Science

National Geographic Exploring Science covers all of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). This curriculum includes 3-Dimensional lesson support and hands-on activities. Mystery Science will be used alongside this curriculum.

The program introduces real-world science practices with National Geographic Explorers, scientists, and photographers.

Mystery Science lessons incorporate classroom experiments with guided video explanations.

Science and Engineering Practices in the NGSS

Asking Questions and Defining Problems
Developing and Using Models
Planning and Carrying Out Investigations
Analyzing and Interpreting Data
Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking
Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions
Engaging in Argument from Evidence
Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information

Introduction: Nature of Science

What Is Science?

Objectives:

Define science as a way of knowing about the natural world.
Describe how scientists use observations, evidence, and inferences to form science explanations.
Recognize that science explanations can change based on new evidence.

Vocabulary: observe, evidence, infer

How Do Scientists Work?

Objectives:

Describe how scientists use investigations and experiments to test hypotheses.
Explain how observing patterns can help form scientific explanations.
Describe the importance of using models, tools, and technologies to make accurate measurements and observations.

Vocabulary: experiment, investigation, hypothesis, model, variable

Who Are Scientists?

Objectives:

Identify that most scientists and engineers work in teams.
Give examples of how science affects everyday life.
Recognize that men and women from all cultures and backgrounds choose careers as scientists and engineers.
Describe how creativity and imagination are important to science.

Physical Science - Unit 1: Energy

Lesson 1: Batter Up!

Objectives:

Explain how energy can be moved from place to place by moving objects.
Connect the speed of a moving object to the amount of energy it possesses.

Vocabulary: energy

Lesson 2: Hit the Ball

Objectives:

Recall that moving objects possess energy.
Describe the transfer of energy that occurs when moving objects collide.
Describe what happens when the transfer of energy during a collision causes a change in motion, such as speed and direction.
Identify other effects of collisions, including changes in shape on impact and sound.

Vocabulary: motion, transfer

Lesson 3: Sounds of the Game

Objectives:

Recognize that sound is a form of energy.
Make an inference about energy conservation during a collision.

Vocabulary: vibrations, transform

Lesson 4: The Sun's Light

Objectives:

Describe light energy.
Explain how light transfers energy from place to place.

Lesson 5: Heat It Up!

Objectives:

Define heat as the transfer of thermal energy from place to place.
Explain the relationship between particle motion and thermal energy

Vocabulary: thermal energy

Lesson 6: It's Electric

Objectives:

Define electrical energy and electric current.
Explain how electric current transfers energy from place to place.

Vocabulary: electrical energy, electric current

Lesson 7: Electric Circuits

Objectives:

Define electric circuit.
Know that the transfer of electric energy as current requires a complete circuit.

Vocabulary: electric circuit

Lesson 8: Spin It!

Objectives:

Recall that electric current can transfer energy from place to place and then be used locally to produce motion, sound, heat, or light.
Explain that current is produced by transforming the energy of motion into electrical energy.
Identify the parts of a wind turbine and how they work together to produce electricity.

Vocabulary: energy of motion

Lesson 9: Nonrenewable Energy Resources

Objectives:

Explain what the expression “produce energy” refers to when describing a conversion of stored energy into another form.
List energy resources derived from natural sources that are not renewable over time.

Vocabulary: fossil fuel, nonrenewable energy resource

Lesson 10: Renewable Energy Resources

Objectives:

List energy resources derived from natural sources that are renewable over time.

Vocabulary: renewable energy resources, solar energy, wind energy

Lesson 11: Energy Resources and the Environment

Objectives:

Recall that the energy we use for electricity and transportation has to come from another source.
Compare the effects different energy resources have on the environment.

Mystery Science

Energy and Energy Transfer Lessons:

Electricity, Light, & Heat Lessons:

Physical Science - Unit 2: Waves

Lesson 1: Waves

Objectives:

Describe waves as a regular pattern of motion produced by a disturbance.
Explain the motion of water waves.

Vocabulary: wave, transverse wave

Lesson 2: Properties of Water Waves

Objectives:

Describe the wave properties of amplitude and wavelength.
Science Vocabulary

Vocabulary: amplitude, wavelength

Lesson 3: Properties of Sound Waves

Objectives:

Describe sound waves in terms of amplitude and wavelength.
Describe the properties of longitudinal waves.
Identify patterns between the wavelength of sound waves and the pitch of sounds.
Identify patterns between the amplitude of sound waves and the volume of sound.

Vocabulary: longitudinal wave, pitch, volume

Lesson 4: Information Technology - GPS

Objectives:

Identify digitized information.
Describe how information can be transmitted over long distances.

Vocabulary: digitized, global positioning system (GPS), transmit

Lesson 5: Information Technology - Cell Phones

Objectives:

Explain how cell phones use digitized information.
Describe the advantages of digitized information.

Mystery Science

Sound, Waves, & Communication Lessons:

Life Science - Unit 3: Structure, Function, and Information Processing

Lesson 1: External Structures of a Wild Rose

Objectives:

Identify the external structures of a wild rose.
Describe the functions served by the external structures of a wild rose.
Explain how the external structures of a wild rose interact to help the plant survive, grow, or reproduce.

Lesson 2: Internal Structures of a Wild Rose

Objectives:

Identify the internal structures of a wild rose.
Describe the functions served by the internal structures of a wild rose.
Explain how the internal structures of a wild rose interact with each other, and with external structures, to help the plant survive, grow, or reproduce.

Vocabulary: pistil, stamens

Lesson 3: External Structures of an Elephant

Objectives:

Identify the external structures of an elephant.
Describe the functions performed by the external structures of an elephant.
Explain how the external structures of an elephant interact with each other to help the animal survive.
Compare an elephant’s structures and their functions to the structures and functions of other organisms.

Lesson 4: Internal Organs of an Elephant

Objectives:

Identify the internal structures of an elephant.
Describe the functions served by the internal structures of an elephant.
Act out how a system of organs works together to carry out the process of digestion.

Lesson 5: Bones and Muscles of an Elephant

Objectives:

Identify the bones and muscles of an elephant.
Describe the functions served by the bones and muscles of an elephant.
Explain how the bones and muscles of an elephant interact to help the animal function.

Lesson 6: Animal Senses

Objectives:

Describe how animals use sense receptors, process information, and use perceptions and memories to guide their actions.

Lesson 7: Light and Sight

Objectives:

Describe how an object can be seen when light reflects off its surface.
Explain that sight is a process by which receptors in the eye detect light and send signals to the brain.

Vocabulary: reflects

Mystery Science

Animal and Plant Adaptations Lessons:

Human Body, Vision, & The Brain Lessons:

Earth Science - Unit 4: Earth’s Systems: Processes that Shape the Earth

Lesson 1: Rainfall in the United States

Objectives:

Analyze patterns in the amount of rain that falls in different parts of the United States.
Describe how the amount of rainfall affects the types of living things found in a region.

Lesson 2: Pacific Northwest Forest

Objectives:

Describe how the amount of rainfall affects the types of living things found in forests of the Pacific Northwest.
Identify some of the living things in the forests of the Pacific Northwest.

Lesson 3: Southwest Desert

Objectives:

Describe how the amount of rainfall affects the types of living things found in deserts of the southwestern United States.
Draw conclusions about how plants and animals survive in a desert.

Lesson 4: Central Plains Grassland

Objectives:

Identify some of the organisms that live in a grassland (prairie).
Draw conclusions about why prairie grasses are suited for the weather conditions where they grow.

Lesson 5: Eastern Temperate Forest

Objectives:

Analyze how patterns of rainfall affect living things in an eastern temperate forest.
Identify some of the organisms that live in an eastern temperate forest.

Lesson 6: Weathering

Objectives:

Define weathering and identify agents of weathering.
Analyze the effects of weathering on rocks.
Write cause-effect statements to explain how weathering changes land over time.

Vocabulary: weathering, sediment

Lesson 7: Erosion and Deposition

Objectives:

Recognize how erosion and deposition of sediment can shape and change the land.

Vocabulary: erosion, deposition

Lesson 8: Wind Changes the Land

Objectives:

Explain how wind can weather rocks to form sediment, as well as erode and deposit sediment.
Model the role of wind in the formation of sand dunes.

Vocabulary: sand dunes

Lesson 8: Water Changes the Land

Objectives:

Relate the action of flowing water to the processes of weathering, erosion, and deposition.
Recognize that land features such as canyons can form slowly over time as the result of erosion by water.

Lesson 8: Ice Changes the Land

Objectives:

Recognize how some landforms and land features are the results of changes made by ice.

Vocabulary: glacier

Lesson 9: Living Things Change the Land

Objectives:

Explain how living things can break rocks and soil into smaller particles and move them around to change the land on which they live.

Vocabulary: organisms

Lesson 10: Landslides Change Earth's Surface

Objectives:

Identify the causes of landslides.
Consider the impacts of landslides on landscapes and on human structures.

Vocabulary: gravity, landslide

Lesson 11: Natural Hazards

Objectives:

Evaluate why some Earth processes are natural hazards.
Describe hazards associated with earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions.

Vocabulary: hazard, earthquake, volcanoes, tsunami

Lesson 12: Earthquakes

Objectives:

Describe earthquakes.
Identify the hazards to humans that result from earthquakes.

Vocabulary: fault

Lesson 13: Tsunamis

Objectives:

Explain what causes tsunamis and why they are hazardous.
Relate the energy of tsunami waves to their effects.

Lesson 14: Volcanoes

Objectives:

Describe materials released by a volcanic eruption.
Explain the effects of a volcanic eruption.
Compare eruptions of different types of volcanoes.

Vocabulary: magma, erupts, lava

Lesson 15: Reducing the Impact of Natural Hazards

Objectives:

Explain why natural hazards cannot be eliminated.
Interpret text details and a diagram to understand how a bridge can be designed to reduce impacts from earthquakes.
Weigh the cost of implementing earthquake-resistant bridge designs against the benefits provided by those designs.

Lesson 16: Early Warning Systems

Objectives:

Describe equipment used in early warning systems for earthquakes and volcanoes.
Create cause-effect chains to show how early warning systems operate.

Vocabulary: seismometers, evacuate, seismographs

Lesson 17: Tsunami Detection

Objectives:

Explain how a warning system can alert people to possible tsunamis.
Interpret a diagram to explain how the warning system works.

Lesson 18: Patterns of Water and Land Features

Objectives:

Interpret a map to identify the locations of some land and water features on Earth.
Analyze map data to conclude that these features occur in patterns.

Vocabulary: mid-ocean ridge, deep ocean trench

Lesson 19: The Badlands

Objectives:

Describe how patterns in rock formations in the Badlands region of South Dakota reveal changes over time.
Explain that the presence and location of certain fossils in the Badlands’ rocks indicate the order in which the rock layers were formed.

Vocabulary: sedimentary rock, fossils

Lesson 20: Iceland

Objectives:

Describe how Earth forces are changing rocks in Iceland.

Vocabulary: rift

Mystery Science

Earth's Features and Processes Lessons:

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