Science

6th Grade Science - Mrs. Deborah Corbett

2025-2026 School Year

Dear Parents -  Students are given vocabulary and notes to study nightly.  Please help your student make a plan of where/when/how to study each night.  The goal is to get the vocab and concepts into long term memory (when they study only the night before, that is only short term recall).  It will help students to draw pictures to represent the material, to be able to explain it aloud to an adult, to come up with ways to memorize the few vocab/concepts they find tricky to remember.  For example, "conduction" and "convection" are very similar words and both indicate a type of heat transfer.  I remember the difference because I think of the D in conduction as being a handle on a mug (I know if I TOUCH the mug it will be hot) and I think of the V in convection as part of an arrow -> and that makes me think of the two arrows representing the hot rising and the cool sinking.  Students often can use my idea, but they also often need to come up with something that means something to their brain (a connection).  Your support is important as they make the transition from elementary school to MS/HS where it is necessary to develop good study habits and strategies.  

Highlights

• Earbuds can easily break in backpack - please put in a hard case for protection (tip - use an "old" mint container)

• Supplies - folder, Pencil Pouch, Earbuds (wired)

• Students need to study vocab nightly

• All Classwork/Statons/Labs should be an A/B grade (if not they are handing in blank/undone work - see below for more info)

Dear Parents,

The main homework for SCIENCE is to study the vocabulary (and Study Guide content) each night.  Every student studies differently.  Please help your student try different activities to find one that works.  Quizlet is a good online site that lets you type in vocabulary and then you can play a game or quiz yourself with them.  Some students like index cards and some like to quiz aloud with you. Other students write them on post-it notes and hang them on the bathroom mirror to read while they brush their teeth (for example).  

IMPORTANT info about GRADES (PLEASE READ):

Categories and weights will be as follows:

Assessments (quiz, test) - 50%

Classwork - 25%

Stations/Labs - 25%

All grades under the “Classwork” and “Stations/Labs” categories should be an A/B.  During class time, students are able to ask me questions on their work.  Students are given a key for a lot of the assignments and after they finish the assignment they are able to ask questions and add to their answers based on the key to get their points back.  If a key is not given, then I am grading it with them and they have the opportunity to change/correct their answers.  If a student has a grade below A/B, that indicates that they are handing in work with blank parts (incomplete/undone).  Students are given enough time to complete the required work - I have work that is not graded for students that extends their knowledge (this means that any students that take longer than “average” have enough time to get the graded work done and are exempted from the ungraded extension work). 

Thank you for reading all of that! Mrs. Corbett

VOCAB TIP: 

Students need to know the meaning of the word and how to apply it. They do not have to memorize definition word-for-word. 

Example: they will be given some data and they will need to identify it as "qualitative data" or "quantitative data"

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Vocabulary: please study vocab 10 - 15  minutes each day

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Semester 1

Quarter 1 and 2 Overview

Shaping of Earth's Surface

Earth's Spheres

Heat/Global Patterns

Weather and Climate

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  and  Nature of Science (embedded all year)  

                                       Shaping of Earth's Surface                                              

Unit Driving Question:  

• How do weathering and erosion cause change on Earth's surfaces as seen in landforms around the Earth? 

Standards:  

SC.6.E.6.1  Describe and give examples of ways in which Earth's surface is built up and torn down by physical and chemical weathering, erosion, and deposition. 

SC.6.E.6.2 Recognize that there are a variety of different landforms on Earth's surface such as coastlines, dunes, rivers, mountains, glaciers, deltas, and lakes and relate these landforms as they apply to Florida. 

Earth's Spheres

Unit Essential Questions:

• How do Earth's spheres interact to protect and sustain life on Earth?

• How does the practice of science help us investigate to understand these interactions? 

Standards:

SC.6.E.7.4  Differentiate and show interactions among the geosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere 

SC.6.E.7.9  Describe how the composition and structure of the atmosphere protects life and insulates the planet 

Heat/Global Patterns

Unit Driving Question:

• How do the flow of energy (heat) and cycling of matter (water) contribute to global patterns? 

Standards:  

SC.6.E.7.1  Differentiate among radiation, conduction, and convection 

SC.6.E.7.5  Explain how the Sun's energy influences global patterns of atmospheric movement and the temperature differences between air, land, and water 

SC.6.E.7.3  Describe how global patterns such as the jet stream and ocean currents influence local weather in measurable terms such as temperature, air pressure, wind direction & speed, and humidity & precipitation                          

                            Weather & Climate                                                 

Unit Driving Question:  

• How do the transfer of heat and cycling of water throughout the hydrosphere and atmosphere affect weather and climate? 

Standards:  

SC.6.E.7.6 Differentiate between weather & climate 

SC.6.E.7.2  Investigate and apply how the cycling of water between the atmosphere and hydrosphere has an effect on weather patterns & climate  

SC.6.E.7.7   Investigate how natural disasters affect human life 

SC.6.E.7.8 Describe ways humans protect themselves from hazardous weather & sun exposure 

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Vocabulary: please study vocab 10 - 15  minutes each day

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{Unit 1 -  Nature of Science  is embedded  throughout the year}

Unit 1 Nature of Science (embedded all year)

Standards:

SC.6.N.1.1 Define a problem from the sixth grade curriculum, use appropriate reference materials to support scientific understanding, plan and carry out scientific investigation of various types, such as systematic observations or experiments, identify variables, collect and organize data, interpret data in charts, tables, and graphics, analyze information, make predictions, and defend conclusions.

SC.6.N.1.2  Explain why scientific investigations should be replicable.

SC.6.N.1.3 Explain the difference between an experiment and other types of scientific investigation, and explain the relative benefits and limitations of each.

SC.6.N.1.4 Discuss, compare, and negotiate methods used, results obtained, and explanations among groups of students conducting the same investigation.

SC.6.N.1.5 Recognize that science involves creativity, not just in designing experiments, but also in creating explanations that fit evidence.

SC.6.N.2.1  Distinguish science from other activities involving thought.

SC.6.N.2.2  Explain that scientific knowledge is durable because it is open to change as new evidence or interpretations are encountered.

SC.6.N.2.3  Recognize that scientists who make contributions to scientific knowledge come from all kinds of backgrounds and possess varied talents, interests, and goals.

Online Science Textbook (includes text, digital lessons, and more):

Link located on myPascoConnect (the way you get to myStudent)  - Discovery Ed

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CURRENT VIDEOS you can watch online:

Study Jams: 

Science - select topic

http://studyjams.scholastic.com/studyjams/jams/science/index.htm 

Kahn Academy

https://www.khanacademy.org

(free - search by topic)

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6th Grade Science

Late work on Google Classroom:

If I grade an assignment and your work is missing (from being absent or from being late), please note that I do not go back and look for your work again. Google Classroom does not send me a notification if you do this work late. If you had missing work, you need to post a private comment ON THAT ASSIGNMENT, asking me to re-grade your work. I will get a notification of that post and I will be able to open your assignment and re-grade it from the notification. Thank you.

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GOOGLE CLASSROOM: how to sign in from home...   

To login to Google Classroom, you must FIRST login to google.com with your Imagine email and password. (You may be signed in with your personal email already, so you will need to "add another account" the first time or click on your imaginelandolakes.org account after that) You should click on the upper right corner of your screen to do this.

Imagine email: firstname.lastname@imaginelandolakes.org

Password:initials and lunch number (initials are capital letters, no spaces)

Then you can go to Google Classroom. (DO NOT try to go directly to Google Classroom without signing in to google.com first, it will not work)

Pattern for your name:

If it has a hyphen, use a hyphen

If there is an apostrophe, use an apostrophe

For last names with spaces, don't use a space