At Foothill School we like to follow the advice of the famous Ms. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus series of books. She always advises her students "To take chances, make mistakes and get messy!" In our science lab we are able to do just that. Taking chances means that sometimes we guess or make predictions about what will happen before we try something. our predictions are not always right but you can learn a lot from mistakes. Finally, there are times when you just have to get messy in order to learn about messy processes in our world.

The Goleta Union School District created its own experiment based curricula for teaching science in kindergarten through 6th grade. The curricula is divided into physical science, earth science and life science units. While some experiments are easily performed in the classroom, other require a little more space, special equipment, or a little more set up or clean up time and are best accomplished in our on-site science lab.

All the students in 1st through 6th grade rotate through a schedule that allows them to spend 5 weeks on each unit of study doing experiments in the science lab. For example, the 3rd graders perform experiments to test Newton's laws of motion and the 6th graders do experiments relating to energy while studying the unit on physical science. In the earth science unit, some classes do experiments to understand the geological processes that shape our planet while other classes explore the concept that our planet is part of a larger solar system. In the life science unit, we make observations about habitats and adaptations that allow certain species to thrive in their habitat. The 5th graders have a 5 week unit on marine biology in preparation for a marine science field trip they take in the spring. They even get to dissect a squid.

Our science lab is quite well stocked for an elementary school laboratory. We have microscopes, balances, beakers, graduated cylinders and even "Mr. Bones" - a complete full-sized human study skeleton. Mrs. Rothman, our science teacher, has a MS Degree in Biology from the University of Oregon. She feels very fortunate to be able to share her interest in science with all the great kids at Foothill.