How each lesson works

Each unit is built around a real puzzle (its driving question) that students work out through hands-on investigations, the way scientists do. There are two kinds of lesson:

1. Investigation lessons — each has a lesson question and takes one to several class days (about 45 minutes a day). Read the teacher’s lesson plan first: it has the steps, materials, timing and discussion prompts. Then print the student pages (procedures and work pages). Teacher references and answer keys are at the bottom of the lesson.
2. Science Literacy readings — about once a week students read a short collection from the Student Reader on their own, learn the words to know, complete the exercise page and talk it over.
3. Each unit ends with a words quiz.

Plan on about 45 minutes a day, four or five days a week. Some investigations need simple materials — the plan lists them, and the guide often suggests alternatives. This course has 122 lessons in 6 units, which fills a school year at that pace.

The units

• Unit 1: Light and Matter — 13 lessons and a quiz
  Why do we sometimes see different things when looking at the same object?
• Unit 2: Thermal Energy — 26 lessons and a quiz
  How can containers keep stuff from warming up or cooling down?
• Unit 3: Weather, Climate, and Water Cycling — 30 lessons and a quiz
  Why does a lot of hail, rain, or snow fall at some times and not others?
• Unit 4: Plate Tectonics and Rock Cycling — 19 lessons and a quiz
  What causes Earth’s surface to change?
• Unit 5: Natural Hazards — 15 lessons and a quiz
  Where do natural hazards happen, and how do we prepare for them?
• Unit 6: Cells and Systems — 19 lessons and a quiz
  How do living things heal?