science

Grade 1

Overview

First grade science units help students formulate answers to questions such as: “What happens when materials vibrate?", "What happens when there is no light?", "What are some ways plants and animals meet their needs so that they can survive and grow?" or "What objects are in the sky and how do they seem to move?” Students will develop an understanding of the relationship between sound and vibrating materials as well as between the availability of light and ability to see objects. Students will also learn how plants and animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs as well as how behaviors of parents and offspring help the offspring survive. Students will have opportunities to observe, describe, and predict some patterns of the movement of objects in the sky. In first grade, children will plan and carry out investigations, analyze and interpret data, construct explanations and design solutions.

Unit 1

Waves: Light and Sound

In this unit students will develop an understanding of the relationship between sound and vibrating materials as well as between the availability of light and ability to see objects. The idea that light travels from place to place can be understood by students through determining the effect of placing objects made with different materials in the path of a beam of light. Additionally students will engage in the engineering design process as they design and build a device that uses light or sound to solve the problem of communicating over a distance. Big ideas or crosscutting concepts of cause and effect and the influence of engineering, technology and science on society and the natural world are organizing concepts for the core scientific ideas. Students are expected to demonstrate grade-appropriate proficiency in planning and carrying out investigations and constructing explanations and designing solutions. Students will have opportunities to use these practices to demonstrate understanding of the core science ideas.

Unit 2

Space Systems: Patterns and Cycles

In this unit students will observe and describe the motion of the sun, moon, and stars. A goal is for students to recognize patterns in the movement and use this knowledge to make predictions. Examples of patterns could include that the sun and moon appear to rise in one part of the sky, move across the sky, and set; and stars other than our sun are visible at night but not during the day. Students will also make observations that allow them to relate the amount of daylight to the time of year. Emphasis is on relative comparisons of the amount of daylight in the winter to the amount in the spring or fall. The big idea or crosscutting concept of patterns is an organizing concept for the core science ideas. Students are expected to demonstrate grade-appropriate proficiency in planning and carrying out investigations and analyzing and interpreting data. Students will have opportunities to use these practices to demonstrate understanding of the core science ideas.

Unit 3

Structure, Function, and Information Processing

In this unit students will explore how plants and animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs as well as how behaviors of parents and offspring help the offspring survive. The understanding is developed that young plants and animals are like, but not exactly the same as, their parents. Students will engage in the engineering design process as they design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use their external parts to help themselves. The big ideas or crosscutting concepts of patterns and structure and function are organizing concepts for the core science ideas. Students are expected to demonstrate grade-appropriate proficiency in constructing explanations and designing solutions and obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information. Students will have opportunities to use these practices to demonstrate understanding of the core science ideas.

Unit 4

Agricultural Engineering: The Best of Bugs Designing Hand Pollinators

Insects pollinate many kinds of plants. What if the right insects aren’t around to do the work? The storybook Mariana Becomes a Butterfly shows how one girl solves a pollination problem. In this unit, students become agricultural engineers. They’ll apply their knowledge of insects, insect life cycles, pollination, and natural systems as they test a variety of materials, then engineer their own technologies for pollinating plants by hand.

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