Science in the Classroom
St. John’s is updating our science curriculum for the 2022-2023 school year. This curriculum update is financially supported by the Catholic Schools Center of Excellence and Minndependent. Our new curriculum, Amplify, is extremely hands on. Students will explore experiments where they practice and observe. These science units are deep dives. Students stay on a topic for an entire trimester and broaden their knowledge of that topic. For example first grade will spend an entire trimester learning about Animal and Plant Defenses. By thinking about similar topics for an extended time, students can make more connections. Amplify also involves a strong interdisciplinary component. Students will be asked to engage reading, writing, and math data skills with their science work.
STEM class
St. John’s receive STEM class twice per week. Preschoolers work on small engineering projects such as building catapaults. K-4 students learn coding skills and program robots. They also work on a variety of engineering units where they learn about a skill and then practice that skill. For example: students learn the properties that make bridges strong and then build their own bridges and test to see how much weight they hold. Other units include building parachutes, designing circuits systems, improving play-dough, simple machines, and harnessing the wind.
