Natchez — Cathedral Elementary School is now able to offer its students a hands-on approach to science. With the generous gift from the Dulam family, Cathedral was able to purchase the Full Option Science System.

“FOSS” is a hands-on science program for kindergarten through sixth grade.

FOSS is a complete science curriculum that gives teachers the activities, materials and support they need to meet standards and help students succeed. With FOSS, students make observations, ask questions, make predictions, collaborate and communicate with peers. The students conduct experiments to test ideas and analyze results. Based on cognitive research about how children think and learn, FOSS fully engages students, teaches important science content, and develops critical thinking skills.

The FOSS approach helps the teachers meet national, state and local science standards. This science curriculum is composed of 32 modules with each module presenting a variety of investigations that meet the national and state science standards.

Students access the FOSS content in three main ways — active investigation, reading and assessment.

Prior to the end of the school year, Kelly Baroni’s kindergarten class utilized the FOSS program during their investigation of eggs and chicks. The students observed the chicks hatching from their eggs, the structure of the newborn chicks, and the behavior of the chicks as they grow.

They then communicated their observations of the structure and behavior of the chicks in general, as well as that of a variety of chicks, with their teachers and fellow classmates.