Harford County board approves new kindergarten science curriculum for 2025-26

The Harford County Board of Education on April 14 approved a rewritten kindergarten science curriculum the administration says aligns instruction with the state'adopted Next Generation Science Standards and will be implemented in the 2025-26 school year.

Board members were told the curriculum was written in-house by HCPS teachers, is housed on the district learning platform Canvas, and restructures kindergarten science into three content units'ad'adEarth and space, physical science (pushes and pulls) and life and the environment'ad'adwith embedded engineering design challenges and more hands-on inquiry lessons.

The administration and the teachers who led the writing team said the rewrite responded to "evidence statements" tied to the Next Generation Science Standards and to the Maryland environmental literacy expectations. Amy Ryan, the district'ads elementary science specialist, told the board the curriculum team trained in inquiry pedagogy and used a 5E lesson model (engage, explore, explain, elaborate, evaluate) while drafting the units and associated teacher materials.

During debate, board member Yvonne Alvarez said she had submitted written questions and continued to have concerns about clarity and depth in the draft, and said the curriculum did not treat the scientific method in the way she expects older students to learn it. Alvarez spoke at length about her view that students should learn the scientific method and that teachers needed stronger preparation in engineering concepts to implement the engineering design elements.

Assistant superintendent Heather Kushner and the science team replied that the curriculum aligns to Maryland's NGSS implementation guidance, uses the state'adprovided "science and engineering practices" rather than a linear "scientific method" checklist at the kindergarten level, and that district training for kindergarten teachers would emphasize how to present evidence, inquiry practices and age'adappropriate engineering tasks. The curriculum team said a summer training for kindergarten teachers is planned and that teachers who helped write the curriculum will lead the sessions.

The board voted to approve the curriculum for implementation in 2025-26. The record shows Alvarez cast a dissenting vote; the board did not record individual yea votes in the public audio beyond the one dissent. Implementation steps described by staff include summer 2025 training options for kindergarten teachers, in-school coaching, lesson walkthroughs, teacher feedback surveys and Canvas access for teacher materials.

Supporters on the administration team said the goal is to provide a stronger, more coherent progression from kindergarten into later elementary science while keeping instruction hands-on and developmentally appropriate. Alvarez said she will follow up on the training plan and asked for continued attention to how evidence and engineering are taught.

The decision comes as Maryland districts continue to refine local materials to match state frameworks adopted after 2018; the district said it revised the kindergarten materials after a gap analysis identified depth and instructional-practice gaps in the prior curriculum.

Provocation over the proper balance between early inquiry, engineering design and explicit instruction is likely to continue into training and implementation, the staff said.