S.C.O.P.E. Curriculum

 

Our curriculum is designed for 6th-7th grade students and spans the S.C.O.P.E. of the science world here on Earth. We focus primarily on chemistry, biology, microbiology, and microscopy. Check out the descriptions below to learn more about our curriculum setup. For our entire curriculum setup we offer Spanish translated versions of our worksheets and have Spanish speaking volunteers to help with any barriers present due to language. 

We strive to incorporate the component of our motto, "Thinking like a Scientist" (TLAS), by utlizing our TLAS cards in each of our experimental designs. Understanding the scientific process is critical to stepping into the shoes of a scientist for the day and we encourage students to take our TLAS cards home with them to Think like a Scientist long after S.C.O.P.E. visits their classroom!

tlas card

Should you have questions about the curriculum design or would like to get involved, please reach out to our lead curriculum coordinator, Henry at Henry.Valleayala@colorado.edu.

All graphics representative of the TLAS and experimentation were designed and developed by Clair Huffine. Check out more of her artwork on her !

We are very thankful to Dr. Alejandro Villalta Cásares, who translated all of our documents to Spanish.

Lesson 1: Chemistry - What makes slime slimy?

Slime is a stretchy, bouncy, gooey substance that can be fun to play with. Have you ever wondered why slime behaves the way it does? It all has to do with chemistry. Chemistry is the study of matter, which is the stuff that everything around you is made of. With this experiment students will be testing the chemical reactions that make slime slimy.

Elmer's glue is made of many long and straight strands. These strands slide across each other easily, making the glue runny and "liquidy" This changes, however, when you mix the glue with borax. The borax helps make connections between each of the long, straight chains. This makes it harder for the strands to slide around, making the glue thicker and turning it into "slime."

The experiment is modified and adapted from the following publicly available experiment from.

Lesson 2: Biology - How do we extract DNA from Strawberries?

Have you ever wondered how scientists get a sample of DNA from a plant, animal, or other organism? All living organisms have DNA. DNA is the blueprint for almost everything that happens inside the cells of an organism and is so important that it can be found in nearly every cell of a living organism. In this activity, students will make their own DNA extraction kit from household chemicals and use it to extract DNA from strawberries.

When students add their extraction liquid to smashed strawberries, the soap helps open the strawberry cells to release their DNA into the bag, and the salt helps create an environment for the DNA to gather in a clump. When students then add the cold rubbing alcohol to a filtered strawberry liquid, the alcohol will help separate the DNA clumps out of the strawberry liquid for students to isolate, pull out and see it with their own eyes.

The experiment is being modified and adapted from the following publicly available experiment from .

Lesson 3: Microbiology - What makes yeast grow?

Yeast, which is actually a plant, is a common ingredient to make bread. Yeast makes bread rise by 'eating' sugar and 'breathing' out a gas called carbon dioxide. With this experiment, students will test the best conditions for yeast to produce carbon dioxide by measuring how big a balloon inflates.

Yeast feeds on sugar and produces carbon dioxide (CO2), which is a gas. The collection of CO2 released by the yeast into the bottle inflates the attached balloon and allows students to visualize the release of a gas. In this experiment students will test to see if yeast prefers acidic, basic, or neutral environments when growing. Â鶹ÒùÔº will draw their own conclusions based on how big their balloons inflate — which will be determined by what ingredients they add into their bottles with the yeast! 

The experiment is being modified and adapted from the following publicly available experiment from .

Lesson 4: Microscopy - How do we make the invisible visible?

The entire world — our bodies included — are made up of billions of tiny living things that are so small you can't see them with just your eyes. Have you ever wondered how scientists look at those small, microscopic organisms? With a microscope! A microscope is an instrument that can be used to observe small objects, like cells. The image of an object is magnified (or made bigger) through lenses in the microscope. These lenses bend light toward the eye and make an object appear larger than it is, allowing scientists to see what would otherwise be invisible!

Within a compound light microscope, light from a mirror is reflected up through the glass slide into the powerful objective lens — which produces the first magnification (making the object appear larger). The image produced by the objective lens is then magnified again by the eyepiece lens, acting as a simple magnifying glass. By viewing the slides through the eyepiece of a microscope, students can view the microscopic world at different magnifications to reveal a world otherwise invisible to them. 

Experiments developed by the S.C.O.P.E. curriculum design team.