Project-Based Inquiry Science
PBIScience® is a 3-year middle-school curriculum that is designed to be taught as stand-alone units. You can teach by the domain (Life, Physical, Earth, and Space Science) or you can integrate the sciences each year. Each unit is designed around a project meaningful to students’ lives, and science learning experiences are framed around answering Big Questions or addressing Big Challenges that guide instruction and serve to organize their learning progressions.
PBIScience® aligns with Next Generation Science Standards, while maintaining the flexibility to meet all unique state standards.
Available as a package or for individual purchase
E-Book
Professional Learning
Project-Based
Inquiry Approach
Students work in collaborative groups to iteratively solve problems and explore challenges.
Students Learn Like Scientists and Engineers
Science and engineering practices are not just found in isolated inquiry activities, but permeate the entire curriculum.
Total Support
for Teachers
In person and online teacher support, educational webinars, lesson modeling, and much more is provided by our Professional Learning Team.
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Curriculum Details
PBIScience® is a 3-year middle-school curriculum that is designed to be taught as stand-alone units. You can teach by the domain (Life, Physical, Earth, and Space Science) or you can integrate the sciences each year.
Based on Research
PBIScience is based on research from the cognitive and learning sciences on how students learn. It was supported through National Science Foundation funding and consequently produced through rigorous, iterative, research-based development cycles.
PBIScience empowers students with STEM
Students practice science in the classroom the way that scientists and engineers do. They work in collaborative groups to iteratively solve problems and explore challenges. Science and engineering practices are not just found in isolated inquiry activities, but permeate the entire curriculum.
Instructional Design with Teachers in Mind
PBIScience Teacher Edition includes lesson plans, discussion questions, differentiation strategies, and background information for each unit, and the Interactive Digital Edition easily integrates with leading Learning Management Systems. Online teacher support, educational webinars, lesson modeling, and much more is available through our supportive Professional Learning team.
PBI Science Units
Each unit is composed of Learning Sets—one for each subquestion that needs to be answered in order to address the Big Question or the Big Challenge. The Big Question or Big Challenge for each unit then drives the 3-dimensional learning experiences throughout the unit. As students pursue answers, they conduct investigations, make models, collect and analyze data, weigh evidence, write explanations, and discuss and present findings.
Big Question: How can knowledge of genetics help feed the world?
Students provide advice about developing a rice plant that is nutritious and can be grown in places that do not get a lot of rain. After being introduced to the worldwide problem of food shortage, students investigate how to develop varieties of rice that could help to alleviate the shortage. Within this context, students learn sexual and asexual reproduction, Mendelian inheritance, Punnett squares, meiosis and mitosis, chromosomes and DNA, how traits and the environment interact, evolution and natural selection, variation, natural and artificial selection, and the promises and potential threats of genetic engineering.
Big Question: How can you know if objects in space will collide?
As part of exploring the potential for the impact of objects in space, students learn about evidence of collisions in the solar system, the components of the solar system (including the Sun, Earth, Earth’s Moon, other planets and their satellites, comets, and asteroids), the motion of those components, and the existence of other galaxies. Based on this understanding, students determine whether a fictional asteroid will hit Earth.
Big Question: How can you improve the air quality in your community?
Through numerous investigations and case studies, students learn about the nature and composition of air and other matter, states of matter, atomic theory, bonding, the periodic table of the elements, and many other fundamental chemistry topics, as well as sources and effects of pollution. Students apply their knowledge by investigating the air quality in their own community and examining the sources, effects, and potential solutions to the pollution problems identified.
About The Authors
Select an author to learn more about their contributions to the fields of physical science, computer science, Earth system sciences, and science education.
A Regents’ Professor in the School of Interactive Computing in the Georgia Institute of Technology’s College of Computing. Since 1978, her research has focused on learning from experience, both in computers and in people. She pioneered the Artificial Intelligence method called case-based reasoning, providing a way for computers to solve new problems based on their past experiences. Her book, Case-Based Reasoning, synthesizes work across the case-based reasoning research community from its inception to 1993.
Since 1994, Dr. Kolodner has focused on the applications and implications of case-based reasoning for education. In her approach to science education, called Learning by Design™ (LBD), students learn science while pursuing design challenges. Dr. Kolodner has investigated how to create a culture of collaboration and rigorous science talk in classrooms, how to use a project challenge to promote a focus on science content, and how students learn and develop when classrooms function as learning communities. Currently, Dr. Kolodner is investigating how to help young people come to think of themselves as scientific reasoners. Dr. Kolodner’s research results have been widely published, including in Cognitive Science, Design Studies, and the Journal of the Learning Sciences.
Dr. Kolodner was founding Director of Georgia Tech’s EduTech Institute, served as coordinator of Georgia Tech’s Cognitive Science program for many years, and is founding Editor in Chief of the Journal of the Learning Sciences. She is a founder of the International Society for the Learning Sciences, and she served as its fi rst Executive Officer. She is a fellow of the American Association of Artificial Intelligence.
Joe Krajcik has focused on working with science teachers to reform science teaching practices (3-Dimensional Learning) to promote students' learning of science. He was head of The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Physical Science Design team and led the Physical Science Design Team for the Framework for K – 12 Science Education.
Brian J. Reiser worked with the National Research Council committee to develop the Framework for K-12 Science Education, which guided the design of The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
Vice President for Education and Children’s Programs at the National Geographic Society. Previously, he was the director of the Geographic Data in Education (GEODE) Initiative at Northwestern University, where he led the development of Planetary Forecaster and Earth Systems and Processes. Since 1992, Dr. Edelson has directed a series of projects exploring the use of technology as a catalyst for reform in science education and has led the development of a number of software environments for education. These include My World GIS, a geographic information system for inquiry-based learning, and WorldWatcher, a data visualization and analysis system for gridded geographic data. Dr. Edelson is the author of the high school environmental science text, Investigations in Environmental Science: A Case-Based Approach to the Study of Environmental Systems. His research has been widely published, including in the Journal of the Learning Sciences, the Journal of Research on Science Teaching, Science Educator, and The Science Teacher.
A Research Specialist in Science Education in the School of Education at the University of Michigan. She collaborates with teachers and students in elementary and middle school science classrooms around the United States who are implementing Project-Based Inquiry Science. Before joining the PBIScience team, Dr. Starr created professional learning experiences in science, math, and technology, designed to assist teachers in successfully changing their classroom practices to promote student learning from coherent inquiry experiences. She has developed instructional materials in several STEM areas, including nanoscale science education, has presented at national and regional teacher education and educational research meetings, and has served in a leadership role in the Michigan Science Education Leadership Association. Dr. Starr has authored articles and book chapters and has worked to improve elementary science teacher preparation through teaching science courses for pre-service teachers and acting as a consultant in elementary science teacher preparation. As part of the PBIScience team, Dr. Starr has played a lead role in making units cohere as a curriculum, in developing the framework for PBIScience Teacher’s Planning Guides, and in developing teacher professional development experiences and materials.
