science overview

 In 7th grade Life Science, we will be exploring the Body Systems.

• Unit:   This first month will focus on us getting started and getting to know each other.  We will be doing cooperative games to inspire Teamwork.  We will try out challenges to inspire a Growth Mindset and we will try out challenge activities to inspire Creative Thinking.  This month will include exploring Multiple Intelligences and applying the areas of your greatest strengths to learning new information.  The Big Idea this month is the Microscope and  Cell Things.  

• Some projects include: microscope work and extracting DNA.      

• Unit:  Organization of Living Things will lead us from the cellular level to the body systems level and eventually to the Ecosystem level.

  Some projects include: Chicken Wing Dissection   

• Unit:  Characteristics of Living Things.  

  Some projects include: Is It Living? Debate, Is Sam Alive? Debate, Kombucha Microscope slide and Yogurt Microscope Slide 

•  Unit:  Since one characteristic of living things is that every living thing is made of DNA, we will explore Genetics, which is the study of heredity.  We will explore DNA in further detail and find Chromosomes, Genes and Alleles work to give us our traits.  We will put all of these ideas together in a “Make A Baby” Lab.

Some projects include: extracting our OWN DNA, Punnett Squares, a GMO debate and a phenotypic survey.   

• Unit: Scientific Method allows students to go through the process of asking a question and finding the answer through experimentation.

Some projects include: Relay Race Experiment, Mars Soil Sample Experiment, and Water Surface Tension Experiment

• Unit:  Since one characteristic of living things is that every living thing uses energy and Oxygen is a necessary fuel for our body.  The Big Idea this month is Cellular Respiration- the process of plants and animals metabolizing in an elegant balanced cycle of gas exchange. 

 Some projects include:  Carbon Dioxide chemistry testing and comparing photosynthesis in plants to respiration in animals  

• Unit:  Ecosystems will allow students to follow the flow of energy beyond an individual organism and through to the environment.  We’ll also link this unit with our previous unit of Body Organization, extending the Levels beyond an organism to the level of Ecosystems. We’ll also be linking our previous unit of Genetics to our new unit by looking at the Phenotypic traits of a Bull Frog and how those traits help it to survive in its environment.

Some projects include:  frog dissection, surveying the biodiversity of organisms around the school site and building and cooking in a solar oven.

                                                         Please note that this schedule is note written on stone; it's only ink and paper.  JKE '24-25