FOSS Pathways

Today as never before, the world needs scientific thinkers to view the world thoughtfully, approach challenges analytically, and embrace opportunities enthusiastically.

FOSS®, a longtime leader in science education, has stepped forward to meet that
challenge with the newly streamlined FOSS Pathways™.

Pathways was designed to provide teachers with everything they need to meet standards in the time they have allotted to teach science.

Pathways is the phenomena-based hands-on science curriculum that:

  • Addresses limited time for science instruction:
    • Grades K-2nd Pathways has 60 sessions per school year, which includes Earth, Physical, and Life Science topics
    • Grades 3rd-5th Pathways has 90 sessions per school year, which includes Earth, Physical, and Life Science topics
  • Includes editable Teaching Slide decks in Google Slides and PowerPoint
    • Slides are available in English and Spanish, but can also be translated into any language offered with Google translate
  • Incorporates improved online assessment for grades 3-8
    • Online assessment can be translated into any language offered with Google translate
  • Aligns to national science standards using three-dimensional teaching, learning, and assessment
  • Integrates English Language Arts to support student literacy and the science of reading
  • Utilizes a multimodal approach to resonate with every student
  • Lends flexibility to teach in the class time allotted for science
  • Immerses students in figuring out local and relevant phenomena and engineering problems
  • Provides unmatched teacher support to teach phenomena-based science

See FOSS Pathways in action and get a glimpse of its power.

Recommended Scope & Sequence

FOSS Pathways™ PK-5 aligns to national science standards using three-dimensional teaching, learning, and assessment.

FOSS has evolved over time to meet the changing science education landscape and is aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).  In our Scope and Sequence Chart below you will see how FOSS is aligned to NGSS Performance Expectations for each module.

FOSS Pathways PreK-5

Observing Nature

Foundation for LS1.A, LS1.C, PS1.A, ESS3.C

Trees & Weather

K-LS1-1 | K-ESS2-1 | K-ESS2-2 | K-ESS3-1 | K-ESS3-2 | K-PS3-1

Materials & Forces

K-PS2-1 | K-PS2-2 | K-PS3-1 | K-PS3-2 | K-ESS3-3 | K-2-ETS1-1 | K-2-ETS1-2 | K-2-ETS1-3

Animals Two by Two

K-LS1-1 | K-ESS2-2 | K-ESS3-1

Changes in the Sky

1-ESS1-1 | 1-ESS1-2

Sound & Light

1-PS4-1 | 1-PS4-2 | 1-PS4-3 | 1-PS4-4 | K-2-ETS1-1 | K-2 ETS1-2 | K-2-ETS1-3

Plants & Animals

1-LS1-1 | 1-LS1-2 | 1-LS3-1 | K-2-ETS1-2

Water and Landforms

2-ESS1-1 | 2-ESS2-1 | 2-ESS2-2 | 2-ESS2-3 | 2-PS1-1

Solids & Liquids

2-PS1-1 | 2-PS1-2 | 2-PS1-3 | 2-PS1-4 | K-2-ETS1-1 | K-2-ETS1-2 | K-2-ETS1-3

Insects & Plants

2-LS2-1 | 2-LS2-2 | 2-LS4-1 | K-2-ETS1-2

Water & Climate

3-ESS2-1 | 3-ESS2-2 | 3-ESS3-1

Motion

3-PS2-1 | 3-PS2-2 | 3-PS2-3 | 3-PS2-4 | 3-5-ETS1-1 | 3-5-ETS1-2 | 3-5-ETS1-3

Structures of Life

3-LS1-1 | 3-LS2-1 | 3-LS3-1 | 3-LS3-2 | 3-LS4-1 | 3-LS4-2 | 3-LS4-3 | 3-LS4-4

Soils, Rocks, and Landforms

4-ESS1-1 | 4-ESS2-1 | 4-ESS2-2 | 4-ESS3-2 | 3-5-ETS1-2

Energy

4-PS3-1 | 4-PS3-2 | 4-PS3-3 | 4-PS3-4 | 4-PS4-1 | 4-PS4-2 | 4-PS4-3 | 4-ESS3-1 | 3-5-ETS1-1 | 3-5-ETS1-2 | 3-5-ETS1-3

Senses and Survival

4-LS1-1 | 4-LS1-2 | 3-5-ETS1-1

Earth & Sun

5-ESS1-1 | 5-ESS1-2 | 5-ESS2-1 | 5-ESS2-2 | 5-ESS3-1 | 5-PS1-1 | 5-PS2-1 | 3-5-ETS1-1 | 3-5-ETS1-2

Mixtures & Solutions

5-PS1-1 | 5-PS1-2 | 5-PS1-3 | 5-PS1-4 | 5-ESS3-1 | 3-5-ETS1-2

Living Systems

5-PS3-1 | 5-LS1-1 | 5-LS2-1 | 5-ESS2-1 | 5-ESS3-1 | 3-5-ETS1-3