Units of Study

Unit 1: Lab Safety: ALL students assigned to Science classes 6th - 12th grades must participate in “Science Safety Training” with their teacher prior to engaging in any lab work.

Unit 2: Motion and Stability: In this unit, students will explore interactions among colliding objects through the lens of Newton’s Laws of Motion. Students will investigate how the forces acting on an object and the mass of the object determines the object’s motion. In addition, students will identify factors that impact the strength of magnetic and electrical forces. 

Unit 3: Waves and Their Applications In this unit, students will examine the relationship between the amplitude of a wave and the energy of that wave. Students will defend a claim that digital devices transmit information through waves and are a more reliable way to transmit data.

Unit 4: From Molecules to Organisms: In this unit, students will create a scientifically sound argument that explains how animal behaviors and plant structures impact the probability of successful reproduction. Students will explain how the environment and genetic factors influence the growth of organisms. 

Unit 5: Inheritance of Traits: In this unit, students will describe why chromosomal mutations might result in harmful, beneficial, or neutral effects to the structure and function of the organism. Students will model how asexual and sexual reproduction results in offspring with genetic variation. In addition, students will research the impact technologies have influenced the expression of desired traits in organisms.

Unit 6: Biological Evolution: In this unit, students will analyze the fossil record through the lens of uniformitarianism to document the existence of diverse flora and fauna throughout time. Students will construct explanations as to why modern and fossilized organisms have similarities and differences. Students will explain how genetic variation in a population increases the organisms’ chances of survival. In addition, students will use mathematical reasoning to explain how natural selection increases or decreases a population’s specific traits over time.

Unit 7: Earth’s Place in the Universe: In this unit, students will explore the objects in the solar system through scale models. Students will create an Earth-Sun-Moon model and use it to describe the existence of lunar phases, eclipses, tides, and seasons. Students will use models to explain how gravity impacts the motion of celestial objects. Students will create sound scientific arguments about the relationship between the masses of objects and the gravitational attraction among them. In addition, students will use the experimental design process to determine if fields exist between objects that exert forces on other objects even though they are not in direct contact.