Quarter 2.2 Science

Students will demonstrate an understanding of a healthy ecosystem with a stable web of life and the roles of living things within a food chain and/or food web, including producers, primary and secondary consumers, and decomposers.

-Obtain and evaluate scientific information regarding the characteristics of different ecosystems and the organisms they support (e.g., salt and fresh water, deserts, grasslands, forests, rain forests, or polar tundra lands).

-Develop and use a food chain model to classify organisms as producers, consumers, or decomposers. Trace the energy flow to explain how each group of organisms obtains energy.

-Design and interpret models of food webs to justify what effects the removal or the addition of a species (i.e., introduced or invasive) would have on a specific population and/or the ecosystem as a whole.

-Communicate scientific or technical information that explains human positions in food webs and our potential impacts on these systems.

Predict how a change of force, mass, and/or friction affects the motion of an object to convert potential energy into kinetic energy.

Design a system to increase the effects of friction on the motion of an object (e.g., non-slip surfaces or vehicle braking systems or flaps on aircraft wings). Use an engineering design process to define the problem, design, construct, evaluate, and improve the system.*

-Develop and use models to explain how the amount or type of force, both contact and non-contact, affects the motion of an object.

-Plan and conduct scientific investigations to test the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the speed and/or direction of objects in motion.

Students will demonstrate an understanding of the factors that affect the motion of an object through a study of Newton's Laws of Motion.

-Obtain and communicate information describing gravity's effect on an object.

-Predict the future motion of various objects based on past observation and measurement of position, direction, and speed.