Transforming ALL Students into Scientists

In order to contextualize core ideas about the nature of matter, this unit focuses on the everyday life experience of smelling odors whether close to or far from one’s nose. As students investigate this and other phenomena, they develop models of how people smell odors and use their models to explain and predict what happens in various scenarios. Rather than simply accepting a particle model (that matter is comprised of molecules, which are comprised of atoms), students come to understand this core science idea over time as the only way to explain that air can be compressed, expanded, added to, and subtracted from a container. Students then use the particle model to explain why substances have different properties, and to explain the behavior of particles in each state of matter and at a substance’s melting and boiling points during phase change, including the relationship between the movement of molecules and temperature. Students’ model of matter, which is represented both as a drawing and a written explanation, represents a conceptual understanding that “all matter is made of particles in constant motion,” a concept revisited in future IQWST units in physics, chemistry, life science, and Earth science and central to all future science learning.

To contextualize core ideas about the water and rock cycles at the middle school level, this unit focuses on selected national parks in the United States and the study of features common and unique to each. In groups, students take on the task of collaborating to develop a visitors’ guide that explains how water has shaped the landscape of a single park. To complete this task, students must understand how water moves through the park, what types of rock are present, and how the water and rock have interacted to shape the land. Students learn where water can be found on, above, and below the Earth’s surface. They learn how water moves and is transformed in the water cycle by investigating evaporation, precipitation, infiltration, and flow. Students also explore how rocks are formed and the properties of different types of rock. Finally, they examine the effects of water on the land by investigating weathering, erosion, and deposition. To do so, students engage in relevant scientific practices, address crosscutting concepts, and build an understanding of energy and the particle nature of matter as both apply in the study of Earth science.

This ecosystem unit focuses on organisms’ needs for survival and what happens when those needs are not met. Throughout the unit, students investigate a specific population change: the decrease in the trout population in the Great Lakes from 1930 to 1990. Because the sea lamprey, as an invasive species in the Great Lakes, is such a fascinating organism, this particular case of population change engages students in learning core science ideas that they can then apply to changes in their local environments or elsewhere. Over the course of their investigation, students learn why food is important, what structures different organisms have in order to eat and reproduce, what the possible relationships are between organisms (e.g. competition, predator/prey, producer/consumer), and what abiotic factors affect ecosystems. All of these pieces help students to invest in developing an evidence-based scientific explanation and engaging in argumentation about why the trout population decreased so dramatically, employing a key scientific practice as they learn core science ideas.

The unit begins with a contextualizing activity in which students view optical illusions that make them uncertain of what they are seeing. They spend the next several weeks investigating light waves and their interaction with matter. To do so, students engage in several scientific practices, with an emphasis on constructing and using models to explain and predict phenomena. Each new investigation causes students to realize that the model they developed to fit one situation does not fit the new one, requiring revision based on new evidence. This practice enables students to engage in modeling in ways similar to those in which scientists develop, use, and revise models they use to explain and predict real-world phenomena. Students continually delve into core science ideas, gaining a deeper understanding of how light moves through space, what happens when it meets matter, how eyes detect light, how colors of light can be perceived, and that some light is non-visible. A conceptual understanding that “light can make things happen” sets the stage for understanding energy, a crosscutting concept revisited in future IQWST units in physics, chemistry, life science, and Earth science and central to all future science learning.