Fourth grade teachers, from left, Jeff Cole, Wendy Pearson, Natalie Harmon and Jason Kingrey learn about overloading electrical circuits during training Tuesday on new science curriculum at Bend Science Station. (Dean Guernsey/Bulletin photo)

Last fall, Bend-La Pine Schools’ elementary students began using a new science curriculum, Amplify Science. Some teachers found the new lesson plans to be too dense, with not enough experiments.

“We realized it was really long, and not very hands-on,” said Nicole Suttle, fourth grade teacher at High Lakes Elementary.

To refine the curriculum and make it more effective for young students, the school district sought the help of local educational nonprofit Bend Science Station. This fall, at least one fourth and fifth grade teacher from each of the district’s elementary schools will visit the Bend Science Station, where the nonprofit’s staff will give recommendations on which lesson plans to emphasize over others, as well as introduce new, hands-on activities.

“The curriculum is very vast and deep, … so we’re trying to demystify that and make something that’s more streamlined,” said Lisa Bermudez, Bend Science Station’s development and marketing director. “So it’s more effective for teachers, and ultimately has a greater impact on the students.”

On Tuesday, fourth grade teachers were taught experiments that they’ll try with their students this year and were handed a Bend Science Station-approved, trimmed-down lesson plan. Fifth grade teachers will visit Tuesday.

The new experiments are intended to be as applicable to young students as possible, using objects that they’d find in everyday life. Many of the activities are taken from Bend Science Station’s popular summer camps and field trips.

For example, to teach students how electrical blackouts occur, Bend Science Station founder David Bermudez had teachers plug in and turn on as many hair dryers into a power strip as possible until they all stopped working. In another experiment, teachers made “drums” by taping plastic food wrap over a tin can, pouring salt onto the wrap and then playing a beat out of a nearby speaker. The salt moves to the beat, showing how sound is just waves of energy, vibrating particles.

David Bermudez said Bend Science Station hosted a small group of fourth and fifth grade teachers this summer, who told the nonprofit’s staff about what they liked in Amplify Science’s lesson plans, and what needed to be improved or removed. From those observations, the nonprofit’s staff created an alternative lesson plan. And after Tuesday’s sessions, some teachers said they were pleased with the changes.

“I taught a unit last year, and it just took me so much time to get through it with my kids, and a lot of it was redundant,” said Marla Silberfein, who teaches fourth grade at Juniper Elementary School. “It’s nice that we had actual scientists look through the materials and tell us what’s really important.”

“I think it really helped go through (the curriculum) with science professionals and have them explain it in detail,” added Kim Johnson, fourth grade teacher at Buckingham Elementary.

In November, the curriculum adjustments will continue into younger grades when a few Bend-La Pine second and third grade teachers talk with Bend Science Station staff about what they’d like to see changed in the science curriculum, David Bermudez said. Kindergarten and first grade teachers will visit in the future, he said.

Although teachers seemed pleased with Bend Science Station’s changes to the lesson plans, David Bermudez emphasized that the teachers have the final word on the curriculum’s tweaks — not the nonprofit staff.

“Please don’t see this as a bible. This is a working document,” he told teachers Tuesday. “I’d love to get emails back from you guys saying, ‘That thing that you said to skip, I think is really important.’”

— Reporter: 541-617-7854, jhogan@bendbulletin.com