The district’s 3–5 science adoption committee recommended Open SciEd as the curriculum for grades 3–5, presenting field‑test results, projected professional development and fiscal considerations to the school committee.

“Open SciEd was selected by the committee as the recommended science curriculum for grades 3 through 5,” said Cammie (Cammie) Cox, assistant director of curriculum and instruction for science. Cox described a multi‑phase selection process that included vendor demos, demo accounts, third‑party reports, out‑of‑district field tests and a teacher survey of pilots.

Cox said four curricula were initially reviewed and two green‑lit HQIM (high‑quality instructional materials) — Open SciEd and Amplify — were piloted in classrooms; more than 20 teachers participated in the field tests. Based on teacher feedback, alignment with district goals and financial and operational analyses, the committee recommended Open SciEd.

Cox described Open SciEd as an open‑source, research‑based curriculum grounded in phenomenon‑based inquiry and project‑style learning, with embedded performance tasks aligned to newer MCAS problem‑solving expectations. She said the curriculum itself is free to access and that the district’s primary costs would be lab kits and professional learning and that the district will use a train‑the‑trainer model and local teacher leaders to sustain implementation.

Cox also addressed kit sustainability: the district plans an inventory and replenishment system (including gift‑card purchasing used at middle schools) and said Open SciEd eliminates recurring licensing fees, which she said makes the program more sustainable overall. She presented a proposed onboarding schedule — two full days of training in early September, follow‑up PD on the November PD day, and embedded coaching and PLC support.

The recommendation described in the meeting was for the committee to adopt Open SciEd as the grades 3–5 science curriculum; no formal committee adoption vote appears in the transcript during this meeting.