Curriculum

Grade 3 Overview

In 3rd Grade, students engage in sophisticated science practices, such as modeling, planning and carrying out investigations, field work, and engineering design challenges. Students begin to consider the importance of evidence when considering how squirrels survive, explaining how toys move, planning the design of a bird feeder, and arguing which seed will grow better in a set of conditions. Third grade units address disciplinary core ideas including the nature of ecological systems, human traits, weather patterns, and forces. They also address crosscutting concepts including systems and system models and structure and function.

Grade 3 Units

U3.1 Squirrels

Students observe squirrels in their community, and plan and conduct investigations and develop models to explain how the squirrels interact with other organisms in their environment to meet their needs for survival, exploring the driving question: Why do I see so many squirrels, but I can find any stegosauruses? For the final artifact, students create a model to explain that as the environment changed, some animals (mammals) were able to adapt and others (dinosaurs) died out. They expand the model in writing or performance.

U3.2 Toys

Students make prototypes of moving toys then observe and develop models to describe the pattern of motion to explore: How can we design fun moving toys that other kids can build? For the final artifact, students revise their models and develop engineering solutions, then produce a design portfolio to show how they have incorporated what they have learned.

U3.3 Birds

Students conduct fieldwork to gather information about the birds that live near the school. They make claims that the birds' physical and behavioral traits are adapted to the habitat they live in to explore: How can we help the birds around our school grow up and thrive? For the final artifact, students design bird feeders that take into account the physical and behavioral traits, the effects of changing weather, the features of the environment, and the needs for reproduction of the focal bird.

U3.4 Plants

Students ask questions, make observations, investigate, and model how plants' traits affect their survival to explore: How can we plan gardens for our community to grow plants for food? The final artifact includes planning a garden, and designing, testing, and making claims about the merits of a solution (tool or process) to protect the garden plants from weather-related hazards or changes in the environment.

Fourth Grade Overview

A major theme that runs through the four Fourth Grade units (projects) is a focus on energy and energy transfer. Fourth grade sees a progression about energy -- the energy of motion, energy that is involved in transfer to electricity, the energy involved in processing an object with one’s eyes, and the energy that is transferred from fuels in a fire.

Lesson Waves 2.2 SEL and L2.1 photo comparing how far humans and birds of prey can see.

U4.1 Dynamic Earth

In the first project, students investigate the driving question: “How is this place on Earth going to change over 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000, and 1,000,000 years?” They construct design solutions for slowing down the effects of moving water, test the effectiveness of their design solution by building a prototype/model, and make observations to serve as evidence for the effectiveness of a design plan.

U4.2 Energy in Our World

The second project addresses the question: “How can we use energy outside to do everyday things in a new way?” Students design a prototype to explore natural resources to transfer energy to a simulated community. They carry out a design solution and gather evidence to make a claim regarding the effectiveness of their design plan. The final artifacts include students communicating the evidence obtained from their design solution to their classmates.

U4.3 Waves

In the third project, students explore: “How important are our eyes for knowing where we are going and not getting lost?” They use ideas about light, sight, eye structures, and memory and instinct to solve a design problem that would help birds avoid windows, and newly-hatched sea turtles find the ocean. Students engage in investigations, develop models, and use text and media to compare how they are able to see with how animals see.

U4.4 Fire Ecology

“If fire is a hazard, why do so many animals and plants depend on it?” is the driving question for the fourth project. Throughout the project , students use their understanding of energy, fuels and ecology to develop an engineered solution of a prescribed burn to protect an animal or plant. Given criteria and constraints, they explain why their solution is the optimal solution.

Fifth Grade Overview

The four Fifth Grade units have students developing sophisticated understanding of the natural world's complex systems, internal structures and processes of animals and plants -- at a grand and at micro scales. Students learn about the particle nature of matter in the food they eat, and in the water they drink. They also consider how processes of sight are involved with how light travels when a traveler can identify Polaris from any point on the Northern Hemisphere.

Lesson Stars 5.1 ELA integration and photo

U5.1 Ecosystems

In the first project, students explore the question: “Why do some animals need the land unchanged, and some animals change the land?” They create a food web and terrain map based on evidence they gathered about decomposition, food chains, energy transfer. Then students expand their map into a three-dimensional model and consider the potential human impact on a healthy ecosystem.

U5.2 Chemistry of Taste

“How do I create a new taste?” is the driving question for the second project. Students create a scientific model to describe patterns in taste that they notice in foods. Through the lens of stability, change, and scale, students adapt their models to consider what happens when two tastes are mixed together or when sugar is added. Students culminate the project by creating their own ‘recipe’ for a new taste and a corresponding marketing plan.

U5.3 Shadows and Stars

In the third project, students develop solutions to answer the question: “How could we travel 1,000 miles in the same direction, without a compass, map or phone?” Students gather seasonal outdoor shadow data to figure out a mystery location. They consider the positions of the Sun and Earth and the relationship between the direction and the length of shadows and the angle of the light source. Students use data and mathematical thinking and modeling to communicate their discovery of the mystery location and how to then travel north 1,000 miles.

U5.4 Fresh Water

In the fourth project, students develop and test a model of a solution that will conserve nearby freshwater or prevent it from becoming unhealthy to humans and animals in order to figure out: “How can I help my community always have clean and healthy water?” To develop and build their models, students collect and investigate water samples, and analyze data to determine sources of water quality problems that could affect their community such as bioaccumulation in food chains, and runoff pollution. Students share their findings and solutions with stakeholders in their community.