I recommend that all learners, regardless of age, begin at the very beginning and work through the lessons at a pace that allows them to understand and retain the concepts. The curriculum is designed to spiral, revisiting ideas while building deeper understanding.
Although the curriculum is organized into Years 1, 2, and 3, those labels are primarily intended for families beginning with young learners. There is also an accelerated schedule that combines the content from Years 1–3 into a single 30-week school year, allowing older students to build a strong scientific foundation without spending multiple years on introductory material.
Because each lesson builds on previous ones, I strongly recommend not skipping lessons. Missing a foundational concept can make later topics much more difficult to understand.
Many of the slideshows are narrated (I'm gradually adding narration to all of them!), but I don't recommend simply putting learners in front of the videos and walking away. This approach works best when it's interactive. Ask questions, encourage discussion, and help learners connect what they're learning to the world around them. For example, after a lesson about energy, point out examples of energy transformations in everyday life. These conversations reinforce learning and help the concepts stick.
I also highly recommend having a copy of Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding (BFSU) alongside this curriculum. While the lessons are designed to stand on their own, BFSU is an incredible resource for parents and educators who want a deeper explanation of the science or ideas for extending learning.
All course materials including presentations and worksheets are original works created by Selene at Rabbit Hole Learning LLC. All rights reserved.
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Get Started
Getting Started
Welcome to Foundations of Inquiry Science!
Through hands-on discovery, observation, and careful reasoning, learners build a deep...
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Extra
Baloney Detection Kit
This lesson was pulled from the information in the orientation to using BFSU. It is an important lesson of detecting fallacies in science...
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Lesson 31
Matter vs Energy
Learners put together everything they have covered about matter and energy and arrive at the definitive test for telling them apart....
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Lesson 32
Identification of Living Things
Learners develop the skills of a field naturalist, discovering that scientific identification is a careful, evidence-based process...
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Lesson 33
Air Pressure
Learners discover what air pressure is at the particle level and why it shapes so much of everyday life. Students have already...
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Lesson 34
Why Plants and Animals Live Where They Do
Learners investigate the concept of habitat by asking why each plant and animal lives where it does. Students connect environmental...
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Lesson 35
Day, Night, and Earth's Rotation
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Lesson 36
Compass Directions
Starts from the everyday problem of giving directions to someone whose orientation you can't see, then builds North, East, South, and...
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Week 37
Pressure Inside and Outside
Learners investigate what happens when the air pressure on one side of a surface differs from the pressure on the other side. Students...
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Lesson 38
Properties of Magnets
We'll be testting which household objects a magnet actually grabs, discover that only iron, nickel, cobalt, and steel respond, and...
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Lesson 39
Maps and Real-World Directions
Extends compass directions to maps: how a compass works, what a map keeps and drops, and why every flat map of a round Earth distorts...
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Week 40
Vacuums and Suction
Learners investigate what a vacuum actually is and how it behaves, discovering that a vacuum is not a force that pulls but simply a...
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Week 41
Magnetic Fields
WE'll be discovering the invisible field surrounding every magnet, make it visible with iron filings, and see that it's a...
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Week 42
What is a Species?
We define a species by the ability to interbreed and produce fertile offspring, distinguishes species from breeds and varieties, and...
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Lesson 43
Earth as a Magnet
The whole Earth is a giant magnet, powered by a swirling liquid iron core, and connects that to why a compass doesn't point at exactly...
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Lesson 44
Variation Within a Species
Learners will see why no two members of a species are identical. We'll talk about splitting traits into inherited (from genes) and...
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Lesson 45
Clouds and Weather Patterns
This lesson explains what a cloud actually is, how invisible water vapor becomes visible droplets, and how the collision of air masses at...
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Lesson 46
Adaptations for Survival
Expands adaptation into both physical and behavioral traits, introduces niche and habitat, and helps learners connect an animal's...
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Lesson 47
Air as a Mixture of Gases
This lesson has two hands-on experiments to prove that air isn't one substance but a mixture of gases with different properties: oxygen...
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Lesson 48
Earth's Landforms
We'll be introducing the major shapes of Earth's surface (ranges, plateaus, plains, valleys, and basins). We'll discuss how rivers,...
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Lesson 49
Mixtures vs Chemical Reactions
We're going to learn how tell a chemical reaction (new substance, energy change) apart from a simple mixture (nothing new, nothing...
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Lesson 50
Basic Plant Structure
Almost very plant is built from just three parts, roots, stem, and leaves, no matter how different those parts look across species. We'll...
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Lesson 51
Respiration, Photosynthesis, and Air
Traces where a plant's mass actually comes from (air, not soil) and shows how photosynthesis and respiration as the same carbon-cycling...