Development of the ScienceStart! Early Childhood Integrated Curriculum began as a result of an initiative by the Eastman Kodak Company to support the development of a state-of-the-art early childhood program that would help prepare children in Rochester New York for careers in Math/Science/Technology.

In response to this initiative, Professor Lucia French of University of Rochester began working with the teachers and staff at a demonstration Head Start program to create and implement a science-based curriculum that was both coherent (each day's activities built on those of the day before) and integrated (all content areas and activity centers were related to each day's central science activity). Dr. Marylou Boynton spent a sabbatical leave from Finger Lakes Community College working at the demonstration center. Kathy Conezio joined the staff, working first as a co-teacher and later as the education coordinator.

The demonstration program was in operation for seven years. Throughout that time, parent satisfaction was high and children consistently showed statistically significant improvement on standardized measures of vocabulary (the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test). In addition, children were highly engaged in the classroom activities, behavior problems were minimal, and learning of both content knowledge and process skills was apparent.