Our Lower School science program engages children in the wonder and study of the natural world through topics covering biology, chemistry, physics, and earth sciences. Our program revolves around stimulating students to think, take intellectual risks, learn from mistakes, experiment safely, share information, and contribute new bits of knowledge or activities to the curriculum. Training in the scientific method begins as early as First Grade, and becomes a finely honed skill by the end of Fifth Grade. Children are nurtured to become keen observers, to ask questions, to formulate hypotheses, to develop experiments and projects to gain further understanding, and to analyze their new findings. Hands-on, individual and cooperative science activities utilize minimal starting information to encourage learning that is student driven and discovery based. In addition, each grade level conducts at least one controlled variable experiment. Science is taught weekly by the Science Specialist and classroom teacher together, with curriculum extensions and additional topics taught by the classroom teacher.