InterActions in Physical Science
Second Edition & California Edition
InterActions Second Edition uses an instructional strategy that combines
guided inquiry and direct instruction with appropriate content. The InterActions curriculum has been field-tested in diverse classrooms for over three years
and has demonstrated increased student engagement and learning. The content
of InterActions Second Edition has been designed to satisfy the California
Science Standards for Grade Eight.
InterActions is hierarchical, with both topics and skills developed in a structured progression. Because scientists can explain their observations in terms of interactions between objects and the energy descriptions of those interactions, the InterActions course is organized around the powerful themes of interactions and energy.
InterActions is research-based. This means that from the very beginning the developers based the educational approach of InterActions on the methods shown by a broad range of research to be most effective in helping students to learn and teachers to facilitate the learning process in the classroom. The pedagogy is an intelligent mix of guided inquiry and direct instruction, built on the solid foundation of published research on how students learn in general, and specifically how students learn physics and chemistry.
This approach promotes positive student attitudes towards science. It engages students through the use of real-world contexts and provides a deep understanding of the role of science in everyday life.
Students develop target ideas through active learning experiences such as
hands-on experiments and computer simulations, embedded in a set of carefully
structured activities. Once students have developed, confirmed and practiced
using a set of target ideas, additional ideas are taught more directly, with
the teacher playing a more active role in steering the students’ learning.
The curriculum consists of three sections, each of which is divided into two or more units. Section A of InterActions, Interactions and Energy, introduces students to the central themes of interactions and energy, and to the scientific process. Unit 1, Building a Foundation, begins by teaching students how to design, conduct and analyze scientific experiments. Then students learn that they can use interactions between objects as a way of describing the world. In Unit 2, also entitled Interactions and Energy, students learn about mechanical interactions and how to use energy transfers and changes to describe interactions.
Section B, Interactions, Forces and Conservation, further explores the themes of interactions and energy. In Unit 3, Interactions and Forces, students learn how to describe mechanical interactions using force ideas and Newton’s Laws. They are then introduced to gravitational interactions. Unit 4, Interactions and Conservation, explores mass conservation and energy conservation in the context of interactions between objects.
Section C, Interactions of Materials, explores interactions between objects or fluids composed of different materials. In Unit 5, Materials and Their Interactions, students learn about the difference between physical and chemical interactions and examine chemical interactions on the macroscopic scale. They also learn how chemists classify materials and get introduced to the Periodic Table of Elements. In Unit 6, Physical Interactions and the Structure of Materials, students learn about the small-particle (atomic) theory of matter and how that theory helps explain the properties of solids, liquids and gases. They also explore what happens on the microscopic scale during chemical interactions between different materials.
One teacher says:
In my nearly 20 years of teaching middle school science I have never been a part of a curriculum that even comes close to InterActions in Physical Science in terms of student learning and involvement. My students love it because so much of it is ‘hands-on’, and they feel valued and respected because there is such an emphasis on their knowledge and thought processes. InterActions students learn science like a scientist, not by memorizing lists, or by listening to a lecture. In addition, the student and teacher websites are fantastic! This is great stuff!
—Jeff Vanhoeven, InterActions Teacher
