Science
Quick Links
As always, please contact me with your questions, ideas and concerns. Thank you for all you do for our students of Missouri!
Christina Pitman
Director, Science
573-751-4445
Christina.Pitman@dese.mo.gov
Assessment Development Recruitment
As a part of the assessment development cycle, DESE Assessment invites Missouri educators to participate in the process to help provide expertise. Missouri is always looking for educators to participate in these meetings. If you wish to be considered for participation for any future development meetings, please complete the online submission form here. Once finished, you will receive an email to the personal email address provided to confirm your submission.
- Assessment Resources
- Physical Science Reference Sheet
- Grade Level Item Types with Examples
- End-of-Course Item Type Examples
Test Blueprints
Sample Assessment Tasks
Grade-Level End-of-Course Grade 5 Extended Task
Grade 8 Short Task
Biology Short Task
Practice Forms
Grade-Level
Practice Forms can also be accessed via eDirect.
Content Paper/Pencil Large Print 5th Grade 8th Grade End-of-Course
Practice forms aligned to the new MLS Expectations will be available online through the EOC Secure Browser and here for students who need a paper assessment.
Performance Level Descriptors
- Grades K-2 PLD (not assessed)
- Grade 5 PLD
- Grade 8 PLD
- Biology PLD
- Physical Science PLD
- Earth and Space Science PLD (not assessed)
- Implementation
These implementation resources are designed to provide support to educators at various stages of implementation of Missouri’s Learning Standards for Science, while building capacity within all grades. These resources have the sole purpose to help guide implementation and in no way are the only ways of implementing the standards.
- Implementation Toolkit Overview
- MO Implementation Plan
- Bundling the Science MLS
- MS and HS Course Suggestions
*Updated 3-4-19
MLS Support Documents
Missouri Learning Standards Science Expectations
Missouri Learning Standards Science Progressions
Science & Engineering Practices | Disciplinary Core Ideas | Crosscutting Concepts
Missouri Learning Standards Science Expanded Expectations
*Connections to other Missouri Learning Standards, such as ELA and Math, can be found within the expanded expectations.
- Item Specs
Kindergarten (Updated 10/31/19) 6-8 Earth/Space (Updated 02/20/20) 1st grade 6-8 Life (Updated 01/14/21) 2nd grade 6-8 Physical (Updated 02/20/20) 3rd grade (Updated 02/10/20) 9-12 Earth/Space (Updated 04/19/19) 4th grade (Updated 12/19/19) 9-12 Life (Updated 10/2021) 5th grade (Updated 01/05/21) 9-12 Physical (Updated 10/2021) - Professional Learning
Offering Virtual Office Hours
Last Thursday of the Month
September - May
from 3:30-4:30 p.m.
*November meeting will be held on the 20th due to holiday and December meeting will be skipped.
This will be a space for educators and administrators to connect with the director for guidance on standards, teaching strategies and supporting diverse learners. Join us to collaborate, share ideas and enhance science education for all students. This is an informal setting and you can join as needed and stay for the whole meeting or only part.
Join us here:
Virtual Office Hours meeting link
Teams Meeting ID: 247 339 706 255 2
Passcode: BZ2BT2oT
Content Meetings
DESE’s Office of College and Career Readiness has scheduled free professional development opportunities for Missouri K-12 educators in the arts, English language arts, English language development, health/physical education, math, science and social studies. Register using the links below on the Curriculum Calendar.
Winter Science Content Series
Virtual Meetings
Mondays, December 1, 8, & 15
3:45 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Join the Director of Science for a 3-part series on Cross Cutting Concepts (CCC). While there are seven CCC we will focus on three of them. Meetings will not be recorded, but all materials will be shared with participants through Google Drive. There’s no participant limit and you can attend any or all of the meetings you are interested in. Each meeting will be 1 hour and 15 minutes and focus on one CCC at a time.
Plan to attend all three or just the one you need!
- December 1st Systems and System Models
- December 8th Scale, Proportion, & Quantity
- December 15th Energy & Matter
Interface 2026
Sponsored by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in cooperation with the MU Conference Office
RPDC Science Contact Info
City Phone Number Email S Central RPDC
Rolla
573-341-6473
NE RPDC
Kirksville
660-785-4310
NW RPDC
Maryville
660-562-1995
SW RPDC
Springfield
417-836-4090
Heart of Missouri
Columbia
573-882-0859
SE RPDC
Cape Girardeau
573-651-5161
Central RPDC
Warrensburg
660-543-8240
St. Louis
St. Louis
314-692-1279
Kansas City
Kansas City
816-235-5652
- Programs
Science Resources for Teachers
Missouri Department of Conservation – "Discover Nature Schools"
Missouri Department of Conservation coordinated with Missouri educators to develop an engaging, ecology-based curriculum aligned with our new science MLS expectations. The units are free resources that cover pre-k through high school content using inquiry-based methods. Below are flyers for each of the five units as well as crosswalks to the science MLS and NGSS. Teachers may visit the Conservation Department’s teacher portal to learn more about Discover Nature Schools, receive the free materials, and learn about additional grants.
USA Biolympiad
The USABO is a competition for high school students who are passionate about biology. Your students who participate in the USABO will have the opportunity for this life changing experience by sharing their passion for biology with like-minded students nationally and internationally and establishing lifelong relationships that extend into their future careers. *For individuals to compete in this program: schools, teachers, or administrators must register as a school and a $95 payment will be collected.
National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT)
- NABT resource page has links to all things biology including instructional materials, videos, student resources, articles and videos.
STOM
- Science Teachers of Missouri provides an array of science resources to benefit teachers and students in classroom, lesson planning and professional development.
Missouri River Relief
- Looking for resources for teaching about the Missouri River, examples of river action projects, or ways to take learning outside? You’ve come to the right place. You're just a little early.
Science Friday
- Science Friday offers free STEM activities, lessons, and resources for parents and educators.
The Concord Consortium
- We're a non-profit educational technology laboratory for science, mathematics and engineering. Our pioneering work brings technology's promise into reality for education.
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
- The teacher resources link provides pages of resources to assist teachers and districts with implementing science expectations.
NSTA – NGSS Hub
- National Science Teachers Association provides resources for classrooms, implementation and professional development.
University of California - Berkley(link is external)
- Lesson plans, videos, articles, “resource database”
MetEd
- MetEd is a free collection of hundreds of training resources intended for the geoscience community. Whether you're an experienced meteorologist honing existing skills or a student looking for new geoscience topics of interest, we have something for you.
- Publications And Related Links
Science Teachers of America
Publications
- Alerts to Student Difficulties and Misconceptions in Science
- Science Safety Manual - Elementary
- Science Safety Manual - Secondary
- Glossary
- Science Learning Experiences using the 5-E Learning Cycle
National Curriculum Research in Science Education Resources
- National Science Education Standards, National Research Council
- AAAS Project 2061: Benchmarks for Science Literacy
- AAAS Project 2061: Atlas of Science Literacy
- How students learn science, National Research Council
- Making sense of secondary science: Research into children's ideas (Driver, R., Squires, A., Rushworth, P., Wood-Robinson, V., 1994).
- Targeting students’ science misconceptions. FL: Idea Factory (Routledge Stepans, J., 1994)
- Understanding models in earth space science. Arlington, VA: NSTA (Gilbert, Steven, & Ireton, Shirley, 2003)
Resources for Learning Cycle, Inquiry, and Questioning
- Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards: A guide for teaching and learning (Cothran, Julia H., Giese, Ronald N., Rezba, Richard J.(2000))
- Students and research: Practical strategies for science classrooms and competitions (Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt)
- Doing good science in middle school: a practical guide to inquiry-based instruction (Jorgenson, O., Cleveland, J., Vanosdall, R. (2004) Arlington, VA: NSTApress)
- Inquire within: Implementing inquiry-based science standards (Llewellyn, Douglas (2002) Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc.)
- Teaching high school science through inquiry (Llewellyn, Douglas. (2005) Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc.)
- Quality questioning: Research-based practice to engage every learner (Walsh, J. A., Sattes, B. D. (2005) Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc.)
Resources for Reading and Writing in Science
- Science notebooks: Writing about inquiry (Campbell, Brian, Fulton, Lori. (2003) Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Educational Books, Inc.)
- Teaching reading in science: A supplement to the second edition of Teaching reading in the content areas teacher's manual (Barton, M. L., Jordan, D. L. (2001) Aurora, CO: Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning)
- Reading, writing, and thinking like a scientist(Saul, E.W., Reardon, J., Pearce, C., Dieckman, D., Neutze, D. (2002) Science workshop: Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann)