In this live online course, students build scientific understanding through observation, experimentation, discussion, and evidence-based reasoning. Rather than memorizing isolated facts, learners investigate how the natural world works and develop lasting conceptual connections across science disciplines.
Class Overview
This course invites students to think like scientists: asking questions, making observations, testing ideas, and building explanations from evidence.
Across the semester, learners explore interconnected ideas from:
- chemistry
- life science
- physics
- earth science
This course is informed in part by the inquiry-based teaching philosophy of Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding by Bernard Nebel, while featuring my own pacing, instructional design, activities, and original teaching materials.
Format
Live, interactive Zoom sessions
Schedule
Tuesdays and Thursdays at 2:00 PM EST
Semester Dates
June 2, 2026 – September 10, 2026
Pacing
Accelerated, concept-rich exploration designed for motivated elementary and middle school learners who enjoy discussion, curiosity, and deeper scientific investigation.
Ready to Enroll?
Class size is intentionally kept small to support meaningful discussion, participation, and individualized interaction.
Enroll here:
https://bfsu-inspired-accelerated-semester-1.teachery.co/summer-2026-bfsu-accelerated-semester-1
Need to log into your class? Click here!
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Get Started
Welcome to Foundations of Inquiry Science – Semester 1
This course is inspired by the inquiry-based science approach found in Bernard...
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Extra
Baloney Detection Kit
This lesson was pulled from the information in the orientation to using BFSU. It is an important lesson of detecting fallacies in science...
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Week 1 Day 1
Organizing Things Into Categories
Learners discover that sorting things into categories is a skill they already use every day. This foundational thinking skill is...
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Week 1 Day 2
Solids, Liquids, and Gases Introduction
Everything around us exists as a solid, liquid, or gas. Learners sort everything around them into one of three states of matter: solid,...
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Week 2 Day 1
States of Matter: Changes with Temperature
Learners observe how many materials, especially water, shift between solid, liquid, and gas states as temperature changes. They wrap up...
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Week 2 Day 2
Gravity Introduction
Learners discover what gravity is, explore why it never turns off, and connect gravity to the concepts of horizontal and vertical. They...
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Week 3 Day 1
Orbits and Gravity in Space
Learners connect gravity to the orbits of the moon, Earth, and other planets, and discover why orbiting objects are actually in constant...
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Week 3 Day 2
What is Energy?
Nothing moves, heats up, or lights up on its own. Learners identify the different forms of energy and discover that all of them share one...
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Week 4
Energy Transformation
Students observe how energy can shift from one form to another and explore how it always travels from where there is more toward where...
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Week 4 Day 2
Air is Real / Air and the Atmosphere
Through hands-on experiments, students demonstrate that air takes up space and has weight, just like solids and liquids, proving that it...
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Week 5 Day 1
Categorizing the World Around Us
Students sort a collection of living and nonliving things into three categories: living or biological, natural Earth, and human-made. The...
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Week 5 Day 2
Distinguishing Living Things from Natural Earth and Human Made / Technology, Tools, and Animals
Learners dig into how they actually know something is living, natural, or human-made, exploring the visual and observable clues that help...
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Week 6
Matter is Made of Particles
Through hands-on activities, students reason their way to the discovery that all matter, whether solid, liquid, or gas, is made up of...
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Week 6 Day 2
Changes in Particles with States of Matter / Reversible and Nonreversible Changes
Learners learn to distinguish between changes that can be undone, like water freezing and thawing, and changes that cannot, like burning,...
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Week 7 Day 1
Sound and Vibrations
Learners discover that all sound comes from vibrations and explore how the speed of those vibrations determines pitch. They make...
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Week 7 Day 2
How Sound Travels
Learners model how vibrations travel through the air and into the ear, and explore how sound can make other objects vibrate. They also...
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Week 8 Day 1
Kinetic and Potential Energy / Energy in the Natural World
Using wind-up toys and simple devices, students learn the difference between energy in motion and energy in storage. They discover that...
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Week 8 Day 2
Plants vs. Animals: Key Differences / Where All Food Energy Comes From
Learners sort living things into plants and animals and discover that the key difference lies in how each gets its energy. Animals eat;...
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Week 9 Day 1
Categories of Materials / Properties of Different Materials
Learners learn that most human-made things come from a small number of basic materials: metal, plastic, wood, glass, rubber, and clay....
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Week 9 Day 2
The Life Cycle Concept
Every living thing is born, grows, reproduces, and dies, and the cycle begins again. Students are introduced to this fundamental pattern...
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Week 10 Day 1
Metamorphosis and Variation in Life Cycles
Learners compare the life cycles of mammals, birds, frogs, insects, and plants, finding both shared patterns and striking differences....
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Week 10 Day 2
Understanding Force / How Force and Energy Work Together
Students learn to distinguish between energy and force and practice measuring forces using a spring scale. They explore how forces...
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Week 11 Day 1
Animal Adaptations / Food Chains and Energy Flow
Learners explore how animals are physically built for the way they eat, whether they are herbivores or carnivores, and use that idea to...
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Week 11 Day 2
Reading and Drawing Maps
Learners learn that a map is a view of an area from above and practice drawing one of a familiar space. They then move to reading actual...
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Week 12 Day 1
Matter vs. Energy: What Is the Difference?
Learners pull together everything they have learned about matter and energy to sharpen the distinction between the two. They confirm that...
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Week 12 Day 2
Identifying Local Plants and Animals / Habitats and Why Organisms Live Where They Do
Learners begin learning to identify common plants and animals in their region by name and start asking why certain organisms live where...
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Week 13 Day 1
Air Pressure
Learners discover that air can be compressed, and that compressed air always pushes back toward lower pressure. They connect this idea to...
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Week 13 Day 2
Pressure Inside and Outside / Vacuums and Suction / Air Pressure, Wind, and the Atmosphere
Students extend their understanding of air pressure to explain how straws, suction cups, and vacuum cleaners work. They also connect air...
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Week 14 Day 1
Day, Night, and Earth's Rotation
Learners use a globe and a lamp to model how the Earth's rotation produces the day-night cycle. They connect sunrise, sunset, and time...
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Week 14 Day 2
Compass Directions / Maps and Real-World Directions
Learners learn how directions are defined on the globe and discover how they can figure out north, south, east, and west from wherever...
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Week 15 Day 1
Properties of Magnets
Learners investigate what magnets attract and what they do not, and discover that every magnet has two poles. They observe how like poles...
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Week 15 Day 2
Magnetic Fields / Earth as a Magnet
Learners make magnetic fields visible using iron filings and explore how those fields pass through non-iron materials. They then discover...