Science and
Technology/Engineering
Science and
Technology/Engineering
Embedded Files
Technology/Engineering
Science and Technology/Engineering Overview
The Newton Public Schools Science and Technology/Engineering (STE) program is designed to support all students as they develop into scientifically literate citizens. Through active engagement in science and engineering practices, students will explore the disciplinary core ideas across four domains: physical science; life science; earth and space science; and technology and engineering. A strong core STE curriculum, supported by teacher disciplinary expertise, will allow all students to explore their curiosities about the world, learn how scientists have investigated similar questions, carry out increasingly complex scientific investigations, and engage in engineering design projects.Science and Technology/Engineering Overview
How can we make something new that was not there before?
How can we make something new that was not there before?
Learning Targets
Learning Targets
Develop models to describe the atomic composition of simple molecules and extended structures
Analyze and interpret data on the properties of substances before and after the substances interact to determine if a chemical reaction has occurred
Develop and use a model to describe how the total number of atoms does not change in a chemical reaction and thus mass is conserved
Essential Questions
Essential Questions
How can particles of a new substance be formed out of the particles of an old substance?
How can a new substance be produced and the total mass of the closed system not change?
Instructional Snapshot
Instructional Snapshot
Students will engage in a variety of activities, including:
Planning and carrying out investigations to determine whether the matter produced in a chemical reaction (ie. gas) was already part of the matter that was there beforehand
Analyzing data to determine the properties (density, melting point, boiling point, solubility, flammability) of substances
Using models to describe the atomic composition of simple molecules and extended structures
Analyzing data on the properties of a substance before and after energy is added to the substance and use these to argue from evidence for whether a chemical reaction has occurred
Constructing an explanation to describe possible products in a chemical reaction from a set of known reactants
Why are living things different from one another?
Why are living things different from one another?
Learning Targets
Learning Targets
Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how environmental and genetic factors influence the growth of organisms
Use a model to describe how mutations may affect proteins, and the structure and function of the organism
Use a model to describe the differences between asexual and sexual reproduction
Describe through writing and in diagrams the relationship between chromosomes, genes, and proteins
Use a model to show how chromosomes are passed from parent to offspring in sexually reproducing organisms
Describe examples of the ways in which humans have changed the inheritance of desired traits in organisms through artificial selection
Essential Questions
Essential Questions
Why don’t offspring always look like their parents or their siblings?
How do farmers control the variation in their animals?
How do plants reproduce?
How do other organisms reproduce without sperm and eggs?
How much of trait variation in a population is controlled by genes or by the environment?
Instructional Snapshot
Instructional Snapshot
Students will engage in a variety of activities, including:
Using computational thinking to find the probability of offspring with certain genotypes from parents with certain genotypes
Developing a model to explain how genes provide instructions to rearrange building blocks from food into proteins
Constructing an explanation for how specialized plant structures support sexual and asexual reproduction in plants
Using a model to explain that environmental and genetics factors both influence trait variations in different amounts depending on the specific situation
How does force cause motion?
How does force cause motion?
Learning Targets
Learning Targets
Describe Newton’s third law of motion using a model
Explain, using evidence, that the change in an object’s speed depends on both the net force on the object and the mass of the object
Explain the role of gravity in ocean tides, the orbital motions of planets, their moons, and asteroids in the solar system
Essential Questions
Essential Questions
How does the mass of an object affect its inertia?
How does the balance of forces affect the motion of objects?
What happens to the motion of two objects when they collide?
How does gravity affect the movement of objects in space?
Instructional Snapshot
Instructional Snapshot
Students will engage in a variety of activities, including:
Designing an experiment to determine how forces acting on an object affect the speed of an object
Using simulations to examine the physics of collisions, and orbital paths
Creating diagrams and analyze how gravity, mass, and velocity impact the shape of the orbit
Creating generalized tide curves for three latitudes with the Moon in two different locations
How does uneven heating of the earth cause weather and climate?
Learning Targets
Learning Targets
Use a model of the Earth-sun system to describe: Earth’s rotation axis, seasonal patterns, solar intensity and sunlight intensity
Identify patterns in air mass interactions and describe their relationship to specific weather patterns
Construct a claim about how climate is affected by the distribution and movement of air masses and landforms, ocean temperatures, and currents
Examine and interpret data to describe the role that human activities have played in causing the rise in global temperatures over the past century
Essential Questions
Essential Questions
How do gravity-driven movements of objects in space affect seasons?
What are the global patterns of atmosphere and ocean circulation?
How do global atmosphere and ocean circulations affect climate and local weather?
How has/does human activity influence the global climate?
Instructional Snapshot
Instructional Snapshot
Students will engage in a variety of activities, including:
Using simulations and physical models to examine how the Earth-Moon-Sun system and orientation seasonal patterns, solar intensity and sunlight intensity
Analyzing weather data, conduct investigations, and use simulations to determine how ocean currents and air mass movement affect climate
How does heat cause uneven distribution of resources in the Earth?
How does heat cause uneven distribution of resources in the Earth?
Learning Targets
Learning Targets
Develop a model that describes how transferring heat increases molecular motion, which lowers density
Describe how energy from the Earth’s interior drives convection, changing earth’s surface through processes of subduction and seafloor spreading
Explain with evidence that these processes create a variety of landforms and distribute resources unevenly
Essential Questions
Essential Questions
How does heat change matter?
How does heat flow in the Earth?
How does transfer of heat inside the Earth affect the surface?
How do processes in and on the Earth affect where we find resources?
Instructional Snapshot
Instructional Snapshot
Students will engage in a variety of activities, including:
Observing convection currents through teacher demonstration and student investigations
Using simulations to investigate heat transfer
Building models of a boundary type that shows the role of convection
Examining maps of copper deposits and plate boundary types, to create a claim of what type of geologic activity creates copper deposits
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