IQWST Review Minnesota
IQWST Review Guide
Welcome Minnesota Review Committees!
On this page, you will discover the key highlights and core components of our middle school science program, IQWST, for Grades 6-8.
Developed using funds from the National Science Foundation, IQWST features:
IQWST Overview
All Hands-on Experiences are NOT Equal.
IQWST empowers students of all abilities by providing them with common experiences which enables them to debate, discuss, uncover scientific principles and key concepts, and arrive at key understandings regardless of background, ethnicity, or socioeconomics.
Hear what teachers and students think of IQWST.
Visit our Activate Learning Everywhere page and see how we have equipped teachers with the necessary resources for remote learning.
College Readiness Results After IQWST® Implementation
Scientifically Literate Students can
Read Science
Readings in the IQWST lessons provide opportunities for students to engage with science/informational text. Providing students with the ability to annotate text in the interactive digital edition helps to ensure students are reading critically.
Write Science
Claim, Evidence, Reasoning (CER) – CER initially developed by Activate Learning, ensures students' reasoning references their claim and evidence.
Speak Science
In IQWST, students often work collaboratively to engage in argument from evidence. Like a scientist, they site evidence to justify what they are saying. Their questions are used to drive the learning.
DO Science
IQWST provides teachers and students all of the materials needed to do all of the
3-dimensional (Science and Engineering Practices, Disciplinary Core Ideas, Cross-Cutting Concepts) investigations that are part of the program.
How IQWST Units Begin
IQWST Units Begin by Engaging Students with an Anchoring Phenomenon.
Have you ever smelled a scent that triggers a memory? Perhaps, pine needles make you think of the holiday season. The smell of coffee might make you think of morning. The smell in the air moments before it rains might make you think of a hot summer day when the heat is temporarily broken by a late afternoon thunderstorm. After hearing the answers from students, ask them if they smell a scent in the classroom for the first time. You’ve hidden a container of peppermint oil (provided with the IC1 kit) in the room prior to them entering. How did the smell travel from the container to their nose?
Modeling in IQWST
A model is used to represent an idea and explanation to describe, test, and predict abstract phenomena and design systems.
Models can be modified using evidence.
At the start of the IQWST unit, the student was asked to draw what the air in front of her nose looked like, including the odor from the freshly baked chocolate chip cookies in the classroom, if she could see them.
The same student’s model 3 weeks later. The student used evidence from the 3-dimensional investigations in IQWST to justify changes to the initial model and engage in argument with his classmates whose models differed. A final consensus model will be determined by, and agreed upon, by the class at the end of the unit.
Coherence in IQWST
IQWST lessons, units, and sequence were designed to be coherent. In contrast to asking students to learn discrete pieces of content, which they typically forget at the end of a unit, IQWST enables students to conceptually build knowledge over the course of lessons, units, and years of instruction.
Lesson Coherence
How Can I Smell Things From a Distance?
Lesson One
Lesson Two
Lesson Three & Beyond
Unit Structure
The Driving Question Board
Students Drive the Learning in IQWST.
All students contribute to the Driving Question Board (DQB) regardless of their academic ability. Students will be empowered and encouraged to drive the learning and will uncover the answers to their very own questions using evidence they collect during investigations.
