The treatment of content is consistent with that described in the standards.

• The content in this book is listed as third grade, but the standards that it matches up with is closer to a fifth grade science class.

The development of conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and applications is balanced, with explicit connections among the three.

• A good example of the connections among the three is a t-chart for the students to understand that food chains depend on the environments of the animals. It was a good example because it was then followed by an experiment with models that had good procedural fluency.

The development of content reflects what is known about how students learn that content most effectively. Ideally, this knowledge is incorporated in the standards, so it would be addressed in content treatment review.

• A great lesson that was planned out was titled "What are different food chains?" It begun with learning about environments, food chains in those enviornments and then finally what happens to food chains if the environment gets disrupted. This was a great progression of natural knowledge for the students to maximize their growth.

The development of students' problem solving, reasoning, and other mathematical habits of mind—the set of processes identified in the Standards—receives explicit and regular attention.

• While this particular unit does in deed have other problem solving parts to the lesson, it doesn't necessarily strengthen the learning of the food chains. An example of this is a math mini lesson that was included. It used animals in a specific habitat to teach subtraction. It did not help develop understanding of the food chains at all, it just used animals in a similar habitat.

The materials are focused. Curriculum materials should give sufficient attention to the critical topics identified in the standards for each grade, so that students have the time and support to develop the identified proficiencies.

• The experiments in the lessons of the units are very well planned out. The materials are helpful yet won't overpower the learning. The experiments help solidify lessons already taught and the set up will help with each students' success.

Content treatment is coherent. The content is effectively organized so that students can clearly see how ideas build upon, or connect with, other ideas both within and across grades.

• The content is very organized, going logistically with building on previous knowledge. This really will help students understand the complex idea of a food chain. The sections often revert back to material already covered to remind the students what they learned before.

The content is accurate. The materials should be as close to error-free as possible.

• Only issue might be that it could be dated. A lot of the examples or articles in the book were from the 90s. It might be an issue, but something as a teacher to be aware of.