Energy Works!
Focusing on themselves, students review different kinds of energy and how it’s converted in a system: energy their bodies produce, potential and kinetic energy, the motion of waves, plus alternative forms of energy. They engineer a waterwheel, then a wind turbine. By the end of the unit, they can pose a question they’ve wondered about and engineer a device to answer it.
Performance Expectations: 4-PS3-1; 4-PS3-2; 4-PS3-3; 4-PS3-4; 4-PS4-1; 4-PS4-3; 4-ESS3-1; 3-5 ETS1-2; 3-5-ETS1-3
Teacher supplied items (not supplied in kit): 1 battery-operated toy, 1 musical instrument, 1 rock, book or ball, scissors, staplers, textbooks, art supplies, chart paper, examples of different types of energy (e.g. batteries, radio or tv, wooden match, fan, food, musical instrument, etc.), glue, markers, water.
Teacher Prep Videos
Vocabulary Resources
Plant and Animal Structures
Nothing grabs student interest like dissection, and it’s a great way to learn about structures. This unit begins by expanding what students know about plant and animal structures and how they help organisms survive. They will experience up-close study of the internal and external structures of plants and animals by dissecting seeds and plants, a preserved squid, a sheep brain, and a cow eye. Then they’ll apply this knowledge, creating a model of the eye and explaining the path light takes as the brain helps us see the world.
Note: This kit uses preserved animal matter for dissection. Items used in the dissection process must be washed or disposed of as instructed on inventory sheet.
Performance Expectations: 4-LS1-1; 4-LS1-2; 4-PS4-2; 3-5-ETS1-2
Teacher supplied items (not supplied in kit): 9 celery sticks, 1 large container, 3 living flowers (lilies are recommended), 1 pair sharp scissors, 60 potato chips, rulers, sheets of paper, trowels (optional), water, chart paper, crayons, markers or colored pencils, disinfectant cleaner.
Teacher Prep Videos
Vocabulary Resources
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SUPPLIED LITERATURE
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Changing Earth
Building on students’ knowledge of soil and erosion, this unit introduces how the distinctive features of the earth came to be. The layers of the earth, tectonic plates and the rock cycle add to student understanding of erosion and the systems that make up earth. Stream tables are taken to next level as students create their own maps of their river systems. Where did all that eroded sediment go? Students also build their own sedimentary rock as they learn how deltas form and grow.
Performance Expectations: 4-ESS1-1; 4-ESS2-1; 4-ESS2-2; 4-ESS3-2; 3-5-ETS1-2
Teacher supplied items (not supplied in kit): 3D relief map or globe, blue markers, crayons or colored pencils, crayons (different colors), scissors, red markers, crayons or colored pencils, textbooks, 1 thermos or carafe (optional), glue, water.
Teacher Prep Videos
Vocabulary Resources
Evaluating a Landscape (EiE)
In A Stick in the Mud: Evaluating a Landscape, students explore landforms and erosion in the context of geotechnical engineering. The unit begins with the storybook Suman Crosses the Karnali River, in which a boy named Suman living in Nepal explores the field of Geotechnical Engineering in order to convince his father to build a TarPul suspension bridge in the best possible location. Like Suman, students then follow the steps of the Engineering Design Process to imagine, plan, create, and improve their own model TarPul and to propose where to place it.