Course Focus and Content:
Critical to middle school students is the foundation needed to be successful in high school science. In grades 6-8, students use an integrated science curriculum to develop and plan controlled investigations and create more explicit and detailed models and explanations. Students must have opportunities to develop the skills necessary to engage in scientific and technical reasoning that are necessary for success in college, careers, and citizenship.
Because of using an integrated science model, the development of themes for each grade became necessary to assure continuity of thought processes.
- Grade 7: Systems and Cycles
-Grade 8: Cause and Effect
7th Grade:
Students relate systems and cycles through analyzing various small scale and large scale phenomena. Using scientific methods, students can connect Earth's systems with the flow of energy in supporting living and nonliving organisms and specific interactions of matter. Students use multiple investigative methods to discover evidence, make claims, and generate explanations about systems and cycles that take place on Earth. A focus on organization and cycles of matter requires students to apply skills and make connections across genres of science since most complex cycles have multiple interactions.
8th Grade:
Since causes of complex phenomena and systems are not always immediately or physically visible to students, the need to develop abstract thinking skills is a significant outcome for Grade 8. Explaining patterns and making predictions based on an understanding of cause and effect allow students to conceptualize and describe the relationships among natural phenomena. In Grade 8, some examples of the relationships include the role of genetics in reproduction and heredity, the biology that explains unity and diversity, the transfer of energy, the result of dynamic changes to the Earth's surface, and human impact on the biosphere.
Critical to middle school students is the foundation needed to be successful in high school science. In grades 6-8, students use an integrated science curriculum to develop and plan controlled investigations and create more explicit and detailed models and explanations. Students must have opportunities to develop the skills necessary to engage in scientific and technical reasoning that are necessary for success in college, careers, and citizenship.
Because of using an integrated science model, the development of themes for each grade became necessary to assure continuity of thought processes.
- Grade 7: Systems and Cycles
-Grade 8: Cause and Effect
7th Grade:
Students relate systems and cycles through analyzing various small scale and large scale phenomena. Using scientific methods, students can connect Earth's systems with the flow of energy in supporting living and nonliving organisms and specific interactions of matter. Students use multiple investigative methods to discover evidence, make claims, and generate explanations about systems and cycles that take place on Earth. A focus on organization and cycles of matter requires students to apply skills and make connections across genres of science since most complex cycles have multiple interactions.
8th Grade:
Since causes of complex phenomena and systems are not always immediately or physically visible to students, the need to develop abstract thinking skills is a significant outcome for Grade 8. Explaining patterns and making predictions based on an understanding of cause and effect allow students to conceptualize and describe the relationships among natural phenomena. In Grade 8, some examples of the relationships include the role of genetics in reproduction and heredity, the biology that explains unity and diversity, the transfer of energy, the result of dynamic changes to the Earth's surface, and human impact on the biosphere.