Build Students’ Science Mastery 

Science Companion provides the very best review, practice, and mastery for the grade 5 and grade 8 state science assessments based on the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

Ensure your students develop an in-depth understanding of content that will serve them throughout their educational and professional lives.

Develop key skills like:

• Communication
• Collaboration
• Inquiry
• Problem solving
• Intellectual flexibility 

Instruction

Each lesson develops a NGSS standards-based science skill, following a gradual release of responsibility model, to optimize learning following four steps to success.

• Skill/concept introduction
• Guided instruction
• Guided practice
• Independent practice

Follow the Steps to Success

1. Diagnostic Pretest

A Tryout Test determines strengths and weaknesses and guides individual instruction by directing students to specific lessons that address learning gaps.

Questions are modeled after those found on new NGSS-based state assessments.

• Multiple-choice
• Fill-in-the-blank
• Matching
• Short- and long-answer open-ended response
• Multi-select and multi-part multiple-choice questions that mimic technology-enhanced questions on digital tests

2. Skill/Concept Introduction

A Question & Answer format provides a practical, real-world presentation of the overarching concepts reviewed and practiced in the lesson.

Bright Ideas! phenomenon-based prompts offer an opportunity for group collaboration to analyze a real-world application of the lesson concepts.

3. Guided Instruction

Get Started readings review science concepts using an active reading approach to engage students with the text through in-line critical thinking questions and annotation strategies. The critical thinking questions often represent Crosscutting Concepts or Science and Engineering Practices.

4. Guided Practice

Get Started guided practice checks students’ science knowledge through multiple-choice questions with continually decreasing scaffolded support. The last question asks students to write or draw a model to demonstrate their understanding.

5. Independent Practice

On Your Own independent practice builds proficiency and stamina.

Assessment

There are multiple opportunities for diagnostic, formative, and summative assessment. Each lesson ends with a Unit Practice Assessment. These interim assessments are perfect for benchmarking your students’ progress.

Two additional full-length Progress & Mastery Assessments tests provide ample opportunity to benchmark proficiency and target skills for additional instruction. 

Teacher editions align the lessons to the NGSS model.

• Detailed answers for all activities, lesson questions, and tests.
• Reproducible answer charts for the Tryout Test, Progress Test, and Mastery Test correlate each test question to the related performance expectation and the corresponding lesson, providing important insight into skill gaps and which lessons should be addressed by student or by class.
• Implementation guidance for using Science Companion for targeted instruction, targeted review, or comprehensive review.
• Links to YouTube videos correlated to the performance expectations each will support.

Explore pricing and buy online.