What caused the Hindenburg to explode? What happens if a runner drinks too much water during a race? How do you know if a powdery white substance is anthrax? These are some of the questions that ninth grade chemistry students wrestle with in Foundation Science, a new high school science curriculum developed by EDC.

Funded by the National Science Foundation, Foundation Science covers the four science disciplines—physics, chemistry, biology, and earth science. Units build on one another, all geared to students’ maturing intellectual abilities as they progress from ninth through twelfth grade. “We begin where the students are at 14, then bring them along to more abstract thinking, reasoning, reading, and mathematics,” says EDC’s Joe Flynn in the Center for Science Education (CSE).

The curriculum units for ninth grade, which project staff field tested with students last year, will be ready for classrooms in fall 2007.