PRISM Library
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Weather and Climate Unit Introduction
A 45-minute introduction lesson where students differentiate weather from climate, explain air masses and fronts, interpret weather maps, and connect the water cycle to weather patterns.
Grade 7 Science Assessment
Comprehensive assessment covering NC DPI 2023 K-12 Science Standards for Grade 7
Rivers in the Ocean
Students explore how ocean currents form, how they distribute heat around the planet, and how they influence weather patterns and climate in coastal regions.
Matter and Its Interactions Unit Introduction
A 60 minute unit introduction where students model atomic structure, use periodic table patterns to predict properties, distinguish elements/compounds/mixtures, and explain chemical reactions and conservation of mass using models and data.
Food Webs & Energy Flow
A 30 minute Grade 8 lesson on how energy enters ecosystems (mainly sunlight), how producers convert it to chemical energy, and how energy is transferred and lost as heat through a food web.
Under Our Feet
Students explore how water moves through soil and rock to form aquifers, understand how watersheds collect and channel water, and analyze human impacts on water quality.
Unit Test - Heredity, Inheritance, and Variation
Summative unit assessment covering heredity and genetics: inherited vs. acquired traits, DNA/chromosomes/genes, alleles and dominance, genotype vs. phenotype, Punnett squares, sexual vs. asexual reproduction, genetic variation and survival, and environmental effects on gene expression.
Grade 8 Science Assessment
Comprehensive assessment covering NC DPI 2023 K-12 Science Standards for Grade 8 (EOG Aligned)
Predicting Traits
Students learn how to use Punnett squares to predict the probability of offspring inheriting specific traits, understanding dominant and recessive alleles, genotypes, and phenotypes.
Grade 8 Quick Quiz: Light, Albedo, Measurement, and the Water Cycle
A 5-question quiz on visible light and color, albedo, SI vs US customary units with a conversion, key water cycle processes, and Earth's usable water.
Environment and Lifestyle Choices on Biological Inheritance
A 30 minute Grade 7 lesson on how environment and lifestyle affect gene expression, health, and survival, and how some environmental factors can affect inheritance through mutations and epigenetic mechanisms.
Unit Review - Ecosystems: Interactions and Energy
Comprehensive unit review covering ecosystems and the hydrosphere: water distribution and the water cycle, ocean currents and climate, groundwater and watersheds, human impacts on water quality, food webs and energy flow, trophic levels and the 10% rule, and biomes.
Unit Review - Heredity: Inheritance and Variation
Comprehensive unit review covering heredity and genetics: inherited vs. acquired traits, DNA/chromosomes/genes, alleles and dominance, genotype vs. phenotype, Punnett squares, sexual vs. asexual reproduction, genetic variation and survival, and environmental effects on inheritance.
Why Charlotte Doesn't Freeze in June: Seasons & Earth's Tilt
Students watch the Generation Genius 'Causes of Seasons' video and build a mental model of how Earth's axial tilt, not its distance from the Sun, drives seasonal changes in temperature, daylight hours, and sunlight intensity across the hemispheres. The lesson connects abstract orbital mechanics to students' lived experience of seasons in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Grade 6 Quick Quiz: Earth and Space Science Review
A 5-question multiple-choice quiz on solar system scale, solstices, the Milky Way, basic probability multiplication, and unit conversion (Imperial to SI).
Mixing It Up
Students compare sexual and asexual reproduction, understand how each affects genetic variation, and analyze why genetic diversity is crucial for species survival.
Unit Test - Earth's Place in the Universe
Summative unit assessment covering Earth's cosmic address and solar system, the Goldilocks Zone, axial tilt and seasons, Moon phases, ocean tides, solar and lunar eclipses, and moons of the solar system.
Earth's Systems Unit Introduction: Earth's Layers and the Rock Cycle
A 45 minute unit introduction focused on Earth's internal layers and the rock cycle, including two check-your-understanding sections aligned to NC Grade 6 standards ESS.6.2.1 and ESS.6.2.3.