A guide to exploring Discovery Education Science Techbook.
Due to varying state requirements, we have several different versions of Science Techbook. Please select your version to display the most relevant article for you.
- Modular: Our newest 16 unit course designed for Middle School Science. Look for a unit called Rocket Sled to determine if this is your Science Techbook version.
- National: To determine if this is your version, click into a concept and look at the tabs. If you have an Intro and a Beyond tab, this is your version.
- California: This version is for our California Partners.
- Classic: To determine if this is your version, click into a concept and look at the tabs. If you have 5 tabs to align with the 5Es as well as a Model Lesson tab, this is your version.
Step 1: Sign In
Navigate to discoveryeducation.com, discoveryeducation.ca, or your custom URL. Select Login in the upper right corner and then enter your username and password and Sign in.
Step 2: Select Science Techbook
Select Science Techbook from the Curriculum Packs section of your My DE homepage. You can also access Science Techbook from any page using the menu in the upper left corner.
Step 3: Navigate the Course Page
If your school or district has access to more than one Science Techbook course (K-5 or 9-12 Courses), select the course or grade level Techbook from the Course menu.
You have several options for viewing the course page:
- The Overview tab will provide a quick glance of the content in the course.
- The Table of Contents view provides a more linear, book-like navigation. Use keywords to search a course's content and quickly locate relevant lessons and activities. This view also view provides quick access to Lesson Resources, Standards, Timing Guidance, and Additional Unit Resources.
- The Standards view enables you to select a three-dimensional standard. Selecting a standard will display the supporting Unit(s). You can access either the Unit or the Unit Resources from the displayed results.
- The Course Materials tab includes resources to support you in understanding the course and communicating information to parents, such as a Program Guide, NGSS Overview, and Parent Letter.
Throughout Science Techbook, there are opportunities to enter a Quick Code. These codes are indicated throughout the print Teacher and Student Editions and are used to ease digital navigation and to seamlessly access corresponding digital materials. Select the Quick Code button and enter the code from the print materials to view the digital resources.
Step 4: Select a Unit
The course is divided into 16 digital units designed to support student sensemaking anchored in phenomena that strategically integrate the DCIs, CCCs, and SEPs. Select a unit tile to open the unit in order to access the lessons and activities.
Units include lessons and begin with the anchor phenomena and end with the unit project. Each lesson will include several activities to support the investigative phenomena.
Each lesson includes a Teacher Overview section which includes lesson objectives, performance expectations, 3-dimensional standards, and information for performance-based assessments.
On the Unit Assessments and Resources tab, teachers can find the performance-based assessments as well as additional teacher documents to support planning.
Digital Performance-Based Assessments expect students to demonstrate three- dimensional learning through multiple prompts associated with a problem-based scenario and expose students to a variety of item types. These Performance-Based Assessments are designed to provide evidence of student learning for each of the performance indicators included in the unit. Online Teacher Guides that accompany the Performance-Based Assessments describe the multidimensional nature of each prompt and provide sample student responses. These assessments are also available in Spanish.
Additional unit-specific materials such as storyline, overview, structure, planner, objectives, and teacher background are available to support planning. The Lesson Narrative and Lesson Progression support teachers in planning out the pacing and design of their lessons with students.
The final lesson of each unit includes a Unit Project, a summative assessment, which encourages students to design and generate solutions to real-world problems as well as conduct additional research. Teachers can observe and evaluate how students apply content knowledge to an extension of the Anchor Phenomenon. Access performance expectations, goals, three-dimensional standards, and performance-based assessment information in the Teacher Overview section of the final lesson.
Finally, the Beyond the Lesson section includes additional resources related to the unit for remediation, extension, or differentiation, depending on the needs of your students. It includes videos, activities, explorations, interactives, and more. Additional reading passages to support literacy in the classroom are included in the Beyond section as well to support the development of vocabulary and knowledge throughout the unit.
Step 1: Sign In
Navigate to discoveryeducation.com, discoveryeducation.ca, or your custom URL. Enter your username and password and Sign in.Step 2: Select Science Techbook
Select Science Techbook from the Curriculum Packs section of your My DE homepage. You can also access Science Techbook from any page using the menu in the upper left corner.
Step 3: Navigate to Your Desired Science Techbook
If your school or district has access to more than one Science Techbook course, select the specific course or grade level Techbook from the Course menu.
Select Table of Contents to review all of the available units of study and corresponding concepts for the course. Select Standards on each concept to see the grade-level standards for the concept, or use the Expand All button to see all standards addressed in the unit.
Step 4: Select a Unit
From the course page, select View Unit to open the Unit page.
The Unit Overview includes the Anchor Phenomenon, Unit Project, and an overview of each concept - including each investigative phenomenon, student outcomes, concept resources, and standards.
The Unit Assessments and Resources tab includes a performance-based assessment available in both English and Spanish. Depending on the unit selected, you may see additional teacher support planning resources.
Step 5: Select a Concept
After reviewing the overview, select View Concept to explore a concept.
Concepts follow the 5E Model of Instruction, a research-based instructional cycle that uses complex essential questions to guide the learning experience. Each of the 5Es describes a phase of learning: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate.
Recognizing the need to organize instruction into manageable segments for elementary students, Science Techbook in Grades K-5 condenses the 5E Model into three segments: Wonder, Learn, and Share.
Step 6: Begin with Intro & Engage (Wonder)
Intro provides teachers with important planning materials for this concept. The Can You Explain? question is introduced, along with the Student Learning Objectives, Teacher Learning Objectives, Teacher Planning Resources, Vocabulary Strategies, Key Vocabulary, and Standards.
Engage provides phenomena-driven or problem-based learning experiences as catalysts for the inquiry process, triggering students’ natural sense of curiosity and wonder. Students are challenged to describe real-world phenomena and to develop questions around these phenomena in addition to the Can You Explain? question. Technology-Enhanced Items (TEIs) help teachers uncover what students already know about a concept, including their preconceptions and misconceptions.
Step 7: Continue to Explore (Learn)
Providing deep experiences to support scientific learning, Explore features text and interactive resources that help students test predictions, collect evidence, and record observations and ideas. Learn also contains digital models and Hands-On Activities that provide opportunities for students to apply what they have learned.
Step 8: Explain (Share)
Explain encourages students to verbalize and demonstrate their conceptual understanding, new skills, and behaviors by constructing a scientific explanation related to the investigative phenomenon, the Can You Explain? question, or one of their own questions first posed in Engage.
Step 9: Elaborate & Evaluate (Share)
Elaborate requires students to deepen their understanding of the DCIs and PEs through application to real-world STEM problems. Elaborate is divided into two sections: STEM in Action and STEM Projects.
In Evaluate, students must demonstrate their mastery of three-dimensional learning. Several types of assessments, multiple choice, and constructed response should be used to measure student understanding.
Step 10: Go Beyond
Beyond provides additional resources to support learning within this concept. Divided into categories - View, Read, Interact, Teach, and Listen - these resources can provide scaffolding or extension support for students.
Step 1: Sign In
Go to DiscoveryEducation.com and click the Login button at the top of the screen. Enter your login credentials to start exploring.Step 2: Choose Science Techbook
Select Science Techbook from the Curriculum Packs section of your My DE homepage. You can also access Science Techbook from any page using the menu in the upper left corner.
Step 3: Select a Course
Choose your course from the drop down menu at the top of the screen.Step 4: Select a Unit
Select a Unit you wish to explore and select View Unit. Also find the corresponding Unit in the print Teacher Edition.
Step 5: Explore Anchor Phenomenon
Each Unit begins with an engaging real-world Anchor Phenomenon. Unit resources include CAST-like Performance Based Assessments in both English and Spanish.
Step 6: Select a Concept
Choose a Concept. Notice Concept Pacing Options in the print Teacher Edition, or find a digital copy in the concept Intro in the Teacher Planning Resources section.
Step 7: Engage with Investigative Phenomena
Select a concept and view the 5E lesson cycle across the top. In the Engage tab, students will be introduced to the Investigative Phenomenon.
Step 8: Explore the Concept
The Explore tab provides students with the core interactive text. The text includes multiple differentiation options found in the right-hand toolbar, including text size, two Lexile reading levels, and the ability to toggle to authentically translated Spanish. Other tools include text-to-speech, an enhanced science glossary, highlighting, a student notebook that carries with the student for the life of the adoption, and integrated multiple language translation for more than 90 languages.
Step 9: Explain with Evidence
The Explain tab provides students opportunities to communicate their self-constructed scientific explanation generated from evidence collected from the Learn tab. To meet different learning styles, students can represent their scientific explanation in multiple ways, such as uploading media or using our collaborative Studio tool that allows students to express themselves using different modalities. 
Step 10: Elaborate with STEM Tab
The Elaborate with STEM tab provides students with a STEM in Action section that connects real-world career opportunities related to the science content. STEM Project Starters allow for an extension of learning and student collaboration; students are presented with authentic problems that connect science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and are expected to research and design solutions.
Step 1: Sign In
Navigate to discoveryeducation.com, discoveryeducation.ca, or your custom URL. Select Login in the upper right corner and then enter your username and password and Sign in.
Step 2: Select Science Techbook
Select Science Techbook from the Curriculum Packs section of your My DE homepage. You can also access Science Techbook from any page using the menu in the upper left corner.
Step 3: Navigate to Your Desired Science Techbook
If your school or district has access to more than one Science Techbook course, select the specific course or grade level Techbook from the Course menu.
Step 4: Select a Unit and Concept
The Overview tab will provide a quick glance of the content in the course. The Table of Contents tab reviews all available units of student and corresponding content. The Standards tab allows you to drill down to your state or national standards to find the most appropriate content within Science Techbook.
Step 5: Begin with Engage
Engage provides phenomena-driven or problem-based learning experiences as catalysts for the inquiry process, triggering students’ national sense of curiosity and wonder. Students are challenged to describe and develop questions around real-world phenomena. Students are introduced to the Can You Explain? question and additional technology-enhanced items help teachers uncover what students already know about a concept, including their preconceptions and misconceptions.
Step 6: Continue to Explore
Providing deep experiences to support scientific learning, Explore features text and interactive resources that help students test predictions, collect evidence, and record observations and ideas. Explore also contains digital models and hands-on activities that provide opportunities for students to apply what they have learned.
Step 7: Explain
Explain encourages students to verbalize and demonstrate their conceptual understanding, new skills, and behaviors by constructing a scientific explanation related to the investigative phenomenon, the Can You Explain? question, or one of their own questions formed in Engage.
Step 8: Elaborate
Elaborate requires students to deepen their understanding through application to real-world STEM problems.
STEM in Action helps students connect their work with STEM careers available today and in the future. A focus on relevant careers, applications, and STEM-focused components of the content help students develop a better understanding of how skills used in school can be applied to jobs in the real world. TEIs deepen the career exploration or STEM component and provide a way for students to enter their thoughts around a particular career.
STEM Project Starters allow students to connect math, technology, and engineering to their understanding of science concepts in order to produce creative solutions to real-world problems. Projects focus on multiple aspects of STEM and require students to apply the content and learning from a particular concept.
Step 9: Evaluate
Evaluate provides a review for students and multiple options for student assessment, including brief and extended constructed response items and multiple-choice questions.
Step 10: Teacher Support
Using the Teacher View toggle, located at the top of the toolbar, educators can access point-of-use teacher notes within each Five E tab. These teacher supports provide curriculum alignment information, strategies for instruction, and a list of provided resources within the concept. Additionally, an extra tab, Model Lesson, will appear. This provides guidance for planning and student engagement.