Unit 1- Engineering and Technology

In this unit student begin by exploring, identifying, and naming simple problems , and continue exploring how engineers make and use technology to solve everyday problems. Students will use what they have learned to define a problem, gather information about it, and build something to solve the problem. In this unit, students also focus on the design process that engineers use to solve problems. Students will simple problems in the natural world, and how they can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool . As they explore a design process, they compare and test the shape and stability of objects to determine if they work as intended and are related to their function(s). Lastly, students develop and test simple models to solve problems through a design process, and communicate those solutions.

Unit 2- Sound

In this unit students begin by observing that sound can cause materials to move and that vibrating materials can make sound. Students ask questions and explore the concepts of vibration, pitch, and volume. They also plan and conduct investigations to produce data about the relationship between sound and vibrations . Students use the results of their observations from their investigation to make claims about the cause-and-effect relationship between sound and vibration. They also explore the different ways people communicate with sound, including devices that allow people to communicate over long distances. Students use tools and materials provided to build and modify a tool for making sound and communicating over a distance. They investigate technologies people use to communicate with one another and how sound engineers and people in other careers make use of technology to study and modify sound.

Unit 3- Light

Students will begin the unit by observing how light is necessary to see an object. They will explore how the amount of light affects how much can be seen. As the unit progresses, they will observe objects that give off their own light. During the Hands-On activity, students will record observations and compare how much they can see in different amounts of light. Students will also discuss how Thomas Edison’s invention of the light bulb helped bring electricity to people’s homes. Next, students will observe how light passes through objects and develop an understanding of transparent, translucent, and opaque objects. They will also explore how shadows are made and how light travels, including how it can be reflected or redirected. Students will explore how people use light to communicate and gather observations about how light travels and what causes light to be redirected. They will also carry out an investigation to test how smooth, shiny surfaces affect a beam of light and finally, children design a way communicate with light.

Unit 4- Plant and Animal Structure

In the beginning of the unit, students will explore how the eternal parts of plants allow them to survive and grow. They will also explore how people design solutions by mimicking how plant parts function. They will build a solution to a human problem. As the unit progresses, the students will mimic animal parts to construct a solution to a human problem and explore how the structure of the animal parts is related to their function. Then, the students will explore how the body parts of animals allow them to meet their needs and how people design solutions to problems by mimicking animal parts. Students will mimic animal parts and function to build a solution. At the end of the unit, students will explore how plants and animals respond to their environments, carry out an investigation about the effects of light on plant growth, and explore how animal sense help them process information.

Unit 5- Living Things and Their Young

In the beginning of the unit, students focus on the similarities and differences between adult plants and their young by investigating these phenomena in order to classify plants based on shared traits. They discuss how the transfer of traits from parent plants to their young result in plants that look alike. They observe, illustrate, and discuss variation among plants of the same kind. During hands on activity, students make observations about how plants of the same kind grow to construct evidence. As the unit progresses, students focus on similarities and differences between animals and their offspring. They explore how animals change as they grow and observe patterns in these changes. They compare parts of young animals and their parents through hands on activities and compare and contrast coverings of young and adult animals. They also explore variations among animals of the same kind. At the end of the unit, students focus on patterns in behavior of parents and offspring that help them survive and they explore how animals take care of their young. They will describe the behavioral patterns of parents and offspring that help the offspring get food. They will discover how animals teach their offspring to get food and stay safe.

Unit 6- Objects and Patterns in the Sky

In the beginning of the unit, students focus on observing, describing, and predicting patterns in the way the sun, moon, and stars appear to move across the sky. They make observations of objects in the daytime sky and nighttime sky and use those observations to answer questions about the motion of the objects they see in the sky. In the process, children explore the apparent motion of these objects as examples of natural events that are repeated through time, and learn to make assumptions about phenomena using observed repetitions as evidence. As the unit progresses, students focus on how the amount of daylight in a day is related to the time of year. After an introduction to the seasons, students observe, describe, and predict seasonal patterns of sunrise and sunset. They observe how seasonal changes affect plants and animals. They also explore these patterns through a variety of interactions and one hands-on activity.

Middle Road Elementary School

Suzanne Florio

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