More Seeds - Seeds of Science

As a science specialist at the American School in London (ASL), I have varied roles within that job description.  In the lower school I am both the primary science instructor for the 180 students in Grades 3 and 4 as well as the science leader for Grades K-4.   This means that I am responsible for determining the science curriculum sequence across these grade levels for the lower school in consultation with the grade level teams, for taking the lead in K-12 science reviews and for recommending or delivering professional development in science to all teachers in the lower school.  At times I also provide mentoring during the curriculum implementation in science for classroom teachers.  Over the last five years there has been a major review and overhaul of the science instruction at the American School in London in grades K-12.  The Seeds of Science/Roots of Reading curriculum has been an absolute godsend to me in meeting the constantly changing demands of my job as science specialist.

We are currently starting our fifth year of the implementation of SEEDs at the American School in London.  As the program has grown across the grade levels there have been various changes as we adapt and modify our curriculum sequence to better fit our school.  We have been excited to be part of the newest SEEDs pilot project now being developed for Grade 6.

As a growing learning community at ASL, we have started to provide training and workshops to other international schools.  In November 2011, five teachers from ASL made presentations at two conferences  (The Mediterranean Association of International Schools and the European Council of International Schools).   In February, two teachers developed presentations to support the teachers at the International school in Valencia Spain in their pilot of SEEDS curriculum.  We hope to continue to grow and expand our capacity to serve as resource center for SEEDS in Europe.  In November 2012 several teachers and the head of the lower school will be offering a workshop at ECIS titled “Taking Children’s Reading & Writing into the Future: Using Best Practices in Literacy to Teach Science”.  We are also looking forward to the further development of the SEEDS middle school units and the increasing integration of educational technologies into the units. 
As the year progresses I will be posting information and ideas from the various science units from Kindergarden to Grade 4 - including our Seeds of Science units.   So stay tuned.