In San Francisco, as we move towards project based learning on some of our subjects, science lending itself most readily to it. We embedded the Five E architecture to the curriculum, which gave it a much more bite-size feel. We knew that what we needed was a through line through the curriculum that the students would start to recognize and start to build upon.

We really think that the Five E instruction model matches the needs of our students that it really elevates the importance of learning for some of our English language learners. It makes things more digestible for students across the board. All of the learning that’s happening, is happening in subunits that go from the engaged through the evaluate.

So, the first E is the engage. Students are given a certain phenomenon that they might not know about. They get to be immersed in that thing. You’re gonna get a set of cards that has a whole bunch of information on it. And you have to sort through whether that’s climate or weather. But you gotta do it as a group. After that is the explore. Students get to experiment. They get to use and utilize different tools to try to investigate the thing that they were checking out in the engage. Would anyone like to read the explore?

In the previous lesson, you thought about your personal carbon footprint. Today, you will analyze data about the carbon footprint of the school that students–

That gives the students a lot of like hands on activities and experiences with a particular phenomenon. After that is the explain. With the explain, students really focus on a lot of the literacy pieces of the science. This one’s gonna require you to do a little bit of, of processing of the information that you’ve already gathered. They get to exchange information. They get to extract information from each other. After that, you have the elaborate, which they then take what they learned from the engage, the explore, and then explain, and they elaborate on that. And after that, is the evaluate. That lets us as the teachers know where they’re at. Whether they’re understanding it. Whether they’re not. What about you guys? Do you guys see that as well?

When we embedded the five E’s in this curriculum, what we found is as a byproduct is that the teachers, as they provide us feedback, they are very specific about did it actually engage the students in the way that we wanted to. Did the students explore the topic in the way that they wanted to? Did the evaluation of work actually show that the students were accessing grade level work?

With the Five E instructional model, we’re seeing more students getting their hands wet. We’re seeing more students contribute ideas. We’re seeing more students participate in many different ways. (children chattering loudly)

Aptos Middle School