How to Leverage OER Science Most Efficiently

All students deserve access to coherent science instructional materials. At Great Minds®, we support this belief by offering Levels K–2 of PhD Science® as free open educational resource (OER) PDFs, specifically designed to meet the needs of young learners.

Learn how to set up your Great Minds free account and access the OER PDFs on your dashboard.

Additional PhD Science Components

The OER includes downloadable PDFs of the Teacher Edition and Science Logbook. We have additional paid components to help you supplement your implementation, including presourced hands-on materials kits and trade books (core texts) that support or explain the science while giving students an opportunity to practice and strengthen literacy skills.

Printed and bound Teacher Editions and Science Logbooks are also available per module along with color-printed Assessment Packs and Student Science Packs. To further support Levels K–2, Knowledge Deck^TM cards and posters are also strongly recommended for effective implementation. The Knowledge Deck combines carefully crafted informational text with eye-catching images on consumable cards for the students and nonconsumable posters for the classroom.

Contact us if you’d like to learn more about additional components of PhD Science.

PhD Science Teacher Resource Pack

Additionally, we recommend adding the Teacher Resource Pack to your Great Minds dashboard. The Teacher Resource Pack includes free instructional materials and tools, including an Implementation Guide, Family Tip Sheets, Materials Lists, Pacing and Preparation Guides, and more.

Learn how to access the Teacher Resource Pack on your Great Minds Dashboard and see what’s included within the pack.

Great Minds Science Video Library

We’ve recently created a new professional learning resource, the Great Minds Science Video Library, to allow educators to view introductory content about PhD Science and our professional learning offerings.

Below are the videos we recommend watching from the Great Minds Science Video Library to support your OER use.

Making Sense of Pedagogy

• Welcome to PhD Science helps you learn some of the basics behind the design of PhD Science.
• Knowledge and Skills in PhD Science explores how we leverage content to build students’ knowledge and skills.

Unpacking the Teacher Resource Pack and Implementation Guide

• Phenomena in PhD Science provides information on how PhD Science uses a web of phenomena to support student learning.
• Assessment in PhD Science covers information on the types of assessments students will encounter in their learning journey.
• Anchor Visuals in PhD Science discusses information on the three anchor visuals that are critical to organize knowledge-building components.
• Frequently Used Tasks and Instructional Routines shares how to leverage frequently used tasks and key instructional routines that students engage with to enhance your science instruction.
• Research in Action in PhD Science explains how PhD Science puts research-based practices into action.

Breaking Down Each Grade Level videos describe the coherence and knowledge building across each grade level.

• Introducing Level K
• Introducing Level 1
• Introducing Level 2

What to Expect in Professional Development and Coaching

• What to Expect from Professional Development helps you discover what to expect from our professional learning offerings.
• What to Expect from Coaching helps you learn about coaching for PhD Science.

The “What to Expect” series of videos provide a great introduction to the professional learning opportunities that the PhD Science team has carefully crafted to support implementation.