Pitsco 6-9 Programs | Developing Future-Ready Learners

Our Grades 6-9 Programs

Our Grades 6-9 STEM and Career Expeditions programs create learning opportunities that build the collaboration and problem-solving skills needed for a lifetime of learning and working. With Expeditions, students are immersed in a collaborative experience, seeking to answer an Essential Question through hands on discovery and experimentation.

Expeditions are flexible and hands on, blending teacher-led instruction with student-directed activities through a cloud-based learning content management system. Students from all walks of life experience success through our unique open-ended multimodal instructional design.

Ready to experience Grades 6-9 STEM and Career Expeditions? Jump in to discover more.

Curriculum Overview

Learn more about our curricula, download standards alignments and sample assessments, and read Expeditions success stories.

Learn More

Titles

Browse our 30+ STEM-based and our 8 career-focused curriculum themes. Get an overview of each title, plus a look at the objectives, Essential Questions, and career connections covered.

Browse Titles

Environment

A Pitsco learning environment enables students to be actively engaged in our hands-on products and programs and is flexible to encourage collaboration and group activities.

Step Inside

STEM PBL Units

Pitsco Education - Supplementary STEM Units

We have options. If the Grades 6-9 STEM Expeditions program is not what you are looking for, if you want to round out your current program, or if you want to start on a smaller scale, see how STEM PBL Units can work for you.

Explore STEM PBL Units

Getting Started

Investigate on your own as much as you’d like but know that we are a click or a phone call away. Let us know your Grades 6-9 STEM and career-preparedness needs, and we can help design a program just for you.

Get Started

Build Resilient and Confident Middle Schoolers

Middle school STEM and CTE programs have been our specialty for decades. We revolutionized systemic STEM education in the early '90s with our Modules program, learning what works best for teachers and students and keeping up with changes in technology along the way.

STEM and Career Expeditions are the next generation of hands-on learning for Grades 6-9, pairing content knowledge with workforce preparation, college readiness, and engagement in a way that only Pitsco Education can.

Our STEM Expeditions are built on the 10 best practices for teaching math and science, enabling teachers to couple higher-order thinking and rigor with hands-on application and idea exchange that enables students to put their learning into practice.

10 Best Practices in Teaching Math and Science:

Hands-on learning
Cooperative learning
Discussion and inquiry
Questioning and conjectures
Justification of thinking

Writing for reflection and problem solving
Using a problem-solving approach
Integrating technology
Teaching as a facilitator
Utilizing assessment as part of instruction

[Citation: Stohlmann, Micah; Moore, Tamara J.; and Roehrig, Gillian H. (2012) “Considerations for Teaching Integrated STEM Education,” Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER): Vol. 2: Iss. 1, Article 4.]

Program Outcomes

Students need to be prepared for the world we live in – a world that is changing rapidly with new opportunities emerging constantly. They need to be able to think critically and creatively, use good judgement, share thoughts and opinions, and make good data-driven decisions.

Employers need employees who can use knowledge, facts, and data to effectively solve problems. STEM and Career Expeditions give students an opportunity to practice that very thing – creative problem-solving.

A 2016 survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) lists the top 10 attributes employers say they seek (in order of importance).

Leadership
Ability to work in a team
Written communication skills
Problem-solving skills
Verbal communication skills

Strong work ethic
Initiative
Analytical/quantitative skills
Flexibility/adaptability
Technical skills

Our Grades 6-9 programs are designed to equip students with skills necessary to succeed in high school, college, career, and beyond. This means we provide lots of time within our programs for collaboration and hands-on activity without sacrificing teacher-led instruction and independent work. The program outcomes shown below represent independent percentages that overlap with one another.

“The student sets the pace. Yes, there is a hard deadline. But they can spend more time on stuff they are really interested in. They enjoy learning at their own pace.”

– Regina Thompson, science teacher, Junior/Senior High School, Fredonia, Kansas (on STEM Expeditions)

“Our kids are excited. They want to get into those classes . . . they’re collaborating! Just to see that higher-order thinking, that critical thinking, that problem-solving, and all the discovery that is happening in those classrooms is amazing!”

– Rose Chapa, principal, Somerset Junior High School, Somerset, Texas

“It gives them a chance to really dive in and write out their ideas, their hypotheses. This worked. This didn’t work. That kind of thinking about thinking, metacognition if you will, has been a big push for them. . . . Students learn to explore and not be afraid to fail. They can swing the bat as many times as they need to until they hit the ball, essentially.”

– Brian Houghton, K-12 lead teacher, Fredonia, Kansas

Collaborative, Creative, Future-focused Education