Phenomena-Based 3D Learning STEM Curriculum
STEMscopes was born in the lab and is continuously refined in the
classroom, combining the career and college success expertise of Rice
University with the pedagogical and instructional know-how of practicing
teachers.
“By Teachers for Teachers” is not a slogan—it’s a fact.
Demystifying NGSS
Why Teachers Prefer STEMscopes
The Next Generation Science Standards are complex and hard to unpack, but STEMscopes New Mexico 3D’s award-winning curriculum design and embedded professional development make it easy for new and veteran teachers alike to teach to the rigor and depth demanded by these new standards.
Built on a digital platform, enhanced by print, and brought to life in hands-on kits, STEMscopes New Mexico 3D employs 3D learning to comprehensively address the Disciplinary Core Ideas, Crosscutting Concepts, and Science and Engineering Practices through the student-driven inquiry of phenomena across flexible storylines.
STEMscopes New Mexico 3D is granularly aligned to the NM STEM Ready! Science Standards, combining the NGSS in its entirety with the six New Mexico specific standards.
Available in Spanish for K-8.
Our Core Principles for STEM Curriculum
- Results-Driven
- Teacher-Friendly
- Low-Cost
- Engagement-Sparking
- Feedback-Centered
STEMscopes New Mexico 3D Features at a Glance
- Hands-on Lessons
- Downloadable Resources
- Embedded PD & Facilitation Resources
- Standards Alignment Tools
- Wide Variety of Assessments
Coherent Lesson Flow
Coherence means that student learning modules—units (bundles), chapters (scopes), and lessons (hands-on Explores)—logically flow between one another and also build upon each other to form sequenced missions. Often publishers misrepresent coherence to mean teaching by numbered steps. Coherence in the New Mexico NGSS allows students to explore a variety of phenomena and the ability to link the application of the three dimensions to real-world phenomena using prior knowledge and new understandings and abilities.
STEMscopes New Mexico 3D provides two levels of coherence:
Each STEMscopes chapter (scope) is built on the 5E lesson model—Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate. Lesson elements within the scope are scaffolded to build upon previous elements’ three-dimensional learning, allowing both a gradual release of control from teacher-led to student-led learning. Along the way, teachers have access to unique intervention and acceleration lessons to differentiate for all the unique learners in the classroom.
Each bundle (unit) begins with an anchoring phenomena event, anchoring phenomena driving question, and a mission action plan (performance expectation). Together, these drive the instructional focus of the scopes (chapter) within a bundle. Scopes are tied to investigative and everyday phenomena, forming a bridge that builds students’ knowledge progressively towards the bundle's anchoring phenomena and culminates in the bundle's mission action plan (performance expectation).
Experience Award‑Winning Curriculum Design
Bundles
Storylines help students jump from one area of content to another in a logical flow. Given the distinct dynamic of PreK-12 classrooms across the country, STEMscopes New Mexico 3D offers pre-made bundles and enables teachers to create their own. By allowing teachers to select their own sequence, they can create their own bundles and storylines that are custom-tailored to their classroom dynamic so that “jumps” from content to content are not so much leaps as a continuous flow based on student-driven interest and inquiry.
Phenomena
STEMscopes New Mexico 3D is filled with phenomena, from investigative labs to Student Wondering of Phenomena to hook activities. Phenomena are infused into all STEMscopes activities from beginning to end in the 5E+IA lesson model. Phenomena are used by teachers to help students develop inquiry when investigating phenomena of their own interest in the content area. Teachers can then use the student-driven phenomena as anchor phenomena to connect the lesson to real-life issues students are passionate about.
Three-Dimensional Learning
STEMscopes New Mexico 3D is built on Three-Dimensional Learning—crosscutting connections, discipline-specific core ideas, and science and engineering practices.
All three dimensions are seamlessly woven together in lesson activities so that students come to understand the Next Generation Science Standards not as discrete facts and skills, but as the process of applying science in our lives.
This type of learning means that students can interact with science as scientists themselves, combining personal interests, a spirit of inquiry, and the overarching concepts that govern how we understand the natural world.
Blended Learning Throughout
We believe in teacher expertise and choice to provide the best possible student learning experience. Our blended learning platform offers teachers modular ways to teach—use our digital platform to assign activities directly to students, enhance literacy with our print, and make hands-on lab set up a snap with our intuitively packaged kits.
- Any device, any time
- Google Classroom compatible
- Updated continuously at no extra cost
- Support Literacy
- Consumable and hard cover book options
- Enhance Inquiry, Engage
- Organized by Activity
- Inexpensive to refill materials within kits / Notforced to buy new kits for refill
How STEMscopes is Built
Rooted in the Scientifically Proven 5E Model PLUS Intervention and Acceleration.
STEMscopes pedagogy has its roots in Bybee’s 5E model, Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences, and the back‑flipped classroom wherein students learn by doing and experiencing rather than passively observing.
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Research
STEMscopes case studies are longitudinal in nature and focus on real classrooms. Leveraging thousands of schools in a district at once, time and time again, STEMscopes has demonstrated its ability to improve student academic outcomes and dramatically boost performance of ELL students and other subpopulation groups.
View Case Studies