Scientific methods are useful tools in making sense of the natural world and in solving problems.
Science is both a process of learning and a body of knowledge.
How do we know what we know?
How can we use what we learn to help make the world a better place?
Enduring Understandings
Essential Questions
Standards
As human populations and per-capita consumption of natural resources increase, so do the impacts on Earth’s systems unless the activities and technologies involved are engineered otherwise.
Continued monitoring of the changes to Earth’s surface provides a deeper understanding of the way in which human activities are impacting Earth’s systems, providing the basis for social policies and regulations that can reduce these impacts.
Humans have become one of the most significant agents of change in the near-surface Earth system. Human activities have significantly altered the biosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere.
Skills --- SWBAT
Use system models and representations to explain how human activities significantly impact: (1) the geosphere, (2) the hydrosphere, (3) the atmosphere, (4) the biosphere, and (5) global temperatures.
Assessment
Systems Concept Map
Writing/Visual: How have human activities significantly impacted: (1) the geosphere, (2) the hydrosphere, (3) the atmosphere, (4) the biosphere, and (5) global temperatures.
Quiz
Learning Activities
Bicycle as a System Activity
Spheres Activity
Group Concept Map
Enduring Understandings
Matter and energy change forms.
All kinds of matter can be identified based on their physical and chemical properties.
Essential Questions
What is matter and how does it behave?
What are the factors scientists use to classify matter and how is it classified?
How can physical and chemical properties of matter be used to distinguish one form of matter from another?
How is matter throughout the universe conserved?
How does the particle nature of matter affect change from state to state?
Standards
Pure substances are made from a single type of atom or molecule; each pure substance has characteristic physical and chemical properties (for any bulk quantity under given conditions) that can be used to identify it. (b)
Gases and liquids are made of molecules or inert atoms that are moving about relative to each other. (d)
In a liquid, the molecules are constantly in contact with others; in a gas, they are widely spaced except when they happen to collide. In a solid, atoms are closely spaced and may vibrate in position but do not change relative locations. (c),(d)
The changes of state that occur with variations in temperature or pressure can be described and predicted using these models of matter. (c),(d)
The term “heat” as used in everyday language refers both to thermal motion (the motion of atoms or molecules within a substance) and radiation (particularly infrared and light). (c),(d)
Temperature is not a measure of energy; the relationship between the temperature and the total energy of a system depends on the types, states, and amounts of matter present. (c),(d)
Skills --- SWBAT
b. Plan investigations to generate evidence supporting the claim that one pure substance can be distinguished from another based on characteristic properties.
c. Use a simulation or mechanical model to determine the effect on the temperature and motion of atoms and molecules of different substances when thermal energy is added to or removed from the substance.
d. Construct an argument that explains the effect of adding or removing thermal energy to a pure substance in different phases and during a phase change in terms of atomic and molecular motion.
Assessments
Properties Quiz
Coke Letter (Density) Common Writing Assessment
Properties Lab (b)
Kinetic Theory Activity (c,d)
Matter Webquest and Presentation
Matter Test
Properties of Toilet Paper Lab
Learning Activities
Classification Activity
Cotton Sock Activity
Workshop Reading about Properties
Mass/Volume Stations
Brainpop
Properties Notes
Density Exploration
States of Matter Work
Enduring Understandings
An atom is the basic unit of every element.
All the matter in the universe is characterized in the Periodic Table of the Elements.
Interactions between atoms cause chemical changes that produce new substances with different chemical properties.
Essential Questions
How have scientists' understanding of the atom evolved ?
What is an atom and how is it organized?
How is the periodic table organized and how can it be used to identify an elements' characteristics?
How are elements, compounds and mixtures different and how can their characteristics be used to separate them?
Standards
Solids may be formed from molecules, or they may be extended structures with repeating subunits (e.g., crystals). (a)
All substances are made from some 100 different types of atoms, which combine with one another in various ways. Atoms form molecules that range in size from two to thousands of atoms. (a)
Substances react chemically in characteristic ways. In a chemical process, the atoms that make up the original substances are regrouped into different molecules, and these new substances have different properties from those of the reactants. (a),(b)
The total number of each type of atom is conserved, and thus the mass does not change. (a),(c)
Some chemical reactions release energy, others store energy. (c)
Skills --- SWBAT
a1. Construct and use models to explain that atoms combine to form new substances of varying complexity in terms of the number of atoms and repeating subunits.
a. Develop representations showing how atoms regroup during chemical reactions to account for the conservation of mass.
b. Generate and revise explanations from the comparison of the physical and chemical properties of reacting substances to the properties of new substances produced through chemical reactions to show that new properties have emerged.
Assessments
ECM Test (a1)
Atomic Theory Timeline
Atomic Theory Essay
Atoms and the Periodic Table Test
Element Project (Common Writing Assessment)
Mixture-Separation Lab
Chemical Change Lab (a,b)
Learning Activities
History of Atomic Theory Webquest
Marshmallow Activity
Layered Curriculum Choices
Color Coding the Periodic Table
NOT SURE ABOUT THIS???
Enduring Understandings
Essential Questions
How do minerals affect the average person in their everyday lives?
Standards
Physical and chemical interactions among rocks, sediments, water, air, and plants and animals produce soil. (f) Solid rocks can be formed by the cooling of molten rock, the accumulation and consolidation of sediments, or the alteration of older rocks by heat, pressure, and fluids. (d)
Skills --- SWBAT
d. Plan and carry out investigations that demonstrate the chemical and physical processes that form rocks and cycle Earth materials.
Assessments
Mineral Group Quiz
Mineral Practical Assessment
Mineral Notebook
Rock and Rock Cycle Test
Rock Story
Learning Activities
Chocolate Rock Cycle (d)
Enduring Understandings
Earth is a geologically active planet.
Huge quantities of energy are always acting on the surface of the Earth and its interior.
Observable evidence in the present gives information about processes and events that occurred in the past.
Essential Questions
Why is it important for geologists to study the Earth?
How and why is Earth’s surface changing?
What is Earth's history?
Standards
Tectonic processes continually generate new ocean sea floor at ridges and destroy old sea floor at trenches. (a)
Earth’s internal processes are the result of energy flowing and matter cycling within and among the planet’s systems. This energy is derived from Earth’s hot interior. The flow of energy and cycling of matter produce chemical and physical changes in Earth’s interior materials and living organisms. (a)
Solid rocks can be formed by the cooling of molten rock, the accumulation and consolidation of sediments, or the alteration of older rocks by heat, pressure, and fluids. (d)
The top part of the mantle, along with the crust, forms structures known as tectonic plates. (b),(c)
Maps of ancient land and water patterns, based on investigations of rocks and fossils, make clear how Earth’s plates have moved great distances, collided, and spread apart. (b)
Humans depend on Earth’s interior for many different resources. Mineral and energy resources are limited, and many are not renewable or replaceable over human lifetimes. These resources are distributed unevenly around the planet as a result of past geologic processes. (e)
Some natural hazards, such as volcanic eruptions, are preceded by phenomena that allow for reliable predictions. Others, such as earthquakes, occur suddenly and without notice, and thus are not yet predictable. However, mapping the history of natural hazards in a region and developing an understanding of related geologic forces can help forecast the locations and likelihoods of future events. (f)
Skills --- SWBAT
a. Use models to explain how the flow of energy drives a cycling of matter between Earth’s surface and deep interior.
b. Develop and use models of ancient land and ocean basin patterns to explain past plate motions.
c. Use representations of current plate motions, based on data from modern techniques like GPS, to predict future continent locations.
e. Construct explanations for how the uneven distribution of Earth’s mineral and energy resources, which are limited and often non-renewable, are a result of past and current geologic processes, including plate motions.
f. Analyze and interpret data sets to describe the history of natural hazards in a region to identify the patterns of hazards that allow for forecasts of the locations and likelihood of future events.
Assessments
Plate Tectonic Test
Tectonic Predictions (b,c)
Earthquake Assessment (f)
Glacier ???
Learning Activities
NEED TO EXPAND???
Enduring Understandings
The Sun is the major source of energy for the Earth.
Water circulates through Earth’s crust, oceans, and atmosphere in the water cycle.
Weather and climate are the result of the interactions among Earth’s water, its atmosphere and the Sun’s heating of Earth’s surface.
Essential Questions
Specific Standards
Weather and climate are influenced by interactions involving sunlight, the ocean, the atmosphere, ice, landforms, and living things. These interactions vary with latitude, altitude, and local and regional geography, all of which can affect oceanic and atmospheric flow patterns. (a),(b)
Because these patterns are so complex, weather can only be predicted probabilistically. (c),(e)
The ocean and land exert major influences on weather and climate by absorbing energy from the sun, releasing it over time, and globally redistributing it via oceanic and atmospheric circulation. The patterns of differential heating, together with Earth's rotation and the configuration of continents and oceans, control the large-scale patterns of oceanic and atmospheric circulation. (a),(b),(d)
Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere absorb and retain the energy radiated from land and ocean surfaces, thereby regulating Earth’s average surface temperature and keeping Earth habitable. (e)
Human activities, such as the release of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, are major factors in the current rise in Earth’s mean surface temperature (“global warming”). (a)
Reducing the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere can reduce the degree to which global temperatures will increase. (c)
Renewable energy resources and the technologies to exploit them are being rapidly developed. (e)
Skills --- SWBAT
a. Generate and revise causal explanations given specific temperature and precipitation data sets at different geographic locations to answer questions about interactions that influence weather.
b. Construct models to describe and explain how circulation in the atmosphere and ocean results from unequal heating of Earth’s surface and is influenced by latitude, altitude, geography, and Earth’s rotation.
c. Use mathematics to analyze weather data and forecasts to identify patterns and variations that cause weather forecasts to be issued in terms of probabilities.
d. Construct explanations, from models of oceanic and atmospheric circulation, for the development of local and regional climates.
e. Use models of Earth’s atmosphere and surface to explain how energy from the sun is absorbed and retained by various greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere, thereby regulating Earth’s average surface temperature and keeping Earth habitable.
f. Construct a model to track and explain the inputs, outputs, pathways, and storage of carbon among the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere.
Assessments
Climate Assessment
Changing Climate Writing Analysis
Current Event
Learning Activities
Enduring Understandings
Transfers of energy within and between systems never change the total amount of energy, but energy tends to become more dispersed.
Understanding wave properties allows us to use electromagnetic and sound waves to investigate nature on many scales.
Essential Questions
What are the forms of energy and how are they changed from one to another?
Specific Standards
Motion energy is properly called kinetic energy; it is proportional to the mass of the moving object and grows with the square of its speed. (a)
A system of objects may also contain stored (potential) energy, depending on their relative positions. For example, energy is stored—in gravitational interaction with Earth—when an object is raised, and energy is released when the object falls or is lowered. Energy is also stored in the electric fields between charged particles and the magnetic fields between magnets, and it changes when these objects are moved relative to one another. (b)
When the motion energy of an object changes, there is inevitably some other change in energy at the same time. For example, the friction that causes a moving object to stop also results in an increase in the thermal energy in both surfaces; eventually heat energy is transferred to the surrounding environment as the surfaces cool. Similarly,to make an object start moving or to keep it moving when friction forces transfer energy away from it, energy must be provided from, say , chemical (e.g., burning fuel) or electrical (e.g., an electric motor and battery ) processes. (f),(g)
Machines can be made more efficient, that is, require less fuel input to perform a given task, by reducing friction between their moving parts and through aerodynamic design. Friction increases energy transfer to the surrounding environment by heating the affected materials. (f),(g)
A simple wave has a repeating pattern with a specific wavelength, frequency, and amplitude. (a)
A sound wave needs a medium through which it is transmitted. (b)
When light shines on an object, it is reflected, absorbed, or transmitted through the object, depending on the object’s material and the frequency (color) of the light. (c)
The path that light travels can be traced as straight lines, except at surfaces between different transparent materials (e.g., air and water, air and glass) where the light path bends. Lenses and prisms are applications of this effect. (d)
A wave model of light is useful for explaining brightness, color, and the frequency-dependent bending of light at a surface between media (prisms). However, because light can travel through space, it cannot be a matter wave, like sound or water waves. (a),(e)
Skills --- SWBAT
a. Construct an explanation of the proportional relationship pattern between the kinetic energy of an object and its mass and speed.
b. Use representations of potential energy to construct an explanation of how much energy an object has when it’s in different positions in an electrical, gravitational, and magnetic field.
g. Design and evaluate solutions that minimize and/or maximize friction and energy transfer in everyday machines
a. Use a drawing or physical representation of simple wave properties to explain brightness and color.
b. Plan and carry out investigations of sound traveling through various types of mediums and lack of medium to determine whether a medium is necessary for the transfer of sound waves.
c. Construct explanations of how waves are reflected, absorbed, or transmitted through an object, considering the material the object is made from and the frequency of the wave.
d. Use empirical evidence to support the claim that light travels in straight lines except at surfaces between different transparent materials.
e. Ask questions about certain properties of light that can be explained by a wave model of light.
f. Apply scientific knowledge to explain the application of waves in common communication designs
Assessments
Rube Goldberg Design
Energy Type Test
Cup Phone Lab
Learning Activities
Sound/Light Stations
Kinetic/Potential Skate Park Activity
Enduring Understandings
Essential Questions
How does heat affect the motion of particles?
How does heat flow through matter?
Specific Standards
Temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of particles of matter. The relationship between the temperature and the total energy of a system depends on the types, states, and amounts of matter present. (d),(e)
The amount of energy transfer needed to change the temperature of a matter sample by a given amount depends on the nature of the matter, the size of the sample, and the environment. (e)
Energy is transferred out of hotter regions or objects and into colder ones by the processes of conduction, convection, and radiation. (d)
Skills --- SWBAT
d. Use and/or construct models to communicate the means by which thermal energy is transferred during conduction, convection, and radiation.
e. Collect data and generate evidence to examine the relationship between the change in the temperature of a sample and the nature of the matter, the size of the sample, and the environment.
f. Compare, evaluate, and design a device that maximizes or minimizes thermal energy transfer, and defend the selection of materials chosen to construct the device.
Assessments
Conduction, Convection, Radiation Test
Ice Cube Keeper Project
Learning Activities
Enduring Understandings
Earth has seasons because of its tilt and its revolution around the Sun.
The relative positions and the movements of the Earth, Sun and Moon create patterns observed in phases, eclipses, tides and seasons.
The Earth, Moon and Sun interact in ways that affect our planet in fundamental ways.
Essential Questions
How do the relative positions of Earth, moon, and sun cause moon phases, eclipses, and tides?
How does the uneven heating of the sun's energy result in seasons?
What should be the goals of our space program? How will those goals affect science, industry, foreign policy, environment, etc.?
Specific Standards
Patterns of the apparent motion of the sun, the moon, and stars in the sky can be observed, described, predicted, and explained with models. (a)
This model of the solar system can explain tides, eclipses of the sun and the moon, and the apparent motions of the planets in the sky relative to the stars. (a)
Earth’s spin axis is fixed in direction (in the short-term) but tilted relative to its orbit around the sun; the differential intensity of sunlight on different areas of Earth over the year is a result of that tilt, as are the seasons that result. (a)
Skills--- SWBAT
a. Construct explanations for the occurrences of day/night cycles, seasons, tides, eclipses, and lunar phases based on patterns of the observed motions of celestial bodies.
Assessments
Season Assessment
Reasons for Seasons Handout for 4th Graders
Moon Quiz
Sun Quiz
Sun Foldable
Learning Activities
Enduring Understandings
Essential Questions
How is our universe organized and what are the properties and conditions of our solar system?
How does the Earth move through space?
How has the historical and cultural background of a time set the stage for space exploration?
Standards
The solar system consists of the sun and a collection of objects, including planets, their moons, and asteroids that are held in orbit around the sun by its gravitational pull on them. This system appears to have formed from a disk of dust and gas, drawn together by gravity. (d)
A system can be changing but have a stable repeating cycle of changes; such observed regular patterns allow predictions about the system’s future (e.g., Earth orbiting the sun). (a)
Skills--- SWBAT
c. Construct and use models to describe the location of Earth with respect to the size and structure of the solar system, Milky Way Galaxy, and universe.
d. Use models to support explanations of the composition, structure, and formation of the solar system from a disk of dust and gas drawn together by gravity.
Assessments
Travel the Solar System Writing Piece
Astroadventure Brochure
Learning Activities
Enduring Understandings
The Earth is just one planet in the solar system, in a galaxy of billions of stars, in a universe of billions of other galaxies.
Essential Questions
What can we find in our universe and why do we care?
Specific Standards
The universe began with a period of extreme and rapid expansion known as the Big Bang. Nearly all observable matter in the universe is hydrogen or helium, which formed in the first minutes after the Big Bang. (b)
Earth and its solar system are part of the Milky Way galaxy, which is one of many galaxies in the universe. (c)
Skills---SWBAT
b. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about the expansion and scale of the universe to support the Big Bang theory.
Assessments
Big Bang Visual
Learning Activities
Choose on of the projects you completed this year... expand upon it. Create a Museum "Tri-Fold" poster to showcase your learning.
Assessment Ideas:
Portfolio
Prezi
Oral Presentations
Posters
Self-Designed Lab
Website ?
Cartoons
Podcast
Blog
WallWisher