Course Materials

Making Sense of SCIENCE course materials support teacher learning for preservice and practicing teachers by strengthening teachers' content knowledge, pedagogical reasoning, and instructional skills. The comprehensive materials are available for K–12 teachers and cover earth, life, and physical science concepts. ​
PUBLISHED 5-DAY COURSES
Genes & Traits for teachers of grades 5–12 
Energy for teachers of grades 6–8 
Force & Motion for teachers of grades 6–8
Matter for teachers of grades 5–12 
2-DAY COURSE MATERIALS
Making Sense of SCIENCE has more than 30 2-day courses available, addressing a range of topics, including Weather & Climate, Soils, Force & Motion, Sound, and Planetary Systems.
ORDER FORM COMING SOON!
AVAILABLE 5-DAY COURSES
Organisms for teachers of grades K–8
Dynamic Earth for teachers of grades 4–5
Plate Tectonics for teachers of grades 5–12
Electric Circuits for teachers of grades 4–5
ORDER FORM COMING SOON!
Teacher Book
The Teacher Book is designed to support teacher learning during a teacher course. It includes teaching cases of actual classroom practice and comprehensive background information on the science concepts covered in the session. A key feature of the Teacher Book is the guided investigations that explore the science in conjunction with related literacy supports and teaching practices. 
Included in the Teacher Book is a school year follow-up component that supports self-directed teacher groups (a.k.a. professional learning communities) in making sense of student work. Each Teacher Book also comes with a task bank of formative assessments on concepts related to the core science topic. These components are available as stand-alone products as well, and can be purchased separately.
Teacher Books also come with a CD ROM that contains all the components of the school year follow up course, as well as digital files of the task bank and sets of sample student work to get your conversations started. 
TEACHER BOOK INTRODUCTION (PDF)
The Teacher Book introduction contains in-depth background information and a guided tour of the key components of the book.
Facilitator Guide
The Facilitator Guide provides scripted-yet-flexible procedures, in-depth background information (e.g., descriptions of the underlying science and common, yet incorrect, ideas), guiding questions and charts for each whole-group discussion, along with other tips for leading a successful course.
Each Facilitator Guide also comes with a CD ROM that contains digital files of all the Teacher Book components, handouts, and charts — everything needed to run a Teacher Course.  
FACILITATOR GUIDE INTRODUCTION (PDF)
The Facilitator Guide introduction contains in-depth background information and a guided tour of the book's key components.
Charts
Every discussion in Making Sense of SCIENCE courses is anchored by charts that are posted around the room. These charts serve as a visual archive of teachers' thinking and, throughout the course, are referred to and revised as participants gain a more complete and accurate understanding of the science. 
Making Sense of Student Work Protocol
​Formerly available only as part of the Making Sense of SCIENCE Teacher Book, the protocol is now available as a stand-alone product in both print and eBook editions.
Formative Assessment Task Banks
These task banks are designed to augment existing curriculum with assessment tasks that go beyond simple recall and encourage students to think and figure things out.
Sample Student Work Sets FREE!
Sets of authentic student work from a typical classroom — including students with varying levels of understanding and different mental models of a given concept.