All three programs have arts projects, aligned to California State Standards for Visual and Performing Arts and these appear in most other States’ requirements, and nasen approved libraries with projects for children with learning disabilities.  Parent guides are included explaining the shift into NGSS and providing samples of TPS content. One project is proposed to open school each year; Muscle Karts; a truly innovative K-12 NGSS and Common Core Math aligned full school project to inspire students to want to learn.

TPS is providing materials for after school clubs, specialist tools to suit student’s needs and a vast amount of data and photographs to use as you will or for which we have provided tips in the combined textbooks.

Here are some of the key libraries. Note that assessments, visual and tactile appear in the combined textbooks in each component area and in all STEM and arts projects. The assessment tools noted below are those we use daily and for test preparation.

1. Interactive Assessment Tool – interactive and by PE and including 4-point rubrics
2. Focus tutorial – textbook content created in a visual format for RTI students
3. Assessment Generator – by PE and level of student skill
4. Safety and Reasoning Library housing student and teacher journals which include problem solving and safety, together with a focus on recycling materials in school
5. CCD – photographs, data/case studies and fact sheets are housed in this library together with an Information and Support area. Photographs are provided for all seven cross cutting sections and are themed. Advice for how to use them appears in the teacher combined textbook but you can also set your own assignments using the photographs. Data has been researched and then provided for key science topics such as Earthquakes; Sunset and Sunrise times; Organ Donation. Links are provided to copyrighted websites with interesting case studies and those that were copyright free are provided in PDF format with full credit/citations to the owner. Fact sheets include information for many scientists from all walks of life, plants, animals.
6. STEAM -Science/ELA/Math – includes nasen approved projects for special education, arts projects for afterschool; STEM Math focused projects to help improve math skills (TPS is an adopted K-8 Mathematics supplier in California); Critical Thinking in Science and Olympic exercises
7. Advanced and Gifted library -includes iMaST STEM learning cycles x 200, built by CeMaST, Illinois State University and advanced SMILE – a series of advanced science experiments with matching math, science and ELA assessments including self-assessment
8. Reteach Library – housing SMILE – a series of below and at grade science experiments with matching math, science and ELA assessments including self-assessment
9. NEST Family movies – wonderful cartoons about famous scientists, Presidents, inventors and explorers
10. ALASKA suite – DVD, CD, Textbook and workbook including content about living organisms in Alaska which are made available so that students make comparisons about their local area to the rest of California and to this wonderful contrasting State
11. Digital Frog – award winning environmental software tool which is not only about digital dissection and comparison of human to frog cells but also includes tours of varied ecosystems
12. Team Up – a great way to have students improve their math skills – a board game aligned to Common Core State Standards for Mathematics
13. Really Good Stuff Kits – excellent support for ELL students; banded grade kits (K-2, 3-5, 6-8) with specialist tools for improving ELA skills; some products available in Spanish
14. Archway – a full phonics program in a small book with a DVD and sets of researched based cards which is included for families to use who speak no English or can be used in classrooms where one mentor is assigned to one or small groups of students
15. TPS offers full school year 24-hour helpline support, summer training and workshops for teachers and parents.
16. TPS also provide materials kits at varying levels to suit each district. There are four kit levels available: Economy; Base; Base +; Deluxe. TPS will also build bespoke kits where economically viable.
17. STEAM professional development can be booked, at an additional cost, for your whole staff. The Summer training day we provide is within the cost of the per student pricing. Additional training is chargeable and the workshops available appear in the Information and Support area within the CCD.

• Students practice science through processes used by scientists and engineers. Each segment begins with an assessment, a vignette and has an anchoring phenomena-based STEM project
• Taps into, develops and refines students’ innate inclinations to look for patterns and cause-and-effect relationships
• Provides teachers with the information they need to confidently guide students
• Students are invited to explore concepts by making observations of natural phenomena and by developing simple models of systems or phenomena that can be used to test their ideas
• Teachers circulate among student groups listening to conversations to assess understanding, asking probing questions and offering assistance primarily in the form of guiding questions to facilitate authentic “aha moments” in which students achieve true understanding.
• Teachers lead students in processing new information to create knowledge and to make connections among different concepts
• There is a high STEM project focus in middle school grades in this program. The STEM project guide content is focused upon and the content in the combined textbooks is secondary.

We still make available and propose that you use vignettes, STEM and Arts projects, Natural Science lesson plans, but STEM is the key focus. The program is underpinned with a strategy of teaching science, literacy, math and arts and history at the same time. You will find, for each chapter, a Word Wall themed activity reader book section, Amelia Rose cross curricula family section and key science words appear in these sections. Science glossary cards are provided showing the history of the word and syllables break down. A themed reader activity book is provided for each grade.

Within this program, we provide digital access to our topical combined textbooks for reteach or for teachers and parents who perhaps do not wish to leap into an integrated program but reside in a district that has chosen preferred integrated.

The program content for the expository text in The Science was written by a different author K-5 than for STEAM Exploration. This program also has vignettes, STEM and Arts projects, Natural Science lesson plans, Word Wall, Amelia Rose, and themed reader activity books but the pacing is more balanced between the components.

The program content is built to follow the performance expectations throughout the school year. TPS does use the STEM projects to introduce by discipline teachers gently into the world of NGSS. However, the focus is on the combined textbook content. This program does not have vignettes. It has more Science Is A Verb, fifty-minute labs than the other programs. This component was created by professors to ensure that teachers who are nervous of science can deliver the NGSS content, with confidence. The traditional lessons and investigations are extensive.