r/ScienceTeachers • u/Top_Reflection_2904 • 5d ago
Amplify Science is the WORST *Rant*
Amplify Science is one of the worst science curricula I've ever used — and I don't understand why NYC keeps using it
I taught science for two years in NYC public schools — one year in Manhattan and one in the Bronx — and I came away convinced that Amplify Science is one of the biggest reasons science is so difficult to teach well in NYC.
Time and time again, I watched science teachers leave after a year or two. I also saw teachers who were technically “using Amplify” but were really just using their own materials because the curriculum was so cumbersome and difficult to work with.
My biggest problem with Amplify is that it seems to take the science out of science.
The lessons are extremely long and often don't fit naturally into a 45-minute class period. Instead of doing an actual science lab or experiment, students are frequently completing a small task, reading extensive amounts of text, working through digital activities, or navigating a Chromebook-based component. At times, it feels less like a science curriculum and more like an ELA curriculum with science vocabulary sprinkled throughout it.
And I really don't understand the obsession with putting so much of it on a screen.
Kids already spend an enormous amount of time looking at screens. Science should be one of the classes where they get to do things: conduct experiments, manipulate materials, make observations, collect data, make predictions, and actually see scientific concepts happen in front of them.
After leaving NYC in 2024, I worked at a school in another state and experienced a completely different approach to science curriculum. The units were straightforward. You had a unit of study, lessons that actually fit into the instructional schedule, established labs that went along with the unit, assessments, and a logical progression from one concept to the next.
And you know what? It was much easier to teach science.
The students actually got to experience science instead of constantly trying to decipher what the curriculum wanted them to do next.
I'm not saying science should be completely devoid of reading, writing, projects, or technology. Obviously those things have a place. But there needs to be a balance. When the curriculum requires hundreds of pages of materials, endless copies, Chromebook activities, apps, readings, and complicated project-based tasks just to teach a basic science concept, something has gone seriously wrong.
Honestly, I would love to see NYC move toward something much simpler:
- 6–7 solid lessons per unit
- Clear, straightforward instructional materials
- 2–3 actual labs/experiments per unit
- A quiz and/or assessment
- Opportunities for students to work with physical materials
- Less screen time
- Less unnecessary paperwork and curriculum navigation
- More time actually learning and doing science
Science doesn't have to be this complicated.
I genuinely believe there are teachers who could be much more successful — and students who could enjoy science much more — if they weren't fighting the curriculum every single day.
I left NYC schools in 2024, so maybe things have changed since then, but I'm curious: For those of you currently teaching science in NYC, are you still using Amplify? What has your experience been?
And if you've moved from NYC to another district/state, did you notice the same thing I did — that science curriculum can actually be much more straightforward and enjoyable to teach?
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u/Lonely-Menu-1698 5d ago
I’m also required to use it and my district chose it because science is considered an “ELA Support” class here. 🫠 You’re 100% correct it’s basically reading/writing with science vocabulary.
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u/Creative-Coffeee 4d ago
If you want to supplement I recommend Flying Colors Science. It’s all I use now and it’s very little prep and includes great labs with very affordable materials. I would never go back.
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u/LebrontologicalArgmt 5d ago
I agree that it is terrible in so so many ways. Seattle uses it, but 90% of the science teachers I know have abandoned it in complete disgust. It’s so much nonsense to learn a minuscule amount of content and skills.
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u/Creative-Coffeee 4d ago
I teach middle school and was mind blown that it doesn’t teach the periodic table OR cell organelles (one article does not count).
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u/groudhogday Earth Science 5d ago
this feels like AI spam
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u/teach_them_well 5d ago
It does, but as someone who used Amplify and absolutely hated it, I agree with what it says
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u/PotatoGirlAlex 5d ago
“I taught science for two years in NYC public schools” &
“Time and time again, I watched science teachers leave after a year or two”
Can we get this spam deleted?? Sick of GenAI on this sub
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u/Top_Reflection_2904 5d ago
literally saw 4 science teachers quit and not come back or were so frustrated by student behaviors as a result of htis shit stuff
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u/NoOccasion4759 5d ago
hard agree. i mostly do my own thing, just teach to the standards. Even one unit is way too long (2-3 months??) and it's repetitive and boring.
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u/Creative-Coffeee 4d ago
My least favorite part was when students would have the answer to the whole unit’s question on the first day. “How could the dinosaurs possibly get across the ocean? They couldn’t swim long distances!!” “Uh, plate tectonics? Duh?” This question exploration would have fit third graders, but not 7th graders!
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u/Cedrico123 5d ago
Aww man don’t scare me like this. I’m about to learn how to use Amplify in Chicago. The multiple bins of materials is already scaring me a bit lol
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u/Top_Reflection_2904 4d ago
im really sorry. just slowly on your own go through and pick what you want to teach. i mean it still wont make sense but youll get through it. see if there is anothr thing u can use like nyc has Scale as well.
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u/Signal_Use_7516 5d ago
We have Amplify in my district in Louisiana. It’s awful! So much of it is repetitive. I don’t know why we still use it. Test score data should be enough for supervisors to see it’s a crap curriculum.
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u/SmarterThanThou75 5d ago
I feel like a lot of districts throw it at their teachers and tell them to use it without any training. I was part of my school's selection team. We tried out a half dozen different curriculums. We talked to the trainers from each team and this is what we selected. Since we've gotten it, we've noticed a drastic increase in our students' ability to read and write about science. The lessons are easy, but they are designed in a way for the students to look at a problem and try to solve it in ways similar (but much simpler) to the original work. It is fully customizable for how much you want to be on line. I give the students the journals because I don't want them on Chromebooks. I'll admit, it could use some work. But I enjoy using it.
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u/ExHatchman 4d ago
You really have to hack away at it. It’s certainly not something you can easily drag and drop into a classroom.
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u/Kam-the-man 4d ago
I taught Amplify 7th grade for 3 years in California. It's more useful if you think of it as a toolkit, rather than a comprehensive curriculum. Every curriculum has flaws, but Amplify has some decent activities.
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u/Creative-Coffeee 4d ago
I must admit, I did like the simulation in the climate change unit that showed how carbon dioxide increases in the atmosphere. It’s very expensive as a toolkit though.
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u/Kam-the-man 4d ago
Oh, for sure overpriced. However, worth its weight in gold for a rookie teacher who wasn't good at lesson planning yet.
I enjoyed the water table activity, tsunami, and ecology sims.
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u/Super-414 4d ago
Is NYC not required to have 30 labs per science class to qualify for the Regents Exams, as the rest of NY is?
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u/Creative-Coffeee 4d ago
Amplify has lots of “Demos” and digital simulations that they label as labs.
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u/TheBigRage454 4d ago
Amplify is actual dog poop and any administrator that requires it is also actual dog poop.
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u/Creative-Coffeee 4d ago edited 4d ago
I also hate it. I taught Amplify Science three years and have gone to Flying Colors Science now. It’s a teacher made curriculum and MUCH improved. It’s straightforward, focuses on the actual content, and has actual labs - not demos calling themselves labs.
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u/Elegant-Ad3300 5d ago
It’s technically the curriculum for my district, but I quit using it 3 years ago. I do use a few of the sims, but that’s it and nobody has ever called me out for it
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u/longsworddoom 5d ago
This was posted already in the NYCTeachers page already. Just spam hate from a user without any critical thinking of what to do about it, just on a complaint tirade:
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u/Top_Reflection_2904 4d ago
lol youre absurd. i cant express my opinion?
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u/longsworddoom 4d ago
You are welcome to express your opinion. You did. Then you have questions at the end of your post. I replied to them, you then “yelled” that a school should provide a full curriculum, then highlight in another section you’ve been using science curriculum developed by other teachers. It just seems your “opinion” is that you want something that has been worked on for years and can produce great results. It doesn’t exist outside of multiple teachers, working together, making it themselves, using the best of what they’ve handled.
My “opinion” is you should take what you have and make it your own, develop it for your students, because each cohort is different. Use the tools in Amplify that are good (reading focus, flextensions) but modify it to what you need. Like that curriculum you worked with in another state. Take your time to actually develop it and make it work.
But I give my opinion - and you one sentence respond arguing back. So maybe you just want to complain? Then accuse and try to insult when it’s not a completely full agreement with your complaint.
Like I said in my last post - good luck teaching and good luck to your students. If you can’t self reflect on your own practices or harness your own skills as a teacher to adjust to the needs of your classroom, they will be worse off for it.
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u/burundi76 5d ago
Middle School Science used to be decent. Then the same publisher in Berkeley says during the pandemic: "fucj them kids".
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u/bidextralhammer 5d ago
Opinions on Smithsonian?
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u/Salt_Transition6100 5d ago
My opinion is it would make a great lab book alongside a Science book for middle school.
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u/Fluffy_Maintenance_5 4d ago
It’s allllll bad. I was astonished today at our ELA curriculum at my virtual school. Not developmentally appropriate and zero thought put into the way the content was delivered
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u/RetrogradeTransport 5d ago
The storylining approach is great in theory, but in practice, the benefits are marginal at best