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    Mrs. Arras - Science

    March, 2020

    Below you will find a brief description of the content that we will cover this year.  This will be updated every month with an overview of what we're currently learning.  For a more detailed description of what we've done every day in class, as well as any homework that's been assigned, please click on the tab called "calendar." There will be separate entries each school day for 6th and 7th graders. 

    I hope you will find this website a useful resource.  Please feel free to contact me via email with questions, concerns or ideas on how to make this resource more useful.  Also, if you are interested in volunteering in the classroom, please email me!

    7th Integrated Science

    This year students will study erosion and deposition, plate tectonics, ecology, and chemistry.  The units will be tied together through the theme of the Pacific Northwest, and the crosscutting concepts of energy and matter, and cause and effect.  (For more on the new standards and crosscutting concepts, please visit the NGSS tab.)  We are starting the year with our erosion and depsosition unit.  

    Our overall guiding questions for the year are:

    • How do energy and matter flow in the Pacific Northwest?  (Crosscutting Concept #5:  Energy & Matter:  Flows, Cycles & Conservation) 
    • How do organisms and Earth processes affect one another in the Pacific Northwest?  (Crosscutting Concept #2:  Cause and Effect) 

    March UPDATE:  We took our first quiz covering the first half of ecology, #72 - 77 and have moved on to the second half of our ecology unit. We will have many guest speakers covering ecology topics, and will go to Whitaker Ponds on March 20 to practice what we've learned in class in the field  We will also take the unit test before we leave for spring break! 

    6th Grade Integrated Science

    This year students will be studying integrated science.  We will start with cells and body works (anatomy), then weather in the winter, and we'll finish with energy in the spring.  For our cells and body works units, we will focus on:

    • How do systems within an organism help it survive?  (Crosscutting Concept:  Systems & System Models)
    • How do the structures of cells and body systems influence their function? (Crosscutting Concept:  Structure & Function)
    • What patterns exist between different living things? (Crosscutting Concept:  Patterns) 

    March UPDATE:  We are solidly into our study of weather right now!  We just finished a lab in which students discovered that sand heats up and cools down faster than water, and we then applied that to density and the formation of wind.  Other themes for this unit include climate types, cause of climate, ocean currents, and interpreting weather maps to make predictions.