7th Grade Science Class Outline

This is a yearlong course that students can log in for the weeks that interest them. I teach with a presentation and align hands-on activities to the standards. I also stop periodically to check for student understanding. We use the whiteboard, chat box, and sometimes breakout rooms. I will cover all the National Science Standards required for grade 7 science. 

Here is the schedule: Each week is a stand-alone subject within the standards of science.

Week 1: Interactive Notebook Set Up: 	
 Week of August 25- September 7
      Pre-Week: How to set up a Science Interactive Notebook and Understand the differences between experiments, demonstrations, and activities.

Week 2: Matter and Its Interactions
  Week of September 8-14
  This week we will gather and make sense of information to describe that synthetic materials come from natural resources and impact society. 

Week 3: Matter and its Interactions
  Week of September 15-21
  This week we will predict and describes changes in particle motion, temperature, and state of a pure substance when thermal energy is added or removed. Thermal Dynamics Laws I and II.

Week 4: Matter and Its Interactions
  Week of September 22- September 28
  This week we will develop and use a model to describe how the total number of atoms does not change in a chemical reaction and thus mass is conserved. 

Week 5: Matter and Its Interactions
  Week of  September 29- October 5
 This week we will undertake a design project to construct, test, and modify a device that either releases or absorbs thermal energy by chemical processes.

Week 6: Forces and Interactions
   Week of October 6- 12
 This week we will understand that the change in an object’s motion depends on the sum of the forces on the object and the mass of the object.

Week 7: Forces and Interactions
   Week of October 13- 19
  This week we will determine the factors that affect the strength of electric and magnetic forces.

Week 8: Forces and Interactions
   Week of October 20- 26
  This week we construct and present arguments using evidence to support the claim that gravitational interactions are attractive and depend on the masses of interacting objects.

Week 9: Energy
   Week of October 27- November 2
  This week we will apply scientific principles to design, construct, and test a device that either minimizes or maximizes thermal energy transfer.

Week 10: Energy
   Week of November 3-9
  This week we will be introduced to the many different energy transfers that can take place. 

Week 11: Energy
  Week of November 10- 16
  This week we will understand the relationships among the energy transferred, the type of matter, the mass, and the change in the average kinetic energy of the particles as measured by the temperature of the sample.

Earth and Human Activity

Week 12: Earth and Human Activity
  Week of November 17- 23
  This week we will construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how the uneven distributions of Earth's mineral, energy, and groundwater resources are the result of past and current geoscience processes.

Week 13: Earth and Human Activity
  Week of November 24- 27
  This week we will analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects.

Week 14: Earth and Human Activity
  Week of December 1- 7
  This week we will apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment. 

Week 15: Earth and Human Activity
  Week of December 8-14
This week we will construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth's systems.

Week 16: Engineering Design
  Week of December 15- 20
  This week we will use the Engineering Design Process to solve the challenge Smooth as Ice using a fudge recipe.

Winter Break

Week 1: Earth's Place in the Universe
  Week of January 5-11
  This week we will construct a scientific explanation based on evidence from rock strata for how the geologic time scale is used to organize Earth's 4.6-billion-year-old history.

Week 2: Earth's Systems- Historical Geology Theory
  Week of January 12- 18
  This week we will construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth's surface at varying time and spatial scales.

Week 3: Earth's Systems- Historical Geology Theory
  Week of January 19- 25
  This week we will analyze and interpret data on the distribution of fossils and rocks, continental shapes, and seafloor structures to provide evidence of past plate motions.

Week 4: Earth's Systems- Hydrologic Cycle
  Week of January 26- February 1
  This week we will develop a model to describe the cycling of water through Earth's systems driven by energy from the sun and the force of gravity.

Week 5: Earth's Systems- Weather- Air Masses
  Week of February 2- 8
  This week we will collect data to provide evidence for how the motions and complex interactions of air masses result in changes in weather conditions.

Week 6: Earth's Systems- Weather- Clouds
  Week of February 9-15
  This week we will learn about the different cloud types and how they can indicate weather changes.

Week 7: Earth and Human Activity- Natural Disasters
  Week of February 16- 22
  This week we analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects.

Week 8: From Molecules to Organisms- CELLS
  Week of February 23- March 1
  This week we will review cells and the ways that parts of cells contribute to the function of a body.

Week 9: From Molecules to Organisms- Body Systems
  Week of March 2- 8
  This week we will look at the evidence of how the body is a system of interacting subsystems composed of groups of cells.

Week 10: From Molecules to Organisms- Intro to Genetics
  Week of March 9-15
  This week we will construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how environmental and genetic factors influence the growth of organisms.

Week 11: From Molecules to Organisms- Chemical Reactions in the Body
  Week of March 16- 22
  This week we will develop a model to describe how food is rearranged through chemical reactions forming new molecules that support growth and/or release energy as this matter moves through an organism.

Week 12: From Molecules to Organisms- Information Systems within the Body
  Week of March 23- 29
  This week we will gather and synthesize information that sensory receptors respond to stimuli by sending messages to the brain for immediate behavior or storage as memories.


Week 13: Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits- Genetics
  Week of March 30- April 5
  This week we develop and use a model to describe why structural changes to genes (mutations) located on chromosomes may affect proteins and may result in harmful, beneficial, or neutral effects on the structure and function of the organism.


Week 14: Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits- Genetic Mutations
  Week of April 6- 12
  This week we will look at genetic mutations and how they affect organisms.


Week 15: Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits- Genetic Information and Reproduction
  Week of April 13- 26
  This week we will develop and use a model to describe why asexual reproduction results in offspring with identical genetic information and sexual reproduction result in offspring with genetic variation.

Week 16: Unity and Biodiversity- Genetic Fossil Record Theory
  Week of April 27- May 3
  This week we will analyze and interpret data for patterns in the fossil record that document the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of life forms throughout the history of life on Earth under the assumption that natural laws operate today as in the past.

Week 17: Unity and Biodiversity- Evolution Theory
  Week of May 4- 10
  This week we will apply scientific ideas to construct an explanation for the anatomical similarities and differences among modern organisms and between modern and fossil organisms to infer evolutionary relationships.

Week 18: Unity and Biodiversity- Embryology and Evolution Theory
  Week of May 11-17
  This week we will analyze displays of pictorial data to compare patterns of similarities in the embryological development across multiple species to identify relationships not evident in the fully formed anatomy.

Week 19: Unity and Biodiversity- Genetics and Survival Theory
  Week of May 18- May 24
  This week we will construct an explanation based on evidence that describes how genetic variations of traits in a population increase some individuals’ probability of surviving and reproducing in a specific environment.


Week 20: Unity and Biodiversity- Technological Advances in Genetic Theory
  Week of May 25- 30
  This week we will gather and synthesize information about the technologies that have changed the way humans influence the inheritance of desired traits in organisms.