Science Curriculum Guide

Description

This Grade 7 science curriculum spans four content domains across the full school year: physical science, Earth science, and life science. The first four weeks establish foundational understanding of matter's atomic composition and chemical properties. From weeks five through eleven, students deepen their knowledge of matter by investigating molecular interactions, thermal energy, and state changes, while also examining synthetic materials and their origins. The middle section (weeks thirteen through twenty-four) shifts focus to Earth systems, where students use rock strata, fossils, and plate tectonic evidence to construct explanations of geological time and surface change. They also study the carbon cycle and its connection to climate systems. The final ten weeks return to life science, building understanding of cellular structure and function, before moving through growth and development, energy flow in organisms, inheritance and genetic variation, and finally the integration of body systems. Throughout the year, students move from understanding matter at the atomic level to observing its behavior in chemical and thermal processes, from reading Earth's geological history to understanding life at multiple scales—from cells to organisms to body systems.

Big Ideas

• Matter is composed of atoms and molecules whose structure and interactions determine physical and chemical properties, including changes in state and behavior in different conditions.
• Earth is a dynamic system with a deep history recorded in rock strata and fossils; plate tectonics, the carbon cycle, and other geoscience processes continuously reshape the planet's surface and affect climate.
• All living things are made of cells organized into tissues and organ systems that work together to carry out life functions including growth, reproduction, response to stimuli, and energy use.
• Genes on chromosomes control trait expression through protein production; genetic variation arises through sexual reproduction and mutation, providing the basis for inheritance and evolution.

Essential Questions

• How does the structure of matter at the atomic and molecular level explain the properties and behavior of substances we observe?
• How do geoscience processes and biological systems change over time, and what evidence reveals these changes?
• How do organisms obtain, use, and transfer energy to survive and reproduce?
• How does genetic information transmitted between organisms create both inheritance and variation in traits?