Fall Semester Science Learning Targets:
Microbiome: I can investigate the human microbiome at multiple scales—from molecules to bacteria to the human body. I can construct scientific arguments about how a surprising treatment— fecal transplants—can cause a patient infected with harmful bacteria to recover.
Metabolism: I can diagnose a patient by figuring out how our body systems work together to provide molecules to the body’s cells, while using multiple pieces of evidence including articles, system models, videos, and hands-on investigations about macroscale and microscale body processes.
Cells: I can provide evidence that living things are made of cells, develop and use a model to describe the function of a cell as a whole and ways parts of cells contribute to the function, and I can gather and synthesize information that specialized cells called sensory receptors respond to stimuli by sending messages to the brain for immediate behavior or storage as memories, and I can use an argument based on empirical evidence and scientific reasoning to support an explanation for how characteristic animal behaviors and specialized plant structures affect the probability of successful reproduction of animals and plants
Traits and Reproduction: I can write arguments about why the silk of closely related spiders can vary by gathering evidence about traits, the structure and function of protein molecules, gene combinations, and inheritance.
Spring Semester Science Learning Targets:
Thermal Energy: I can use mathematical thinking and evidence from articles, experiments, and models to decide which of two heating systems will best heat a fictional school and construct explanations for what causes stability or change in thermal energy and temperature.
Ocean, Atmosphere, and Climate: I can construct explanations about why regional climates change during El Niño years by gathering evidence from experiments, articles, maps, and more to explain causes and effects between the atmosphere, ocean, and regional climates.
Weather Patterns: I can create visual models showing why a fictional town has experienced an increase in extreme rainstorms while conducting a variety of investigations about how the energy in air changes and becomes stable, and how this affects weather patterns.
Earth’s Changing Climate: I can ask questions about climate change and figure out how human activities add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, altering the energy flow into and out of Earth’s systems. I can explain how specific solutions could reduce climate change.
Engineering: I can define the criteria and constraints of a design problem, evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem, analyze data from tests to determine similarities and differences among several design solutions to identify the best characteristics of each that can be combined into a new solution to better meet the criteria for success, and I can develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a of a proposed object, tool, or process.