Science

Primary Unit A, B, and C science is primarily taught at Shelly Ridge, a natural setting ideally suited to the learning needs and styles of students aged 6 through 8. The opportunities to collect rocks or leaves, listen to bird songs, or explore the stream pique children’s sense of wonder and curiosity for the natural world. Science at Shelly Ridge allows children to develop important life-long skills, such as asking meaningful questions, making careful observations, finding ways to test their ideas, and sharing their thoughts and observations with others. Through hands-on experiences, the children create meaning, challenge their misconceptions, and build on their previous understanding. We guide students to be thoughtful and responsible stewards of the environment.

The Primary Unit visits Shelly Ridge once a week in the fall and spring. Classroom lessons prepare the children for their Shelly Ridge day and help them reflect on their work there. Four main ecological concepts inform the Primary Unit A, B, and C science curriculum – change, cycles, diversity, and adaptations. Two additional concepts, interdependence and energy flow and matter, are secondary. Some units of study lend themselves to teaching certain concepts more deeply than others. For example, birds have many readily observable adaptations (such as flight and nest building), and the life-cycle stages of insects are distinguishing characteristics.

An individual lesson often focuses on one particular concept but may also include others. For example, during a geology unit at Shelly Ridge, rocks were collected, observed, described, sorted, and shared among the students. In a lesson about erosion, students observed the effects of abrasion on rocks (change, cycles.) The rocks were then brought back to school and observed with a magnifying lens (diversity).

Shelly Ridge not only provides us with the space to conduct scientific inquiry but the latitude to grow as friends and colleagues. Fort building is of keen interest to our young learners who build fantastic spaces out of natural materials, play out issues of inclusion and exclusion, and explore the complexities of friendship groups. Play continues to be an important aspect of our Shelly Ridge curriculum and enhances the work we do in the classrooms.

We also integrate science into our thematic studies whenever possible. For example, when the all-school theme was Ben Franklin: One Person Can Make a Difference, the children learned about Franklin’s discoveries and inventions related to electricity, bifocals, and the Franklin stove. During our study of ancient Egypt, children learned about the science involved in building pyramids and mummification.

In the winter, the Primary Unit sometimes partners with the Middle School for science activities. Sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students take a mini-course in which they develop and teach science lessons to the younger students.

Throughout the year, the students keep a science journal, where they write entries and make drawings that describe science activities and where they learn the difference between subjective and objective writing. Students are guided toward specific descriptions, such as “The rock is smooth and has red stripes,” rather than making statements, such as “It is pretty.” Students learn to use magnifiers, pipettes, and microscopes.

Field trips and guest speakers provide a first-hand view of the concepts and skills that we are investigating. During our geology unit, we might visit Crystal Cave in Berks County to view the various cave formations and to pan for gemstones; a field trip to the Wagner Free Institute of Science in Center City offers a first-hand view of an extensive display of rocks and minerals; and speakers might visit our classrooms to talk about fossils, coal mining, or jewelry making.