This is a sixth-grade student science experience tied to SEEd standard 6.1.1. In this experience students explore why the Moon looks different throughout the month.
These experiences were designed to support students in engaging in science investigations with siblings and/or parents at home and then report back about what was discovered. They were created in a way that is easily adaptable for both online and printed formats. They are formatted to help students wonder about and investigate the science phenomena happening in the world around them. These experiences do not describe how students should write up and return work to their teacher. It is up to each teacher to adapt them to best meet student needs. When individualized by the teacher, a student could be asked to engage in one or more of these experiences a week and report back. This format aligns closely to the vision and expectation of the SEEd standards.

A Google Drive folder with 7.1.1 and 7.1.2 phenomenon-based, 5E lessons that align to the SEEd standards. Lesson folders include lesson plans, a slideshow, and supporting materials for teaching the lesson to your students.

A Google Drive folder with 7.1.3 and 7.1.4 phenomenon-based, 5E lessons that align to the SEEd standards. Lesson folders include lesson plans, a slideshow, and supporting materials for teaching the lesson to your students.

A Google Drive folder with 7.2.2 and 7.2.3 phenomenon-based, 5E lessons that align to the SEEd standards. Lesson folders include lesson plans, a slideshow, and supporting materials for teaching the lesson to your students. Students will research and develop models to better understand the impact of landslides and earthquakes in Salt Lake County.

A Google Drive folder with 7.2.1 and 7.2.6 phenomenon-based, 5E lessons that align to the SEEd standards. Lesson folders include lesson plans, a slideshow, and supporting materials for teaching the lesson to your students. Students will explore how rocks provide evidence of the geologic events and processes that have shaped Earth throughout its history.

This is a seventh-grade student science experience tied to SEEd standard 7.3.3. In this experience students investigate how our heart rate is affected by different kinds of activities.
These experiences were designed to support students in engaging in science investigations with siblings and/or parents at home and then report back about what was discovered. They were created in a way that is easily adaptable for both online and printed formats. They are formatted to help students wonder about and investigate the science phenomena happening in the world around them. These experiences do not describe how students should write up and return work to their teacher. It is up to each teacher to adapt them to best meet student needs. When individualized by the teacher, a student could be asked to engage in one or more of these experiences a week and report back. This format aligns closely to the vision and expectation of the SEEd standards.

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):

A Google Drive folder with 7.3.1, 7.3.2, 7.3.3 phenomenon-based, 5E lessons that align to the SEEd standards. Lesson folders include lesson plans, a slideshow, and supporting materials for teaching the lesson to your students. Students will learn about cells and cell function by looking at systems from big to small. First learning about how the digestive system works with the circulatory system to get food to cells. Students will investigate cells and their structure and function.

A Google Drive folder with 7.4.2, 7.5.1 phenomenon-based, 5E lessons that align to the SEEd standards. Lesson folders include lesson plans, a slideshow, and supporting materials for teaching the lesson to your students. students will explore the idea that evolution is change over time--that species come from other species due to natural selection, where traits that offer some advantage to an animal will be passed onto offspring.

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.

This unit on matter cycling and photosynthesis begins with students reflecting on what they ate for breakfast. Students are prompted to consider where their food comes from and consider which breakfast items might be from plants. Then students taste a common breakfast food, maple syrup, and see that according to the label, it is 100% from a tree.

Based on the preceding unit, students argue that they know what happens to the sugar in syrup when they consume it. It is absorbed into the circulatory system and transported to cells in their body to be used for fuel. Students explore what else is in food and discover that food from plants, like bananas, peanut butter, beans, avocado, and almonds, not only have sugars but proteins and fats as well. This discovery leads them to wonder how plants are getting these food molecules and where a plant’s food comes from.

A Google Drive folder with 7.4.1 phenomenon-based, 5E lessons that align to the SEEd standards. Lesson folders include lesson plans, a slideshow, and supporting materials for teaching the lesson to your students. Students will participate in discussions, modeling activities, and interactives in order to gain an understanding that sexual reproduction leads to greater variation in a population than asexual reproduction.

Google Slides presentations that contain three lessons. The first lesson is exploring why planets orbit the Sun (7.1.5), the second lesson is exploring patterns in California plate tectonics (7.2.5), and the third lesson is exploring the coronavirus (7.3.1).

In this lesson, students observe changes in matter and develop models of chemical equations in order to develop a definition for chemical reactions, identify patterns of change that indicate that a chemical reaction has taken place, and explain the relationship between reactants and products at a molecular level. The lesson plan includes an 8-day lesson plan, Google Slides presentation, student reading, and lab/workshop instructions.

A Google Drive folder with 8.1.1, 8.1.3, and 8.1.5 phenomenon-based, 5E lessons that align to the SEEd standards. Lesson folders include lesson plans, a slideshow, and supporting materials for teaching the lesson to your students. Students observe changes in matter and develop models of chemical equations in order to develop a definition for chemical reactions, identify patterns of change that indicate that a chemical reaction has taken place, and explain the relationship between reactants and products at a molecular level.

A Google Drive folder with 8.1.2, 8.1.4 phenomenon-based, 5E lessons that align to the SEEd standards. Lesson folders include lesson plans, a slideshow, and supporting materials for teaching the lesson to your students. Students will obtain information and engage in argument about how properties of plastics provide structure and function. Students also investigate how chemical reactions create polymers that result in plastics and what natural resources are used in making synthetic materials.

Lesson Description: Students will obtain information and engage in arguments about how the properties of plastics provide structure and function. Students also investigate how chemical reactions create polymers that result in plastics and what natural resources are used in making synthetic materials. This lesson includes a lesson plan, activity/lab instructions, readings, and presentations.

This is an eighth-grade student science experience tied to SEEd standard 8.2.4. In this experience students investigate and use models to explain why when objects of different masses are dropped into a container of water the waves change.
These experiences were designed to support students in engaging in science investigations with siblings and/or parents at home and then report back about what was discovered. They were created in a way that is easily adaptable for both online and printed formats. They are formatted to help students wonder about and investigate the science phenomena happening in the world around them. These experiences do not describe how students should write up and return work to their teacher. It is up to each teacher to adapt them to best meet student needs. When individualized by the teacher, a student could be asked to engage in one or more of these experiences a week and report back. This format aligns closely to the vision and expectation of the SEEd standards.

In this lesson, students explore energy transfer in kinetic and potential energy. The lesson includes a lesson plan, concept charts, presentation, and article.