Community Waters, a 4th grade science unit, involves students in asking questions and solving real community environmental problems through engineering. In the process, students deepen their science knowledge, come to view science as relevant to their lives and future, and engage in science in socially relevant and transformative ways.
Designed in partnership with Seattle Public Schools, the unit engages students in science and engineering to understand and develop a solution to a real-world stormwater runoff problem in their community. Incorporating Next Generation Science Standards* and the Ambitious Science Teaching (AST) Framework, the Unit has three parts:
*Next Generation Science Standards is a registered trademark of Achieve. Neither Achieve nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of this product, and do not endorse it.
Our Unit was designed, tested, and refined with the following goals:
What students learn by the end of the unit:
What students learn by the end of the unit:
Community Waters is one of only four elementary school units and 12 total K-12 science lessons/units nationwide to be highlighted as an example of high quality Next Generation Science Standards curriculum design. The 2018-edition of the Community Waters Science Unit was reviewed by Achieve’s EQuIP Peer Review Panel for Science (PRP) and received the second-highest rating possible. View the rating here.
We are continually refining the unit and the feedback we received from the EQuIP panel will be helpful for future revisions. We plan on resubmitting an updated edition of Community Waters in the future with the goal of securing EQuIP’s highest rating.
Interested in teaching Community Waters in your classroom? We provide teachers with content, direct support, and professional development, and look forward to continuing this work in Seattle Public Schools and beyond.
Teachers rate student engagement with Community Waters as “very high,” with an average rating of 4.5 out of 5
The fourth-graders at John Rogers Elementary School in North Seattle had found their problem site: the parking lot behind their school. Just one rainfall could turn it into a giant pool of water.
–Aaron Kinion, Teacher at Broadview-Thomson K-8
IslandWood acknowledges that we live and work on the ancestral land of the Coast Salish people, who have been stewards of this region's land and waters since time immemorial, and who continue to protect these lands and waters for future generations, as promised by the Point Elliott Treaty of 1855, the Treaty of Point No Point of 1855, and the Treaty of Medicine Creek of 1854.
While the majority of our work takes place on Suquamish (suq̀ʷabš) and Duwamish (dxʷdɐwʔabʃ) land, we also conduct programs on the land of the Snohomish (sduhúbʃ), Puyallup (spuyaləpabš), Muckleshoot (buklshuhls), Skokomish (sqoqc’bes), and S’Klallam (nəxʷsƛ̕ay̕əm) peoples.
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