Carolina Biological Supply Company Delivered Science Kits Worldwide to Department of Defense Education Activity Schools

BURLINGTON, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Leading school science supplier Carolina Biological Supply Company, announced that worldwide U.S. military-run high schools started the year ready to teach science using the Next Generation Science Standards® (NGSS) with an array of new Carolina Kits | 3D™. Carolina’s exclusive distributor to the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA), Effective Communication Strategies, LLC, won a five-year contract to provide Carolina science kits for DoDEA’s 163 schools. DoDEA is transitioning now to the NGSS as its College and Career Ready Standards for Science for grades 6 through 12. In preparation, it secured new instructional resources for its teachers that build toward three-dimensional teaching and learning. Science teachers at schools serving American children of military parents domestically in the U.S. and internationally are using Carolina’s engaging hands-on lab kits to investigate science phenomena. The schools are located in Florida, North Carolina, Virginia and Puerto Rico and overseas in Bahrain, Belgium, Germany, Guam, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, South Korea, Spain and Turkey. Carolina Kits | 3D™ for High School Biology and Carolina Kits | 3D™ for High School Chemistry are for high school life science and chemistry labs. The initial order was for 53 kits, composed of almost 7,000 units. It was for 50 of DoDEA’s 163 schools.

DoDEA emphasizes the importance of providing middle and high school children with many opportunities to explore science concepts (disciplinary core ideas) in conjunction with the skills and abilities of scientists and engineers (science and engineering practices). This allows students to connect new understandings to related experiences (crosscutting concepts). The combination of these three dimensions provides students with learning experiences to apply their science and engineering knowledge and skills to understand natural phenomena and solve problems.

To enable teachers to meet the new NGSS standards, DoDEA conducted an extensive search for science products last year for middle and high school instructional resources. The search criteria included hands-on and digital resources for biology, chemistry and physics. DoDEA required materials to support intentional teaching and purposeful learning of the DoDEA-adapted NGSS.

DoDEA required research-based and NGSS-compatible science instructional resources for high school students and teachers. With plans to use a three-course model employing the NGSS, it was vital to DoDEA that Carolina kits covered all the disciplinary core ideas within the disciplines of life science, physical science, and Earth science and space science in a flexible way that can be taught in three courses. For information or to purchase Carolina Kits | 3D lab modules, call (336) 538-6211 or visit www.carolina.com.

“We’re excited that DoDEA chose Carolina Biological for meeting its NGSS alignment criteria to provide instructional resources that its science teachers need to teach over the next five years,” said Mark Meszaros, Vice President and Core Products Management & Innovation at Carolina Biological. “We are proud to have been selected by DoDEA to partner with their teachers as they transition to incorporating rigorous NGSS into their school labs around the world.”

Carolina kits were selected by DoDEA because they use student-centered instructional resources to help students make meaning of science, support the NGSS, and provide in-depth investigations for students to explore natural phenomena and solve problems through hands-on work. The kits’ embedded assessments were also required to determine student progress and to enable teachers to make data-informed decisions to plan for differentiated instruction. Another essential component is that the kits provide in-depth content and pedagogy for teachers, explaining how the materials meet the shifts and expectations outlined in the NGSS and are based on best practices in science teaching.

*Next Generation Science Standards® is a registered trademark of Achieve. Neither Achieve nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of, and do not endorse, these products.

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