Course Overview

Students learn to observe and analyze through hands-on experiments, and gain further insight into how scientists understand our world. They observe and chart the phases of the moon, determine the properties of insulators and conductors, and make a three-dimensional model of a bone. Students will explore topics such as:

• Weather—air pressure; precipitation; clouds; humidity; fronts; forecasting
• Vertebrates—features of fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals
• Ecosystems—climate zones; tundra, forests, desert, grasslands, freshwater, and marine ecosystems
• Matter—phase changes; volume; mass; atoms; physical and chemical changes
• Human Body—the musculoskeletal system; the skin
• Energy—forms of energy; transfer of energy; conductors and insulators; renewable and nonrenewable energy resources
• Light—light as energy; the spectrum; how the eye works
• Astronomy—phases of the moon; eclipses; the solar system; stars and constellations; the Milky Way