Here at Joseph Neal STEAM Academy, we are excited to present our students with the best in STEM educational programs known as FOSS. Here is some information directly from the website.

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Students who use FOSS will:

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• Participate in exciting science learning opportunities regularly

• Use science notebooks, starting in kindergarten

• Engage in engineering activities

• Go to the schoolyard to apply the indoor learning to a real-world setting

• Utilize technology to enhance the science learning

• Engage with literacy supports that deepen science understanding

• Think critically about what they know, what they think they know, and what they need help better understanding
   

What is FOSS?

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FOSS (Full Option Science System) is a research-based science curriculum for grades K-8 developed at the Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California, Berkeley. FOSS has evolved from a philosophy of teaching and learning that has guided the development of successful active-learning science curricula for more than 40 years. The FOSS Program bridges research and practice by providing tools and strategies to engage students and teachers in enduring experiences that lead to deeper understanding of the natural and designed worlds.

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Science is a creative and analytic enterprise, made active by our human capacity to think. Scientific knowledge advances when scientists observe phenomena, think about how they relate to what is known, test their ideas in logical ways, and generate explanations that integrate the new information into understanding of the natural and designed worlds. Engineers apply that understanding to solve real-world problems. Thus, the scientific enterprise is both what we know (content knowledge) and how we come to know it (science practices). Science is a discovery activity, a process for producing new knowledge.

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The best way for students to appreciate the scientific enterprise, learn important scientific and engineering concepts, and develop the ability to think well is to actively participate in scientific practices through their own investigations and analyses. The FOSS Program was created specifically to provide students and teachers with meaningful experiences through engaging with this active participation in scientific practices.

Find out more about FOSS Next Generation and see snippets of FOSS at work in different classrooms in the following video: