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Mr. Lee, Room 23
7th and 8th Grade Science at AVMS
The District adopted a new curriculum this year for 7th and 8th grades, Amplify Science, that highlights real-world contexts and encourages students to investigate, talk, read, write, think, and argue like real scientists and engineers. Students have access to detailed lesson instructions, embedded formative and summative assessments, hands-on materials, scientific texts, robust digital simulations and models, engaging media, and structured classroom discussions.
Curriculum Snapshot
Gut Microbiome
7th graders started the year learning about the microbiome and metabolism. There is evidence to suggest that the approximately 100 trillion bacteria living on and in the human body may correlate to many different health conditions. Understanding the gut microbiome and the way food is metabolized provides a base for understanding life on earth, a focus in eigth grade!
Metabolism Simulator in Amplify Science
After studying things at the microscopic level in life science, 7th graders made the jump to earth and space science. Students explored plates and plate boundaries through a series of investigations and engaging articles and videos. Using the Plate Motion Simulation, students create continents, set plates in motion, and watch what happens. This allows them to see in cross section how the plates and mantle interact at convergent and divergent plate boundaries, observe what geologic events occur when plates move, and investigate what types of landforms form due to different types of plate motion.
Plate Motion Simulator
As they progressed through the year, the 7th graders also studied magnetic fields, force and motion, geology on Mars, and weather patterns. But, their culminating project was a science seminar based on rock formation on Venus.
Plate Motion Simulator
Cluminating Project
For their end-of-year culminating project, 7th graders engaged in a science seminar, grappling with ideas about rock types and the processes that form these rocks. They applied their understanding to rock formations on the planet of Venus.
For the science seminar, the class divided into two groups—listeners and speakers—switching roles halfway through the Seminar. Afterward, they produced a final written argument, building on their conclusions from the science seminar. The purpose of this lesson was to provide practice in scientific argumentation while allowing students to further their understanding of the science seminar problem through collective reasoning.
Science and Engineering Practices
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