6th Grade Science Curriculum Overview

6th Grade Science Curriculum Overview

Philosophy and Common Beliefs Science Curriculum Philosophy Statement Northbrook/Glenview District 30 utilizes a rigorous science curriculum built on essential questions, Project 2061 learning goals, formative and summative assessments, and research on effective teaching and learning practices. The goal of the science program is to increase science literacy within all students. In a culture that is increasingly pervaded by science, mathematics, and technology, science literacy requires understandings and habits of mind that enable citizens to grasp what those enterprises are up to; make some sense of how the natural and designed worlds work; think critically and independently; recognize and weigh alternative explanations of events and design trade-offs; and deal sensibly with problems that involve evidence, numbers, patterns, logical arguments, and uncertainties (AAAS,1993, p. xi). The common core of learning to be achieved through this curriculum is designed to provide a foundation upon which additional knowledge can be acquired throughout one s lifetime. Concepts deemed important today and believed important for tomorrow comprise the curriculum. The essential concepts and skills contained in the curriculum meet the criteria of having a significant value and utility. This common core of learning should provide students a foundation for improving their long-term employment prospects, along with the quality of the nation s workforce, and providing a base for some student to go on to specialize in science, mathematics, or technology or in related fields; assisting them in making personal, social, and political decisions; acquainting them with ideas that are so significant in the history of ideas or so pervasive in our culture as to be necessary for understanding that history and culture; enhancing the experiences of their student years, a time in life that is important in its own right (AAAS, 2001, pp. 48-49). Quality science programs require students do science. Scientific inquiry is emphasized throughout the curriculum. Only instructional resources that support active engagement of students were selected for inclusion in the curriculum. Students are provided significant opportunities to use scientific inquiry to explore and explain scientific concepts. Inquiry is a multifaceted activity that involves making observations; posing questions; examining books and other sources of information to see what is already known; planning investigations; reviewing what is already known in light of experimental evidence, using tools to gather, analyze, and interpret data; proposing answers, explanations, and predictions; and communicating the results (National Research Council, 1996, p. 23). While inquiry is emphasized, it is one of multiple instructional methods used to develop students knowledge, understandings, and skills. Students work extensively with physical models. Cooperative and collaborative work experiences are also highlighted throughout the curriculum, with particular emphasis on understanding the value of sharing findings. References: American Association for the Advancement of Science. (1989). Science for All Americans. New York: Oxford University Press. American Association for the Advancement of Science. (1993). Benchmarks for Science Literacy. New York: Oxford University Press. American Association for the Advancement of Science and The National Science Teachers Association (2001). Atlas of Science Literacy. Washington, D.C.: American Association for the Advancement of Science.

American Association for the Advancement of Science (2001). Designs for Science Literacy. New York: Oxford University Press. National Research Council. (1996). National Science Education Standards. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. Northbrook School District 27 White Paper (2005). Northbrook, IL. Project 2061 Web Site: http://www.project2061.org Unit Map Physics Essential Questions: Can I believe my eyes? 6th Grade Science Curriculum Maps Enduring Understandings (what students should be able to understand): How light allows me to see What happens when light reaches an object Light can have different colors There is light I cannot see What students should know (vocabulary, facts, and information): Light is in constant motion and spreads out as it travels away from a primary or secondary source. Light from a primary or secondary source must enter the eye in order for the source to be seen. Light interacts with matter by transmission, absorption, or reflection (including scattering). Absorption of light can cause changes in matter. Colors of light can be combined or separated to appear as new colors Human eyes can detect only a limited range of light wavelengths. Different wavelengths of light are perceived as different colors. Skills (what students should be able to do): How does light allow me to see? Explain why light needs to travel from an object to the eye in order for the object to be seen. Explain why certain areas of the room appear to be brighter than others. Distinguish how different variables influence the size and shape of shadows. Create models that show the role of light in how we see objects Use a model to explain the formation of shadows. Describe the similarities between an eye and a light detector. Explain why the eye can only detect light from objects that enters it.

Explain why certain areas of the room appear to be brighter than others. Create models that show the role of light in how we see objects. Investigate the nature of shadows. What happens when light reaches an object? Explain what happens when light reaches an object Identify which objects are likely to transmit light. Explain why measurement devices are useful in determining the amount of light transmitted by objects Predict how light bounces off of a mirror off a piece of paper. Explain why some objects scatter light while others reflect it. Measure reflected and transmitted light intensity using light detectors Use a model of seeing to account for all three interactions (reflection/scattering, transmission, absorption) that occur when light hits an object. Explain the role of absorption when light causes changes in matter. How can light have different colors? Investigate which mixtures of red, green, and blue (RGB) light appear identical Investigate which colors of light are transmitted and absorbed by different filters. Investigate which colors of light are scattered and absorbed by different colored pigments. Predict and test how to make black light by mixing RGB. Predict and test which colors of light are transmitted by pairs of filters. Predict and test whether red light will be transmitted or absorbed by different filters. Ask whether there are other mechanisms for creating and seeing colored light that are not based on RGB. Describe the path light takes and the interactions it has with a transparency and a screen as it travels from an overhead projector to our eyes. Is there light I cannot see? Explain that the wavelength of light determines whether light is visible. Use instrumentation to explore near visible bands of light and to relate their wavelength to light that is visible. Design a test to decide if infrared light is light or not. Inquiry throughout unit Develop descriptions, explanations, predictions and models using evidence. Think critically and logically to make the relationships between evidence and explanation. Design and conduct a scientific investigation. Use appropriate tools and techniques to gather analyze, and interpret data

Unit Map Chemistry Essential Questions: How can I smell things from a distance? Enduring Understandings (what students should be able to understand): How an odor gets from the source to my nose What makes one odor different from another How a material can change so you can smell it What students should know (vocabulary, facts, and information): All matter is made up of atoms, which are far too small to see directly through a microscope. The atoms of any element are alike but are different from atoms of other elements. Atoms may stick together in well-defined molecules or may be packed together in large arrays. Different arrangements of atoms into groups compose all substances. Atoms and molecules are perpetually in motion. In solids, the atoms are closely locked in position and can only vibrate. In liquids, the atoms or molecules have higher energy, are more loosely connected, and can slide past one another. Some molecules may get enough energy to escape into a gas. In gases, the atoms or molecules have still more energy and are free of one another except during occasional collisions. Increased temperature means greater average energy of motion, so most substances expand when heated. A substance has characteristic properties, such as density, a boiling point, and solubility, all of which are independent of the amount of the sample. Skills (what students should be able to do): Create and describe initial models to explain how odors travel across a room. Describe one purpose of a scientific model. Describe air as occupying volume and having mass. Define matter and provide examples of matter Describe what an element is using the concept atom (and not particles). Construct molecular models using representations that scientists use to represent molecules and atoms. Use molecular models to identify a sample item as either: a substance because it is made of the same type of atom or molecule throughout, or a mixture because it contains more than one type of atom or molecule. By examining the different arrangements of atoms in molecules of different substance that give off an odor, students determine the relationship: different smells are caused by different arrangements of atoms in a molecule. Use scientific terminology (solid, liquid, gas) to identify and describe materials in three states of matter. Describe that most materials can change from one state of matter to another.

Provide examples of materials changing states. Create models and use the models to explain the following behavior of gases: compression, expansion, addition and subtraction. Construct models of the particle nature of gases. Use the particle nature of matter, describe what happens to the molecules in a gas when it is cooled and reheated. Use models to explain the observed phenomena Apply the particle nature of matter to explain the relationship between temperature and volume of gases. Construct particle models of liquids and gases that are used to explain phase changes from gases to liquids and liquids to gases. Use the particle model to describe the difference between liquids at different temperatures, including the fact that liquids expand upon heating. Use the particle model, students will explain phase change from a solid to a liquid. Explain that the particles are the same, but behave differently in the three phases. Distinguish one substance from another based on their properties. Based on observable properties and uses, distinguish several elements from each other. Unit Map Biology Essential Questions: Where have all the creatures gone? Enduring Understandings (what students should be able to understand): Where have all the creatures gone What is food for living things How living things get food from other organisms How organisms compete Abiotic factors affect populations What students should know (vocabulary, facts, and information): Food provides molecules that serve as fuel and building materials for all organisms. Plants use the energy in light to make sugars out of carbon dioxide and water. All organisms, including the human species, are part of and depend on two main interconnected global food webs. One includes microscopic aquatic [ocean] plants, the animals that feed on them, and finally the animals that feed on those animals. The other web includes land plants, the animals that feed on them, and so forth.

Two types of organisms may interact in several ways: they may be in a producer/ consumer, predator/ prey or parasite/ host relationship. Or one organism may scavenge or decompose another. Relationships may be competitive or mutually beneficial. Some species have become so adapted to each other that neither could survive without the other Animals and plants have a great variety of body plans and internal structures that contribute to their being able to make or find food and reproduce In all environments freshwater, marine, forest, desert, grassland, mountain, and others organisms with similar needs may compete with one another for resources, including food, space, water, air and shelter. In any particular environment, the growth and survival of organisms depends on the physical conditions A population consists of all individuals of a species that occur together at a given place and time. All populations living together and the physical factors with which they interact compose an ecosystem Skills (what students should be able to do): Identify various substances found in food. Identify the presence of food substances in plants. Construct and defend a scientific explanation about whether a specific substance counts as food Identify the sun as a source of energy for plants. Analyze data in order to determine what plants need in order to survive. Evaluate a scientific explanation defending a claim about plants needing food to grow. Identify indirect and direct effects caused by changes to a food web Analyze a food web to determine how changes in a population affect the entire food web. Predict how populations of organisms will change when there is a change in their food web. Analyze graphs to identify the effect of adding a new predator to the ecosystem Identify the type of relationships, such as predator/ prey or producer/consumer relationships in an environment Analyze data gathered from a model to find patterns that illustrate the predator/prey relationship. Use relationships between organisms to construct and defend scientific explanations about how the addition of an invasive species affects the native species Identify a variety of structures and related functions such as eating, moving, reproducing and breathing Analyze observational data to determine how an animal's structure contributes to its ability to eat and reproduce Construct and defend scientific explanations about how an organism s structures help it perform the functions necessary to survive.

Identify the resources for which organisms within a population are competing. Analyze data gathered from a model to find patterns that identify the resources and competitors of an invasive species (a new competitor Construct and defend scientific explanations about the effects of competition that is created by the addition of an invasive species. Identify abiotic factors in an ecosystem. Analyze data in order to determine the relationship between biotic and abiotic factors in an ecosystem. Construct and defend scientific explanations about how abiotic factors can affect population sizes. Identify how the needs of the population differ from the needs of an individual in the population. Analyze data to identify relationships between abiotic and biotic factors in an ecosystem. Construct and defend scientific explanations about how abiotic and biotic factors in an ecosystem affect population sizes. Develop descriptions, explanations, predictions and models using evidence. Represent, analyze, and generalize a variety of patterns with tables, graphs, words, and when possible, symbolic rules. Think critically and logically to make the relationships between evidence and explanation. Unit Map Earth Science Essential Questions: How does water shape our world? Enduring Understandings (what students should be able to understand): How is the land shaped differently How water moves through our parks How moving water affects the land The role of rock in creating shapes What students should know (vocabulary, facts, and information): There are a great variety of landforms on the earth surface (such as coastlines, rivers, mountains, deltas and canyons.) The cycling of water in and out of the atmosphere plays an important role in determining climatic patterns. Water evaporates from the surface of the earth, rises and cools, and condenses into rain or snow, and falls again to the surface. The water falling on land collects in rivers and lakes, soil, and porous layers of rock, and much of it flows back into the ocean Some changes in the earth s surface are abrupt (such as earthquakes and volcanoes) while other changes happen very slowly (such as uplift and

wearing down of mountains). The earth s surface is shaped in part by the motion of water and wind over very long times, which act to level mountain ranges. Landforms are the result of a combination of constructive and destructive forces. Constructive forces include crustal deformation, volcanic eruption and deposition of sediment, while destructive forces include weathering and erosion. Sedimentary rock buried deep enough may be reformed by pressure and heat, perhaps melting and recrystallizing into different kinds of rock. These re-formed rock layers may be forced up again to become land surface and even mountains. Subsequently, this new rock too will erode. Rock bears evidence of the minerals, temperatures, and forces that created it. Some changes in the solid earth can be described as the rock cycle. Old rocks at the earth s surface weather, forming sediments that are buried, then compacted, heated and often recrystallized into new rock. Eventually, those new rocks may be brought to the surface by the forces that drive plate motions and the rock cycle continues. Skills (what students should be able to do): Identify different types of landforms. Identify water reservoirs located on the earth s surface using maps. Compare and contrast the sizes of earth s global water reservoirs. Describe how water moves between reservoirs. Predict the direction of water flow. Describe how water moves into the ground and where groundwater goes Describe how water enters and leaves the atmosphere. Construct a model of the water cycle. Identify additional water reservoirs. Apply the model of the water cycle to a specific location. Predict the effects of moving water on earth materials. Describe the results of moving water on earth materials Identify process that breaks apart rocks. Identify process that removes rock from the earth s surface. Apply processes of weathering and erosion to change over time. Interpret depositional environments using a model. Design an investigation to determine how different variable affect erosion and deposition. Identify claims about the processes that create landforms Analyze data to find evidence of the processes creating landforms. Describe characteristics of sedimentary rock. Identify the processes that change sedimentary rock into other kinds of rock. Identify the processes that bring rock to the surface Apply the rock cycle model to specific locations. Explain a landform using their understanding of the interaction between rock and water.

Develop descriptions, explanations, predictions and models using evidence. Represent, analyze, and generalize a variety of patterns with tables, graphs, words, and when possible, symbolic rules. Think critically and logically to make the relationships between evidence and explanation.