Today I am excited to introduce you to one of the most robust at-home science curriculum packages for ages 5-12. The SymmetryLearningSystems Entry Level + Level One Science Curriculum makes learning science fun with engaging activities delivered to your home! These Discovery Boxes come with everything you need to get your little scientist excited and to keep them engaged and learning in the world of science!
So, who is SymmetryLearningSystems?
SymmetryLearningSystems is a comprehensive early learning to middle school science curriculum developed by experienced scientists who utilize research-based teaching methods to align learning with the ongoing development of the brain.
The curriculum leverages the brain’s natural processes of information processing, model creation, problem-solving, and learning. This unique educational approach establishes a fundamental and critical groundwork for organizing and facilitating learning experiences.
The organization develops tools based on well-established, brain-based foundational approaches, aiming to equip all students with the necessary resources for lifelong learning. Their efforts span across various stages of development, from early childhood to adult education.
The curriculum offered encompasses multiple levels, starting with the Let’s Learn With Science Curriculum for early learners and extending through middle school with the Segments Curriculum. These curricula establish a structured framework for assessing and organizing thinking, enabling individuals of all abilities, including those with learning disabilities, to evaluate, organize, and comprehend knowledge across the educational spectrum.
Furthermore, the organization provides training to concerned parents and professionals in the principles of systems thinking. This training enhances the effectiveness of teaching, ensuring long-lasting and transferable learning outcomes.
Their mission is to address the issue of diluted and simplified science curricula, as well as the declining level of scientific competence in the United States. Their objective is to empower individuals by providing comprehensive education to students from early stages of development through adolescence, fostering lifelong learning and creativity.
SymmetryLearningSystems is designed to equip students, including those with developmental disabilities, with the skills to assess, organize, and comprehend a wide range of concepts, content, and processes across the educational spectrum. Additionally, the program offers training to families and learners, enabling parents and professionals to apply principles rooted in systems science. This training enhances the effectiveness of their teaching methods and supports their ability to provide quality education to their children.
Why we are so excited about this Science Curriculum:
The Science Curriculum from SymmetryScience™ is a Story-Based Program and includes an entire academic year of learning. It is full, complete, and very well laid out so that it is easy to use and feels robust. It feels like there are so many science kits these days and they are all small boxes that don’t actually teach anything. This is completely different and so refreshing! It is research-based and very well laid out, and includes so much material!
What do they offer?
SymmetryLearning.com offers the Entry Level Discovery Box, Level 1, the Combo Box (Entry Level + Level 1), and they have more options coming soon! Let’s dive right in so you can see for yourself why these Discovery Boxes are so amazing.
The program places emphasis on developing a solid understanding of how attributes or properties of objects and systems can be utilized to sort, classify, and identify patterns. This knowledge is further generalized by introducing a common language known as the Language of Patterns. The Language of Patterns enables students to explore, describe, measure, analyze, and construct models across a wide range of subjects. Proficiency in pattern analysis is an essential tool for fostering critical thinking skills and developing science literacy.
Throughout the curriculum, students engage in the exploration of everyday patterns within the context of color, texture, rhythm, sounds, rocks, animals, plants, letters, numbers, and their personal world. The program also extends their observation abilities by introducing the classification of materials based on “unseen properties” such as magnetism, broadening the scope of their observations.
Each activity within the curriculum is supported by a comprehensive Teacher Manual, providing an overview, specific learning outcomes, lesson planning guidance for instructors, and tools for summative and authentic assessment of the child’s performance. To facilitate the implementation of lessons, a dedicated Discovery Center is provided, which contains all the necessary resources, optimizing time for parents/instructors and thereby enhancing the child’s learning success.
Books that will be included in your Entry Level + Level One Discovery Center:
A Teacher Prepares: From Brain to Science Literacy
This book provides the background for the SymmetryScienceTM teacher to become comfortable with the Language of Patterns, the Assessment Framework Design Method, the Neurobiology of Education, and the Language of Patterns that underlie the teaching method.
Entry Level Teacher Manual
The Teacher Manual is organized so that each unit contains overall learning objectives that are consistent with National and State Science Standards and Frameworks.
The 80-page manual contains detailed preparation notes and lesson plans for each lesson in the curriculum. Each Unit covers a series of related topics. The Topic outlines include an overview of the teaching content and background scientific content to enhance your own knowledge. This information is not intended for teaching to students at this level. Still, it is intended to provide you, the teacher, comfort in answering questions the students might pose as they engage in the explorations.
Marty’s Miraculous Monday: The Student Reader
A short, beautifully illustrated book that introduces Mary and Marty to the student. It describes Marty’s one-week journey of discovery. Guided by his new friend Mary, Marty uncovers a new way of seeing the world. He discovers a new awareness of systems and patterns that can be used over a lifetime and applied to any domain of knowledge…Just as Mary befriends and guides Marty on the first Monday in Marty’s Miraculous Monday, so will Mary and Marty guide your children to becoming systems-savvy scientific thinkers.
What is in the Discovery Center?
- Animal cards
- Alcohol wipes (10)
- Embroidery hoop
- Fabric Set: 5 rainbow colors, 5 types of fabric
- Glue stick
- Language of Patterns labels: element (40), rule (4), background (4)
- Magnetic letters
- Magnifying lens
- Measuring scoop
- Mini-light
- Paper Set (5 each): cardboard, filter paper, glossy photo paper, paper towel, newsprint paper, tracing paper, wax paper
- Pattern blocks
- Pattern Making Kit: colored card stock strips (14 each color), sandpaper strips, 8 ½ x 11” (7) background sheets: white (4), black (2)
- Permanent marker
- Quickcard Set: colors (7), flags (20), flowers (20), birds (20)
- Rock Pattern Set (5 each): beach pebbles, granite, lava, marble, Mexican river rock
- Sandpaper Set (5 each grit): 320, 120, 100, 80
- Shape sorting set
- Slide whistle
- Sorting rings (6)
- Scissors
- Water Circus Kit: 2 oz cup with lids (2), 3 oz cup
- Web Making Kit: spider, yarn 10 yard
Want to see everything included? This video shows how extensive the curriculum and materials are!
SymmetryLearningSystems Discovery Box – Level 1
In the Level One curriculum, the characters Mary and Marty engage in a pen pal relationship, mirroring the historical correspondence between Ben Franklin and Polly Stevenson. The primary goal of the Entry Level curriculum was to familiarize early science learners with the structure of patterns and instill an appreciation for the systematic exploration of patterns. To achieve this, students were introduced to the core critical-thinking language of SymmetryLearningSciences, known as the Language of Patterns.
In Let’s Learn With Science: Level One, this initial introduction is further developed by guiding each student in structuring observations using the Language of Patterns as a scientific systems language. The curriculum provides a series of graphical organizers to facilitate this process. Now, students are encouraged to describe their experiences in the natural world by applying their knowledge of basic patterns. They learn to utilize properties, grouping, sorting, and patterning as scientific tools to classify various elements through active exploration and experimentation within their own surroundings. The topics covered in this level include the human senses and the physical properties of objects, the properties of plants and animals, as well as the properties of rocks and soil. The curriculum encompasses 31 Activities, each designed to span 1-3 teaching sessions.
Books that will be included in your Entry Level + Level One Discovery Center:
Marty’s Miraculous Monday: The Student Reader
A short, beautifully illustrated book that introduces Mary and Marty to the student. It describes Marty’s one-week journey of discovery. Guided by his new friend Mary, Marty uncovers a new way of seeing the world. He discovers a new awareness of systems and patterns that can be used over a lifetime and applied to any domain of knowledge… Just as Mary befriends and guides Marty on the first Monday in Marty’s Miraculous Monday, so will Mary and Marty guide your children to becoming systems-savvy scientific thinkers.
Teacher Manual Let’s Learn With Science Level One: Describing My World
This 200-page teacher instruction manual contains the curriculum and lesson plans for the Level One program. A complete set of detailed preparation notes and lesson plans are included in the Manual, as well as hints for guiding the student and some of the pitfalls the student may encounter. It outlines the overall learning objectives of the Level One curriculum in three central Units with 31 Activities that contain 58 hands-on teaching sessions. These activities are designed to take 9-18 months to complete–depending on the student’s pace and capacity.
Student Science Journal-Let’s Learn With Science Level One: Describing My World
The Student Science Journal is a portfolio in which the early learners can organize and express their experimental experiences that will contribute to writing in a clear, organized, and concise fashion (scientific expression). This format is intended to help support the student’s developing ability to read and write. In addition, this Journal contains the pen-pal letters that Mary has written to Marty.
Student Science Journal Teacher Answer Key-Let’s Learn With Science Level One: Describing My World
This Journal is an annotated Student Science Journal that provides the instructor with the full text of the Student’s Science Journal. It also provides the answers to all the questions and data for each experimental activity.
What is in the Discovery Center?
- Animal cards
- Energy from the Sun Kit [AA battery, alligator lip cables 4” (3), Solar Fan Mini STEM kit (battery holder, fans (2), motor, solar cell, switch)]
- Fabric Set: 5 rainbow colors, 5 types of fabric
- Glue stick
- Language of Patterns labels: element (40), rule (4), background (4)
- Magnetic Rock Kit [lodestone (magnetite), paper clips (6), wand magnet]
- Marty’s Day Cards
- Paper Set [5 each: cardboard, filter paper, glossy newsprint paper, paper towel, photo paper, tracing paper, wax paper]
- Pattern blocks
- Plant Discovery Kit [1oz cups (2), 3oz cups (2), 5oz cup, cotton balls (4), food coloring, pebbles ¼ cup, potting soil ½ cup, seeds (black bean (2), navy bean (2)]
- Quickcard Set [colors, flags, flowers, birds]
- Rock Cycle Kit [granite (10), craft stick, forceps, 16 oz containers: Control & Experiment]
- Rock Pattern Set [5 each: beach pebbles, granite, lava, marble, Mexican river rock]
- Rock Size Measuring Page
- Safety goggles [adult and child]
- Sandpaper Set (5 each grit): 320, 120, 100, 80
- Sensory Circus kit [9oz cups with holes (2), 2oz cup with lids (4), bulb pipet, binder clip, colored filters, craft stick, cotton swab packets (2), fishing line 1 ½”, packets (ammonia, coffee, lemon, salt, sugar), string 20’]
- Shape sorting set
- Shovel
- Sorting Board / Sub-sorting Board
- Tree ring
- Zoo animals
Additional Items
- Compass
- Crayons
- Glue Stick
- Magnifying lens
- Measuring scoop
- Mini-light
- Permanent marker
- Safety pin
- Scissors
- Sedimentary rock sample
- Toothpaste
- Wet erase marker
- Zip lock bags (15)
They also have other options for older students, coming soon!
Want to learn more? You can visit their website at https://symmetrylearning.com/or watch this video for more information:
