7th Grade Science

The 6-8 science teachers worked to ensure that the program delivered to our students incorporates all of the facets of the new science standards. Students in grades six, seven, and eight will have the opportunity to experience science through the IQWST program, which helps deliver curricula with a focus on the three dimensions of learning science.  We will also be piloting a new program, called Open Sci Ed, as we work to ensure the units of study meet all of our students' needs. The pilot units cover the same content and objectives outlined in the current Chemistry Unit, "How Can You Make New Stuff from Old Stuff?"

This year, we will be working with three units in the IQWST program and two units from OpenSciEd.  Student materials will be found within the IQWST Student IDE, in Google Classroom, or handed out as hard copy materials. The IQWST IDE is a web-based program that students will access using their Chromebooks. Additional resources, such as the pilot materials from OpenSciEd can be accessed in Google Classroom. Students will also be utilizing Google Classroom and website postings to access supplemental material in conjunction with each of the units of study.

Our seventh-grade students will focus on the following driving questions as they delve into our four major units of study:

"How Can We Make Something New that Wasn't There Before?" (Chemical Reactions and Matter) (OpenSciEd Pilot)

"How Can We Use Chemical Reactions to Solve a Design Problem (Chemical Reactions and Energy) (OpenSciEd Pilot)

"Why Do Some Things Stop While Others Keep Going?" (Energy) (IQWST)

"What Is Going On Inside Me?"  (Cells and Body Systems) & "How Does Food Provide My Body with Energy" (Biochemistry) (IQWST)

Below, I've included a summary of each unit, along with Essential Questions and Enduring Understandings that 7th Graders should take away from the course.

Both programs were developed with the notion that the branches/strands of science do converge. Therefore, in what seems like a unit strictly on life science, you will find physical science strands that correlate with energy and how it can be transferred as chemical energy in the form of food, to thermal energy that warms our body, and mechanical energy used to lift our hands.

UNIT SUMMARY/RATIONALE:

"Why Do Some Things Stop While Others Keep Moving?" is a project- based physical science unit that explores energy transfer (from one object to another, or one place to another within an object); energy transformation (from one type of energy to another); and what it means for energy to be conserved, as students investigate common phenomena. In order to contextualize energy concepts in real-world experiences, students engage in several scientific practices including asking questions, designing and carrying out investigations, analyzing data, developing models and constructing explanations of phenomena such as why a basketball bounces or a pendulum swings but then stops. The use of video enables students to make observations not possible with the naked eye, such as seeing the deformation of a ball as it bounces.

Learning Set 1: The first learning set focuses on two major learning goals: (a) there are different types of energy, and (b) energy can be transformed from one type to another. Students explore falling objects, a pendulum, a bouncing ball, playground equipment, and springs to learn about kinetic, gravitational, and elastic energy, and multiple ways in which energy is transformed from one type to another. Students construct Energy Conversion Diagrams as models they can use to represent and explain these energy conversions (transformations). 

Learning Set 2: The lessons in this learning set help students construct an explanation that answers the first part of the Driving Question: Why Do Some Things Stop? Students experience thermal and sound energy as they address the idea that energy can be transferred between systems. Students develop Energy Transfer Diagrams as models to represent and explain energy "gained" or “lost” in a system. In general, things stop when energy is transferred from the object.  A ball stops bouncing because its energy is transferred to the ground and the air around it, and a pendulum stops swinging because its energy is transferred to the surrounding air with each swing.

Learning Set 3: Learning Set 3 focuses on the second half of the Driving Question: Why Do Some Things Keep Going? The lessons introduce chemical, electrical, and light energy, and their transformation into other types of energy. Chemical and light energy are easily transformed into electrical energy, which is the most “transportable.” Students summarize and apply all that was learned in a final culminating experience

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:

• • What is energy?

  • Since energy is not a tangible material, what evidence do we use to prove that it exists in so many different forms?

  • How can energy cause matter to change and/or move?

  • How can energy be transferred from one object or system to another?

  • What happens to kinetic energy when it is transferred to or from an object?

  • In what ways can humans harness "cleaner" forms of energy to ensure healthier environments?

ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS:

• • Energy is found in a variety of forms and is conserved in systems.

  • Energy can cause physical changes to matter, or change the position/motion of matter.

  • Energy can be transferred or transformed through a variety of mechanisms.

WE HAVE COMBINED THE TWO IQWST UNITS INTO ONE LIFE SCIENCE UNIT. MANY LAB ACTIVItES AND TOPICS ARE SIMILAR FOR BOTH UNITS AND THIS PROVIDED A MORE COHESIVE STUDY OF HOW ENERGY IS TRANSFERRED IN LIVING SYSTEMS.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:

• • What is going on inside me?

  • Where can cells be found?

  • How do cells get the things they need to survive?

  • How do food and oxygen move through the body?

  • How does an organism get its energy to do things?

  • How does everything work together inside complex organisms, like humans?

  • Why do different foods provide different amounts of energy?

  • How do plants make their own food

  • How do matter and energy move between organisms?

ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS:

• • All living things are made of cells that require resources to be alive and maintain a balance.

  • The human bodys' organ systems work together to provide cells with the materials they need to provide the entire body with energy.

  • Cells undergo a chemical reaction that takes nutrients and oxygen and turns them into waste products and ENERGY.

  • All life depends on the processes of photosynthesis and cellular respiration.

  • Plants are not only the basis of all food webs/chains, but they also provide the oxygen that is needed for respiration to occur.

  • Plants are able to produce "food" that they need to survive on their own, while animals must consume foods in order to survive.

UNIT SUMMARY/RATIONALE (CELLS AND SYSTEMS):

"What Is Going on Inside Me?" is a project-based life science unit. This unit focuses on what happens to food and oxygen to enable the body to meet our energy needs. Students track what happens to food as it goes through the digestive system to the circulatory system and is delivered to the cells all over the body. Tracing the transformation of food to energy raises questions about how this happens, leading to the coordination of systems. The questions provide a thread that motivates the investigation of the various body systems and ties them all together.

Learning Set 1: Pictures and discussion of everyday physical activities and the body’s responses, such as breathing hard or sweating, are used to spark questions about what could be happening inside our body to enable us to do these things. The goal of looking at the inside of the body leads to the observation that our bodies contain cells, seen in samples taken from students’ cheeks and skin and slides of heart cells. A Driving Question Board (DQB) is used to organize questions about what is inside the body and what cells have to do with helping the body do what it does. This motivates an exploration of cells in the environment around us in Lesson 2. Students observe living cells in samples of yogurt and pond water, determine that these cells are living things, and compare them to the cells found within multi-cellular organisms. Students will then venture into cell structure and function as they investigate how parts of cells work together to perform specific functions that allow living things to maintain homeostasis.

Learning Set 2: The second learning set focuses the Driving Question on tracking food and energy through the body to figure out how the body gets the energy it needs from food. Students start with the digestive system in Lesson 4. They observe that there is evidence of a chemical reaction occurring at the first stage of digestion, in the mouth, as well as the mechanical processes of digestion. Following food down the esophagus and stomach, students observe how stomach acids break down fat and protein in a test tube model. They examine the structures of the small intestine and see how the food molecules are absorbed. In Lesson 5, students investigate the role of the circulatory system in moving food molecules around the body. Data of glucose levels in the blood are used to make the connection between taking in food and an increase of food molecules in the blood. Students then investigate how the blood plasma might be able to get food to the cells in the body. Students observe how water can enter and leave cells in experiments involving onion cells. They then use a physical model to investigate how sugar molecules might enter cells through a semipermeable membrane. Next, they test whether sugar can be used by single-celled organisms as a way of exploring whether this is what could be happening in the body’s cells. Students investigate what happens with yeast in the presence of either plain water or a sugar solution and notice that the yeast increase in number in the presence of sugar and that they have released a gas as waste, indicating a use of the building materials and energy in the sugar. In Lesson 6, students investigate why oxygen intake also increases with increased activity. With a simple experiment involving a candle and a jar, students demonstrate that there is less oxygen in the air we breathe out than in room air. They trace the oxygen through the respiratory system to find out where it goes and see the oxygen being carried through the blood along with the food molecules. Students consider the role of oxygen in combustion and construct an explanation of the role of oxygen in the breakdown of sugar molecules in order to supply energy to the cells. In Lesson 7, students investigate how food provides building materials along with energy. They see images of cell division and discuss where the mass needed for cell growth and division could be coming from. A reading about bone growth and healing of broken bones provides an example of how cell division explains growth and repair in the body

Learning Set 3: In this learning set, students investigate how the interactions of the various body systems are coordinated. In Lesson 8, they investigate how increased exercise triggers increased activity of the circulatory and respiratory systems. Students consider how increased energy needs lead to an increased need for food and oxygen and the increased rate of chemical reactions to release the energy results in some heat loss, thus leading to increased body temperature. Lesson 9 brings together the understandings about processing food (from throughout the unit) to construct a scientific explanation of where and how food gets used in the body, tracing from food input to use of food for building materials and energy by the cells of the body. In Lesson 10, students examine how the nervous system coordinates the activity of the body’s systems. Finally, in Lesson 11, students draw on their understandings from prior lessons to address the Driving Question and explain the consequences of various disruptions to the body systems

UNIT SUMMARY/RATIONALE (BIOCHEM):

How Does Food Provide My Body with Energy? is a cross- disciplinary introduction to chemistry that targets ideas in the context of living systems. The unit serves to deepen understanding of:

• • • the molecular aspects of how food provides organisms with energy and building blocks;

    • the chemical reactions and energy transformations that occur during photosynthesis and cellular respiration, the biological processes that support these chemical reactions, and the interdependence of organisms in an environment for carrying out these chemical reactions; and

Learning Set 1: The first learning set is "How Do Food Molecules Compare to Each Other?" It consists of lessons and investigates the molecular structure of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins and how their molecular nature determines the amount of energy they contain. This learning set focuses on the idea that food provides organisms with energy.

Learning Set 2: The second learning set is "What Do Organisms Do with Food?" It consists of lessons that investigate the chemical reactions that break down, build up, and store large food molecules. This learning set completes the definition of food by focusing on the idea that it provides organisms with both energy and building materials for cellular growth and repair.

Learning Set 3: The third learning set is "Where Does the Energy in Food Come From?" It consists of lessons that investigate how plants make food through the process of photosynthesis and highlights plants as the original source of all food molecules and as the only organisms that can convert light energy into a form usable by most of the organisms on Earth.

Learning Set 4: The fourth learning set is "How Is Food Used for Energy?" It's lessons that focus on cellular respiration, the chemical reaction most organisms use to convert chemical energy in food into a form usable to “do things.” Students think about the reactants, products, and energy conversions of burning reactions before they investigate similar reactions that take place inside of organisms. In this final learning set, students tie all of the ideas from the unit together to construct a model of the flow of matter and energy through ecosystems.