Constructing explanations and designing solutions

In this unit, students analyze the phenomenon of our sun as the primary source of energy on Earth. In this lesson, students explore how the sun’s uneven heating of the planet drives weather phenomena and climate phenomena, which result from complex interactions within Earth’s systems. This page is an extract from parts of this lesson. 

In this unit, students explore the phenomena of convection by discovering how heat is transferred from warmer locations to cooler locations, which is a major cause of weather and climate. This page is a high-level extract of a lesson.

In this unit, students figure out the relationship between human activities and the phenomena of global warming. This page highlights key components of this lesson.

In this unit, students evaluate how Earth is heated unevenly by investigating how the angle that the sun’s rays hit Earth affects temperatures at different locations. In this lesson, students use their scientific knowledge of phenomena related to global warming and climate to engineer a model greenhouse that reaches a specific temperature. This pages provides a snapshot of this lesson.

In this unit, students use the phenomenon of why certain materials (such as the materials that make up a baseball) are useful for a particular function to explore the relationship between matter and energy phenomena. In this lesson students manipulate the properties of a polymer bouncy ball by changing the amounts of reactants in a chemical reaction. This page highlights key parts of this lesson.

In this unit, students explore phenomena on the relationship between matter’s structure and its function, and how people can use this knowledge to manufacture new materials and products with specific purposes. Students begin by investigating how matter is changed, but always conserved, in both endothermic and exothermic reactions. In this lesson, students use a manufacturing process to turn raw materials into a finished product. This page showcases key components of this lesson.

In this unit, students explore the natural processes that cause Earth’s surface to change over time, analyzing how energy causes Earth’s matter to transform and cycle from one form to another. In this lesson, they trace phenomena of how energy is transferred in chemical reactions, which allows scientists to produce ethanol to use as an alternative energy source. This page showcases each component of this lesson.