Here are the 4 units we'll be covering in science this year:
1. Vision and Light: Over the course of this unit, students investigate the role that animal senses, primarily vision, play in survival as they try to understand a realistic fictional problem with a real organism. They investigate why there is a decline in the number of Tokay geckos living in one area of a rain forest in the Philippines.
2. Earth's Features: In the role of geologists, students investigate how a dinosaur fossil found in the fictional Desert Rocks National Park formed, which serves as the anchor phenomenon for the unit. Students make inferences about the history of the park based on the fossil itself and the rock layers in which it is embedded. Investigating how the fossil formed leads students to learn about sedimentary rock formation.
3. Energy Conversions: In the Energy Conversions unit, students take on the role of systems engineers for Ergstown, a fictional town that experiences frequent blackouts, the anchor phenomenon for the unit. Throughout the unit, they explore reasons why an electrical system may fail. Then, students apply what they have learned as they choose new energy sources and energy converters for the town, using evidence to explain why their choices will make the electrical system more reliable. As they work to solve the problem of blackouts in Ergstown, students will use and construct devices that convert energy from one form to another, build an understanding of the electrical system, and learn to identify energy forms all around them.
4. Waves, Energy, and Information: To learn about important characteristics of sound and how sound travels through materials, students engage with several models of sound waves. These models, including an interactive digital simulation, physical models, and visual representations, support discovery and understanding of how dolphins use sound to communicate. These models, as well as informational text and firsthand investigations with sound, help students visualize things that are not possible to see: how sound waves travel at the particle level and how a sound’s volume and pitch correspond to the amplitude and wavelength of the sound wave. Students apply what they learn from their investigations to write a series of scientific explanations detailing how dolphins are able to communicate using sound. In the last chapter of the unit, students consider a new anchor phenomenon as they broaden their understanding of patterns in communication by investigating the patterns that humans use to communicate across distances.
1. Vision and Light: Over the course of this unit, students investigate the role that animal senses, primarily vision, play in survival as they try to understand a realistic fictional problem with a real organism. They investigate why there is a decline in the number of Tokay geckos living in one area of a rain forest in the Philippines.
2. Earth's Features: In the role of geologists, students investigate how a dinosaur fossil found in the fictional Desert Rocks National Park formed, which serves as the anchor phenomenon for the unit. Students make inferences about the history of the park based on the fossil itself and the rock layers in which it is embedded. Investigating how the fossil formed leads students to learn about sedimentary rock formation.
3. Energy Conversions: In the Energy Conversions unit, students take on the role of systems engineers for Ergstown, a fictional town that experiences frequent blackouts, the anchor phenomenon for the unit. Throughout the unit, they explore reasons why an electrical system may fail. Then, students apply what they have learned as they choose new energy sources and energy converters for the town, using evidence to explain why their choices will make the electrical system more reliable. As they work to solve the problem of blackouts in Ergstown, students will use and construct devices that convert energy from one form to another, build an understanding of the electrical system, and learn to identify energy forms all around them.
4. Waves, Energy, and Information: To learn about important characteristics of sound and how sound travels through materials, students engage with several models of sound waves. These models, including an interactive digital simulation, physical models, and visual representations, support discovery and understanding of how dolphins use sound to communicate. These models, as well as informational text and firsthand investigations with sound, help students visualize things that are not possible to see: how sound waves travel at the particle level and how a sound’s volume and pitch correspond to the amplitude and wavelength of the sound wave. Students apply what they learn from their investigations to write a series of scientific explanations detailing how dolphins are able to communicate using sound. In the last chapter of the unit, students consider a new anchor phenomenon as they broaden their understanding of patterns in communication by investigating the patterns that humans use to communicate across distances.