Curriculum Map

Curriculum Map

Unit	0	1	2	3
Month	August	August-September	October (interspersed with STEM fair Project)	November-December (interspersed with STEM fair Project)
Unit of Study	Intro to Science	Unit 1 - Contact Forces	Unit 2 - Sound Waves	Unit 3 - Forces at a Distance
Major Concepts and Learning Targets	-Lab Safety and using lab equipment -Reading graphs Measurements -Scientific Writing	Motion Contact Forces Collisions	Sound Waves and Sound	Non Contact Forces Magnetism & Electricity Gravity
Essential Questions	Why is it important to be careful and consistent in the lab?	How can we use forces and Newton’s laws to understand the motion of objects? How can you find the speed and velocity of an object? What happens to the motion of an object as it accelerates?
Colorado State Standards		SC.MS.1.3 SC.MS 1.5 SC.MS.1.7	SC.MS.1.8	SC.MS.1.3 SC.MS.1.4
Core Knowledge Standards		A. Motion • Measures of motion: • Speed: distance per unit of time • Velocity: distance per unit of time in a particular direction • Changes in velocity can involve changes in speed and/or direction B. Contact Forces • A force is a push or pull on an object. • A contact force is a push or pull on objects that touch each other. • A force has both direction and magnitude. • Newton’s mathematical expression of force; a newton is the measure of force in the metric system, pound-force in the English system. • If an object is at rest or there is no change in its movement, then the forces acting on it are balanced. • Unbalanced forces result in changes of an object’s velocity. C. Collisions • The kinetic energy of a moving object is related to its mass. • Newton’s Third Law of Motion can be applied to collisions. • The forces acting on object in a collision, and the change the motion of the objects, involves the velocity of each object and its mass. • The use of engineering design processes can help us design ways to minimize damage when objects collide.	A. Sound Waves and Sound • Difference between a sound and a sound wave: Sound is the result of sound waves. E.g., a ringing bell causes a sound wave, which a person recognizes as a sound. • Vibrating objects establish sound waves when not in a vacuum. • Common vibrating objects: human voice box, siren, bell, parts of a cell phone or television • Sound waves, when interacting with matter, can be reflected, absorbed, or transmitted. • Because sound waves transmit energy, they can often interact with matter to cause it to move, such as making our eardrums vibrate. • Like all forms of energy, a sound wave can be transformed into another energy form— the engineering basis for many practical devices. Characteristics of a sound wave include: - Speed - Frequency - Amplitude	A. Non-Contact Forces • A force is a push or pull on an object. • A non-contact force is a push or pull on objects that do not touch each other. • Examples: magnetism, electrical forces, gravity • Non-contact forces involve fields that surround object, magnetic fields, electrical fields, gravitational fields. • If an object is at rest or there is no change in its movement then, the forces acting on it are balanced. • Unbalanced forces result in changes of an object’s velocity. B. Magnetism and Electricity • Magnets exert a non-contact force on objects made of certain metals. • A metal object becomes magnetic when all its electrons spin in the same direction. • Some objects are naturally magnetic, others can be made by subjecting certain metals to an electrical field. • All magnets have two poles, north and south. • Similar magnetic poles repel; opposite magnetic poles attract. • The entire Earth is a magnet, and therefore surrounded by a magnetic field. • Electrical forces are the result of charged particles acting upon one another. • Electrical and magnetic forces can be described by the activity of the field associated with each force. C. Gravity • Gravity is a force that acts upon any two objects in the universe. • Gravity results because any mass causes the space around it to curve. • Newton’s law of universal gravitation • Effects of universal gravitation on objects in the universe
Formative Assessment		Pretests, Warm-up questions and exit tickets, science notebook checks, lab activities, review games	Prestest, Warm-up questions and exit tickets, science notebook checks, lab activities, review games	Warm-up questions and exit tickets, science notebook checks, lab activities, review games
Summative Assessment		Quizzes, Unit Test Egg Drop project	Quizzes, Unit Test, Sound Poster	Quizzes, Unit Test
Comments/Notes

Unit	4	5	6
Month	January - February	February - March	April - May
Unit of Study	Unit 4 - Genetics	Unit 5 - Natural Selection and Common Ancestry	Unit 6 Earth in Space
Major Concepts and Learning Targets	Genetics Mutations Sexual and Asexual Reproduction	Natural Selection Evidence of Common Ancestry Evolution	Earth, Moon, Sun Solar Systems Stars & Galaxies
Essential Questions
Colorado State Standards	SC.MS.2.2	SC.MS.2.5 SC.MS.2.7 SC.MS.2.8 SC.MS.2.9 SC.MS.2.10 SC.MS.2.11 SC.MS.2.12	SC.MS.3.1 SC.MS.3.2
Core Knowledge Standards	A. Genetics • Gregor Mendel’s experiments with purebred and hybrid peas and subsequent discoveries about inherited traits • Role of genes (segments of DNA on a chromosome) in inherited traits - Traits of an offspring are the result of half of an offspring’s genes coming from the mother, and half coming from the father. - Alleles, dominant and recessive - An offspring • Role, structure, and organization of DNA • DNA is the template for RNA, which in turn directs the development of proteins B. Mutations • A mutation is a structural change to a gene. • Mutations can be harmful, neutral, or beneficial. • Mutations change the structure of DNA, which in turn can affect RNA and thus the formation of proteins. C. Sexual and Asexual Reproduction • Sexual reproduction results in offspring with a mixture of genes from each parent. • Sexual reproduction results in a new combination of genes and thus results in variation of traits in offspring. • Asexual reproduction is not the result of the combination of genes and thus does not result in genetic variation between parent and offspring.	A. Natural Selection • Definition of natural selection • Definition of population, and a knowledge of variation of traits among individuals • Percentages of genes and alleles in a population • Abiotic and biotic changes in the environment and their favorable or unfavorable effects on individuals with certain traits • Survival and greater reproduction of individuals with favorable traits, or adaptations - Others will not reproduce as effectively or will die; pass on their genes at a lower rate changing the genetic structure of a population over time. B. Evidence of Common Ancestry • Many lines of evidence indicate all living things have a common ancestry. • Fossil evidence, rock strata and chemical dating process show that the processes of evolution: from origin to extinction, were the same in the past as they are now. • Comparison of structural similarities and differences between fossils and between fossils and living organisms is one basis for the common ancestry of all living things. • Comparison of the DNA of differing organisms and other cellular chemical analyses indicate the concept that all living things have a common ancestry. C. Evolution • Definition, theory, and process of evolution • Study of the process of evolution includes the comparing genetic makeup and biochemistries of large numbers of different organisms, comparing the anatomy of organisms living and past, and comparative embryology. • The history of the study of how organisms are related goes back to the beginning of scientific thought. • Charles Darwin, and his On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (1859) and historical and scientific importance	A. Earth, Moon, Sun • Earth, the moon, and sun form a system. • Earth revolves around the sun and the moon revolves around Earth • Solar and lunar eclipses are the result of the Earth, moon, sun system. • Day, night, and seasons are the result of the earth in relationship to the sun. • Tides are the result of the interaction of Earth and moon. B. Solar Systems • Solar system: at least one star and its orbiting objects • Objects in a solar system include planets, moons, asteroids, and comets. • Origins of solar systems • Eclipses, lunar phases, and seasons: results of the cyclic patterns of movement of the sun, planets, and moons C. Stars and Galaxies • The sun is a star. • Red giants and white dwarfs • Life cycle of the stars, including novae, supernovae, black holes, and quasars • The apparent movement of stars is a result of the rotation of Earth. • Constellations such as the Big Dipper and Orion, are visual groupings of stars into imagined images. • Definition of light year • Galaxy: enormous number of stars held together by gravitation • About 125 billion galaxies in the universe • Our knowledge of stars, solar systems, galaxies, and the universe is the result of observations an
Formative Assessment	Pretests, Warm-up questions and exit tickets, science notebook checks, lab activities, review games	Pretests, Warm-up questions and exit tickets, science notebook checks, lab activities, review games	Pretests, Warm-up questions and exit tickets, science notebook checks, lab activities, review games
Summative Assessment	Quizzes, Unit Test	Quizzes, Unit Test	Quizzes, Unit Test
Comments/ Notes

Science Biographies

Unit 1 & 3	-Albert Einstein (physicist whose theories of relativity allowed great advancements in the study of space, matter, energy, time, and gravity)
Unit 5	-Dorothy Hodgkin - structure of vitamin B12
Unit 3	-James Maxwell (scientist who created mathematical equations that expressed the basic laws of light, electricity, and magnetism
Unit 3	Charles Steinmetz - the theory of electric power