August 2-6, 2010: Rules, Procedures, and Expectations Week
Scholars will learn about behavioral and academic expectations of science class - all of which can be viewed by downloading and reviewing the 6th Grade Science syllabus found on my
Class Overview page.
August 9-20, 2010: Unit 1 - Scientific Inquiry
- Scholars will learn how to think, talk, and act like scientists!
- Scholars will learn the steps to the scientific method, and the various components to a good experiment.
August 23 - October 1, 2010: Unit 2 - Ecology
- Scholars will understand how living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) things interact within an ecosystem.
- Scholars will define and identify the various living components of a community (producers, consumers, and decomposers; herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores).
- Scholars will describe how energy and matter are transferred throughout an ecosystem by analyzing and synthesizing food chains, food webs, and energy pyramids.
- Scholars will describe and identify the major land biomes found on Earth.
October 4 - November 5, 2010: Unit 3 - Energy
- Scholars will differentiate between the three forms of potential energy (gravitational, chemical, and elastic)
- Scholars will compare and contrast between potential and kinetic energy.
- Scholars will describe and identify examples of the different forms of energy (mechanical, thermal, light, sound, nuclear, chemical).
- Scholars will understand the implications and consequences of using nonrenewable and renewable resources of energy.
- Scholars will articulate the apply the underlying principles of the Law of Conservation of Energy.
November 8-23, 2010: Unit 4 - Electricity
- Scholars will differentiate and understand the importance and uses of series and parallel circuits.
- Scholars will identify and describe the properties of various insulators and conductors of electricity.
November 29 - December 10, 2010: Semester Review
- Scholars will review and apply their knowledge of the first 4 units of study this semester (Scientific Inquiry, Ecology, Energy, and Electricity).
December 13-17, 2010: Midterm Exams
- I will update this as soon as I know the exact date and time for our science midterm exam.
January 3 - February 4, 2010: Unit 5 - Space
- Scholars will understand relative distances among the major components of our universe.
- Scholars will describe and identify the different components of our universe.
- Scholars will describe the motions (revolution/rotation) of the Earth and Moon to determine the units of time we have (day, year, and month).
- Scholars will identify and apply the various phases of the Moon.
- Scholars will identify at which points our Earth experiences Summer Solstice, Vernal Equinox, Autumnal Equinox and Winter Solstic, and describe the scientific reason for our seasons.
- Scholars will identify and apply the position of the Earth, Moon and Sun during a solar and lunar eclipse.
- Scholars will justify the scientific cause of tides (neap tides and spring tides).
February 7 - March 11, 2010: Unit 6 - Weather
- Scholars will understand that the Sun drives all weather on Earth.
- Scholars will describe the cause and movement of convection to create our Earth's winds.
- Scholars will justify the cause of our ocean's currents and describe the movements cold and warm currents on Earth.
- Scholars will define and identify various weather tools (barometer, anemometer, thermometer, psychrometer) used to measure various aspects of weather (air pressure, wind speed, temperature, humidity).
- Scholars will apply their knowledge of the various aspects of weather to predict various weather events (fair weather, cloudy weather, precipitation, thunderstorms, hurricanes, tornadoes).