Course Overview

Students develop scientific reasoning and perform hands on experiments in Earth, Life, and Physical Sciences. They construct an electromagnet, identify minerals according to their properties, use chromatography to separate liquids, and assemble food webs. Students will explore topics such as:

• The Interdependence of Life—producers, consumers, and decomposers; food webs
• Animal and Plant Interactions—populations; competition; predators and prey; symbiosis; animal behavior
• Invertebrates—sponges; worms; mollusks; arthropods; echinoderms
• Chemistry—mixtures vs. solutions; distillation, evaporation, and chromatography
• Forces and Fluids—pressure; forces in flight; density; buoyancy
• Human Body—nervous system (senses, reflexes, nerves, and brain); endocrine system (hormones, glands, growth, and digestion)
• Electricity and Magnetism—charges; magnets; static electricity; currents and circuits; electromagnetism
• Rocks and Minerals—the earth's interior; crystals; minerals; rock cycle; plate tectonics; volcanoes,earthquakes
• The Fossil Record and the History of Life—types of fossils; the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic eras