KINDERGARTEN
In the classroom and the science lab, kindergarten students explore senses, day and night, energy (sound and light), matter, weather, motion, magnets, and rocks. They learn the characteristics of living vs. nonliving things.
GRADE 1
While learning how scientists work, first grade students study animals, environments, weather, objects in the sky, forces and energy, the Earth’s resources, and plants.
GRADE 2
Second graders refine their inquiry skills. Scientific tools and scientific thinking are new topics to explore while delving into design and engineering, technology, the relationship between plants and animals, changes on the earth, weather, seasons, planets, day and night, matter, energy, magnetism, and dinosaurs.
GRADE 3
Third graders take a look at how scientists investigate and how models can be used. Students explore landforms, changes in Earth’s surface, erosion, natural resources, conservation, soil, plants, physical properties and states of matter, weather change and patterns, adaptation (structural/physical/behavioral), engineering and design, and the relationship between technology and society.
GRADE 4
Students begin with the questions: What is the engineering process? What is technology? They explore electricity (circuits/conductors/ insulators), motion, energy and astronomy. Their exploration of marine biology (fish classification, anatomy, dissection) and plants (structures/ reproduction/life cycles) are facilitated by classroom discussions and laboratory experiments.
GRADE 5
Types of investigations and controlled experiments are introduced as students probe concepts in oceanography, the solar system and astronomy. They examine living things (classification/reproduction), ecosystems, natural resources, the Earth (how it changes), rocks and minerals, ancient earth, sound, light, engineering and design.
GRADE 6
After years of exploration and discovery, the lab is familiar and still full of new discoveries for the sixth graders as they learn about the characteristics of cells, homeostasis and cell processes, photosynthesis and respiration, and mitosis. They delve into DNA, sexual and asexual reproduction, and heredity. Their curriculum culminates in a study of motion (speed/acceleration/ forces), kinetic and potential energy, and gravity.