Loyalsock Township School District

The sixth grade science curriculum at Loyalsock Township Middle School is designed to provide learning experiences in which all students are able to meet or even exceed the standards set forth by the Pennsylvania Department of Education for Earth and Environmental Science.

Emphasis of this program is based on:

• Understanding and response to individual student needs, strengths and experiences.
• Providing an inquiry-based program.
• Use of multiple forms of assessments to gather data on student understanding and progress.
• Textbook work, powerpoint presentations, videos and hands-on performance-based in-class projects.
• Integrate technology in a way that models real life, professional skills.

Sixth Grade Science Course Description

• Introduction to laboratory equipment and safety
• Mini unit on the metric system
  Project: Metric Scavenger Hunt
• Ecology: The Environment and Biomes
  Project: “Biome Presentation,” and “Dendrology”
• Earth’s Freshwater
  Projects: “Testing The Waters,” and “Safe To Drink”
• Earth’s Oceans
  Project: “The Great Mixing Bowl: The Chesapeake Bay”
• Earth’s Atmosphere
  Projects: “Finding the Percentage of Oxygen in the Atmosphere” and “Paper Airplane Flight”
• Earth’s Weather and Climate
  Project: “Forecasting the Weather,” and “You’re Wearing Me Out”
• Earth’s Interior
  Project: “Earthquakes!,” and “The Rock Cycle”
• Earth’s Landmasses
  Projects: “Where on Earth? Understanding Latitude and Longitude,” and “Puzzling Plates”
• Stream Study
  Projects: “Star Track III; The Search for Mr. Z” and “Miller’s Run and the Reparin Zone”
• Space
  Project: “Our Awesome Galaxy”

Seventh Grade Life Science focuses on the development of an understanding of life science topics and current scientific research.  Emphasis is placed on the application of the scientific method and laboratory skills.  A combination of experiments, demonstrations, discussions, and readings will set the stage for student learning throughout the year.

Content areas include:

• scientific skills
• laboratory techniques
• the cell and life processes
• heredity and genetics
• classification systems
• animal structures and function
• plant structures and function

The over all objective of this course is to support individually unique students while they develop and discipline their minds to gain understanding of the world in which they live. The main focus of the eight grade physical science course is to guide the student while developing a systematic method of inquiry that is based on observable facts.  This course is to give students the tools needed to express understanding of the given material as well as their interpretation of theories or laws that describe their world.

While using the physical science content, focused on the properties of matter, forms of energy and their interaction, the students will learn and correctly use the scientific method.  The students will learn concepts and define facts as being the product of science but more importantly to use a process that will allow them to understand observations and derive conclusions having ownership in the understanding of a problem.

The content areas to be covered span many areas of the physical science curriculum.  Starting the year by understanding basic units of measure and the property of matter the units describe to developing a derived unit showing how different properties of matter and energy interact.  The order on topics covered are as follows:

Science and Measurement 

• Scientific Method
• Units
• Systems of Measure
• Technology

Matter and Properties of Matter

• States
• Changes – physical , chemical, nuclear

Forms of Energy 

• Heat
• Wave

Static Charge

• Atom structure
• Methods of charging

Chemistry

• Atomic structure
• Elements – characteristics
• Periodic Table

Mechanics

• Force
• Work
• Power
• Simple Machines

Motion

• Scalar – Vector
• Newton’s Laws