ESS1: The earth and earth materials as we know them today have developed over long periods of time, through continual change processes.

ESS1.1a: citing evidence and developing a logical argument for plate movement using fossil evidence, layers of sedimentary rock, location of mineral deposits, and shape of the continents.

Plate Tectonics

ESS1.3a: evaluating slow processes (e.g. weathering, erosion, mountain building, sea floor spreading) to determine how the earth has changed and will continue to change over time.

Rock Cycle

ESS2: The earth is part of a solar system, made up of distinct parts that have temporal and spatial interrelationships.

ESS2.8a: using or creating a model of the Earth, sun and moon system to show rotation and revolution.

Comparing Earth and Venus
Moonrise, Moonset, and Phases
Phases of the Moon
Seasons: Earth, Moon, and Sun
Tides

ESS2.8b: explaining night/day, seasons, year, and tides as a result of the regular and predictable motion of the Earth, sun, and moon.

Seasons Around the World
Seasons in 3D
Seasons: Earth, Moon, and Sun
Seasons: Why do we have them?
Summer and Winter
Tides

ESS2.8c: using a model of the Earth, sun and moon to recreate the phases of the moon.

Phases of the Moon

ESS2.8d: describing the relationship between mass and the gravitational force between objects.

Gravitational Force

ESS2.8e: describing the relationship between distance and the gravitational force between objects.

Gravitational Force

ESS2.8f: explaining that the sun's gravitational pull holds the Earth and other planets in their orbits, just as the planet's gravitational pull keeps their moons in orbit.

Gravity Pitch

LS1: All living organisms have identifiable structures and characteristics that allow for survival (organisms, populations, & species).

LS1.2c: observing, describing and charting the growth, motion, responses of living organisms

Human Homeostasis
Paramecium Homeostasis

LS1.3a: explaining reproduction as a fundamental process by which the new individual receives genetic information from parent(s).

Inheritance
Mouse Genetics (One Trait)
Mouse Genetics (Two Traits)

LS1.3c: describing sexual reproduction as a process that combines genetic material of two parents to produce a new organism (e.g., sperm/egg, pollen/ova)

Mouse Genetics (One Trait)
Mouse Genetics (Two Traits)

LS1.4c: explaining how each type of cell, tissue, and organ has a distinct structure and set of functions that serve the organism as a whole.

Digestive System
Paramecium Homeostasis

LS2: Matter cycles and energy flows through an ecosystem.

LS2.5a: identifying which biotic (e.g., bacteria, fungi, plants, animals) and abiotic (e.g., weather, climate, light, water, temperature, soil composition, catastrophic events) factors affect a given ecosystem.

Coral Reefs 1 - Abiotic Factors
Pond Ecosystem

LS2.5b: analyzing how biotic and abiotic factors affect a given ecosystem.

Coral Reefs 1 - Abiotic Factors
Pond Ecosystem

LS2.5d: using a visual model (e.g., graph) to track population changes in an ecosystem.

Food Chain
Rabbit Population by Season

LS2.6a: explaining the transfer of the sun's energy through living systems and its effect upon them.

Food Chain

LS2.6b: describing the basic processes and recognizing the names and chemical formulas of the substances involved in photosynthesis and respiration.

Cell Energy Cycle
Photosynthesis Lab

LS2.6c: explaining the relationship between photosynthesis and respiration.

Cell Energy Cycle
Plants and Snails

LS2.6d: creating or interpreting a model that traces the flow of energy in a food web.

Forest Ecosystem

LS2.7a: diagramming or sequencing a series of steps showing how matter cycles among and between organisms and the physical environment.

Carbon Cycle
Cell Energy Cycle

LS2.7b: developing a model for a food web of local aquatic and local terrestrial environments.

Forest Ecosystem

LS2.7c: explaining the inverse nature or complementary aspects of photosynthesis/respiration in relation to carbon dioxide, water and oxygen exchange.

Cell Energy Cycle
Plants and Snails

LS3: Groups of organisms show evidence of change over time (structures, behaviors, and biochemistry).

LS3.8a: sorting organisms with similar characteristics into groups based on internal and external structures.

Dichotomous Keys
Human Evolution - Skull Analysis

LS3.8b: explaining how species with similar evolutionary histories/characteristics are classified more closely together with some organisms than others (e.g., a fish and human have more common with each other than a fish and jelly fish)

Dichotomous Keys

LS3.9a: explaining that genetic variations/traits of organisms are passed on through reproduction and random genetic changes.

Evolution: Mutation and Selection
Evolution: Natural and Artificial Selection

LS3.9c: differentiating between acquired and inherited characteristics and giving examples of each.

Inheritance

LS3.9d: explaining how natural selection leads to evolution (e.g., survival of the fittest).

Evolution: Mutation and Selection
Evolution: Natural and Artificial Selection
Rainfall and Bird Beaks

LS4: Humans are similar to other species in many ways, and yet are unique among Earth's life forms.

LS4.10a: predicting and explaining the effects of biotic factors (e.g., microbes, parasites, food availability, aging process) on human body systems.

Circulatory System

LS4.10c: researching and reporting on how biotic (e.g., microbes, parasites, food availability, aging process) and abiotic (e.g., radiation, toxic materials, carcinogens) factors cause disease and affect human health.

Digestive System
Virus Lytic Cycle

LS4.11a: recognizing that characteristics of an organism result from inherited traits of one or more genes from the parents and others result from interactions with the environment.

Mouse Genetics (One Trait)
Mouse Genetics (Two Traits)

LS4.11c: identifying that genetic material (i.e. chromosomes and genes) is located in the cell's nucleus.

Human Karyotyping
RNA and Protein Synthesis

PS1: All living and nonliving things are composed of matter having characteristic properties that distinguish one substance from another (independent of size or amount of substance).

PS1.1a: measuring mass and volume of both regular and irregular objects and using those values as well as the relationship D=m/v to calculate density.

Density Experiment: Slice and Dice
Density Laboratory

PS1.2a: identifying an unknown substance given its characteristic properties.

Mineral Identification

PS1.2b: classifying and comparing substances using characteristic properties (e.g., solid, liquid, gas; metal, non-metal).

Mineral Identification

PS1.3a: citing evidence to conclude that the amount of matter before and after undergoing a physical or a chemical change in a closed system remains the same.

Chemical Changes
Chemical Equations

PS1.4a: creating diagrams or models that represent the states of matter at the molecular level.

Phase Changes
Phases of Water

PS1.4b: explaining the effect of increased and decreased heat energy on the motion and arrangement of molecules.

Phase Changes
Phases of Water

PS1.4c: observing the physical processes of evaporation and condensation, or freezing and melting, and describe these changes in terms of molecular motion and conservation of mass.

Phase Changes
Phases of Water

PS1.5c: interpreting the symbols and formulas of simple chemical equations.

Chemical Equations

PS1.5d: using symbols and chemical formulas to show simple chemical rearrangements that produce new substances (chemical change).

Chemical Changes
Chemical Equations

PS2: Energy is necessary for change to occur in matter. Energy can be stored, transferred, and transformed, but cannot be destroyed.

PS2.6b: constructing a model to explain the transformation of energy from one form to another. (e.g. an electrical circuit changing electrical energy to light energy in a light bulb).

Circuit Builder

PS2.6c: explaining that while energy may be stored, transferred, or transformed, the total amount of energy is conserved.

2D Collisions
Air Track
Energy Conversion in a System
Energy of a Pendulum
Inclined Plane - Sliding Objects
Roller Coaster Physics

PS2.6d: describing the effect of changing voltage in an electrical circuit.

Advanced Circuits
Circuit Builder
Circuits

PS2.7b: explaining the difference among conduction, convection and radiation and creating a diagram to explain how heat energy travels in different directions and through different materials by each of these methods.

Conduction and Convection
Heat Transfer by Conduction
Radiation

PS3: The motion of an object is affected by forces.

PS3.8a: measuring distance and time for a moving object and using those values as well as the relationship s=d/t to calculate speed and graphically represent the data.

Elapsed Time
Free Fall Tower
Free-Fall Laboratory
Measuring Motion

PS3.8b: solving for any unknown in the expression s=d/t given values for the other two variables.

Free-Fall Laboratory

PS3.8c: differentiating among speed, velocity and acceleration.

Free Fall Tower
Free-Fall Laboratory
Measuring Motion