Customer Profile
- Name: Darian Founds
- Role: K-12 Science and Health Facilitator
- District: The Colorado Springs Schools District 11 has 33 elementary schools with an enrollment of 10,436 students in K-5. All of the district schools are Title I schools. Roughly 62% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch programs, which is higher than the statewide level of 46%%.
- Challenge: Replace their aging elementary science curriculum with one that is state-of-the-science, aligns with the State of Colorado standards, emphasizes hands-on activities, and provides exceptional teacher support.
- Solution: The Building Blocks of Science® 3D curriculum from Carolina Biological Supply Company.
- Results: District 11’s elementary teachers are re-energized about teaching science thanks to the user-friendly lessons including the hands-on science activities their students look forward to doing. Students are highly engaged, have improved their science test scores, and are better prepared for advanced science studies.
Science and Health Facilitator Darian Founds helps the Colorado Springs Schools District 11 teachers with the range of different needs for K-12 science. Mr. Founds previously taught middle and high school science, and the combination of his teaching experience and facilitating skills has made him invaluable to the district. So when it came time to upgrade their science curricula, Founds was the go-to person to coordinate the search and evaluation of potential programs.
Challenge
In 2018, Founds began searching for K-5 curricula that met the district’s preliminary criteria for science. The first criterion was meeting the State of Colorado standards for elementary science. As he explains, “Colorado is considered an NGSS-adapted state in that we took the NGSS and rewrote them into the state standards format that is uniform across all subject areas.” Thus, one key criterion that Mr. Founds looked for was curricula that were NGSS- and Colorado-aligned.
Another criterion was an emphasis on hands-on investigations. Founds previously taught middle school and high school science, so he is well aware of the importance and effectiveness of learning by doing when it comes to science. “Having hands-on kits was a non-negotiable for our new curriculum,” says Mr. Founds. He also understands from his work as a science facilitator that elementary teachers need a science curriculum that is easy to follow, prep, and implement into their classroom schedules.
With these and other criteria in mind, Founds identified several potential curricula. Each one underwent a thorough evaluation by the selection committee which was composed of K-5 teachers. He helped the teachers by setting up example hands-on activities from the candidates for the teachers to conduct, scheduling vendor demonstrations, and assisting teachers when they had questions.
Solution
The committee found the Building Blocks of Science 3D curriculum to be age-appropriate for K-5, aligned to the Colorado standards, and easy for students to follow. Its state-of-the-science lab kits were another important aspect in their favor. As a result, the committee happily voted to adopt the Building Blocks of Science 3D, and the district launched it in the fall of 2019.
The curriculum fully met all of the district’s criteria and exceeded in some of the most crucial areas. The ease of lesson prep and teaching helped teachers become comfortable, rather than anxious, about fitting science into their schedules. Mr. Founds recalls that “teachers started saying how user-friendly the lessons were for them to prep and teach.” The teachers also noticed their students getting excited when they saw science happening during their hands-on activities – more encouragement for the teachers!
Results
The district has seen notable improvements in student engagement and learning since the new curriculum was implemented. For instance, preliminary results for the 2023-2024 academic year indicate that student test scores improved as they conducted more hands-on investigations.
The improved science learning in K-5 also prepares students for continued success in later grades. The elementary students who experienced the Building Blocks of Science 3D early in its adoption are now in middle and high school. “Those students are better prepared for advanced science in the upper grades,” reports Founds, thanks to Building Blocks of Science 3D.
District 11 has a science center that coordinates the acquisition and refurbishment of the hands-on kits for the Building Blocks of Science 3D. Founds reports that Carolina provides prompt, consistent support for the science center team in their work to meet teacher and student needs. The excellence of Carolina support and the Building Blocks of Science 3D has led Mr. Founds to confidently recommend it to other school districts.
District 11 certainly has a lot to be happy about as it sees students and teachers thriving in the sciences!
