Science: Systems, Evidence & Models
Objectives
- D06.S1.08.01 Design a controlled experiment with a clear hypothesis, variables, and a plan for repeated trials and controls.
- D06.S1.08.02 Explain how scientific models are revised when new evidence appears, using a historical example.
- D06.S2.08.01 Explain how organisms inherit and express traits through genes (DNA) and how the environment interacts with genes.
- D06.S2.08.02 Analyze how changes in one population ripple through an ecosystem and can reduce or restore balance.
- D06.S3.08.01 Explain atoms, elements, and compounds, and how chemical reactions rearrange atoms to form new substances.
- D06.S3.08.02 Explain electric and magnetic fields and how they interact to produce forces and currents.
- D06.S4.08.01 Describe the life cycle of stars, the formation of elements, and our place in the galaxy.
- D06.S4.08.02 Explain how plate tectonics shapes continents, mountains, and ocean basins over millions of years.
Essential questions
- How do I design a controlled experiment, and how are scientific models revised when new evidence appears?
- How do genes and the environment shape what organisms inherit and express, and how does one changed population ripple through an ecosystem?
- How do atoms, elements, and reactions rearrange matter, how do electric and magnetic fields interact, and how do stars and plate tectonics shape our world?
Big ideas
- Controlled experiments with hypotheses, variables, and controls are how evidence is made, and models are revised, not discarded, when evidence changes.
- Genes and environment together shape traits, and ecosystems are webs where one changed population ripples outward.
- Matter rearranges in chemical reactions, fields produce forces and currents, stars forge elements, and plate tectonics shapes the Earth over millions of years.
Lessons
- 1 Systems, Evidence & Models: Where We've Been, Where We're Going 50 minutes
- 2 Designing a Controlled Experiment 55 minutes
- 3 Revising Models When New Evidence Appears 50 minutes
- 4 Genes, DNA, and the Environment: Inheritance and Expression 50 minutes
- 5 One Population Ripples Through an Ecosystem 50 minutes
- 6 Atoms, Elements, Compounds, and Reactions 50 minutes
- 7 Electric and Magnetic Fields 50 minutes
- 8 Stars: Life Cycle, Forging Elements, Our Place in the Galaxy 50 minutes
- 9 Plate Tectonics: Continents, Mountains, and Ocean Basins 50 minutes
- 10 Capstone: Systems, Evidence & Models — Putting It Together 55 minutes
Assessment plan
Observation of a learner designing a controlled experiment and explaining a historical model revision; a gene-and-environment explanation, an ecosystem-ripple analysis, a chemical-reaction and fields explanation, and a stars-and-plate-tectonics account as portfolio artifacts — all held as models with evidence, not creed.
Unit 6 — Science: Systems, Evidence & Models
Overview
This unit looks out at the world through the lens of systems — and the difference between a model and the thing itself, building on Grade 7’s correlation-versus- causation and its reading of deep time. Learners design a controlled experiment with a clear hypothesis, variables, and a plan for repeated trials and controls, and explain how scientific models are revised when new evidence appears, using a historical example. They explain how organisms inherit and express traits through genes (DNA) and how the environment interacts with genes, and analyze how changes in one population ripple through an ecosystem and can reduce or restore balance. They explain atoms, elements, and compounds and how chemical reactions rearrange atoms to form new substances, and explain electric and magnetic fields and how they interact to produce forces and currents. They describe the life cycle of stars, the formation of elements, and our place in the galaxy, and explain how plate tectonics shapes continents, mountains, and ocean basins over millions of years. Origins are offered as models with evidence, held as inquiry alongside other ways of knowing, never as creed.
Essential questions
- How do I design a controlled experiment, and how are scientific models revised when new evidence appears?
- How do genes and the environment shape what organisms inherit and express, and how does one changed population ripple through an ecosystem?
- How do atoms, elements, and reactions rearrange matter, how do electric and magnetic fields interact, and how do stars and plate tectonics shape our world?
Lessons
| Lesson | Title | Standards |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Systems, Evidence & Models: Where We’ve Been, Where We’re Going | D06.S1.08.01, D06.S1.08.02 |
| 02 | Designing a Controlled Experiment | D06.S1.08.01 |
| 03 | Revising Models When New Evidence Appears | D06.S1.08.02 |
| 04 | Genes, DNA, and the Environment: Inheritance and Expression | D06.S2.08.01 |
| 05 | One Population Ripples Through an Ecosystem | D06.S2.08.02 |
| 06 | Atoms, Elements, Compounds, and Reactions | D06.S3.08.01 |
| 07 | Electric and Magnetic Fields | D06.S3.08.02 |
| 08 | Stars: Life Cycle, Forging Elements, Our Place in the Galaxy | D06.S4.08.01 |
| 09 | Plate Tectonics: Continents, Mountains, and Ocean Basins | D06.S4.08.02 |
| 10 | Capstone: Systems, Evidence & Models — Putting It Together | all eight D06 grade-8 objectives |