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Unit Test - Ecosystems, Interactions, and Energy
Summative unit assessment covering ecosystems and the hydrosphere: water distribution, the water cycle and residence time, ocean currents and climate, groundwater and watersheds, human impacts on water quality, photosynthesis, food webs and energy flow, trophic levels and the 10% rule, and biomes.
Hydrosphere - Intro
A 10-minute in-class introduction to the hydrosphere. Students define the hydrosphere, identify major water reservoirs, and explain a basic interaction between water, humans, and other Earth systems.
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.
Forces and Interactions: Putting It All Together
Students synthesize all unit concepts by connecting motion description to graphing to forces to electromagnetism, apply integrated knowledge to real-world scenarios (roller coaster, electric car, maglev train), and review key vocabulary from all four previous lessons.
Matter and Its Interactions: Putting It All Together
Students synthesize all unit concepts by connecting atomic structure to properties, tracing how energy transfer causes phase changes at the particle level, applying multiple concepts to real-world scenarios, and reviewing key vocabulary from all four previous lessons.
Unit Test - Weather and Climate
A 40-question summative unit test covering atmospheric composition and structure, the water cycle, humidity and cloud formation, air masses and fronts, pressure systems, weather map interpretation, convection and global winds, the jet stream, and climate zones. Aligned to NC Standard Course of Study ESS.7.1.
Forces and Newton's Laws
Students learn what forces are and how they are measured, distinguish between balanced and unbalanced forces, explore Newton's three laws of motion with real-world examples, and apply F = ma to predict motion.
Graphing Motion
Students learn to create and interpret position-time graphs, calculate speed from slope, identify periods of rest, constant speed, and acceleration from graph shape, and compare the motion of multiple objects on the same graph.
States of Matter and Phase Changes
Students learn how particle arrangement and motion differ across solids, liquids, and gases, explore all six phase changes and the role of thermal energy, and interpret heating curves to understand what happens at each plateau.
Building Blocks of Matter
Students learn that all matter is made of atoms, explore the three subatomic particles and their arrangement within an atom, and discover how atomic number defines each element.
Forces and Interactions - Remix
A fast-paced review of the first three lessons covering motion description, forces and Newton's Laws, and energy and simple machines. Designed to get students caught up and re-oriented after absences.
Biological Evolution: The Big Picture
Students synthesize all unit concepts by tracing the complete story of evolution from geological evidence through natural selection to adaptation and speciation, learn to build scientific arguments using the CER framework with the whale evolution case study, analyze integrated case studies (marine iguana, horse evolution), review all unit vocabulary, and explore why evolution matters today.
Reading the Rock Record
Students learn to read Earth's history from rock layers using the Law of Superposition, index fossils for correlation, relative and absolute dating methods including radiometric dating and half-lives, the geologic time scale, and additional geological evidence from ice cores, faults, and igneous intrusions.
Describing Motion
Students learn to describe motion using position, reference points, direction, and speed. They calculate speed using s = d/t, distinguish between constant, average, and instantaneous speed, and explore the difference between speed and velocity.
Unit Test - Earth's Systems
A 30-question summative unit test covering Earth's internal layers and their properties, the rock cycle and rock transformations, identification of common minerals and rock types, and plate tectonic boundaries. Aligned to NC Standard Course of Study grade 6 Earth Science standards.
Evidence for Evolution
Students explore four major lines of evidence for biological evolution: the fossil record (including transitional fossils), comparative anatomy (homologous, analogous, and vestigial structures), embryology, and molecular biology (DNA comparisons). Students also learn how modern classification systems reflect evolutionary relationships.
Biological Evolution - Remix
A fast-paced review of the first three lessons covering evidence for evolution, reading the rock record, and natural selection. Designed to get students caught up and re-oriented after absences.
Properties of Matter
Students learn to distinguish intensive properties (density, melting point, boiling point, solubility) from extensive properties (mass, volume, weight), calculate density using d = m/V, and understand how physical properties identify substances.