Science Curriculum
Science exploration is very important to the Wizards of 1-211! We love to experiment, discover, and learn from what we find! Fall is a great season to talk about how and why the climate changes, why our trees lose their leaves, and the importance of the fall harvest. We will be exploring all the reasons why our weather changes throughout the year and how this affects us.
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Seasons and WeatherUnit Overview: Weather involves interactions among air, water, and land. Students should observe and describe weather conditions that occur during each season. They can observe, measure, record and compare data throughout the year by using science tools. Students should compare temperatures in different locations and compare day and night temperature. Students should illustrate and describe how the sun appears to move during the day. Illustrate and describe how the moon changes appearance over time. Describe the 24-hour day/night cycle. Students should understand that energy exists in a variety of forms. Students should observe and record the changes in the sun’s and other star’s position, and the moon’s appearance relative to time of day and month, and note the pattern of this change. Recognize that the sun’s energy warms the air.
Essential Question: How does seasonal change affect temperature and weather conditions over a period of time? Key Ideas: Key Idea 1: The Earth and celestial phenomena can be described by principles of relative motion and perspective. Key Idea 2: Many of the phenomena that we observe on Earth involve interactions among components of air, water, and land. Key Idea 3: Matter is made up of particles whose properties determine the observable characteristics of matter and its reactivity. Key Idea 4: Energy exists in many forms, and when these forms change energy is conserved. |
Animal DiversityUnit Overview: Students’ ideas about the characteristics of organisms develop from their basic concepts of living and nonliving things. As students investigate the continuity of life, emphasis should be placed on how animals reproduce their own kind. Teachers should lead students to make observations about how the offspring of familiar animals compare to one another and to their parents. Throughout time, animals have changed depending on their environment. In learning how organisms have been successful in their habitats, students should observe and record information about animals. They should begin to recognize how differences among individuals within a species can help an organism or population to survive. Students at this level will identify the behaviors and physical adaptations that allow organisms to survive in their environment. Students describe animal life cycles and life spans.
Essential Question: How are animals alike and different? Key Ideas: Key Idea 1: Living things are both similar to and different from each other and from nonliving things. Key Idea 2: Organisms inherit genetic information in a variety of ways that result in continuity of structure and function between parents and offspring. Key Idea 3: Individual organisms and species change over time. Key Idea 4: The continuity of life is sustained through reproduction and development. |
Properties of MatterUnit Overview: Students observe and describe the three states of matter. Students describe, categorize, compare, and measure observable physical properties of matter and objects. Students’ initial efforts in performing these processes may yield simple descriptions and sketches, which may lead to increasingly more detailed drawings and richer verbal descriptions. Appropriate tools can aid students in their efforts.
Essential Question: How do we describe the properties of matter? Key Ideas: Key Idea 2: Many of the phenomena that we observe on Earth involve interactions among components of air, water, and land. Key Idea 3: Matter is made up of particles whose properties determine the observable characteristics of matter and its reactivity |