Families play a vital role in shaping students' interest and engagement in science (Archer et al. 2012; Dabney, Chakraverty, and Tai 2013), yet are often left out of the loop. To ensure that the activities were in line with the NGSS three-dimensional vision for science, we focused on the science and engineering practices and what students would be doing with their families. We see the science backpacks as an important step for all of our students and families to see that science is fun, they can all "do" science, and that exploring the backpacks together as a family can foster meaningful conversations and connections. [Extracted from the article]