Back in April, we hosted a Science Collaborative Workshop with 21 PreK-8 science teachers from 5 international schools. (Check out these previous posts if you’re interested in the planning process or my take-aways from organizing the event.) Since we all use the same AERO science standards, one of our goals was to work together to create standards-based science units that could be used as exemplars for other international schools. We nearly accomplished that in the span of the 3-day workshop, but making these units accessible (and legible) on a website took over a month of continued collaboration remotely (and a little bit of arm twisting on my part!)
I’m happy to announce that these exemplar science units are now published and freely available on our website www.AERO-Science.org. The seven units are:
- Forces and Motion (Lower elementary)
- Needs of Animals (Lower elementary)
- Landforms (Upper elementary)
- Electricity (Upper elementary)
- Chemical Reactions (Middle school)
- Plate Tectonics (Middle school)
- Cells (Middle school)
Please take a look and let me know what you think of our work! Each of the units was designed using the Understanding by Design approach and was a collaborative effort between teachers from different schools.
Next fall we will be holding a follow-up workshop at the NESA Fall Training Institute to continue and expand this collaborative project, so if you also teach at an AERO school, please join us!
My name is Nick Mitchell, and I love the art and science of teaching.
The Scientific Teacher 
Amazing that you were able to collaborate and come up with as many units as you did! This looks to be the start of a very useful and resourceful communication between your schools! Congratulations on establishing an avenue/framework for collaboration.