The ScienceStart! curriculum is an early childhood curriculum that takes coherently organized science content as the hub of an integrated approach. ScienceStart! maps onto the typical preschool day and may be adapted for use in full-day or half-day preschool programs. It is designed to support the important developmental achievements of the preschool years, particularly in the areas of language development, acquisition of preliteracy skills, problem solving, social interaction, and self-regulation (e.g., planning, attention management, etc.).

Science content is highly engaging for young children because they are biologically prepared to learn about the everyday world around them. Within this context they are capable of acquiring a rich knowledge base that supports the acquisition of vocabulary and the use of higher order cognitive skills such as planning, predicting, and drawing inferences. The engaging content provides a setting for a variety of language and literacy-related activities such as reading aloud, consulting books for information, making charts and graphs, dictating reports, and describing careful observations.

In the ScienceStart! curriculum, each day's science lesson is structured according to a simple cycle of scientific reasoning:

• reflect & ask
• plan & predict
• act & observe
• report & reflect

The daily science lesson is supported by children's literature that is read aloud, by props included in the various learning centers, and by planned activities for art and outdoor play. Math and social studies content is integrated into the science activities on a regular basis.

Lessons are organized into five modules, each of which lasts 6 to 10 weeks. These include:

• Measurement & Mapping
• Color & Light
• Properties of Matter
• Neighborhood Habitats
• Movement and Machines

Within the modules, each lesson builds on the content of previous lessons and provides a foundation for subsequent lessons.

Children in ScienceStart! classes tend to be highly engaged, socially active, and rarely disruptive. They regularly show significant cognitive and linguistic gains. This includes a gain of .5 standard deviation on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT), a standardized instrument that is commonly used to assess young children's cognitive and linguistic level and the impact of intervention programs geared to better prepare preschoolers for academic success.