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The curriculum and instruction in elementary, middle and high school is hands-on and centered around the process of science. Each unit or course follows a storyline leading with a real world phenomena to unravel disciplinary core ideas covering physical, earth & space, life, and engineering, technology & applications of science each year.

Please see below for a parent guide to each science curriculum from kindergarten to high school.

Parent Guide to the Science Curriculum

Parent Guide to the Science Curriculum - Kindergarten

**Parent Guide to the Science Curriculum - Kindergarten**
Unit 1: Mystery Class Pet
Essential Questions	Unit 1 Overview
How do plant and animal needs help us pick an appropriate class pet? What are living and nonliving things? What do plants need to survive? What do animals need to survive? How do plants and animals get what they need from their habitat? How do plants, animals, and humans impact their environment? What does our class pet need to survive and thrive?	Through the engagement of a mystery (real or virtual) class pet, students learn what animals and plants need to live and grow. They also investigate how living things change and are impacted by their environment.
Unit 2: Waiting for Weather
Essential Questions	Unit 2 Overview
How does weather affect our everyday choices? How does weather help me know what to wear each day? How do we know what the weather will be each day? How does the sun affect our lives?	Through this year-long unit, kindergarteners learn about how weather affects and impacts their lives using observational skills and data collection. The overall focus for students is how weather affects what we wear and what we do. Students will also understand that some weather can be considered severe and how scientists follow weather patterns to help communities to prepare.
Unit 3: Push, Pull Play!
Essential Questions	Unit 3 Overview
How do we use pushes and pulls during play? What happens when you change the force of a push or pull during play What happens when play objects crash into one another How can weather make things move? Why do some play objects (toys) fly in the wind better than others?	In this unit, students investigate the direction of motion in pushes and pulls through their bodies at play as well as how their motion and force affects objects. As play engineers, students will design and test a flying toy and observe its interaction with weather.

Parent Guide to the Science Curriculum - Grade 1

**Parent Guide to the Science Curriculum - Grade 1**
Unit 1: Playground Shadows
Essential Questions	Unit 1 Overview
What causes a shadow’s length and position to change? What do you need to make a shadow? How can we change the direction of light? If we change the direction of light, what happens to our shadow? Why doesn’t the moon’s appearance change? How does the amount and intensity of daylight change with the seasons?	In this first unit, students investigate and learn about how light interacts with objects. They begin by exploring their own shadows and investigate how shadows change in length and location relative to the position of the sun. They use data recording to examine patterns of sunlight and shadow throughout the day.
Unit 2: Film Animation
Essential Questions	Unit 2 Overview
How do sound and light communicate information What causes sound? How can light be used to communicate a message? How can we use shadows to tell a story? How are light and sound used to communicate across a distance? Is light necessary to see? How can we see in the dark?	Students spend this unit investigating how light and sound to understand how they can be used to communicate a message. They investigate what is needed to produce sound, what mediums allow light to pass through them to varying degrees (or not at all), and what people use to communicate over long distances. To end the unit, students become engineers of sound and light to create a soundtrack for a simple animation to share with their class.
Unit 3: Senses in Nature
Essential Questions	Unit 3 Overview
How do the external parts of the Venus flytrap, star nosed mole, and tulip help them grow and survive? How do external parts and sunlight help living things grow and survive? How do plant parts help the plant meet its needs? How do animal body structures help it meet its needs for growth and survival? How have humans used nature to solve their problems? How can I mimic nature to develop a solution to my problem?	Through this unit, first grade students become plant and animal scientists who use their powers of observation and curiosity to develop their understanding of how plants and animals grow and survive. Students learn about structures and functions of animals and plants as well as their survival needs. Students also use observations to develop initial theories on why organisms look and behave the way they do and work to create a solution for a problem.
Unit 4: Seasonal Changes
Essential Questions	Unit 4 Overview
How do living things prepare and behave in order to survive in their different seasons? How can seasonal patterns be described? How do living things prepare and behave in order to survive in the different seasons? How are offspring similar and different from their parents?	In this last unit, students will learn what it is like to be a field biologist. They will explore how living things respond to seasonal changes on Earth and the influence of sunlight on living things' actions and survival. Using a variety of media, students will investigate how living things change and record their findings as a field biologist.

Parent Guide to the Science Curriculum - Grade 2

**Parent Guide to the Science Curriculum - Grade 2**
Unit 1: 4th Little Pig
Essential Questions	Unit 1 Overview
What materials are best suited to design a home for the 4th Little Pig? How do you sort and classify objects based on their properties? What happens when materials are heated or cooled? Why are different materials better suited for certain purposes than others? How can objects be made and remade into new objects using existing pieces?	Students in second grade begin with an engineering unit that centers around matter and its properties. They are faced with a design problem where they plan for and construct the 4th Little Pig’s shelter. Using what they learn about the types and properties of matter, they design and test a structure for the 4th Little Pig.
Unit 2: Koa Tree
Essential Questions	Unit 2 Overview
How does the Koa tree grow in two places 10,000 miles apart? Do all plants need the same amount of water and sunlight? Can the Koa tree survive and grow in Connecticut? How do plants depend on animals? How does water and temperature determine if a Koa seed survives?	In this unit, second grade students explore plants and animals and their interdependent relationship with each other and their environment. This is focused around the scenario of the Koa tree, located both in Hawaii and off the western coast of Africa. Like scientists before them, students hypothesize how the Koa seed traveled from island to island and are focused on a real-life science mystery that gives purpose to their study on plants, animals, and habitats.
Unit 3: Beavers
Essential Questions	Unit 3 Overview
How do beavers change the landscape? How do we prevent wind or water from changing the land? Why do beavers need dams? What is an engineer? How are beavers nature’s engineers? How do rivers and dams change the land? How quickly does this happen? What are the other ways that landforms can be created, besides erosion along river beds?	This unit engages students on natural engineers, beavers, and the impact they have on the ecosystems around them. Students will use investigation and observation to describe the impact beavers have on the environment as well as the impact of erosion on landforms.

Parent Guide to the Science Curriculum - Grade 3

**Parent Guide to the Science Curriculum - Grade 3**
Unit 1: Playground Engineers
Essential Questions	Unit 1 Overview
How can the motion on the playground be changed and/or improved? How can force be used to make an object move? How does the direction of force impact the direction of motion? How can motion be predicted? What are magnetic forces and how could they impact motion on the playground? What are electrostatic forces and how do they impact motion on the playground?	In this unit, students become playground engineers to investigate a variety of forces and interactions that affect motion. Students learn a variety of ways that motion is affected (balanced and unbalanced forces, gravity, friction, etc) and use their learning to design a dream playground model that incorporates their understanding.
Unit 2: Harper’s Fossil Find
Essential Questions	Unit 2 Overview
What can we learn from Harper’s fossil find? What can we learn from fossils? How are organisms today similar and different from their ancestors? What patterns can you see in an organism within its life span? What patterns can you see between different organisms’ life spans? Why do offspring look similar to their parents? How can we use traits to identify parents and offspring in fossils? Why are flamingos pink? How do environmental conditions impact an organism’s traits?	Students pose as secret agents from the paleontology unit using fossils to uncover the diet and environment needed for Harper’s fossil to survive. Students develop their understanding of life cycles and apply their understanding of traits and inheritance to make determinations about eggs and fossils.
Unit 3: Case of the Missing Monarchs
Essential Questions	Unit 3 Overview
Why are the monarch butterflies disappearing? What are the monarch butterfly’s survival secrets? How has the monarch population changed? What factors influence this change? What features do monarchs have to promote survival? Why does the monarch butterfly migrate? Is migration necessary for survival? What are the seasonal climate patterns in the different regions of North America? If the climate patterns change, how will the monarch butterflies be affected? How do characteristic variations help an organism survive, find a mate and/or reproduce? Does this connect to the monarch butterfly population decline? Why do some animals live in groups?	Students explore the causes and effects behind the declining monarch butterfly population. Students use analysis to look at weather and climate data, use observation to predict differences between male and female butterflies, and identify needs for monarch survival.
Unit 4: Grand Canyon Seashells
Essential Questions	Unit 4 Overview
How did marine fossils end up in the Grand Canyon? What types of evidence do we look for to determine a fossil’s story? How might a change in the environment affect the organisms living in it? How does a region’s location impact its climate? How do severe weather events impact the environment and the organisms living there? How could the Grand Canyon environment change so drastically over time?	This unit anchors student investigation to a mystery of marine fossils that have been found in the Grand Canyon. Students will learn how different environments affect living things and research and compare different environments. Students ultimately use their knowledge to create theories on how the marine fossils came to be in the desert environment of the Grand Canyon.

Parent Guide to the Science Curriculum - Grade 4

**Parent Guide to the Science Curriculum - Grade 4**
Unit 1: National Parks
Essential Questions	Unit 1 Overview
Why does the topography change across the United States? How did the landforms that make up Grand Staircase - Escalante National Park come to take their current shape? How does water help shape the land? What forces cause weathering and erosion? What can humans do to prevent or decrease the damage caused by erosion or the rate of erosion in an area? How can patterns of rock formations and fossils help us learn about Earth’s history?	Throughout the unit, students will investigate various national parks and monuments in order to build their conceptual understanding of energy, collisions, weathering and erosion. At the start of the unit, students are introduced to the regions of the United States through a topographic and satellite map of the United States. They observe the images and ask questions about the different appearances of the landscape across the US. Students not only generate questions, but they also improve and prioritize questions about the image; these questions will drive student learning throughout the unit. Students will be introduced to a summary table/interactive notebook to track their learning.
Unit 2: Mimicking the Natural World
Essential Questions	Unit 2 Overview
What is biomimicry and how have human innovations been inspired by observing the natural world? How do sense receptors receive and perceive energy? What human innovations were inspired by mimicking the way the natural world receives and perceives sound? What human innovations were inspired by mimicking the way the natural world receives and perceives light? What human innovations were inspired by mimicking the way plants respond to different energy stimuli? How do animals use electricity?	Biomimicry is how humans mimic the natural world in their innovations and designs. This bundle will compare and contrast energy transfer in the natural and designed worlds focusing on how electric currents, light and sound are received and perceived by both. As a result of observing those interactions in nature, much of human innovation and design can be directly attributed to how organisms survive all manner of energy inputs.
Unit 3: Forces that Move Earth
Essential Questions	Unit 3 Overview
What forces are responsible for the movement of the Earth’s surface (and everything on it)? What energy and forces are acting on the Earth’s crust during an earthquake? What are waves and how do they affect the Earth’s crust and humans? How do hurricanes contribute to weathering and erosion and how do each of these processes sculpt the Earth’s surface? How are renewable and nonrenewable resources impacting our environment? How do we utilize renewable energy?	This unit focuses on the forces responsible for the movement of the Earth’s surface (and everything on it).. Students view slides showcasing the destructive forces of earthquakes, tsunamis and hurricanes as a jumping off point. They connect plate tectonics to the ever-changing Earth’s crust and how fossil fuel use is related to climate change. They learn how humans react to those changes, and what resources are available to meet our ever growing energy consumption demands.

Parent Guide to the Science Curriculum - Grade 5

Parent Guide to the Science Curriculum - Grade 5
Unit 1: Spectacular Sights in the Sky: Scale, Proportion, & Quantity
Essential Questions	Unit 1 Overview
What causes these spectacular sights? Why do stars vary in brightness and color? What is matter? Why is it warmer in the summer than in the winter? Is matter lost or destroyed when a meteorite enters Earth's atmosphere? What causes the moon to appear to have different phases? Why does the super blue blood moon occur?	Students study stars, matter, and celestial bodies, as well as the relationship between the Earth, the sun, and the moon. Projects include the creation of explanatory models and writing tasks.
Unit 2: Golden Jellies
Essential Questions	Unit 2 Overview
What conditions are necessary for the golden jellyfish to survive and thrive? What do species need to survive and thrive? Why is an ecosystem a system and how does matter move through it? How do the predictable patterns of the Sun affect living things, including zooxanthellae and golden jellyfish, on Earth? How does human activity negatively impact areas around the world and what can humans do to reduce those negative impacts?	This unit is designed to build student’s understanding of life on Earth and the factors which allow species to survive and thrive and humanity’s role in this. Students study the golden jellyfish of Lake Palau as an anchoring phenomenon. Students come to understand the role of sunlight and other abiotic factors to the success of an organism within an ecosystem. Students build their understanding of the word ecosystem and research various ways that humans negatively impact the world.
Unit 3: Antarctica
Essential Questions	Unit 3 Overview
What will you need to learn about Antarctica to survive? What patterns can be observed due to the movement of the Earth? How does the distribution of water on Earth impact the Antarctica Research Expedition? How are glaciers formed and how do they interact with the Earth’s spheres? Why do icebergs flip?	In this unit, students become members of an Antarctic Expedition Research Team. Throughout the journey, students encounter a unique series of situations requiring them to discover and apply scientific knowledge to get them to their destination. Through this unit, students learn about Antarctic conditions, design and test sled prototypes, compare day and night patterns in Connecticut and Antarctica, explore ice cores and the distribution of water on Earth, learn how glaciers form and change over time, and explore gravity and its impact on objects.

Parent Guide to the Science Curriculum - Grade 6

**Parent Guide to the Science Curriculum - Grade 6**
Unit 1: Lyme Disease
Essential Questions	Unit 1 Overview
What is the timeline for the transmission of Lyme disease (LD)? What characteristics do all living things have in common? How are cells organized? Does the structure of a cell provide evidence for its function? How do tissues organize themselves to create a complex organism? How do the body’s subsystems interact? How does the nervous system respond to stimuli? How can we reduce the transmission of Lyme Disease in Connecticut?	Students are asked to depict how a host gets Lyme disease. Students explore the 7 common characteristics of living things, both unicellular and multicellular. Students investigate cellular structure and function to understand how scientists use this information about the bacterium to treat and prevent its transmission.
Unit 2: Bees
Essential Questions	Unit 2 Overview
Why does the declining bee population matter? How do animals sense and react to their world? How do plants and animals improve their ability to survive and reproduce? Why do organisms reproduce in different ways? How do traits get passed on to organisms? How can we predict the probability of traits occurring?	This unit is about reproduction and growth and focuses on how systems interact between plants and animals, how plants have specialized structures, and how animals have specific behaviors to help aid reproduction. It includes how environmental and genetic factors can affect survival. It also provides evidence for the genetic variation that occurs with sexual reproduction and the lack of variation that occurs with asexual reproduction.
Unit 3: Penguin Habitat
Essential Questions	Unit 3 Overview
How can a temperature controlled habitat for penguins be designed? How does heat affect matter? How is temperature related to energy? How can temperature be controlled so that cold is maintained? How does heat move?	During this unit students will develop an understanding of heat transfer through convection, conduction and radiation, and then apply that knowledge as they work as engineers to design, build, and test temperature-controlled habitats for penguins.
Unit 4: Destructive Weather
Essential Questions	Unit 4 Overview
What factors impact weather? What are the processes involved in the cycling of water through Earth’s systems? What are the major factors that determine regional climates? What is the relationship between air masses and changes in weather conditions? How does oceanic circulation affect regional weather?	This unit examines several aspects of weather and climate including Earth’s large-scale system interactions and the roles of water, temperature, and human activity Students explore the factors that impact weather, the water cycle, the major factors affecting regional climate, the relationship between air masses and changes in weather conditions, how ocean water circulation affects regional weather, and how humans affect Earth’s systems.

Parent Guide to the Science Curriculum - Grade 7

**Parent Guide to the Science Curriculum - Grade 7**
Unit 1 Energy Drinks
Essential Questions	Unit 1 Overview
Should energy drinks be regulated for people under 16 What is in energy drinks? How does temperature affect the fizziness of an energy drink What is in energy drinks and how is this determined? Why are they bad for you? What happens to your body after drinking it? Are energy drinks worse for you than coffee or soda?	In this unit, students will explore the chemistry of energy drinks and how the body processes chemical compounds. Students engage in model building to investigate the basic structures and properties of matter, as well as how synthetic materials are created from natural resources.
Unit 2 Closed Beach
Essential Questions	Unit 2 Overview
Why is the recreation area (park with body of water, pool, beach) closed? How can we make it usable again? How is energy transferred throughout an ecosystem Where does energy come from Describe the process of photosynthesis. How do organisms get what they need to survive? Why/How is biodiversity important to an ecosystem's success? How does a change in one part of the ecosystem impact the ecosystem as a whole? How are humans interdependent on ecosystem resources and biodiversity?	The students will learn about the basics of food webs and ecosystems to understand that all life within an area is connected and impacts each other. After we have discussed the ins and outs of ecosystems, we then discuss how humans are affected by the ecosystems and our reliance on resources from the environment. Once students have an understanding of all these concepts we tie it all together with a project to explain why an imaginary or hypothetical local Recreational Area is closed and provide possible solutions to this issue based on research, reasoning, and evidence.
Unit 3 Disaster Movie Trailers
Essential Questions	Unit 3 Overview
Is what happens in disaster movies credible? How has Earth’s surface changed over time? How is the new crust formed How do Earth’s surface movements occur? How has the Earth’s surface changed by natural events both suddenly as well as over time How is the surface of the Earth changed by weathering, erosion, and deposition? How are natural resources classified and distributed on Earth? How do disaster movies compare to real life events?	In this unit students explore the line between reality and entertainment as they learn about destructive natural events that occur on Earth. Students explore the structure of Earth looking for patterns as they analyze data, researching theories, investigating what drives Earth’s movement, and examining the processes that change Earth’s surface (both rapidly and slowly).

Parent Guide to the Science Curriculum - Grade 8

**Parent Guide to the Science Curriculum - Grade 8**
Unit 1: Car Collisions
Essential Questions	Unit 1 Overview
What happens when two objects collide? When two objects collide, what happens to their motion? How do safety barriers work? What factors affect the size and strength of non-contact forces? What types of collisions occur in our Solar System?	Students will be exploring how forces cause objects to change their motion. Through student-designed experimentation, they will explore the relationships among mass, speed, and distance relative to colliding objects. As a result, students will be developing a deeper understanding of the cause-and-effect relationships between action and reaction pairs related to colliding objects. Students will explore and explain various factors that affect the outcomes of collisions.
Unit 2: Waves
Essential Questions	Unit 2 Overview
How can sound be heard and audio spectrums seen? What are the parts of a wave, and how can a basic understanding of waves be used to design a 1-second pendulum? What are the properties of waves, and what are the differences in sound and light waves? What happens to light waves as they travel and how are they visible? Why might you prefer watching TV produced with a digital signal vs. an analog signal?	Students are introduced to the anchor phenomenon (mystery sound - music generated by a music box) and ask questions about sound. They explore visual representation of the sound, ask questions, make predictions, and model their initial explanation of this mystery sound, identify devices that might make this sound, and explain how it is transmitted to them. Students will create a model in which they use the information they have obtained to synthesize the use of sound and light waves in a culminating performance, in which they design a concert venue and event that allows attendees to experience the concert in a variety of ways (sound, lights, motion, et al.).
Unit 3: Jurassic Park
Essential Questions	Unit 3 Overview
Is it possible to clone a dinosaur? What can the fossil record tell us about the history of life on Earth? How do an organism’s physical modifications made over time (natural selection) affect the likelihood of survival by individuals, populations, and species, and are the results different when humans alter the process (genetic engineering) to induce faster changes? How are modern organisms related to ancient organisms? How do genetic mutations occur and how might they impact an organism? How do the stages of embryological development of organisms compare?	Students engage in a critical look at an excerpt from Jurassic Park. They decide which parts of the movie they consider fact or fiction and which topics they need to find out more about in order to determine how organisms have changed over time. Students look at the fossil record, explore how radiometric dating helps determine the age of a fossil, investigate how organisms have changed over time and that some organisms have gone extinct, and explore natural selection and genetic engineering.
Unit 4: Adventure to Mars
Essential Questions	Unit 4 Overview
How was Earth formed, and how has it changed over time? How does gravity affect the motion of planetary objects? What is the scale relationship of planet sizes as well as their distances from the Sun? How do patterns in the Earth-Sun-Moon system allow scientists to predict events such as eclipses, and seasons? What can the rock layers tell us about Earth’s history? How do artifacts including fossils provide information about the era in which they were formed? How does a human population that is changing in size and consumption affect natural resource availability?	In this unit, students explore the formation of the solar system and Earth and how they have changed over time, including the progression of life through the anchoring phenomenon of living on Mars. Students engage in activities involving the scale properties of objects within our solar system, observing patterns in size, distance, and movement, and the role of gravity in the universe. Students explore, model, and explain the causes of these moon phases, eclipses, and seasons, and the predictability of their patterns. Additionally, students explore how humans obtain and use Earth’s natural resources, and how a change in population size can affect the use and availability of the natural resources. Students propose engineering changes to the production and/or use of consumer products to mitigate the related impact on the environment.

Parent Guide to the Science Curriculum - Science Integrated Earth and Physical Science (IEPS)

Parent Guide to the Science Curriculum - IEPS
Unit 1: Big Bang
Essential Questions	Unit 1 Overview
What are the origins of our universe and how do we know that? What is sound and what affects sounds? What can light tell us about the universe? How do different types of radiation affect matter? What can a beam of light tell us about where it came from? How can astronomers know what stars are made of? What else can astronomers deduce from starlight? How do observations today allow astronomers to determine the origins of the universe?	Today’s “Universe Creation Story” describes an event from over 14 billion years ago, namely a great explosion in which the universe came into being as we now know it – the “Big Bang.” In this bundle students will explore and relate how oscillations or vibrations in various massive or energy mediums are related and provide the understandings that have led us to these conclusions, or the “Big Bang Theory.” In six sequential explorations, students will build on their knowledge of waves and what waves can tell scientists about the nature of stars and galaxies well beyond our possible physical exploration.
Unit 2: Apophis Asteroid
Essential Questions	Unit 2 Overview
What is the Apophis Asteroid and why should I care? How will the motion of Apophis change as it approaches Earth? What factors will affect the severity of the collision between Earth and Apophis? What would affect the collision between an exploratory lander and the asteroid? What is needed to change the motion of an object, and what factors affect those changes? How does Apophis stay in orbit around the sun? How do we stay on Earth? How can we predict the motion of the asteroid? What are some engineering solutions to the possible collision of Earth and Apophis?	Students are introduced to the phenomenon of the Apophis Asteroid and begin wondering about the possible consequences for life on Earth. Students will take on the role of astrophysics advisors to the UN as they design and present their solution to the impending Apophis crisis. Individual students will be tasked with evaluating all presented solutions and defending their choice for what is ‘best.’
Unit 3: Pangea
Essential Questions	Unit 3 Overview
Coming soon	Coming soon
Unit 4: Extreme Weather
Essential Questions	Unit 4 Overview
Coming soon	Coming soon
Unit 5: Water Bottles
Essential Questions	Unit 5 Overview
Coming soon	Coming soon

Parent Guide to the Science Curriculum - HS Biology

**Parent Guide to the Science Curriculum - Biology**
Unit 1: Forest Regrowth
Essential Questions	Unit 1 Overview
How does a forest regrow after a forest fire? What does a forest need to regrow after a forest fire? How do plants convert solar energy into chemical energy/food? How is chemical energy released for use in living systems? How does carbon and energy move through organisms and ecosystems?	In this unit, students will explore the chemical and physical properties of carbon and the cycling of carbon in an ecosystem. Students will follow the movement of carbon, in the form of biomass, through trophic levels of an ecosystem and hypothesize why matter and energy is “lost” moving up through the trophic levels. They will apply their knowledge and understanding to answer the unit’s driving question: What does a forest need in order to regrow after a forest fire?
Unit 2: Wolves
Essential Questions	Unit 2 Overview
How can biotic (wolves) components of an ecosystem alter the abiotic (river course, flow) components of the ecosystem? Why are systems necessary for something to function? What determines population size of different organisms? How do ecosystems respond to change?	In this unit, students will be exploring the dynamics of ecosystems including energy flow, homeostasis, and populations. Students will investigate the factors affecting systems from the micro to the macro level. The anchoring phenomenon of this Unit is “How Do Wolves Change Rivers” which is based upon the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park.
Unit 3: Little People
Essential Questions	Unit 3 Overview
How can siblings from the same family be so different? How does the structure of DNA relate to its function and the difference in traits seen in the Little People Big World family (anchoring phenomena)? How does DNA direct the production of proteins? How do multicellular organisms grow, heal and create differentiated cells? How does the process of meiosis create new genetic combinations and thus more genetic variation? How are traits inherited? What role does the environment play in inheritance?	In this unit, students will be exploring how genetics and environment affect traits and offspring. Students will anchor to the Roloff family from Little People Big World and the inheritance of Achondroplasia. Students will use computer-based model situation to propose a genetic strategy to treat patients with progeria. They describe the step in gene expression they will target and explain their reasoning on why and how that intervention would treat the disease.
Unit 4: Raising the Mammoth
Essential Questions	Unit 4 Overview
What caused the woolly mammoth to go extinct and should the species be de-extinct? How has Earth changed over geologic time? How has life altered the planet and atmosphere? How do ecosystems respond to disturbances? What are the roles of selection and variation in the changing of a population? Can behavior contribute to an organism’s survival? What evidence tells us the elephant and woolly mammoth are related?	Students begin the unit with viewing a short video clip of the raising of the woolly mammoth from ice and the possibility of de-extincting* the species. They generate and share questions about their observations from the video and generate a list of causes of why organisms become extinct. The following lessons will provide students the ability to explore multiple factors that contribute or hinder the survival rates of different organisms and their relationship to one another through evolutionary principles. Students will make connections within each lesson to the overarching idea of the extinction of the woolly mammoth and the implications if the woolly mammoth species is de-extinct.
Unit 5: Coral Reefs *
Essential Questions	Unit 5 Overview
Why are coral reef ecosystems dying? What are the abiotic and/or biotic factors that have had a negative impact on the coral reef ecosystem? What are the (natural or human-related) environmental stresses that are causing changes in biodiversity, speciation and extinction? What are humans doing to affect ecosystem sustainability and biodiversity? How are humans solving the problems of loss of biodiversity and sustainability?	In this unit, students will evaluate the evidence supporting claims that changes in environmental conditions may result in (1) increases in the number of individuals of some species, (2) the emergence of new species over time, and (3) the extinction of other species. They will apply their knowledge and understanding to answer the unit’s driving question: Why are the coral reefs dying?

Parent Guide to the Science Curriculum - Physics

Parent Guide to the Science Curriculum - Physics
Unit 1: Asteroid Collisions
Essential Questions	Unit 1 Overview
How can we protect the Earth from asteroid collisions? What happens in a collision? What would happen if an asteroid hit Earth? How do we protect ourselves from collisions? How do objects move in space? Where did all of the objects that could be threats come from? How can we protect the Earth from asteroid collisions?	In this unit, students will answer the question, “How do we protect ourselves from collisions?” through the framing phenomenon of an asteroid crashing into the Earth. Using an online asteroid simulator called Impact EARTH!, students will gain initial experience with using computational data to understand cause and effect and begin to formulate ideas about the phenomenon. At a smaller scale, students will use car crashes to understand the basic mechanics of collisions, such as momentum and Newton’s Second Law, through laboratory explorations and activities. Students will work through this unit to understand where spaceobject come from, learning the Big Bang Theory and applying Kepler’s Law.
Unit 2: Natural Disasters
Essential Questions	Unit 2 Overview
Where does the energy for natural disasters come from and where does it go? What happens to the energy of a system as a process takes place? How is energy distributed on Earth and used to do work? How are materials and energy transferred between Earth’s systems? What role does water play in storing energy and moving it from one place to another? What factors influence weather and climate? Where does the energy for natural disasters come from and where does it go?	Students will investigate, model, and develop understandings for how energy is transformed in Earth’s systems to create natural disasters.Students will then use this understanding of the energy cycles and systems in the Earth to create an emergency action plan for a vacation to a disaster-prone area.
Unit 3: Battery Fires
Essential Questions	Unit 3 Overview
Coming soon	Coming soon
Unit 4: Global Communication Failure
Essential Questions	Unit 4 Overview
Coming soon	Coming soon

Parent Guide to the Science Curriculum - HS Chemistry

**Parent Guide to the Science Curriculum - Chemistry**
Unit 1: Radium Girls
Essential Questions	Unit 1 Overview
How does a poor understanding of chemistry impact society? What is radioactivity, and how does this relate to the structure and origins of matter? How does the body mistake radium for calcium? What makes an atom stable? How can one atom turn into another? How long will radium be around? Why does radium glow? How do radium girls compare to other nuclear events?	Students anchor their learning of chemical properties to the phenomena of the “Radium Girls” in Waterbury,CT to explore the impact a poor understanding of chemistry can have on society. Students explore properties of atoms, create an understanding of isotopes and their stability, and create models relating the periodic table to elements from cell phones. Students will also explore the fluctuations of energy.
Unit 2: Toxic Waste
Essential Questions	Unit 2 Overview
Is there a way to predict which substances will be the most reactive? How do things exert forces without ever touching? How does this occur, and what factors affect the amount of push? How are millions of substances created from a small number of elements? How can similar molecules have different properties? Why do substances have the properties that they do? How do we create “designer” materials like Kevlar, plastics, and sticky notes?	Students are presented with a hypothetical situation where three unlabeled drums of liquid are dumped near a reservoir and the students, acting as an environmental forensics team, must identify the contents. However, before they can attempt to identify what substances were in the barrels, students must first generate and prioritize a series of questions that will help them solve this mystery. Students then read about environmental forensics in preparation for their culminating performance task - identifying the contents of three unlabeled drums dumped into a nearby reservoir. Students design and conduct an investigation to determine the identity of the liquids and write a formal laboratory report of their findings to conclude this unit on bonding.
Unit 3: Cooking Chemistry
Essential Questions	Unit 3 Overview
Coming soon	Coming soon

Curriculum - STEM

125 East Ave. Norwalk, CT 06852

Misty Hofer | Education Administrator for Mathematics/STEM, Pre-K-12 | Email: hoferm@norwalkps.org