2: Earth and Space

2.1: Understand and apply knowledge of the structure and processes of the earth system and the processes that change the earth and its surface.

2.1.4: Some changes in the earth can be described as the ?rock cycle.? Rocks at the earth?s surface weather, forming sediments that are buried, then compacted, heated, and often re-crystallized 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.

Rock Cycle

2.2: Understand and apply knowledge of the water cycle, including consideration of events that impact groundwater quality.

2.2.1: Water, which covers the majority of the earth?s surface, circulates through the crust, oceans, and atmosphere in what is known as the ?water cycle.? Water evaporates from the earth?s surface, rises and cools as it rises to higher elevations, condenses as rain or snow, and falls to the surface where it collects in lakes, oceans, soil and in soil and rocks underground.

Water Cycle

2.2.3: Natural and human forces can contribute to contamination of surface water and groundwater.

Water Pollution

2.3: Understand and apply knowledge of earth history based on physical evidence.

2.3.1: The earth processes we see today including erosion, movement of tectonic plates, and changes in atmospheric composition are similar to those that occurred in the past.

Plate Tectonics

2.3.3: Fossils provide important evidence of how life and environmental conditions have changed.

Human Evolution - Skull Analysis

2.5: Understand and apply knowledge of the components of our solar system.

2.5.1: The earth is the third planet from the sun in a system that includes the moon, the sun, seven other planets and their moons, and smaller objects, such as asteroids and comets. The sun, an average star, is the central and largest body in the solar system.

Solar System
Solar System Explorer

2.5.2: Gravity is the force that keeps planets in orbit around the sun and governs the rest of the motion in the solar system. Gravity alone holds us to the earth?s surface and explains the phenomena of the tides.

Gravity Pitch
Tides - Metric

2.5.3: The sun is the major source of energy for phenomena on the earth?s surface, such as growth of plants, winds, ocean currents, and the water cycle. Seasons result from variations in the amount of the sun?s energy hitting the surface, due to the tilt of the earth?s rotation on its axis and the length of the day.

Cell Energy Cycle
Photosynthesis Lab
Pond Ecosystem
Seasons Around the World
Seasons: Earth, Moon, and Sun
Seasons: Why do we have them?
Summer and Winter
Water Cycle

2.5.4: Most objects in the solar system are in regular and predictable motion. Those motions explain such phenomena as the day, the year, phases of the moon, and eclipses.

2D Eclipse
3D Eclipse
Comparing Earth and Venus
Phases of the Moon
Seasons Around the World
Seasons: Earth, Moon, and Sun

3: Physical Science

3.2: Understand and apply knowledge of forms of energy and energy transfer.

3.2.1: Energy is a property of many substances and is associated with heat, light, electricity, mechanical motion, sound, nuclei, and the nature of a chemical. Energy is transferred in many ways.

2D Collisions
Air Track
Conduction and Convection
Heat Absorption
Heat Transfer by Conduction
Radiation

3.2.2: Heat moves in predictable ways, flowing from warmer objects to cooler ones, until both reach the same temperature.

Conduction and Convection
Heat Transfer by Conduction

3.2.3: Light interacts with matter by transmission (including refraction), absorption, or scattering (including reflection). To see an object, light from that object- emitted by or scattered from it- must enter the eye.

Basic Prism
Color Absorption
Heat Absorption
Herschel Experiment - Metric
Radiation
Refraction

3.2.6: The sun is a major source of energy for changes on the earth?s surface. The sun loses energy by emitting light. A tiny fraction of that light reaches the earth, transferring energy form the sun to the earth. The sun?s energy arrives as light with a range of wavelengths, consisting of visible light, infrared, and ultraviolet radiation.

Radiation

3.3: Understand and apply knowledge of motions and forces.

3.3.1: The motion of an object can be described by its position, direction of motion, and speed. That motion can be measured and represented on a graph.

Distance-Time Graphs - Metric
Free Fall Tower
Free-Fall Laboratory
Measuring Motion

4: Life Science

4.1: Understand and apply knowledge of the basic components and functions of cells, tissues, organs, and organ systems.

4.1.1: Living systems at all levels of organization demonstrate the complementary nature of structure and function. Important levels of organization for structure and function include cells, organs, tissues, organ systems, whole organisms, and ecosystems.

Circulatory System

4.1.2: All organisms are composed of cells. Most organisms are single cells; other organisms, including humans are multi-cellular.

Paramecium Homeostasis

4.2: Understand and apply knowledge of how different organisms pass on traits (heredity).

4.2.1: Every organism requires a set of instructions for specifying its traits. Heredity is the passage of these instructions from one generation to another.

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

4.2.2: Hereditary information is contained in genes, located in the chromosomes of each cell. Each gene carries a single unit of information. An inherited trait of an individual can be determined by one or by many genes, and a single gene can influence more than one trait. A human cell contains many thousands of different genes.

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

4.3: Understand and apply knowledge of the complementary nature of structure and function and the commonalities among organisms.

4.3.1: Living systems at all levels of organization demonstrate the complementary nature of structure and function. Important levels of organization for structure and function include cells, organs, tissues, organ systems, whole organisms, and ecosystems. Organisms are classified according to common characteristics.

Circulatory System

4.4b: the cycling of matter and energy in ecosystems.

4.4b.3: Behavior is one kind of response an organism can make to an internal or environmental stimulus. A behavioral response requires coordination and communication on many levels, including cells, organ systems, and whole organisms. Behavioral response is a set of actions determined in part by heredity and in part from experience.

Paramecium Homeostasis

4.4b.6: For ecosystems, the major source of energy is sunlight. Energy entering ecosystems as sunlight is transferred by producers into chemical energy through photosynthesis. That energy then passes from organism to organism in food webs.

Cell Energy Cycle
Coral Reefs 1 - Abiotic Factors
Forest Ecosystem
Photosynthesis Lab

4.5: Understand and demonstrate knowledge of the social and personal implications of environmental issues.

4.5.2: The number of organisms an ecosystem can support depends on the resources available and abiotic factors, such as quantity of light and water, range of temperatures, and soil composition. Given adequate biotic and abiotic resources and no disease or predators, populations (including humans) increase at rapid rates. Lack of resources and other factors, such as predation and climate, limit the growth of populations in specific niches in the ecosystem.

Food Chain
Forest Ecosystem
Prairie Ecosystem
Rabbit Population by Season

4.6: Understand and apply knowledge of the functions and interconnections of the major human body systems including the breakdown in structure or function that disease causes.

4.6.1: The human organism has systems for digestion, respiration, reproduction, circulation, excretion, movement, control, and coordination, and for protection from disease. These systems interact with one another.

Circulatory System
Digestive System