Westerville City Schools Science Power Standards Safety Net Skills * Grade 7 Standard 1 Earth and Space Sciences Students will be able to describe the positions of matter and energy throughout the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere (e.g., water cycle, weather, and pollution). Power Indicators Explain the biogeochemical cycles which move materials through the lithosphere (land), hydrosphere (water), and atmosphere (air). (A 7.1) Make simple weather conditions based on the changing cloud types associated with frontal systems. (A 7.5) Describe how temperature and precipitation determine climatic zones (biomes) (e.g., desert, grassland, forests, tundra and alpine). (A 7.8) Scope and Sequence: Biogeochemical Cycles 1. Biogeochemical Cycles-Nitrogen Cycle, Carbon Cycle, Water Cycle, Carbon Dioxide Cycle. 2. Natural recycling causing environmental changes (time as a variable). 3. Pollution of ground water and it s interactions with humans. Weather 1. Cloud types and frontal systems. 2. Gather weather information and produce a weather map. 3. Interpret a local, regional, and national weather map. 4. The water cycle and its relationship to floods, hurricanes, tornadoes and droughts. 5. How temperature and precipitation determine biomes. (See Life Sciences No. 3.) -1-
Vocabulary: air mass, air pressure, alpine, atmosphere, barometer, biogeochemical cycle, biomes, carbon cycle, climate, climatic zones, cloud, cold front, conduction, convection, Coriolis effect, deciduous forest, desert, doldrums, drought, energy, environment, environmental, evaporation, floods, forests, frontal systems, global warming, grasslands, groundwater, horse latitudes, hurricanes, hydrosphere, isobars, isotherm, land breeze, meteorology, nitrogen cycle, occluded front, oxygen cycle, permafrost, pollution, precipitation, prevailing wind, psychrometer, rain, rain gauge, rainforest, recycle, relative humidity, sea breeze, sewage, smog, smoke, snow, station model, stationary front, temperatures, thermal energy, thermometer, thunderstorm, tropical rainforest, tornadoes, transpiration, tundra, warm front, water cycle, weather map, weather predictions, wind, wind vane Standard 2 Life Sciences Students will be able to demonstrate an understanding of how living systems function and how they interact with the physical environment. This includes an understanding of the structure and flow of energy in living systems and the diversity and interdependence of life. Students will also demonstrate an understanding of different historical perspectives, scientific approaches, and emerging scientific issues associated with life sciences. Students will be able to demonstrate an understanding of how living systems function and how they interact with the physical environments. This includes the understanding of the characteristics, structure, and function of cells, organisms and living systems. Students will also develop a deeper understanding of the principles of heredity and recognize reproduction as a characteristic of living organisms essential to the continuation of the species. Power Indicators Investigate how organisms or populations may interact with one another through symbiotic relationships and how some species have become so adapted to each other that neither could survive without the other (e.g., predator-prey, parasitism, mutualism and commensalisms). (B 7.2) Explain how the number of organisms an ecosystem can support depends on adequate biotic (living) resources (e.g., plants, animals ) and abiotic (non-living) resources (e.g., light, water, and soil). (B 7.3) -2-
Summarize the ways that natural occurrences and human activity affect the transfer of energy in Earth s ecosystems (e.g., fire, hurricanes, roads and oil spills). (B 7.6) Investigate the great diversity among organisms. (B 7.8) Explain that many of the basic functions of organisms are carried out within cells and are similar in all organisms. (B6.1) Explain that multi-cellular organisms have a variety of specialized cells, tissues, organs and systems that perform specialized functions. (B6.2) Recognize that an individual organism does not live forever: therefore reproduction is necessary for the continuation of every species and traits are passed on to the next generation through reproduction. (B6.4) Describe that in asexual reproduction all the inherited traits come from a single parent. (B6.5) Describe that in sexual reproduction an egg and sperm unite and some traits come from each parent, so the offspring is never identical to either of its parents. (B6.6) Recognize that likenesses between parents and offspring (e.g., eye color, flower color) are inherited. Other likenesses, such as table manners are learned. (B6.7) Scope and Sequence: 1. Classification - Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. 3 Domains & 4 Kingdoms. Different systems throughout history. Bacteria and Viruses. 2. Biomes different Biomes, how they are classified, animals that live in them, biotic and abiotic resources. 3. Natural occurrences and human activities affect transfer of energy in biomes. 4. Food Webs, Chains, Energy Pyramids, Food Cycle. 5. Predator-Prey Relationships, Parasitism, Mutualism, Commensalism. 6. Animal Anatomy and Dissection. 7. Multi-cellular (plant and animal) 8. Tissues, organs and systems 9. Sexual and asexual reproduction 10. Punnett Squares -3-
Vocabulary: abiotic, adaptation, Alexander Fleming, animal, antibodies, autotroph, bacteria, binomial nomenclature, carnivore, chemical energy, classification, commensalism, community, competition, consumer, decompose, decomposition, deforestation, dichotomous key, diversity, ecology, ecosystem, endangered, energy, environmental, eubacteria, extinction, food chain, food web, fungus, habitat, herbivores, heterotroph, host, internal structures, invertebrate, investigate, vaccines, kingdoms (species), life functions, Carrolus Linnaeus, muticellular organisms, mutualism, niche, omnivore, parasite, parasitism, photosynthesis, plant, populations, predator-prey relationships, producer, protist, resource, solar energy, species, succession, symbiosis, taxonomy, unicellular, vertebrate, virus, sexual and asexual reproduction, egg and sperm, prokaryote and eukaryote cells, tissues, organs, organ systems, plant verses animal cells, mitosis, meiosis, phases of cell division, Punnett squares, dominant and recessive traits, homozygous and heterozygous, hybrid, genes, offspring Standard 3 Physical Sciences These Sciences will be taught in Grades 6 and 8 Standard 4 - Science and Technology Students will give examples of how technological advances, influenced by scientific knowledge, affect the quality of life. Students will design a solution or product taking into account needs and constraints (e.g., cost, trade offs, properties of materials, safety and aesthetics). Power Indicators: Explain how needs, attitudes, and values influence the direction of technological development in various cultures. Describe how decisions to develop and use technologies often put environmental and economical concerns in direct competition with one another. Recognize that science can only answer some questions and technology can only solve some human problems. Design or build a product or create a solution to a problem given two constraints (e.g. limits of cost and time for design and production or supply of material and environmental effects). -4-
Standard 5 - Scientific Inquiry Students will explain that there are differing sets of procedures for guiding scientific investigations and procedures are determined by the nature of the investigation, safety considerations and appropriate tools. Students will analyze and interpret data from scientific investigations using appropriate mathematical skills in order to draw valid conclusions. Power Indicators: Explain that variables and controls can affect the results of an investigation and that ideally one variable should be tested at a time; however it is not always possible to control all variables. Identify simple independent and dependent variables. Formulate and identify questions to guide scientific investigations that connect to science concepts and can be answered through scientific investigations. Choose the appropriate tools and instruments and use relevant safety procedures to complete scientific investigations. Analyze alternative scientific explanations and predictions and recognize that there may be more than one good way to interpret a given set of data. Identify faulty reasoning and statements that go beyond the evidence or misinterpret the evidence. Use graphs, tables, and charts to study physical phenomenon and infer mathematical relationships between variables (e.g., speed and density). Standard 6 - Scientific Ways of Knowing Students will use skills of scientific inquiry processes (e.g., hypothesis, record keeping, description and explanation). Students will be able to explain the importance of reproducibility and reduction of bias in scientific methods. Students will be able to give examples of how thinking scientifically is helpful in daily life. -5-
Power Indicators: Show that the reproducibility of results is essential to reduce bias in scientific investigations. Describe hoe repetition of an experiment may reduce bias. Describe how the work of science requires a variety of human abilities and qualities that are helpful in daily life (e.g., reasoning, creativity, skepticism and openness). * Safety Nets are a subset of the entire list of grade level indicators. They are the priority indicators that we will guarantee students know in depth. However, please refer to the entire list of grade level indicators as they will all need to be taught. -6-