Yes, in the Teacher’s Edition and in the Interactive Digital Edition every single Section (activity) has an area called “Background Information”. This tells the teacher all the information they should be familiar with to teach that activity. Every Section also has the Crucial Physics or Crucial Chemistry listed for the teachers. There is also an area called “Teacher Prep” to help the teachers with specific information regarding how to best teach the concepts and content. The activities also have “Teaching Hints” and “Learning Outcomes” listed and assessment ideas for the teacher to employ. Also, there are “Teacher Videos” for the teachers to watch prior to teaching the activity that give them hints, ideas and a close look at major concepts involved in the activity.

The book is designed to be used every day but has the flexibility to fit into your schedule. In the books are labs, concept development, metacognition, elicitation of prior knowledge, reflection pieces, practice questions and problems, and then a summative quiz. The books are taught in all capacities - 40 min periods all the way to block scheduling. The students are doing the labs, learning concepts, content, and vocabulary so they can do the chapter project (Chapter Challenge) at the end of the chapter.

Each unit (Chapter) was designed to be independent of the other chapters. You do not need the antecedent knowledge of a previous chapter to be successful in a subsequent chapter. You can pick and choose the chapters that best align with your district's scope & sequence. Most of the lessons are designed (if followed with fidelity) for several days. All lessons start out with the elicitation of prior knowledge followed by an exploration. Then all lessons go into an explain phase where students have a chance to examine elaborations, extensions, and examples and connect the activity to their everyday life. Then there is a chance for some practice and application of what they just learned via in class assignments or homework.

All the Sections closely follow the 7E Learning Cycle. The labs always start off with an Investigation or Exploration. This usually will take a day or two to complete. Next would be the concept development phase via peer teaching and group work. We want students to be able to apply what they have learned, not just parrot it right back to the teacher vocally or simply memorize answers just for the sake of passing a quiz. Students work together in groups to solve most of the problems. By doing this they are honing their “21st” Century Skills and learning to work together and share their achievements. Students are actively engaged in learning science. They are not thriving in passivity in these classes. Teachers are more like facilitators, coaches, helping support the students in their learning endeavor. The end of each Chapter culminates in a Chapter Challenge (Project). Every group uses their collective intelligence, creativity, and imagination to solve the Challenge. There is not just one way for this to happen. This is the beauty of Project-Based learning.

Yes, there are several strategies employed in this endeavor. Every single section(activity) has its own table with specific information that identifies learning issues in the classroom. The table also gives the location of the issue within each component of a section and recommends instructional and management strategies for helping students compensate for their difficulties. These strategies are especially useful for students on IEPs or 504 plans, or students that don’t have English as a primary language. Compensation techniques have been labeled “Accommodations,” and the teaching of skills has been labeled “Augmentation." The advantages of augmentation are that students begin to develop the skills they need to learn independently.

Extensions have been provided in the lesson under the heading of Inquiring Further. Anchoring tasks are those that can be done independently by everyone. For example, highlighting important aspects of the Physics Talk by creating an outline or recording new vocabulary and researching its meaning could serve as anchoring tasks for this lesson. Accommodations for students have the advantage of allowing them to move along with the group using a teacher-provided scaffold. If students find it difficult to follow directions, you could place students with poor reading skills with other students who are better in that area. On the “IDE” platform, the readings of each content piece are on a recording for the student to listen to as they read along with the recording.