Safety & Scientific Method Unit
Enduring Understandings
Essential Questions:
Helpful websites:
http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_scientific_method.shtml
http://teacher.nsrl.rochester.edu/phy_labs/AppendixE/AppendixE.html
http://outreach.physics.utah.edu/Labs/ScientificMethod/sci_method_main.html
http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/tutorials/weissman/chemlab/Template.html
http://panpipes.net/edit6200/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2606GQmDqY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sb6gw688Co
Essential Questions:
- What are the rules for staying safe in the science lab?
- What are the potential hazards involved in a lab setting?
- What is the scientific process and how is it used to understand the natural world?
Helpful websites:
http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_scientific_method.shtml
http://teacher.nsrl.rochester.edu/phy_labs/AppendixE/AppendixE.html
http://outreach.physics.utah.edu/Labs/ScientificMethod/sci_method_main.html
http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/tutorials/weissman/chemlab/Template.html
http://panpipes.net/edit6200/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2606GQmDqY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sb6gw688Co
Newton's Laws
NGSS Performance Expectation
Enduring Understandings
http://www.sikeston.k12.mo.us/gwilliams/newtonwebquest.html
http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/newtlaws/U2L2c.cfm
http://science-class.net/Physics/force_motion.htm
- MS-PS2-1 Apply Newton’s Third Law to design a solution to a problem involving the motion of two colliding objects.
- MS-PS2-2 Plan an investigation to provide evidence that the change in an object’s motion depends on the sum of the forces on the object and the mass of the object.
Enduring Understandings
- The role of the mass of an object must be qualitatively accounted for in any change of motion due to the application of a force.
- When two objects interact, each one exerts a force on the other, and these forces can transfer energy between them.
- What is the relationship between force, mass, and the amount of change in motion?
- What happens to the motion of two objects when they collide?
- What is the relationship between mass and speed of an object?
http://www.sikeston.k12.mo.us/gwilliams/newtonwebquest.html
http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/newtlaws/U2L2c.cfm
http://science-class.net/Physics/force_motion.htm
Force Fields
NGSS Performance Expectation
Helpful Documents
- PS2-3: Ask questions about data to determine the factors that affect the strength of electrical and magnetic forces.
- PS2-4: Construct and present arguments using evidence to support the claim that gravitational interactions are attractive and depend on the masses of interacting objects.
- PS2-5: Conduct an investigation and evaluate the experimental design to provide evidence that fields exist between objects exerting forces on each other even though the objects are not in contact
- Electric and magnetic forces (electromagnetic) can be attractive or repulsive, and their sizes depend on the magnitudes of the charges, currents, or magnetic strengths involved and the distances between the interacting objects.
- Gravitational forces are always attractive. There is a gravitational force between two masses, but it is very small except when one or both of the objects have large mass-e.g. Earth and the sun.
- Forces that act at a distance (electric and magnetic) can be explained by fields that extend through space and can be mapped by their effect on a test object (a ball, a charged object, or a magnet repectively).
- How are forces exerted over a distance?
- What causes a a) gravitational field, b) electric field, and a c) magnetic field?
- How are gravitational, electrical and magnetic fields similar? How are they
- different?
- What happens to the strength of a field as we move farther away from its source
Helpful Documents
Energy Unit
NGSS Performance Expectation
Enduring Understandings
Essential Questions
Helpful websites
- PS3-1: Construct and interpret graphical displays of data to describe the relationships of kinetic energy to the mass of an object and to the speed of an object.
- PS3-2: Develop a model to describe that when the arrangement of objects interacting at a distance changes, different amounts of potential energy are stored in the system.
- PS3-3: Apply scientific principles to design, construct and test a device that either minimize or maximize thermal energy transfer.
- PS3-4: Plan an investigation to determine 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.
- PS3-5: Construct, use, and present arguments to support the claim that when the kinetic energy of an object changes, energy is transferred to or from the object
Enduring Understandings
- Energy comes in different forms and can change from one form to another.
- Energy can be transferred to or from other objects.
- Kinetic and potential energy of an object change based upon location and orientation.
- Heat can be transferred at different rates through different materials.
Essential Questions
- How are kinetic and potential energy different?
- How does the position of an object affect the amount of potential energy stored in the system?
- How can energy be transferred from one object to another?
- What materials can be used in a device to either minimize or maximize heat transfe
Helpful websites
Light, Sound, Heat and Waves Unit
NGSS Performance Expectation
Enduring Understandings
- PS4-1: Use mathematical representations to describe a simple model for waves that includes how the amplitude of a wave is related to the energy in a wave
- PS4-2: Develop and use a model to describe that waves are reflected, absorbed, or transmitted through various materials
- PS4-3: Integrate qualitative scientific and technical information to support the claim that digitized signals are a more reliable way to encode and transmit information than analog signals
Enduring Understandings
- Waves in the electromagnetic spectrum vary in size from very long radio waves the size of buildings to very short gamma-rays smaller than the size of the nucleus of an atom. There is a simple relationship between the frequency, wavelength and energy of an electromagnetic wave.
- Scientists identify waves through their defining characteristics. Any physical phenomena that demonstrate all of these characteristics is considered a wave.
- Physical waves require a media in order to propagate; sound is an example of a physical wave. Waves in the electromagnetic spectrum do not require a medium to propagate.
- When a wave moves into a new medium or substance it can be affected in many ways.
- Simple features of waves like amplitude or frequency can be used to transmit information.
- What is the electromagnetic spectrum?
- How do the properties of waves affect the speed, frequency, and period of a wave?
- How does wave energy affect everyday life?
- What are the relationships between wave properties?
- Why can we see light waves, but not sound waves? How can these two physical phenomena both be waves yet they are different? Are there specific characteristics that describe wave phenomena?
- How have humans and other species adapted to utilize the wave properties to their advantage? How do we use properties of waves to solve problems that we care about?
- What happens to a wave if the medium changes or ends? Do all waves respond the same?
Earth, Solar System, Universe and Stars Unit
NGSS Performance Expectation
- MS-ESS 1-1: Develop and use a model of the Earth-sun-moon system to describe the cyclic patterns of lunar phases, eclipses of the sun and moon, and seasons.
- MS-ESS1-2: Develop and use a model to describe the role of gravity in the motions within galaxies and the solar system.
- MS-ESS 1-3: Analyze and interpret data to determine scale properties of objects in the solar system.
Enduring Understandings
- Models can describe, predict, and explain how the Earth is part of the Milky Way Galaxy, which is one of the many galaxies of the universe.
- The model of the solar system consist of the sun, planets, moon, asteroids and any other objects held by the sun’s gravity.
- The Earth’s rotation on its tilted axis is fixed and relative to its orbit around the sun. The seasons are a result of this tilt.
Essential Questions
- What objects make up the solar system?
- How can models explain and predict the motion of the Sun, Moon and Stars?
- What are Eclipses of the Sun and the Moon?
- How does the tilt of the Earth cause the seasons?
Helpful Websites