ESS1: The earth and earth materials as we know them today have developed over long periods of time, through continual change processes.

ESS1.1a: plotting the location of mountain ranges and recent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions to identify any existing patterns.

Plate Tectonics

ESS1.3d: explaining how the physical and chemical processes of the Earth alter the crust (e.g. seafloor spreading, hydrologic cycle, weathering, element cycling).

Plate Tectonics

ESS3: The origin and evolution of galaxies and the universe demonstrate fundamental principles of physical science across vast distances and time

ESS3.6a: using data (diagrams, charts, narratives, etc.) to explain how the "Big Bang" theory has developed over time citing evidence to support its occurrence (Doppler Effect/red shift).

Doppler Shift
Doppler Shift Advanced

ESS3.8a: relating the process of star formation to the size of the star and including the interaction of the force of gravity, fusion, and energy release in the development of the star identify ing and describing the characteristics common to most stars in the universe.

H-R Diagram
Star Spectra

ESS3.8b: Describing the ongoing processes involved in star formation, their life cycles and their destruction.

H-R Diagram

LS1: All living organisms have identifiable structures and characteristics that allow for survival (organisms, populations, & species).

LS1.1a: explaining the relationships between and amongst the specialized structures of the cell and their functions (e.g. transport of materials, energy transfer, protein building, waste disposal, information feedback, and even movement).

Cell Structure
Osmosis
Paramecium Homeostasis

LS1.2a: describing the DNA structure and relating the DNA sequence to the genetic code.

Building DNA
DNA Analysis

LS1.2b: explaining how DNA may be altered and how this affects genes/heredity (e.g. substitution, insertion, or deletion).

Evolution: Natural and Artificial Selection

LS1.2c: describing how DNA contains the code for the production of specific proteins.

RNA and Protein Synthesis

LS2: Matter cycles and energy flows through an ecosystem.

LS2.3a: defining and giving an example of equilibrium in an ecosystem.

Coral Reefs 1 - Abiotic Factors

LS2.3b: describing ways in which humans can modify ecosystems and describe and predict the potential impact (e.g. human population growth; technology; destruction of habitats; agriculture; pollution; and atmospheric changes).

Coral Reefs 1 - Abiotic Factors
Coral Reefs 2 - Biotic Factors
Rabbit Population by Season

LS2.4a: diagramming the energy flow in an ecosystem that compares the energy at different trophic levels. (e.g. What inferences can you make about energy "loss"& use?).

Food Chain
Forest Ecosystem

LS2.4b: explaining how the chemical elements and compounds that make up living things pass through food webs and are combined and recombined in different ways (e.g. nitrogen, carbon cycles, O2, & H2O cycles).

Cell Energy Cycle

LS3: Groups of organisms show evidence of change over time (structures, behaviors, and biochemistry).

LS3.7a: investigating how information is passed from parents to offspring by encoded molecules (e.g. evidence from electrophoresis, DNA fingerprinting).

DNA Analysis
Mouse Genetics (One Trait)
Mouse Genetics (Two Traits)

LS3.8b: distinguish between microevolution (on small scale within a single population -e.g., change in gene frequency within a population) and macroevolution (on a scale that transcends boundaries of a single species - e.g., diversity of all beetle species within the order of insects) and explain how macroevolution accounts for speciation and extinction.

Evolution: Mutation and Selection

LS4: Humans are similar to other species in many ways, and yet are unique among Earth's life forms.

LS4.9a: researching scientific information to explain how such things as radiation, chemicals, and other factors can cause gene mutations or disease.

Evolution: Natural and Artificial Selection

LS4.10b: investigating the factors that affect homeostasis (e.g. positive and negative feedback).

Human Homeostasis
Paramecium Homeostasis

PS1: All living and nonliving things are composed of matter having characteristic properties that distinguish one substance from another (independent of size or amount of substance).

PS1.1a: utilizing appropriate data (related to chemical and physical properties), to distinguish one substance from another or identify an unknown substance.

Density Experiment: Slice and Dice

PS1.1b: determining the degree of change in pressure of a given volume of gas when the temperature changes incrementally (doubles, triples, etc.).

Boyle's Law and Charles' Law

PS1.3a: identifying and explaining the basis for the arrangement of the elements within the periodic table (e.g. trends, valence electrons, reactivity, electronegativity, ionization).

Electron Configuration

PS1.3b: predicting the relative physical and chemical properties of an element based on its location within the Periodic Table.

Electron Configuration

PS1.4a: comparing the three subatomic particles of atoms (protons, electrons, neutrons) and their location within an atom, their relative mass, and their charge.

Element Builder

PS1.4b: writing formulae for compounds and developing basic (excluding transition elements) models using electron structure.

Bohr Model of Hydrogen
Bohr Model: Introduction
Chemical Equations
Electron Configuration
Element Builder

PS1.4c: explaining or modeling how the electron configuration of atoms governs how atoms interact with one another (e.g. covalent, hydrogen and ionic bonding).

Covalent Bonds
Electron Configuration
Ionic Bonds

PS2: Energy is necessary for change to occur in matter. Energy can be stored, transferred, and transformed, but cannot be destroyed.

PS2.5a: describing or diagraming the changes in energy (transformation) that occur in different systems (eg. chemical = exo and endo thermic reactions, biological = food webs, physical = phase changes).

Energy Conversion in a System
Forest Ecosystem
Inclined Plane - Sliding Objects
Phase Changes

PS2.5b: explaining the Law of Conservation of Energy as it relates to the efficiency (loss of heat) of a system.

Energy Conversion in a System
Inclined Plane - Sliding Objects
Pulley Lab

PS2.6a: writing simple balanced chemical equations to represent chemical reactions and illustrate the conservation of matter.

Balancing Chemical Equations
Chemical Equations

PS2.6b: identifying whether a given chemical reaction or a biological process will release or consume energy (endothermic and exothermic) based on the information provided (e.g. given a table of energy values for reactants and products or an energy diagram).

Chemical Changes

PS2.6d: explaining the concept of half-life and using the half-life principal to predict the approximate age of a material.

Half-life

PS2.7b: explaining through words, charts, diagrams, and models the effects of distance and the amount of charge on the strength of the electrical force present.

Coulomb Force (Static)
Pith Ball Lab

PS2.7c: describing the relationship between moving electric charges and magnetic fields.

Electromagnetic Induction
Magnetic Induction

PS3: The motion of an object is affected by forces.

PS3.8b: using modeling, illustrating, graphing explain how distance and velocity change over time for a free falling object.

Free-Fall Laboratory

PS3.9a: explaining through words, charts, diagrams, and models the effects of distance and the amount of mass on the gravitational force between objects (e.g. Universal Gravitation Law).

Gravitational Force
Pith Ball Lab

PS3.9b: using Newton's Laws of Motion and the Law of Conservation of Momentum to predict the effect on the motion of objects.

2D Collisions
Air Track
Atwood Machine
Fan Cart Physics

PS3.10a: investigating examples of wave phenomena (e.g. ripples in water, sound waves, seismic waves).

Earthquakes 1 - Recording Station
Longitudinal Waves
Refraction
Ripple Tank
Sound Beats and Sine Waves