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FOSS MIDDLE SCHOOL PROGRAM COMPONENTS

FOSS Middle School is a general science curriculum for students and their teachers in grades 6–8. The curriculum is organized into topical courses under three strands: Earth and Space Science, Life Science, and Physical Science and Technology. Each course is an in-depth unit requiring 9–12 weeks to teach.

The Diversity of Life course is designed for students in grades 6–7 and includes the following interconnected components:

A detailed Diversity of Life Teacher Guide in a three-ring binder, including overview, materials preparation, goals and objectives, at-a-glance investigation chart, science background, lesson plans, transparency masters, teacher answer sheets, assessments with masters and scoring guides, CD-ROM user guide, and references (books, multimedia, websites). The chapters of the teacher guide are separated by tabs for easy use. The Diversity of Life Course has ten investigations, each with two or three parts. Kit of student laboratory equipment packaged for classes of 32 students each. Kits are available for one class of 32 students, or for five classes of 32 students. Classroom packages, with enough materials for an additional class of 32 students are aslo available. The kits also contain class resource materials such as videos and posters, and a set of overhead transparencies for the investigations.

FOSS Diversity of Life Resources book containing images, data, and readings for each student. FOSS Diversity of Life Lab Notebook containing student sheets and organizers for the investigations. This can be a consumable book for each student or serve as a set of duplication masters for the teacher. Student sheets are three-hole punched and perforated so students can remove a page to put it in a binder. The backs of some of the pages are printed with a grid where students can take notes, illustrate organisms, or graph results. The FOSS Diversity of Life CD-ROM for use as a whole-class demonstration tool as well as an individual or small- group interactive instructional tool. The CD-ROM is woven into the instruction and is linked to each investigation through the built-in Teacher Guide.