Science and Technology for Children - STC

STC Curriculum Materials

Series Overview

STC Series Overview

Science and Technology for Children™ (STC) is an innovative hands-on science program for children in grades one through six developed by the National Science Resources Center (NSRC). The 24 units of the STC program, four for each grade level, are designed to provide all students with stimulating experiences in the life, earth, and physical sciences and technology while simultaneously developing their critical-thinking and problem-solving skills.

The STC units provide children with the opportunity to learn age-appropriate concepts and skills and to acquire scientific attitudes and habits of mind. In the primary grades, children begin their study of science by observing, measuring, and identifying properties. Then they move on through a progression of experiences that culminate in grade six with the design of controlled experiments.

Scientific Reasoning Skills	Grade
Scientific Reasoning Skills	1	2	3	4	5	6
Observing, Measuring, and Identifying Properties	*	*	*	*	*	*
Seeking Evidence Recognizing Patterns and Cycles		*	*	*	*	*
Identifying Cause and Effect Extending the Senses				*	*	*
Designing and Conducting Controlled Experiments						*

The Learning Cycle

The "Focus-Explore-Reflect-Apply" learning cycle incorporated into the STC units is based on research findings about children’s learning. These findings indicate that knowledge is actively constructed by each learner and that children learn science best in a hands-on experimental environment where they can make their own discoveries. The steps of the learning cycle are as follows:

Focus: Explore and clarify the ideas that children already have about the topic.
Explore: Enable children to engage in hands-on exploration of the objects, organisms, and science phenomena to be investigated.
Reflect: Encourage children to discuss their observations and to reconcile their ideas.
Apply: Help children discuss and apply their new ideas in new situations.

The learning cycle in STC units gives students opportunities to develop increased understanding of important scientific concepts and to develop positive attitudes toward science.

The STC units provide teachers with a variety of strategies with which to assess student learning. The STC units also offer teachers opportunities to link the teaching of science with the development of skills in mathematics, language arts, and social studies. In addition, the STC units encourage the use of cooperative learning to help students develop the valuable skill of working together.

Research and Development Phase

In the extensive research and development process used with all STC units, scientists and educators, including experienced elementary school teachers, act as consultants to teacher-developers, who research, trial teach, and write the units. The process begins with the developer researching the unit’s content and pedagogy. Then, before writing the unit, the developer trial teaches lessons in public school classrooms in the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area. Once a unit is written, the NSRC evaluates it effectiveness with children by field-testing it nationally in ethnically diverse urban, rural, and suburban public schools. At the field-testing stage, the assessment sections in each unit are also evaluated by the Program Evaluation and Research Group of Lesley College, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The final editions of the units reflect the incorporation of teacher and student field-test feedback and of comments on accuracy and soundness from the leading scientists and science educators who serve on the STC Advisory Panel.

Project Support

The STC project would not have been possible without the generous support of numerous federal agencies, private foundations, and corporations. Supporters include the National Science Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Education, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Dow Chemical Company Foundation, the Amoco Foundation, Inc., E.I. duPont de Nemours & Company, and the Hewlett-Packard Company.

Ordering Information

The components of an STC unit are a teacher’s guide, a student activity book with simple instructions and illustrations, and a kit of materials. With the purchase of an STC unit for which a Discovery Deck is available, one deck is included with the kit.

The STC units are published and distributed by Carolina Biological Supply Company, Burlington, NC. For ordering information, please call (800) 334-5551. For technical support, please call (800) 227-1150.