Curriculum
Throughout the course of the year, students focus on three specific units: Earth and Sun, Mixtures and Solutions, and Living Systems.
The anchor phenomena students investigate in the Earth and Sun Module are the patterns observed in the sky over a day, a month, a year, and more, and their effect on Earth.
The Earth and Sun Module provides students with experiences to explore the properties of the atmosphere, energy transfer from the Sun to Earth, and the dynamics of weather and water cycling in Earth’s atmosphere, as well as, help students to develop and use models to understand Earth’s place in the solar system, and the interactions of Earth, the Sun, and the Moon to reveal predictable patterns.
The Mixtures and Solutions Module has five investigations that engage students with the phenomena of matter and its interactions in our everyday life—mixtures, solutions, solubility, concentration, and chemical reactions. Students come to know that matter is made of particles too small to be seen and develop the understanding that matter is conserved when it changes state—from solid to liquid to gas—when it dissolves in another substance, and when it is part of a chemical reaction.
In the Living Systems Module, students start by looking at Earth as the interaction of four Earth systems or subsystems—the geosphere, the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, and the biosphere. The focus of the module then turns to the biosphere as students explore the phenomenon of ecosystems and organisms in terms of their interacting parts. Across all units, students engage in engineering experiences with separation of materials and gain experiences that will contribute to the understanding of crosscutting concepts of patterns; cause and effect; scale, proportion, and quantity; systems and system models; and energy and matter.
Throughout the course of the year, students focus on three specific units: Weather and Water, Diversity of Life, and Human Systems Interactions.
The Weather and Water Module focuses on the phenomena of Earth’s atmosphere, weather, and water. Students will delve into phenomena that may seem unrelated to weather, including a dose of the disciplines of physics and chemistry, and grapple with ideas about atoms and molecules, changes of state, and energy transfer before they launch into the bigger ideas involving air masses, fronts, convection cells and winds, the development of severe weather, and climate change.
The Diversity of Life Module focuses on the anchor phenomenon of life on Earth. Students consider what it means to be a living organism. Including the essential questions: What are the characteristics that scientists use to define life? Are those characteristics hard and fast or are they flexible? Does something as outlandish as an archaea that lives in boiling hot springs or a virus that depends upon other life-forms to reproduce fit into the definition students create?
Then the Human Systems Interactions Module dives deeper into the phenomenon of living things, and prepares students to explore how organ systems interact to support each and every cell in the body with the driving question: How do humans live, grow, and respond to their environments? Across all units, students engage in engineering experiences with separation of materials and gain experiences that will contribute to the understanding of crosscutting concepts of patterns; cause and effect; scale, proportion, and quantity; systems and system models; and energy and matter.
Throughout the course of the year, students focus on three specific units: Earth History, Chemical Interactions, and Populations and Ecosystems.
In the Earth History Module, students begin to grapple with Earth’s processes and systems that have operated over geologic time. Students make observations and participate in investigations that involve constructing and using conceptual models with the driving question: What do we need to know to tell the geologic story of a place?
In the Chemical Interactions Module, students explore the anchor phenomenon of interactions of matter. Students will investigate matter on Earth to understand how the arrangement of the atoms impacts them and surrounding atoms, how new substances are formed, and what can impact these specific substances.
The Populations and Ecosystems Module provides students with the path of ecological understanding, with the hope that their future steps will be considered and measured, serving the interests of all life. Students explore how organisms, matter, and energy interact in an ecosystem. Across all units, students engage in engineering experiences with separation of materials and gain experiences that will contribute to the understanding of crosscutting concepts of patterns; cause and effect; scale, proportion, and quantity; systems and system models; and energy and matter.
Throughout the course of the year, students focus on five specific units: Planetary Science, Electromagnetic Force, Gravity and Kinetic Energy, Waves, and Heredity and Adaptation.
During these units students will become astronomers to learn about the cosmic address, manipulate equipment to collect data about the magnetic field and electricity, test motion at various speeds to explore acceleration and to learn about gravity, manipulate springs and lasers to determine properties that eventually will be used to explain how their cell phones work, and explore the anchor phenomenon of biodiversity that exists on Earth.
Across all units, students engage in engineering experiences with separation of materials and gain experiences that will contribute to the understanding of crosscutting concepts of patterns; cause and effect; scale, proportion, and quantity; systems and system models; and energy and matter.