West York board to vote next week on new science curriculum to meet state STEALS standards

West York Area School District staff asked the school board to approve a package of new science curricula and instructional resources next week to align district classrooms with the state—oard dopted science, technology and engineering standards and the environmental literacy and sustainability standards (referred to in the meeting as the "STEALS" standards).

District curriculum staff said the change reflects a statewide shift to phenomenon-driven, inquiry-based instruction that will be assessed on state tests next year. Deb Parr, instructional leader at the middle school, described the standards' three-part structure: cross-cutting concepts, science and engineering practices, and disciplinary core ideas. "It's more about like how you would even get the concepts before you put [them] into the equation," Parr said, explaining the move from memorization to modeling and investigations.

The recommended resources are: Mystery Science at the elementary level; OpenSciEd units (middle school); and a mix of high-school materials including BSCS for biology and Project Lead The Way (PLTW)…