Science Curriculum

Ecosystems - Students will actively investigate what animals and plants need to survive. Students will explore that animals need food and a safe place to live. Students explore how plants need water and sunlight.  They also observe how plants grow from seed to seedling.

(Fall)

Exploring Organisms - Students will actively investigate plants and animals and the similarities and differences  that exist between the parent and offspring. This will include identifying what the difference is between living and nonliving and the needs of the living. Throughout the unit students will investigate how different living things survive. By the end of the unit, students will work in small groups to create a solution to solve a real-life problem that exists. 

(Fall)

Earth Minerals - Students learn about the water cycle, rocks, sand, soil, landforms, and bodies of water.  They are discovering that land is constantly changing.  The students are working with one another and discovering through hands on experiences.

(Fall)

Weather & Climate - By investigating what causes changes in weather, students will build an understanding that weather and climate are directly related. The activities throughout this unit will focus on temperature, air pressure, and wind and how these things impact different weather patterns. They will also build an understanding that atmospheric pressure can cause hazardous weather conditions. The unit culminates with students finding solutions to lessen the impact of weather hazards such as tornadoes and hurricanes.

(Fall)

Changing Earth - Students will learn how the movement of continental plates shape the Earth’s features and cause events such as earthquakes, volcanoes, continent movement, and the rise of mountains. They will explore the rock cycle to develop an understanding of how the three types of rocks are formed. Students will also explore how erosion impacts the development of landforms and waterforms, as well as how to solve problems created by erosion. They will apply what they learn to predict the impact on natural systems and humans.  

(Fall)

Matter & Energy in Ecosystems - This unit provides opportunities for students to build and deconstruct food web models to describe an ecosystem as a system of interdependence among living and non-living things.  Through hands-on activities, students discover how the non-living factors necessary for life are constantly cycling through the environment.  Students explore potential effects on all organisms in an ecosystem caused by the removal of a single type of organism.

(Fall)

Force & Interactions - Students will actively investigate pushes and pulls and how those affect the motion of objects.  Students observe and investigate the effects of what happens when the strength or direction of those pushes and pulls are changed. In addition, students make observations to explore how sunlight warms the Earth’s surface. 

(Winter)

Light & Sound Waves - Students will actively investigate the concepts of light and sound, including how both travel in waves. Students will collect evidence to see how light and sound travels through different objects. By the end of the unit, students will work in small groups to create a devise in order to communicate with each other over a distance.

(Winter)

Matter - Students learn about the three different states of matter, the different properties, as well as the two kinds of changes that can occur in matter.  The students are working with one another and discovering through hands on experiences.

(Winter)

Force &Interactions - In this inquiry-based unit students investigate the concepts of forces and interactions.  Forces covered include: gravitational, magnetic and electrostatic. Students develop an understanding of the cause and effect relationship between forces and objects based on their observations of the movement and reactions of objects when forces are applied to them. Then, in a culminating engineering challenge, groups design a model using magnetism as the solution to a problem. 

(Winter)

Energy Works - Students will learn how energy is used by humans and explain how that energy is used to grow, live, and function. They will identify and explore the difference between potential and kinetic energy. Students will discover how energy is transferred from one form to another. They will also explore alternative forms of energy. 

(Winter)

Structure & Properties of Matter - This unit provides concrete experiences that allow students to discover both physical and chemical properties of matter (solid, liquid, gas). In a series of hands-on lessons, students gain experiences with physical properties of matter, and see how the properties differ from chemical properties. Through interactive demonstrations, investigations, and observations students; work with teams to explore and examine mixtures and solutions, investigate viscosity, evaluate buoyancy, and test density.  Finally, students are challenged to use what they have learned to work with a team to plan, build, test, and evaluate their own model solution to a problem.

(Winter)

Weather & Climate - Students will actively investigate daily and seasonal weather patterns.   In addition, students will explore storms and severe weather.  Students use observations of the four classic seasons to spot patterns and thereby determine the seasons’ order.

(Spring)

Skywatchers - Students will actively investigate and make observations of objects in day and night skies and are introduced to the phases of the moon. They will understand the earth orbits around the sun in a year causing the four seasons. They will analyze and explore shadows. By the end of this unit, students will work in a small group to create a model representing a topic they have discovered.

(Spring)

Ecosystem Diversity - An Ecosystem includes plants and animals and how they depend on one another.  Your child is learning about what plants and animals need to survive in their habitats.  The students are working with one another and discovering through hands on experiences.  

(Spring)

Life in Ecosystems - Students will investigate and observe the interactions of living and nonliving organisms in an ecosystem.   The students will learn how individual variations within that species allow certain members to survive better than others.  They will also develop the understanding that heredity and the environment both play a part in the development of traits and can affect an individual’s chances of survival.  Using the information learned in this unit, the students will design a new animal species that can survive in an ecosystem of their choosing.

(Spring)

Plant & Animal Structures - Students will discover a variety of internal and external structures in plants and animals and learn how these structures allow for survival, growth, and reproduction. They will also learn how these structures influence the brain’s role in processing the world and how light helps our eyes to see objects. 

(Spring)

Earth & Space Systems - This unit provides a variety of concrete experiences that allow students to explore how Earth is both part of a larger system and is itself composed of interconnected systems.  Through hands-on lessons, students gain experiences with modeling, scale, and cause-and-effect relationships.  Students identify Earth’s major spheres and investigate how they interact.  Working independently, in pairs, and small groups, students are challenged to construct knowledge to build their own understanding and unite content to reinforce the concept of the interrelationship of systems.

(Spring)