Disciplinary Core Ideas
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In this unit, students explore the relationship between the phenomena of forces and motion and how energy is converted from one form to another in an energy system. In this lesson, students design a vehicle that can travel over a surface on a cushion of air. This page highlights key parts of this lesson.
In this unit, students connect their explorations of Earth and life sciences with physical sciences with an exploration into the relationship between magnetism and electricity. In this lesson, they explore the interactions between magnets and electricity. This page is a high-level extract of this lesson.
In this unit, students are introduced to the phenomena of magnetic and electric fields as they explore how objects can interact with other objects without coming into contact with them. For this lesson, students apply scientific concepts to engineer wind turbines that use a generator to produce electricity. This page provides an overview of this lesson.
In this unit, students build on what they know about the science phenomena of energy transfer to focus on information transfer and how different technologies use patterns of sound, light, or numbers to transmit information. This page showcases key components of this lesson.
In kindergarten, students work towards developing routines and practices that scientists use to investigate phenomena and solve problems. This page is an extract from lesson 5 where students build on their weather observation skills as they observe and record local weather data to analyze weather patterns in their geographic area. Students continue to collect weather data over several months as they move onto the next lessons to build on their weather patterns analysis.
In kindergarten, students explore how scientists use all of their senses to ask questions and develop hypotheses about the world around them. In this unit, students have been analyzing weather patterns and seasons as well as considering the role of the sun in heating the Earth. This page is an overview of lesson 8 in which students investigate different Earth materials often found in their school’s playground or schoolyard to observe temperature variation among different surface materials when light hits them.
Kindergarten students start to develop the practices that scientists use to gather data, make and test hypotheses, and share their findings. During this unit, students will ask questions and make observations as they explore weather patterns and investigate how the sun heats different Earth materials. This page is an extract from lesson 9 where students conduct an experiment to analyze how materials are warmed differently in the sunlight than they are in the shade.
In Kindergarten, students begin to develop practices that scientists and engineers use to gather data, make and test hypotheses, and design prototypes based on evidence to solve problems. During this lesson students will ask questions, engage in Socratic dialogue, gather evidence through experimentation, and solve problems as they explore how the sun heats different Earth materials. This page is a high-level extract from lesson 10 where students build on their understanding of the sun’s energy to heat objects by conducting an experiment to investigate how color affects heat absorption.
In this first unit, students learn to differentiate between the practices of a scientist and those of an engineer. Students ask questions, make observations, and collect data as they explore weather patterns on Earth and investigate how different Earth materials are heated by the sun. During this final lesson of the unit, students act as engineers by designing a prototype that can reduce the warming effects of the sun.
In this unit, students bring together what they have learned about the interactions of energy and matter to explore the science phenomena of relationships between energy, force, and motion. In this lesson, they investigate how windmills transfer the kinetic energy in wind so that it can be used to do work, and then use that knowledge to analyze balanced and unbalanced forces.
In this unit, students expand their understanding of the need for energy among living things to include non living energy systems. They build sleds to figure out how the phenomena of friction transfers energy out of systems. This page highlights components of this lesson.
In this unit, students use sleds and roller coasters to explore the relationship between energy, forces, and motion. In this lesson, students apply what they know about energy and forces to engineer a roller coaster. This page is a high-level extract of this lesson.
In this unit, students continue to explore forces and energy, focusing on the science phenomenon of how electrical energy can be transferred from one place to another to do work. In this lesson, students build series and parallel circuits, measuring the amount of current that moves through each circuit with one and two light bulbs. This page highlights some components of that lesson.
In this unit, students explore the science phenomenon of electric currents and electrical energy. In this lesson, students figure out energy transfers, electricity, and circuits in the context of an electromagnetic motor system. This page showcases each key section of this lesson.
