7th Grade Science Course Outline
Dr. Michelle Greenberg
Dear Parents and Guardians,
Welcome to 7th grade science, and the start of a great school year! Communicating with families is important to me. Throughout the year, I will keep my website and linked virtual classroom (http://tinyurl.com/mrsgreenberg) updated with helpful information and updates. This will include notes, labs, homework, enrichment activities, and an extra credit opportunity available once per marking period.
Another electronic resource is Google Classroom, which I use to send students reminders, assignments, and reference materials. You can see your student’s grade summaries and upcoming assignments in a Google Classroom update. If you have not already been invited to receive these summaries, you should be receiving an invite to the email address listed for you in OnCourse from one of your student’s teachers. Following this letter, I have included some information about what your child will learn in science this year, as well as some expectations and policies. Please feel free to email me at [email protected] if you have any questions or concerns. I look forward to partnering with you to ensure your child's success in science.
Sincerely,
Michelle Greenberg, Ed.D.
Classroom Expectations
Students will need to think, explore, ask questions, share ideas and learn in this class. I expect that students will:
- Respect people, time, and space. This means treating others fairly, arriving to class on time, and appropriately using our classroom and materials.
- Give their best effort at all times. This means being involved, contributing members of our classroom community, whether working alone or in a group.
- Come to class prepared with their iPad, notebook, folder, agenda book, and a pencil or pen.
- Follow directions and meet deadlines. Following directions will keep students safe during lab activities and make sure they get the most out of lab experiences. Turning things in on time will mean they don’t fall behind.
- Ask for help when they need it. I am happy to meet with students for extra help if necessary.
Code of Conduct
Rules and consequences can be found in the RMS Student Code of Conduct.
Grading Policy
Students will be given several days' notice (on homework board, OnCourse, and Google Classroom) of lab report due dates, tests, and quizzes. One extra credit assignment (see website for details) may be completed per marking period and will be due on the last day of the marking period for an additional 10 points on the student’s lowest grade. No late extra credit will be accepted. Grades will be weighted according to the following scale:
Labs 35% Classwork and Homework 20%
Tests and Projects 30% Quizzes 15%
Science Homework
Additional written homework will not be assigned, but there are times when classwork assignments will need to be completed for homework if not done in class. When this is the case, homework will be written on the board in class, posted on OnCourse, and, in the case of lab reports or projects, posted on Google Classroom.
All lab reports and projects will be introduced in class and students will always have multiple days (typically a week) to complete the assignment. This gives students time to ask for help or a conference to review their work if necessary. All supporting documents for these assignments will also be available in Google Classroom.
Lateness Policy
All assignments should be turned in by the due date unless a student is absent. Ten points will be deducted for each day that assignments are late. Zeroes will be used as a placeholder until these assignments are submitted and will be replaced with the grade earned.
7th Grade Science Course of Study
In grade seven science classes, students will use a hands-on curriculum designed to provide them with a basic understanding of earth, life, environmental, and chemistry concepts. These content strands are developed through a sequence of varied instruction strategies with an emphasis on acquiring science knowledge; using laboratory investigations to experiment; observing, generalizing and applying what has been learned to solve problems communicating information; and discussing contemporary issues that relate to and support course content. This curriculum meets the New Jersey Student Learning Standards for Science, mirroring the Next Generation Science standards, which were designed to promote scientific thinking.
There is no textbook for 7th grade science. Each unit of study will instead have electronic reference materials available on my website and Google Classroom. Hard copies of texts will be available in class if possible. Students’ interactive science notebooks will also serve as a reference.
New Jersey Student Learning Standards for Science: 3 Dimensions of Learning
Dimension 1: Science and Engineering Practices
The practices describe behaviors that scientists engage in as they investigate and build models and theories about the natural world and the key set of engineering practices that engineers use as they design and build models and systems. The practices are: asking questions and defining problems; planning and carrying out investigations; analyzing and interpreting data; developing and using models; constructing explanations and designing solutions; engaging in argument from evidence; using mathematics and computational thinking; and obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information.
Dimension 2: Crosscutting Concepts
Crosscutting concepts have application across all domains of science. They include: patterns; cause and effect; scale, proportion, and quantity; systems and system models; energy and matter; structure and function; and stability and change.
Dimension 3: Disciplinary Core Ideas
Disciplinary core ideas are the most important aspects of science and are grouped in four domains: the physical sciences; the life sciences; the earth and space sciences; and engineering, technology and applications of science.
In a nutshell, your child will use the practice (dimension 1) to learn the disciplinary core idea (dimension 3) and observe or conclude the crosscutting concept (dimension 3).
7th Grade Units of Study
Unit 1: Structure and Properties of Matter
Students build understandings of what occurs at the atomic and molecular scale and apply these understandings to pure substances, which have characteristic properties and are made from a single type of atom or molecule.
Unit 2: Interactions of Matter
This unit builds on unit 1 and will focus primarily on the formation of synthetic materials from natural resources and on changes to particles when thermal energy is added or removed to model phase changes. Students will provide a molecular level account to explain states of matter and changes between states.
Unit 3: Chemical Reactions
Students will model how chemical reactions involve regrouping of atoms to form new substances, and how atoms rearrange during chemical reactions. They will plan and carry out experiments that involve chemical reactions that release and absorb energy.
Unit 4: Structure and Function
Students will plan and carry out experiments to develop evidence that living things are made of cells and gather information to support explanations of the relationship between structure and function in cells.
Unit 5: Body Systems
Students develop a basic understanding of the role of cells in body systems and how those systems interact to support the life functions of the organism.
Unit 6: Organization for Matter and Energy Flow in Organisms
Students explain the movement of matter and energy needed for the cell in photosynthesis in plants and cellular respiration and use models to construct explanations for the role of photosynthesis in cycling matter in ecosystems.
Unit 7: Inheritance and Variation of Traits
Students develop and use models to describe how gene mutations and sexual reproduction contribute to genetic variation.
Unit 8: Selection and Adaptation, Fossil Record and Geologic Time, and Evidence for Common Ancestry
In this three-part unit, students construct explanations based on evidence to support fundamental understandings of natural selection and evolution. They will use ideas of genetic variation in a population to make sense of how organisms survive and reproduce, thus passing on the traits of the species.