6th Grade Updates

  1. The “Scientific Method” and “Design Thinking” units were moved to the beginning of the year. We recommend starting the year with at least one of these units to set a strong foundation for the rest of the year. You can expect this to take 2–3 weeks. If you find yourself with extra time during the year, you can always use the other unit!
  2. The extension units “Diabetes,” “Nervous System,” “Sun-Earth System,” and “Ecological Footprint” were removed because teachers felt they didn’t have enough time to fit them into the year. 
  3. A brand new “Oceans and Climate” unit was added to Earth’s Systems.
  4. The “Climate Change” unit has been changed to “Climate Change + Ecological Footprint” based on updates to the unit that focus on our ecological footprint.
  5. Relatedly, MS-ESS3-4 (Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth's systems) has been moved from its own unit in 8th grade to the updated “Climate Change + Ecological Footprint” unit in 6th grade where it is fully covered in the updated unit. 
  6. The “Renewable Resources” unit has been removed from 6th grade since it is fully covered in 7th grade. Though spiraling is great, we thought spiraling in back-to-back years was too fast.
  7. Unit durations have been adjusted to reflect these changes.


7th Grade Updates

  1. The “Scientific Method” and “Design Thinking” units were moved to the beginning of the year. We recommend starting the year with at least one of these units to set a strong foundation for the rest of the year. You can expect this to take 2–3 weeks. If you find yourself with extra time during the year, you can always use the other unit!
  2. The “Cells” unit was removed as it is fully covered in 6th grade. 
  3. The “Food Webs” unit was moved to the lower school. The PEs in the Ecosystems unit are fully covered by the units “Interaction of Organisms” and “Biodiversity.”
  4. The extension unit “Weather” was removed because teachers felt they didn’t have enough time to fit it in.
  5. The extension unit “Ecological Footprint” is now part of the “Climate Change + Ecological Footprint” unit in 6th grade. 
  6. MS-LS2-3 (Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem) has been moved to the “Photosynthesis” unit as new updates to that unit fully cover that performance expectation.
  7. We combined the last two DCI units of the year into a larger DCI unit called “Earth’s Systems + Human Activity.”
  8. MS-PS1-3 (Gather and make sense of information to describe that synthetic materials come from natural resources and impact society) has been moved to the first section of the year “Matter and Its Interactions” as it is covered by Physical and Chemical Changes.
  9. Unit durations have been adjusted to reflect these changes.

 

8th Grade Updates

  1. The “Scientific Method” and “Design Thinking” units were moved to the beginning of the year. We recommend starting the year with at least one of these units to set a strong foundation for the rest of the year. You can expect this to take 2–3 weeks. If you find yourself with extra time during the year, you can always use the other unit!
  2. The name of the unit “Newton’s Laws” was changed to “Forces + Motion” since that better reflects the goals of the associated performance expectations.
  3. MS-LS4-5 (Gather and synthesize information about technologies that have changed the way humans influence the inheritance of desired traits in organisms) has been moved to the “Heredity” unit since the topic is fully covered there.
  4. The name of the unit “Adaptations” has been changed to “Selection + Adaptations.”
  5. The name of the unit “Gravity in the Solar System and Lunar Phases” has been changed to “Sun-Earth System and Solar System Gravity.”
  6. The unit “History of the Earth” was incorporated into the “Evidence of Evolution” unit because many states recommend putting it there (and we agree).
  7. The final unit “Ecological Footprint” was removed and merged with the Climate Change unit (now called “Climate Change + Ecological Footprint), which is covered in 6th grade.
  8. Unit durations have been adjusted to reflect these changes.