TEXTBOOK AND DIGITAL RESOURCE CHART 2
Curriculum Change Plan: Part 3 - Textbook or Digital Resource Chart
RESOURCE CHARACTERISTICS
1. Discuss the overall information.
a. Title/Edition/URL Yes Curriculum K-5
https://yes.mos.org/curricula/yes-elementary/
b. Publisher/Organization Museum of Science
c. Grade level K-12
d. Content area(s) STEM
e. Strengths I like this curriculum because it incorporates PBL strategies and
each grade level builds on the previous year. This curriculum is
research based (3 decades). It provides students with equity-
oriented engineering opportunities by allowing students to
address problems that are relevant to their lives and communities
(Cunningham, 2018). This curriculum also allows for family
engagement and language scaffolding while navigating the
different phases of the Engineering Design Process. Another
feature of this curriculum that I find really important is that is
introduces students to productive failure (Johnson et. al, 2021).
Teachers scaffold students through failure as they learn from and
improve their engineering designs.
f. Weaknesses I wouldn’t be able to use this curriculum as my sole curriculum in
my STEM classroom because there isn’t any technology
integration. This curriculum has 9 lessons that are broken down
into 3 parts that are about 30-45 minutes each. My STEM classes
are only 30 minutes each so it makes it hard to squeeze into my
allotted timeframe.
2. Think about language concerns.
a. Use of phonics This particular resource doesn’t focus a whole lot of phonics but
more so on complete words.
b. Readability The text for this resource is very easy to read. It is broken up by
various graphics and lines to divide the text into sections. It
breaks up the reading which makes it easy to read.
c. Vocabulary usage The vocabulary for the student workbooks changes a little for
each grade level. It starts out very basic for the younger grades
and then increases in difficulty through grade levels. This
resource provides visual vocabulary cards.
TEXTBOOK AND DIGITAL RESOURCE CHART 3
d. Provision of definitions Students are given vocabulary words for each lesson. The
curriculum has chart cards that teachers can print as well as
handouts for students containing the vocabulary words for each
lesson.
e. Word choices The wording used in this curriculum reminds me of Vygotsky’s
ZPD. There are a lot of words that students should be very
familiar with but they also add some more difficult vocabulary
that students may need help defining.
f. Flow The flow is one of my favorite parts of this curriculum. All nine
lessons are geared toward one final big project. But students
complete smaller hands-on activities throughout that help students
build knowledge and skills for the final project. Not only does
the individual grade level curriculums flow nicely, but they all
flow together from year to year building on concepts from
previous year.
3. Think about ideas and concepts.
a. Biblical perspectives In the bible most of the responsibility for education lies with the
parents. They are responsible for teaching biblical and academic
knowledge. It is also believed to be up to the parents to educate
the character of the child (Schirrmacher, 2022). This curriculum
supports character development and works as a partner in a sense
to guide students to do what is right in order to help someone
else. The bible speaks of kindness and helping others out and that
is also a big part of this curriculum.
b. Compare/contrast to
Scripture
Students are permitted to work with partners or small groups for a
majority of these lessons. Jesus says to his followers, “And let us
consider how we may spur one another toward love and good
deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in habit of
doing, but encouraging one another- and all the more as you see
the Day approaching” (English Standard Version Bible, 2009,
Hebrews 10:24-25). Both this curriculum and scripture place
great importance on working together as well as doing good
things for others.
c. Relevance for
curriculum goals
The goal of my curriculum change plan is to adopt a curriculum
that encourages students to find solutions to real-world issues.
This curriculum does just that. Through its PBL approach
students are provided the opportunity to brainstorm a solution to
help others.
d. Critical thinking This resource takes every opportunity to promote critical thinking
and problem-solving. Students are given a problem and certain
TEXTBOOK AND DIGITAL RESOURCE CHART 4
materials and constraints to complete the assignment. This
curriculum encourages students to do critical thinking both
individually and with partners or small groups.
e. Grade appropriateness This online resource is geared toward all grade levels so there are
activities for everyone. Some of the concepts might be a little bit
too difficult for younger students but there are still a lot of grade
appropriate resources.
4. Examine the format.
a. Clear chapter headings
and divisions
This curriculum is broken down into lessons instead of chapters.
Each individual lesson is clearly separated and named according
to topic of lesson. Each lesson is divided into introduction,
application, and
b. Use of graphics and
visuals
There are a lot of pictures and graphics used throughout the
curriculum. The stories all of pictures that accompany the text
and the pages in the student workbooks all of graphics as well.
There are diagrams that accompany the steps in the activities as
well.
c. Identifiable topic
sentences and headings
This text had headings and topic sentences that told the reader
what they should expect to learn about in each lesson. They aren’t
excessively wordy
d. Font and legibility The font used is very clear and a good side for readers. It isn’t
too small for them to follow along with.
e. Spacing This text has adequate spacing that makes it easy to read. The
words aren’t smooshed together too closely where it makes it
hard to follow.
f. Grammar and spelling While reading through the curriculum I did not notice any
noticeable spelling or grammatical errors.
g. Layout The text is broken up into small sections followed up by a few
questions to engage students.
h. Use of color The resources that are provided with this curriculum are PDF
versions that the teacher prints on their own as needed. There are
colored images but they will more than likely be printed in black
and white because of cost of printing so many pages.
i. Ease of use This curriculum has a kit where all of the supplies are provided
for you. You just have to buy the refill kit every year.
j. Adaptive features for This resource has its own set of materials that come up it. One
TEXTBOOK AND DIGITAL RESOURCE CHART 5
assistance adaptive measure that could be taken is changing or
accommodating the materials that are used for projects. The
student notebooks can also be downloaded and read via assistive
technology if necessary.
k. Sound quality (if
applicable)
The curriculum does incorporate a few video links and all of the
videos are clear.
5. Think of student supports.
a. Appropriate questions
and assignments for grade
level and age
Yes- this curriculum provides a lot of questions throughout to
encourage students to think critically and drive problem solving.
The format of questions changes from grade level to grade level
making them age appropriate. These questions also allow for
teacher and peer scaffolding.
b. Varying knowledge
levels for questions and
assignments
As a gifted teacher, I am constantly trying to find ways to make
curriculum more challenging for my students who need it. This
curriculum is easy to adapt for individual learners. There are a
lot of opportunities for partner and small group work so those
can be intentionally formed by the teacher to promote peer
scaffolding or grouping based on academic needs so the teacher
knows which groups may need a little additional support.
c. Appropriate suggestions
for additional reading or
resources
Other PBL textbooks and materials would be great resources for
students using this curriculum. An
d. Addresses visual,
auditory, and kinesthetic
modalities
This resource allows for multiple modalities. Visuals are
provided to show students how to complete various stages of the
project. Videos are provided through the curriculum to provide
auditory feedback for students. This resource also incorporates
many tactile activities for students to engage in.
f. Provides introductions,
explanations, and
summaries
Yes, every lesson in this resource is divided into these three
categories. The introduction usually contains some questions to
get students engaged and thinking and sometimes includes either
a story or a video. Then the exploration portion is where most of
the problem-solving work takes place and then there is a quick
closing/review section at the end that reviews key concepts
covered in that lesson.
6. Consider the overall relevance.
Identify the state or
national standards that you
will use in your curriculum
My curriculum change plan will use the Pennsylvania STEELS
Standards. These standards are relatively new. They’ve added
an engineering design and technology component to the already
TEXTBOOK AND DIGITAL RESOURCE CHART 6
change plan. Explain why
these standards are
appropriate for your
curriculum change plan.
For example, how do they
address student learning
and/or societal needs? How
do these standards relate to
this selected resource?
existing science standards. These standards are ideal for my
curriculum change plan because they address student learning
needs in the area of engineering design which is what this
resource focuses on. The STEEL standards touches on most
areas of this curriculum. This curriculum was actually created in
Pennsylvania by a lot of researchers at Penn State so this
curriculum was created to go along with the STEEL standards
very nicely.
Explain your views on the
progression models,
sequencing, supplemental
resource, and access issues
for this resource (See the
Ashbee text.).
I’ve written curriculum sequencing maps before so that is what
I’m most comfortable with and prefer over other models. This a
huge benefit for students transferring to another teacher from
year to year. With a curriculum map, you are able to provide the
next teacher with a map of everything you covered throughout
the school year and gives the new teacher an idea of what the
student already knows (Ashbee, 2021).
Explain how this resource
will enhance or support
your curriculum change
plan. How does this
resource relate to the
educational philosophy that
you elaborated upon earlier
in the term? ·K
As I’ve already mentioned a huge focus of my curriculum
change plan is Project-Based Learning and helping others. Titus
3:14 states “ let our people learn to devote themselves to doing
good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be
unfruitful” (English Standard Version, 2009). It is my hope that
my students are able to learn valuable academic skills while
doing something good for someone else.
TEXTBOOK AND DIGITAL RESOURCE CHART 7
References
Ashbee, R. (2021).KCurriculum: Theory, culture and the subject specialisms. Routledge.
Cunningham, C. M. (2018). Engineering in elementary STEM education: Curriculum design,
instruction, learning, and assessment. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Johnson, M. M, Kelly, G. K., & Cunningham, C. M. (2021). Failure and improvement in
elementary engineering. Journal of Research in STEM Education. 7(2), 69–92
Schirrmacher, T. (2022). Education and learning in Christian perspective.KOvercome Excuses
and Stupidity…”, 117.
The English Standard Version Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments with
Apocrypha. (2009).
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