Science, Social Studies, and Writing
This block is 5 days a week for approximately 80 minutes a block.
Course Description

Students will:
In science our first kit we will be learning about the properties of Earth materials using and supplementing our "Soils, Rocks, and Landforms Kit". Below is the material we will cover in the modules.

Geology is the study of our planet’s earth materials and natural resources. Because they are so ubiquitous and abundant, they are often taken for granted. The Soils, Rocks, and Landforms Module provides students with firsthand experiences with soils and rocks and modeling experiences using tools such as topographic maps and stream tables to study changes to rocks and landforms at Earth’s surface.

This module has four investigations that focus on the concepts that weathering by water, ice, wind, living organisms, and gravity breaks rocks into smaller pieces, erosion (water, ice, and wind) transports earth materials to new locations, and deposition is the result of that transport process that builds new land. Students conduct controlled experiments by incrementally changing specific environmental conditions to determine the impact of changing the variables of slope and amount of water in stream tables. Students interpret data from diagrams and visual representations to build explanations from evidence and make predictions of future events. They develop model mountains and represent the landforms from different perspectives to look for change. Students gain experiences that will contribute to the understanding of crosscutting concepts of patterns; cause and effect; scale, proportion, and quantity; systems and system models; structure and function; and stability and change.

For a description of each investigation in SOILS, ROCKS, AND LANDFORMS and the correlations to the National Science Education Standards, download the SOILS, ROCKS, AND LANDFORMS Module Overview PDF.


Our second kit is Environments. Below is an overview taken from Fossweb of the content that will be included. The study of the structures and behaviors of organisms and the relationships between one organism and its environment builds knowledge of all organisms. With this knowledge comes an awareness of limits. Such knowledge is important because humans can change environments. The Environments Module has four investigations that focus on the concepts that organisms have structures and behaviors, including sensory receptors, that serve functions in growth, survival and reproduction, and living organisms depend on one another and on their environment for their survival and the survival of populations. Students design investigations to study preferred environments, range of tolerance, and optimum conditions for growth and survival of specific organisms. They conduct controlled experiments by incrementally changing specific environmental conditions to determine the range of tolerance for early growth of seeds and hatching of brine shrimp, and use these data to develop and use models to understand the impact of changes to the environment. They graph and interpret data from multiple trials of experiments and build explanations from evidence. Students gain experiences that will contribute to the understanding of crosscutting concepts of patterns; cause and effect; scale, proportion, and quantity; systems and system models; energy and matter; structure and function; and stability and change.