Middle School Curriculum Design

1. Middle School Curriculum Design Michael Ginsbach, Ryan Boyer, Katherine Oster, Anna Hagemeyer Education 481

2. Overall Goal and Purpose Our goal for students is that they would be able to take what they learn in the classroom and apply it to their own lives. It is important that students know facts, but it is more important that they know how to use science practically in their lives. Our goal with this curriculum is to educate students while helping shape our future generation into an inquisitive, responsible, and educated group of people who can thrive and work together in society.

3. Specific Goal 1 The students will understand that the nature of science is that it stems from very old knowledge from many different cultures, but it is still being worked upon today. Ideas of science can change with time, but investigation is a very useful way to learn about the world around us. Sometimes experiments have to be repeated time and time again by different scientists before they are accepted by the scientific community.

4. Specific Goal 2 Students will be able to make connections between the universe, the earth and the basics of the processes that shape it. They will also explore the properties of matter, energy, motion, and the forces of nature.

5. Specific Goal 3 The students will understand the basic ideas of life including diversity, heredity, cells and their functions, interdependence of life, flow of matter and energy, and evolution.

6. Specific Goal 4 Students will be able to identify basic functions of the human organism. They will also work with human identity, human development, learning, physical health, and mental health.

7. Specific Goal 5 The students will learn how science can be incorporated into their lives. Also, students will be able to make connections between things learned in class and things they hear about in the news, see on television, or see for themselves everyday.

8. Essential Questions • How can the student apply what they learn in class to their own life? • How does the nature of science change how the student views science? • Does the student have a correct view on the nature of science?

9. Essential Questions Continued • Does the student make connections between things learned in class and the outside world? • Does the student understand the basic processes that shape earth, and the basic properties or nature? • Does the student understand the basic ideas of life? (i.e., diversity, heredity, evolution)

10. Essential Questions Continued • Does the student understand the basic ideas of energy, matter, and motion? • Does the student understand the basic functions of the human organism?

11. Middle School Differentiation • Focus on building identity • Given more control over learning • Some non-traditional methods of teaching to drive curiosity • Student focused • Building relationships • Fostering feelings of success • Hands on Learning

12. Process skills and science, technology, and society • Inquiry activities to help establish process • Utilization of new practices in technology associated with careers, etc. (i.e., crime scene project, DNA experiments, robotics, engineering)

13. Does our curriculum use problem solving, communication, reasoning skills? • Group activities • Group projects • Group inquiry activities • Lab groups or pods with specific roles • Jigsaw • Think-pair-share

14. How will students have student ownership in their learning? • Flexibility with assignments and tests • Allowing students to make and form opinions (Crime Scene project) • Allowing students to have freedom when choosing how to go about inquiry activities

15. Course Integration • 6th, 7th, and 8th cooperation on specific units (i.e., CSI project) • Larger projects will involve many departments • Some themes will involve multiple disciplines

16. How will this be appealing for all learners? • Freedom of curiosity for students • Differentiation, more or less structure depending on needs • Learning content in a variety of different ways to utilize different learning styles and intelligences

17. Out of classroom incorporations • CSI project • Field trip to crime lab • Involvement of parents as actors, helpers, etc. • Incorporate community by including speakers, law enforcement, people in different careers • Use of new technology in determining different aspects of ‘investigation’

18. What the research says: • Use the benchmarks and standards when assessing middle school curriculum materials • Analysis of Students’ Assessments in Middle School Curriculum Materials: Aiming Precisely at Benchmarks and Standards

19. Give the students a purpose for what they are learning. Show them how they can apply this to their everyday lives. • How Well Do Middle School Science Programs Measure Up? Findings from Project 2061’s Curriculum Review

20. 6th Grade Curriculum

21. Life Science • Single vs. multi-celled organisms • Why reproduction is necessary to continuation of species

22. Earth and Space Science • Adverse weather conditions and how humans prepare for them • How rocks are formed • Characteristics of the layers of the Earth • Basic characteristics of objects in the solar system

23. Science and Other Areas • How natural hazards affect populations, resources, and the environment • How recycling and conservation affect populations, resources, and the environment

24. Physical Science • Similar properties • Simple machines to change forces • Sources of energy • Different forms of energy • How vibrations create wavelike disturbances

25. Science Inquiry • Components of a scientific investigation • Alternative methods of scientific investigations • Biases that affect data collection and analysis • Appropriate tools and techniques • Using data to determine relationships and patterns

26. Science and Technology • Examples of how technologies have evolved • Design a product or solution to a problem given constraints • Relationship between science and technology

27. History of Nature of Science • Various settings in which scientists may work alone or in a team • Scientific advances that have resulted in new ideas and further-advance

28. Systems, Order & Organization • Identify systems that are composed of subsystems (solar system, cell, ecosystems). • Explain the connection between cause and effect in a system. • Describe the characteristics of the layers of the Earth (crust, mantle, and core). • Organize materials according to similar properties (physical, chemical).

29. Evidence, Models & Explanations • Use appropriate tools and techniques to gather and analyze data. • Use data from scientific investigations to determine relationships and patterns. • Construct a model to represent concepts, features, or phenomena in the real world (solar system, Earth’s interior). • Explain the components of a scientific investigation (hypothesis, observation, data collection, data interpretation, communication of results, replicable).

30. Assessments • Performance-based (presentations, projects, experiments) • Flexibility of Learning Styles and Multiple Intelligences (student choice) • What did we learn in science this year? End of the year project

31. Methodologies • Videos & Websites • NOVA/PBS • Exploratorium • National Geographic • Forensics in the Classroom by NSTA • Lab activities and Inquiry-based research projects • Field trip to the Planetarium at MSUM

32. Resources • “Engaging Community Members in Constructivist Learning: Parent Involvement in the Development of a Middle School Science Curriculum.” By Virginia Cribari King • http://www.eric.ed.gov.proxy.library.ndsu.edu/PDFS/ED415109.pdf • Science Night • Parent Directory

33. 7th Grade Curriculum

34. Standard 1: Unifying ConceptsStandard 2: Science InquiryStandard 3: Physical ScienceStandard 4: Life ScienceStandard 5: Earth and Space ScienceStandard 6: Science and TechnologyStandard 7: Science and Other AreasStandard 8: History and Nature of Science

35. Cells & Cell Organelles • Examine and describe plant and animal cells • Identify the function of the major plant and animal cellular organelles • Analogies assignment to get the students familiar with the different organelles and what they do.

36. Microscopes • Learn about the different parts of the microscope and how to use it • Examine and describe plant and animal cells using a compound microscope • Onion Tip Roots

37. Cell Model • Build a 3-D model of a plant or animal cell and label the different organelles and what they do

38. Cell Division and Mitosis • Modeling the movement of chromosomes

39. Diffusion • Design a demonstration that illustrates how materials move across a semi-permeable membrane by simple diffusion

40. Systems • Identifying the components within a system; explain basic functions

41. Goals, Themes, Essential Questions and Measurements • Compare and contrast structure and function in living systems. • Compare and contrast plant and animal cells through investigations. • Describe the process of respiration and the use of its products. • Illustrate the parts of the digestive system and the interaction of each part. • Illustrate the parts of and interaction between the respiratory and circulatory system. • Illustrate the parts of the excretory system and the interaction of each part.

42. More…. • Demonstrate that cells interact with their environment. • Investigate homeostasis as it relates to plants and animals.

43. Lab Safety and Experiment • Demonstration about safety in the lab and procedures taken • Recognize potential hazards • Communicates results of scientific investigations, prepares lab report

44. Process of Photosynthesis • Plant a seed and observe and record the growth while learning about the process of photosynthesis • Describe the process of photosynthesis and the use of its products. • Design an experiment in plant behavior to include responses to water, gravity, and light.

45. Heredity and Reproduction • Matching a flower with its reproductive function • Flower observing outside

46. Reproduction • Distinguishing between sexual and asexual methods of reproduction • Mitosis and Meiosis

47. Plant Reproduction • Recognizing a variety of pollination methods and floral adaptations

48. Goals, Themes, Essential Questions and Measurements • Explore the processes of the reproduction and heredity of organisms. • Distinguish genes as sections of DNA molecules that carry the genetic code for inherited traits. • Examine the concepts of homozygous and heterozygous traits. • Explain mitosis and relate it to an organism’ growth and repair processes.

49. Habitat • explain how overpopulation affects organisms, resources, and environments

50. Environmental Research Project • Focusing on renewable and nonrenewable resources