Investigations in Science Grade 6
OVERVIEW
Welcome to Investigations in Science for grade 6. This curriculum is a unique problem/project based curriculum.
The learning is student-centered with the teacher acting as a facilitator. Instruction is woven around one main
problem within each unit of study. Minds-on inquiry and hands on explorations, productive discourse, purposeful
reading and meaningful writing will guide the students through this exciting Science course! Students will be
presented a request for proposals (RFP) at the start of each unit. They will then use a design-folio throughout the
quarter to research, develop, design and evaluate their proposal.
Units of Study
Quarter
Title
1
Bumper Project
2
Butterfly Habitat Project
3
Going Green Project
4
Solar Collector Project
Summary Statement
Students will describe motion using the relationships between
position, direction, time, and distance. They will discover
Newton’s Laws of Motion and explain the relationships between
forces acting on a body (mass) and the motion of the body.
Students will identify that work is done when a force moves an
object over a distance and energy is required to cause that change.
They will use their design-folio’s to create a bumper that
encompasses all the information
Students will discover there are many factors that affect diverse
populations in a variety of ecosystems. They will find there is a
great diversity of organisms living in a variety of ecosystems.
Students will identify that characteristics of organisms gradually
change over time as a result of natural selection and that matter
and energy flow throughout an ecosystem in predictable patterns.
All of this information will be collected in their design-folio’s and
used to build a habitat for the Baltimore Butterfly.
Students will discover that natural resources are used by living
things in a variety of ways. Natural resources also need
protection and conservation in a given environment. They will
identify that as resources are used in a habitat, the environment is
changed. Natural resource use can cause changes that have
social, economic, and environmental impacts. They will use their
design-folio to model a solution to a variety of environmental
problems created from natural resource use.
Students will discover that electrical current moving through a
wire produces a magnetic force on materials placed near the wire.
They will also investigate electrical energy and conclude it can be
generated from a variety of sources and transferred into almost
any form of energy. They will identify that waves are able to
transfer energy from one place to another. Students will use their
deign-folio to design and build a solar collector.