Science

This is a year-long, activity-based science course following the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) for Middle School. The course focuses on these NGSS topics: investigation and experimentation, Earth’s Place in the Solar System, Earth’s Systems (geology, weather, climate), and Earth and Human Activity. There is an emphasis on expository writing through individual and group work. In addition to the disciplinary core ideas, the NGSS cross-cutting concepts and science & engineering practices are explored.

Are you interested in learning about how crimes are solved? Explore the connection between the real world, science, and technology while learning about the field of forensics. This is a hands on course and students will be active participants in labs, activities, mysteries, and presentations. Some of the topics include eyewitness identification, blood spatter patterns, fingerprinting, trace evidence, bite mark evidence with candy, chromatography, and handwriting analysis. Students gain insight into the workings of the legal system as they examine cases and outcomes. Students will be in charge of creating their own mystery, that the rest of the class will be participants in. By the end of the course, students will be crime solving masters!

This is a year-long, activity-based science course following the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) for Middle School. The course focuses on these NGSS topics: investigation and experimentation, the structure and process from molecules to organisms; interactions, energy flow and dynamics of ecosystems; inheritance and variation of genetic traits; and the diversity of biological evolution. This course will address the expectations for instruction outlined in the California Healthy Youth Act. This course also supports scientific practices through experimentation, emphasis on scientific reading, writing, and communication, collaboration, and engineering skills through design and testing. In addition to the disciplinary core ideas, the NGSS cross-cutting concepts and science & engineering practices are explored.

This is a year-long, activity-based science course following the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) for Middle School. The course focuses on these NGSS topics: investigation and experimentation, matter and its interactions, forces and interactions of motion and stability, energy, waves and information technology. Students build their understanding of science phenomena and practice data analysis, math computation, reading, writing and communication skills. In addition to the disciplinary core ideas, the cross-cutting concepts and science & engineering practices are explored.