overview documentation
differentiation strategies
standards alignments
in-context professional development

Hands-on materials kits
Hands-on learning is at the heart of Amplify Science. Each unit kit contains:

consumable and non-consumable hands-on materials
print classroom display materials
premium print materials for student use (sorting cards, maps, etc.)

Scope and sequence

GRADE

UNITS

Kindergarten

Needs of Plants and Animals
Pushes and Pulls
Sunlight and Water

Grade 1

Animal and Plant Defenses
Light and Sound
Spinning Earth

Grade 2

Plant and Animal Relationships
Properties of Materials
Changing Landforms

Grade 3

Balancing Forces
Inheritance and Traits
Environments and Survival
Weather and Climate

Grade 4

Energy Conversions
Vision and Light
Earth’s Features
Waves, Energy, and Information

Grade 5

Patterns of Earth and Sky
Modeling Matter
The Earth System
Ecosystem Restoration

GRADE

UNITS

Grade 6

Launch: Microbiome
Metabolism
Plate Motion
Plate Motion Engineering Internship
Rock Transformations
Ocean, Atmosphere, and Climate
Weather Patterns
Thermal Energy
Phase Change

Grade 7

Launch: Harnessing Human Energy
Chemical Reactions
Populations and Resources
Matter Energy and Ecosystems
Earth’s Changing Climate
Earth’s Changing Climate Engineering Internship
Magnetic Fields

Grade 8

Launch: Geology on Mars
Force and Motion
Force and Motion Engineering Internship
Light Waves
Earth, Moon, and Sun
Traits and Reproduction
Natural Selection
Evolutionary History

Spanish resources

All Spanish materials have parity with their English counterparts and are of the highest quality. The Amplify Science curriculum was not only based on the latest research and approaches to teaching and learning, but was extensively field tested throughout the country prior to release. The same rigor in terms of scientific accuracy, rich content and language, and literacy development was used in the creation of the Amplify Science Spanish materials. Furthermore, the Spanish instructional materials were carefully translated using academic Spanish, paying particular attention to consistency and the use of grade-level appropriate language in order to support language development.

In Amplify Science, each unit’s glossary contains all content-area vocabulary words in Spanish, French, Portuguese, Russian, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Haitian-Creole, Tagalog, Arabic, and Urdu. In addition, Spanish materials that are available in three useful formats:

First, the Teacher Spanish license gives teachers access to a button that enables them to toggle back and forth between seeing Spanish and English in their Amplify Science accounts. When in Spanish mode, teachers can:
- Download PDFs of all classroom wall materials, copymasters, assessments, and more
- Use Spanish projections in class
- See all model teacher talk in Spanish
- Access digital versions of the student books and articles in Spanish
Second, Spanish Print Kits provide hard-copy, translated versions of all student-facing materials such as student books, copymasters, print materials, assessments, and notebooks.
Last, Student Spanish Licenses are available. These allow students to access Spanish versions of all student resources including lesson instructions, science articles, vocabulary, assessments, and simulations. Audio in videos, as well as in the read aloud functionality of articles and assessments, is also translated. When their students have the Spanish licenses, teachers can assign students to a particular language, or they can choose to give students the ability to toggle between English and Spanish as needed.

Family and caregiver resources

Learn more about how Amplify Science supports families and caregivers by visiting our Hubs:

Remote and hybrid learning support

Amplify has launched a new remote learning solution called Amplify Science@Home. Intended to make extended remote learning and hybrid learning easier, Amplify Science@Home includes two useful options for continuing instruction: @Home Videos and @Home Units.

Amplify Science @Home Videos are recordings of real Amplify Science teachers teaching the lessons. For those teachers who are unable to meet synchronously with their students, the recorded lessons are a great way to keep their students on track and engaged with Amplify Science while at home. These videos will be produced for all K–5 units, and for the first four units of each 6–8 grade level. Their release will be rolling, beginning in August.

Amplify Science@Home Units are modified versions of Amplify Science units, strategically designed to highlight key activities from the program. The @Home Units take significantly less instructional time than the complete Amplify Science program and allow students to engage with science at home. @Home Units will be developed for all Amplify Science K–8 units. Each @Home unit includes:

Teacher overviews explaining how to use the materials, including suggestions for enhancing the @Home Units if synchronous learning or in-class time with students is available.
Overviews to send home to families.

Student materials are available in two formats:

@Home Slides (PDF/PPT) + Student Sheets (PDF) for students with access to technology at home.
Downloadable @Home Packets (PDF) for students without access to technology at home.

Download the Remote and hybrid learning guide.

Explore the full curriculum

When you’re ready to review, click the orange button below and use the following login credentials to access the Amplify Science Digital Teacher’s Guide.

Username: t.okscience@tryamplify.net
Password: Amplify1okscience

To help familiarize yourself with navigating the digital Teacher’s Guide, watch our navigational guide videos:

Grades K–5:

Grades 6–8:

Looking for help?

Powerful (and free!) pedagogical support

Amplify provides a unique kind of support you won’t find from other publishers. We have developed an educational support team of former teachers and administrators who provide pedagogical support for every Amplify curriculum, assessment, and intervention program. This service is completely free for all educators who are using our programs and includes:

Guidance for developing lesson plans and intervention plans
Information on where to locate standards and other planning materials
Recommendations and tips for day-to-day teaching with Amplify programs
Support with administering and interpreting assessment data and more

To reach our pedagogical team, use our live chat within your program, call (800) 823-1969, or email edsupport@amplify.com

Timely technical and program support

Our technical and program support is included and available from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday, through a variety of channels, including a live chat program that enables teachers to get immediate help in the middle of the school day.

For your most urgent questions:

Use our live chat within your program
Call our toll-free number: (800) 823-1969

For less urgent questions:

Contact us

Contact your Tulsa representative:
Meghan Ramsey
Strategic Accounts Specialist
mramsey@amplify.com
(940) 595-1601