Embedded Files
We believe the main focus of science instruction has shifted from "learning about" to "figuring out." At the anchor of every science unit, students are exploring puzzling phenomena and observable events in their world that lead them to discover relevant scientific ideas.
At BRMS, students are actively developing their science and engineering practices across units. They are not just constructing understanding of core concepts, they are also developing the habits that all scientists use. These science and engineering practices are lifelong skills that endure inside and beyond school.
Investigating puzzling questions about our world through Inquiry
Modeling to describe the way things work
Communicating ideas supported with evidence
Engineering to design solutions to problems
Earth Systems:
BEND 1: Distribution of Water
Focus Questions:
Why is water conservation important?
How does the water distribution on Earth affect our water conservation efforts?
Performance Expectation:
Students who demonstrate understanding can describe and graph the amounts and percentages of water and fresh water in various reservoirs to provide evidence about the distribution of water on Earth.
BEND 2: Earth Systems and Human Impact
Focus Questions:
How do Earth’s major systems interact?
How do humans change the planet?
How do engineers solve problems of human impact on the environment?
Performance Expectation:
Students who demonstrate understanding can develop a model using an example to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and/or atmosphere interact.
Matter:
BEND 1: Microscopic Particles
Focus Questions:
How can we describe the particles of three states of matter?
Performance Expectation:
Students who demonstrate understanding can develop a model to describe that matter is made of particles too small to be seen
BEND 2: Properties of Matter
Focus Questions:
How can one explain the structure, properties, and interactions of matter?
How do particles combine to form the variety of matter one observes?
Performance Expectation:
Students who demonstrate understanding can make observations and measurements to identify materials based on their properties.
Earth's Place in Space:
BEND 1: Gravity
Focus Questions:
What effect does Earth’s gravitational force have on objects?
Performance Expectation:
Students who demonstrate understanding can support an argument that the gravitational force exerted by Earth on objects is directed down.
BEND 2: Brightness of the Sun
Focus Questions:
What effect does the relative distance from Earth have on the apparent brightness of the sun and other stars?
Performance Expectation:
Students who demonstrate understanding can support an argument that differences in the apparent brightness of the sun compared to other stars is due to their relative distances from the Earth
Energy Flow:
BEND 1: Needs of Organisms
Focus Questions:
How do food and fuel provide energy?
How do organisms obtain and use the energy they need to live and grow?
How do organisms interact with the living and nonliving environments to obtain energy?
Performance Expectation:
Students who demonstrate understanding can support an argument that plants get the materials they need for growth chiefly from air and water.
BEND 2: Cycle of Matter & Flow of Energy
Focus Questions:
How do organisms interact with the living and nonliving environments to obtain matter and energy?
How does matter move through an ecosystem?
Performance Expectation:
Students who demonstrate understanding can develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.
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