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6.2 Thermal Energy
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6.2 Thermal Energy
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Unit Summary
This unit on thermal energy transfer begins with students testing whether a new plastic cup sold by a store keeps a drink colder for longer compared to the regular plastic cup that comes free with the drink. Students find that the drink in the regular cup warms up more than the drink in the special cup. This prompts students to identify features of the cups that are different, such as the lid, walls, and hole for the straw, that might explain why one drink warms up more than the other. 
Students investigate the different cup features they conjecture are important to explaining the phenomenon, starting with the lid. They model how matter can enter or exit the cup via evaporation However, they find that in a completely closed system, the liquid inside the cup still changes temperature. This motivates the need to trace the transfer of energy into the drink as it warms up. Through a series of lab investigations and simulations, students find that there are two ways to transfer energy into the drink: (1) the absorption of light and (2) thermal energy from the warmer air around the drink. They are then challenged to design their own drink container that can perform as well as the store-bought container, following a set of design criteria and constraints.
This unit builds toward the following NGSS Performance Expectations (PEs) as described in the OpenSciEd Scope & Sequence: MS-PS1-4*, MS-PS3-3, MS-PS3-4, MS-PS3-5, MS-PS4-2*, MS-ETS1-4. The OpenSciEd units are designed for hands-on learning and therefore materials are necessary to teach the unit. These materials can be purchased as science kits or assembled using the kit material list.

Subject:
Science
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Lesson
Module
Provider:
OpenSciEd
Date Added:
12/10/2020
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6.3 Weather, Climate & Water Cycling
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6.3 Weather, Climate & Water Cycling
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The goals of OpenSciEd are to ensure any science teacher, anywhere, can access and download freely available, high quality, locally adaptable full-course materials. REMOTE LEARNING GUIDE FOR THIS UNIT NOW AVAILABLE!

This unit on weather, climate, and water cycling is broken into four separate lesson sets. In the first two lesson sets, students explain small-scale storms. In the third and fourth lesson sets, students explain mesoscale weather systems and climate-level patterns of precipitation. Each of these two parts of the unit is grounded in a different anchoring phenomenon.

Subject:
Science
Material Type:
Full Course
Lesson
Lesson Plan
Module
Teaching/Learning Strategy
Unit of Study
Provider:
OpenSciEd
Author:
OpenSciEd
Date Added:
12/10/2020
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7.1 Chemical Reactions & Matter Transformations
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7.1 Chemical Reactions & Matter Transformations
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To pique students’ curiosity and anchor the learning for the unit in the visible and concrete, students start with an experience of observing and analyzing a bath bomb as it fizzes and eventually disappears in the water. Their observations and questions about what is going on drive learning that digs into a series of related phenomena as students iterate and improve their models depicting what happens during chemical reactions. By the end of the unit, students have a firm grasp on how to model simple molecules, know what to look for to determine if chemical reactions have occurred, and apply their knowledge to chemical reactions to show how mass is conserved when atoms are rearranged.

Subject:
Science
Material Type:
Lesson
Lesson Plan
Module
Teaching/Learning Strategy
Unit of Study
Provider:
OpenSciEd
Author:
OpenSciEd
Date Added:
12/10/2020
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7.3 Metabolic Reactions
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7.3 Metabolic Reactions
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Unit Summary
This unit on metabolic reactions in the human body starts out with students exploring a real case study of a middle-school girl named M’Kenna, who reported some alarming symptoms to her doctor. Her symptoms included an inability to concentrate, headaches, stomach issues when she eats, and a lack of energy for everyday activities and sports that she used to play regularly. She also reported noticeable weight loss over the past few months, in spite of consuming what appeared to be a healthy diet. Her case sparks questions and ideas for investigations around trying to figure out which pathways and processes in M’Kenna’s body might be functioning differently than a healthy system and why. 
Students investigate data specific to M’Kenna’s case in the form of doctor’s notes, endoscopy images and reports, growth charts, and micrographs. They also draw from their results from laboratory experiments on the chemical changes involving the processing of food and from digital interactives to explore how food is transported, transformed, stored, and used across different body systems in all people. Through this work of figuring out what is causing M’Kenna’s symptoms, the class discovers what happens to the food we eat after it enters our bodies and how M’Kenna’s different symptoms are connected.
This unit builds towards the following NGSS Performance Expectations (PEs) as described in the OpenSciEd Scope & Sequence: MS-LS1-3, MS-LS1-5, MS-LS1-7, MS-PS1-1, MS-PS1-2. The OpenSciEd units are designed for hands-on learning, and therefore materials are necessary to teach the unit. These materials can be purchased as science kits or assembled using the kit material list.
Additional Unit InformationNext Generation Science Standards Addressed in this UnitPerformance ExpectationsThis unit builds toward the following NGSS Performance Expectations (PEs):

Subject:
Science
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Lesson
Module
Provider:
OpenSciEd
Date Added:
12/10/2020
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7.4 Matter Cycling & Photosynthesis
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7.4 Matter Cycling & Photosynthesis
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Students figure out that they can trace all food back to plants, including processed and synthetic food. They obtain and communicate information to explain how matter gets from living things that have died back into the system through processes done by decomposers. Students finally explain that the pieces of their food are constantly recycled between living and nonliving parts of a system.

Subject:
Science
Material Type:
Lesson
Lesson Plan
Module
Teaching/Learning Strategy
Unit of Study
Provider:
OpenSciEd
Author:
OpenSciEd
Date Added:
12/10/2020
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8.1 Contact Forces
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8.1 Contact Forces
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Oh, no! I’ve dropped my phone! Most of us have experienced the panic of watching our phones slip out of our hands and fall to the floor. We’ve experienced the relief of picking up an undamaged phone and the frustration of the shattered screen. This common experience anchors learning in the Contact Forces unit as students explore a variety of phenomena to figure out, “Why do things sometimes get damaged when they hit each other?”

Student questions about the factors that result in a shattered cell phone screen lead them to investigate what is really happening to any object during a collision. They make their thinking visible with free-body diagrams, mathematical models, and system models to explain the effects of relative forces, mass, speed, and energy in collisions. Students then use what they have learned about collisions to engineer something that will protect a fragile object from damage in a collision. They investigate which materials to use, gather design input from stakeholders to refine the criteria and constraints, develop micro and macro models of how their solution is working, and optimize their solution based on data from investigations. Finally, students apply what they have learned from the investigation and design to a related design problem.

Subject:
Science
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Lesson
Lesson Plan
Module
Unit of Study
Provider:
OpenSciEd
Date Added:
12/10/2020
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8.2 Sound Waves
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8.2 Sound Waves
Rating

Unit Summary
In this unit, students develop ideas related to how sounds are produced, how they travel through media, and how they affect objects at a distance. Their investigations are motivated by trying to account for a perplexing anchoring phenomenon — a truck is playing loud music in a parking lot and the windows of a building across the parking lot visibly shake in response to the music.
They make observations of sound sources to revisit the K–5 idea that objects vibrate when they make sounds. They figure out that patterns of differences in those vibrations are tied to differences in characteristics of the sounds being made. They gather data on how objects vibrate when making different sounds to characterize how a vibrating object’s motion is tied to the loudness and pitch of the sounds they make. Students also conduct experiments to support the idea that sound needs matter to travel through, and they will use models and simulations to explain how sound travels through matter at the particle level.
This unit builds toward the following NGSS Performance Expectations (PEs) as described in the OpenSciEd Scope & Sequence: MS-PS4-1, MS-PS4-2. The OpenSciEd units are designed for hands-on learning and therefore materials are necessary to teach the unit. These materials can be purchased as science kits or assembled using the kit material list.

Subject:
Science
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Lesson
Module
Provider:
OpenSciEd
Date Added:
12/10/2020
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COVID-19 & Health Equity, Grades 3-5
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CC BY
COVID-19 & Health Equity, Grades 3-5
Rating

The COVID-19 Pandemic is a clear example of how science and society are connected. This unit explores how different communities are differentially impacted by the virus through the lens of historical inequities in society. In the context of decisions their families make, students explore the basics of how the virus affects people, and design investigations to explore how it spreads from person to person, and what we can do to prevent that spread.

Subject:
Health Education
Science
Social Science
Material Type:
Lesson
Lesson Plan
Module
Teaching/Learning Strategy
Unit of Study
Provider:
OpenSciEd
Author:
Learning in Places
NextGen Science Storylines
OpenSciEd
Date Added:
12/10/2020
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COVID-19 & Health Equity, High School Science
Unrestricted Use
CC BY
COVID-19 & Health Equity, High School Science
Rating

This unit is designed to support students in understanding the COVID-19 pandemic, transmission of the COVID-19 virus, and the impacts of the pandemic on communities, especially communities of color. Specific learning targets are listed at the beginning of each lesson and highlight a core idea for the lesson, the science and engineering practice students will engage in, and the crosscutting concept students will use in the lesson. i

Subject:
Health Education
Science
Material Type:
Lesson
Lesson Plan
Module
Teaching/Learning Strategy
Unit of Study
Provider:
OpenSciEd
Author:
BSCS Science Learning
OpenSciEd
Date Added:
12/10/2020
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Designing and Building a Musical Instrument
Conditional Remix & Share Permitted
CC BY-NC
Designing and Building a Musical Instrument
Rating

Students will explore properties of sound and sound waves, experiment with building models of various musical instruments, then design and build a playable musical instrument of their choosing.

Subject:
Physics
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Module
Reading
Provider:
Lane County STEM Hub
Provider Set:
Content in Context SuperLessons
Author:
John Etheredge
Date Added:
12/10/2020
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Google CS First
Google CS First
Rating

The activities below introduce students to computer science and the programming language Scratch. Different themes attract and engage students of varying backgrounds and interests. All materials are free and easy to use.

Subject:
Computer Science
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Module
Provider:
Google
Date Added:
05/02/2019
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Mathematics Bridge Course
Conditional Remix & Share Permitted
CC BY-NC
Mathematics Bridge Course
Rating

The Bridge to College course for Mathematics is a fourth-year (senior-level) course designed for students scoring a Level 2 on the Smarter Balanced high school assessment (11th grade).

The course is grounded in essential career and college readiness expectations as reflected in the Washington State K-12 Learning Standards for Mathematics (the Common Core State Standards) to ensure that students passing the course are fully prepared for college-level coursework. The course was developed by higher education faculty, high school teachers, and curriculum specialists from multiple colleges and school districts and adapted from the Southern Regional Education Board
Math Ready course.

Subject:
Mathematics
Material Type:
Full Course
Lesson
Module
Student Guide
Unit of Study
Provider:
Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction
Date Added:
07/05/2018
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Module 2: Understanding OER
Unrestricted Use
CC BY
Module 2: Understanding OER
Rating

We will start the lesson discussing what open educational resources are. Please watch the video first and read through the content. It is important to understand the concept of open educational resources as it will be the base for the rest of the modules.

Subject:
Professional Learning
Material Type:
Module
Provider:
Washington State Board for Community & Technical Colleges
Provider Set:
Open Washington
Date Added:
07/06/2018
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Module 9: Why OER Matters
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CC BY
Module 9: Why OER Matters
Rating

Why do open educational resources matter? What is the point of using OER? Below are some of the benefits of using open educational resources that I have seen while working with OER over the past several years.

Subject:
Professional Learning
Material Type:
Module
Provider:
Washington State Board for Community & Technical Colleges
Provider Set:
Open Washington
Date Added:
07/06/2018
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Remote Learning Adaptations - OpenSciEd Middle School Science
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CC BY
Remote Learning Adaptations - OpenSciEd Middle School Science
Rating

In partnership with teachers, the Louisiana Department of Education arranged OpenSciEd (grade 6-8 science) content in a manner that stays true to the vision of the materials and provides clear guidance on how to use them in a fully remote environment. The modified materials assume that teachers will have synchronous virtual meetings with students in addition to home learning.
The site also provides a variety of resources with options for students who do not have internet access.

Subject:
Science
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Lesson
Module
Teaching/Learning Strategy
Unit of Study
Provider:
OpenSciEd
Author:
OpenSciEd
Date Added:
12/10/2020
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