Originating from academic research, our project-based approach uses local solutions to environmental issues as a lens for teaching science.
3D Instruction
After students are introduced to real-world phenomenon and problems, they construct explanations and design solutions using the three dimensions of the NGSS. These hands-on learning experiences promote a deeper and more meaningful understanding of science.
Coherence Across the Curriculum
The curriculum uses storylines across each unit and through the grade levels to provide meaning and context to student learning. The investigations of the local environment helps students make connections among the different science disciplines and with reading, writing, math, social studies, and technology.
Relevant to Student Lives
In each unit, students embark on a journey using science and engineering to solve a local environmental challenge. This framework gives students the opportunity to learn about issues where they live and apply what they learn to design engineering solutions that are personally meaningful.
Grade 6 Climate: Scientific Principles and Communication
Students study Earth’s climate and solutions to climate change. They learn foundational concepts behind energy and matter.
Unit 1 Energy and Climate
Unit 1 introduces Earth’s systems and the influence of greenhouse gases on climate change through concepts of thermal energy transfer. Students apply these ideas to design and test a well-insulated home that minimizes heat loss.
Unit 2 Home Energy
Unit 2 combines engineering design with energy transfer to study a zero-energy home. Students use these ideas and real-time energy data from their homes to create and implement a plan to reduce their household energy use.
Unit 3 Weather and Climate
Unit 3 focuses on the processes responsible for weather and climate in locations that have a personal connection to students’ lives. Students then apply this understanding to help them create a story warning friends or family about possible future weather and climate extremes.
Unit 4 Protecting Plants and Animals
Unit 4 focuses on plant structures and animal behavior. Students learn about reproductive strategies and environmental and genetic factors to create a poster describing a method to protect a particular plant or animal species from climate change.
Unit 5 Reducing Pollution and Waste
Unit 5 combines the water cycle and cells through the context of pollution and waste. Students investigate how pollution can affect living cells and the body system and then use this understanding to create a poster outlining plans for how to reduce pollution and waste in their community.
Unit 6 Scientific Storytelling
Unit 6 focuses on scientific communication. Students investigate sensory response through their own experiments and learn about storytelling and filmmaking. Students apply what they’ve learned during the year to create their own short film about environmental solutions for a classroom and public film festival.
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Grade 7 Resources: Investigative Methods and Conservation
Students study Earth’s major resources and how to conserve them. They learn foundational concepts behind systems and developing models.
Unit 1 Minerals
Unit 1 introduces Earth’s minerals as students investigate continental drift, seafloor spreading, and the rock cycle. Student teams will develop a pamphlet presenting their ideas on how to design a more sustainable smartphone.
Unit 2 Petroleum
Unit 2 brings awareness to the use and formation of petroleum. Students investigate the chemistry of its hydrocarbon and its combustion by-product, carbon dioxide. Students will produce a PSA to reduce their family’s transportation carbon footprint to improve air quality.
Unit 3 Food
Unit 3 tracks energy as it moves from plants and organisms. Students keep a food diary as they learn about the chemical reactions of plants to develop a classroom cookbook of low-carbon recipes.
Unit 4 Soil
Unit 4 focuses on healthy soils and its importance to our ecosystem. Students create a mini worm farm to understand factors affecting soil, biodiversity, and the cycling of matter. They present their design solutions to restore a soil ecosystem.
Unit 5 Water: Life and Danger
Unit 5 studies the importance of water and its impact. Students will learn about the water cycle and thermal expansion of water through a physical model. They will consider the damage to infrastructure from flooding and design solutions in a multi-day role-playing simulation to design resilient cities.
Unit 6 Ecosystems
Unit 6 focuses on Earth systems and healthy ecosystems. Students will study a local ecosystem location of their choice and dive into systems thinking and Earth’s processes. They will write letters of thanks to the owners of their ecosystem location.
Our curriculum supports learning through the transformation of experiences, rather than the transmission of facts.
Grade 8 Living Systems: Computational Thinking and Design Solutions
Students study Earth’s past, present, and future state. They learn foundational skills such as programming and physics concepts.
Unit 1 Exploring Early Earth
Unit 1 starts by looking at an asteroid impact of Earth and how this has shaped our history. Students will explore fossils and rock layers, Newton’s law of motion, and be introduced to programming so they can create an animated story about protecting the Earth.
Unit 2 Evolving Life on Earth
Unit 2 introduces the history of Earth’s mass extinction. Students will learn about evolution through fossil records and skeletal features so they can develop a visual story of how to help prevent the next mass extinction event.
Unit 3 Earth from Space
Unit 3 builds an understanding of wave properties of light and sound to understand how satellites work and how satellites can help us monitor the Earth. Students then create infographics to inspire others to reduce our ecological footprint.
Unit 4 Humans and Life
Unit 4 studies genetic variations and how they can affect natural selection. Students will explore the role of DNA, probability of traits, and genetic engineering to help them create a documentary highlighting the need to increase genetic diversity.
Unit 5 Transportation
Unit 5 explores the efficiency of different modes of transportation by investigating forces, motion, and energy transfer. Students will investigate the role that friction plays in transportation and then develop their own sustainable transportation proposals to be shared with local community leaders.
Unit 6 Future Energy
Unit 6 concludes the year with a focus on sustainable cities. Students will explore various forms of renewable energy and methods of energy storage. These concepts will be applied to design a proposal for a sustainable city.
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Curriculum Design Principles
Research Framework
A research team from San Jose State University uncovered an unique education framework that led to significant improvements in student engagement and student success. This work, which was originally funded by NSF and NASA, identified student empowerment and connections to the local environment as key elements in helping students engage with science in meaningful ways. This framework was central to the design of the Green Ninja Curriculum.
NGSS and the 5E Model
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) provide an internationally benchmarked approach for teaching science that is equitable and aligned with science education literature. The curriculum at Green Ninja was designed for the NGSS and uses phenomenon and problems to help students develop the practices used by scientists and engineers. The 5E model was also employed in the design of lesson sequences to provide students with something relevant to their lives (engage), opportunities to know more (explore) and develop their own understand (explain), and then to build on that understanding (extend) before they demonstrate this understanding (evaluate). Coupled throughout the curriculum is an active focus on student communication through digital media, film, and writing.
Data and Technology
Many of the Green Ninja projects use real-time data and web and video technologies to solve problems and design solutions. The development of data literacy and computational thinking skills leverages student interest in new technology and provides students with insights into future career opportunities.
