skip to main content

Del Rey Elementary School

Informed Educatiors + Involved Parents + Inspired Students = Enriched Community
Home
District
Del Rey Elementary School Glorietta Elementary School Orinda Intermediate School Orinda Union School District Sleepy Hollow Elementary School Wagner Ranch Elementary School
or Browse All Schools
QUICK LINKS
https://dr.orindaschools.org/Programs/Science/
Chinese Dutch English French German Greek Italian Japanese Korean Portuguese Russian Spanish Vietnamese Tagalog Khmer Farsi Hindi Punjabi Ukrainian
Contrast Mode

Del Rey Elementary School

Informed Educatiors + Involved Parents + Inspired Students = Enriched Community

Science

Our elementary science program is where curiosity comes to life. We believe every student is a natural scientist and engineer, ready to explore the world around them. This overview explains how our program, guided by the California Next Generation Science Standards (CA NGSS), engages students in hands-on discovery and real-world problem-solving from Kindergarten through Fifth Grade.
 

Program Goal and Focus

  • Goal: To transform questions into investigations and ideas into innovations, fostering critical thinking about the natural and designed world.
  • Method: Students actively do science and do engineering every day, rather than simply memorizing facts.
  • Alignment: Ensures students are prepared for the scientific challenges and opportunities of the 21st century.
 

Our Foundation: The Three Dimensions of NGSS

Our curriculum blends three key components in every lesson:
 
1. Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCI) - What We Know
  • Life Science: Exploring ecosystems, living needs, and the human body.
  • Physical Science: Investigating forces, motion, and energy.
  • Earth and Space Science: Studying weather, geology, and the solar system.
  • Engineering, Technology, and Applications of Science (ETS).
 
2. Science & Engineering Practices (SEP) - What We Do
Students develop essential skills to work like professionals:
  • Asking questions and defining problems.
  • Planning and carrying out investigations.
  • Analyzing and interpreting data.
  • Constructing explanations and designing solutions.
 
3. Crosscutting Concepts (CCC) - How We Think
These big ideas connect all areas of science:
  • Patterns and Cause and Effect.
  • Systems and System Models.
  • Energy and Matter flow.
  • Stability and Change.
 

Engineering Design Process

Engineering is integrated across all grades as a key part of problem-solving:
  • Define the Problem: Clearly identifying the need or challenge.
  • Develop Solutions: Brainstorming and modeling potential fixes.
  • Test & Evaluate: Experimenting with the design and collecting data.
  • Improve Design: Optimizing the solution based on test results.
 

Grade-Level Highlights

  • Kindergarten: Needs of living things (plants/animals), forces and motion (pushes/pulls), weather patterns.
  • First Grade: Day and night cycles, sound and light energy, how animals and plants use their external parts.
  • Second Grade: Properties of matter (solids/liquids), changes to the Earth (erosion), diversity of life in different habitats.
  • Third Grade: Inherited traits vs. environmental influences, forces and gravity, weather and climate science.
  • Fourth Grade: Energy transfer (electricity), waves (light/sound), geology (rocks and minerals, natural hazards).
  • Fifth Grade: Matter cycling (conservation), Earth’s systems (hydrosphere/atmosphere), and solar system interactions.