2nd Grade Science/SS

We tackle four big ideas in 2nd grade social studies including Civics, Geography, Economics, and History.

• Civics - Responsible Citizens: Students will learn that governments are based on ideas about political institutions and experiences related to power and authority and that the decisions of individuals, groups and governments impact developments within an interconnected world.

• Geography - People Interacting with the Environment: Students will learn that human and physical systems interact altering the earth’s surface and that spatial thinking involves using geographic tools to analyze patterns, make connections and solve problems.

• Economics - Identifying Decisions & Making Choices: We will see hoe the scarcity of resources affects people’s choices and that all choices involve costs. Students will learn that people use reasoning skills when spending and saving and that their financial decisions have positive and/or negative consequences.

• History - How Communities Change: Students will learn that chronological thinking provides a framework for organizing historical thought and that historians study interactions among diverse people, events and ideas. We will also explre how the historical process involves obtaining and deriving meaning from historical sources and analyzing patterns of continuity and change over time.

We explore three different science units in 2nd grade including, Ecosystems, Earth's Systems, and Properties of Matter

• In Ecosystems, students will learn that plants need light/water to grow, that they depend on animals for pollination or to move their seeds around, and that there are many different kinds of living things in any area and they exist in different places on land and in water.

• In Earth's Systems, students will learn that some events happen very quickly while others occur very slowly, over a time period much longer than we can observe. We will also study how wind and water can change the shape of the land and that maps show where things are located. Lastly, we will see that we can map the shapes and kinds of land and water in any area.

• In Properties of Matter, students will learn that patterns in the natural and human designed world can be observed, used to describe phenomena, and used as evidence to predict results and solve problems. We will study how cause and effect relationships help predict or explain future events, how objects may break into smaller pieces, be put together into larger pieces, or change shapes, how energy and matter are related, and lastly that simple tests can be designed to gather evidence to support or refute student ideas about causes.