Life Science
Middle school students know that effective scientific thinking involves
a wide range of skills. They understand that information and skills from
other subjects are relevant to science: They need math to do calculations
and to analyze scientific graphs and language skills to write lab reports.
In Middle School Life Science, students will explore higher-level concepts
and experiments than in the elementary grades. The program's creative
activities will help cement the student's lifelong love of science.
Students will continue to make observations and perform experiments
that encourage them to think and act like scientists. As the program introduces
ideas in greater depth and detail, students will learn to observe carefully
the great diversity of life around them and see how plants and animals
interact and adapt. K12's curriculum stresses the "big ideas"
of life science and presents them in ways students can understand. Students
will understand the importance of questioning and begin to differentiate
between answers that make sense and those that do not have a scientific
foundation.
K12’s Science program encourages students to become scientists by:
Exploring scientific concepts through hands-on,
multistep activities Making careful observations of the world around
them Asking questions that lead to meaningful conclusions
Recording information in a structured, systematic
way Communicating information in a variety of forms Reflecting on the results of what they do and
see Learning about great scientists and inventors
who have shaped our understanding of the world
Each lesson offers a media-rich introduction to one or more aspects
of science. You'll find clear, detailed instructions for experiments and
activities. Most experiments use common materials. K12 provides specialized
scientific materials such as a microscope, magnifying lens, and graduated
cylinders.
K12’s Science program provides step-by-step guidance in each lesson.
Click "Print” at the top of the Lesson Overview screen if you would
like to print the entire lesson.
The online lessons are written at a level the students can understand
with little or no assistance. Most lessons begin with an online exploration
of the lesson topic. It is a good idea to check that the student understands
the main concepts.
Students may complete most of the lesson independently, though you may
choose to help or observe your student’s progress.
To help
you prepare, we provide a Teacher Guide for each lesson. Print it before
the lesson. The Teacher Guide includes an overview of each activity, which
will give you a sense of the day’s experiments and other offline activities.
At the top of each Teacher Guide is the
Lesson Focus, which briefly describes the content of the lesson. The Lesson
Focus is followed by the Lesson Objectives, which detail what your student
will seek to accomplish in the lesson.
In the Prepare section of the Teacher Guide
you will read about any Advance Preparation the lesson may require. (You
will also find that information online, on the Planning and Progress screen.)
You will also find the list of Materials that you should have on hand
for both required and optional activities.
The list of Keywords is the same as the
list that is on-screen. Keywords will help you know which concepts are
particularly important.
In the Teach section of the Teacher Guide
an overview of each Activity is provided. Sometimes the instructions will
provide guidance on conducting an experiment, reminders about worksheets,
or general advice about teaching the lesson.
Some lessons include additional resources.
These websites, books, and other publications are listed in the Lesson
Resources section.
Each lesson includes an Assessment, which
may be online or offline. For your convenience, this section lists assessment
questions and answers. You will find the directions for Unit and Semester
Assessment online; your student will input his or her own assessment results.
The first lesson in a unit begins with a Unit Overview, which will give
a sense of what the lessons in the unit will entail.
You can read the objectives for the unit by clicking the button at the
bottom of the screen.
In Life Science you will delve in to:
Life on Earth:
Explore the rich diversity of life on our planet. Examine the characteristics
and chemical properties of life and discover why carbon is so important. Ecology:
Find out how plants and animals struggle to survive. See how they find
food and how they interact with each other and the environment. History of Life
on Earth: Investigate the theories about the origins of life on
Earth. Learn about natural selection and the development of life. Bacteria, Fungi,
Protists, and Viruses: Discover what these microorganisms are,
what they do, and how they are classified. Survey of Animals:
Learn about the many strange and unusual animals that inhabit our planet
and find out interesting new facts about many familiar animals.
Each
lesson ends with a Lesson Assessment and each unit ends with a Unit Assessment,
which is preceded by a Unit Review. In most cases, you'll print the Lesson
Assessment for your student to complete independently and then your student
will enter the results. Questions on the Unit Assessments and Semester
Assessments are similar to those on earlier Lesson Assessments, but you
will enter those results yourself.
In the Lesson Assessments students answer
five to ten questions that measure understanding of one or more of the
lesson objectives. Questions include short answer, multiple choice, demonstrations,
and interpretations of results. Occasionally you or your student will
need to answer observational questions, such as “Did your student inspect
a cell scraped from inside his cheek?” Clear and specific Answer Keys
accompany each assessment.
To encourage long-term mastery and retention
of concepts, your student will take a Unit Assessment at the end of each
unit and Semester Assessments at the midpoint and at the end of the course.
In most cases, you'll print the assessment and your student will complete
the assessment independently.
Unit and Lesson Assessments are very useful
tools for determining which lessons or parts of lessons your student should
review and which activities bear repeating. For each item that your student
misses, we suggest that he or she go back and briefly review the relevant
material. In this way, you'll know that your student is building the foundation
needed to master more complex concepts in later lessons and grades.
At the end of each semester, your student
will take a Semester Assessment. These longer assessments allow you to
check whether your student is retaining important concepts and skills
from the lessons. These will also help you know which lessons or activities
your student should review.
Total lessons:
96. If you teach Science three times a week, you can comfortably complete
the program within a typical school year. Lesson time:
Lab lessons are 90 minutes; all other lessons are 60 minutes each. If
you wish to take a break between activities, K12’s online lesson-tracking
system allows you to pick up wherever you stopped in any given lesson.
Some lessons are designated as Your Choice lessons. They should be considered
optional. They may include preparation for standardized tests, enrichment
activities, or other ways for your student to expand upon his or her knowledge
of science.
A lesson typically proceeds in this way:
Foundations
Because many lessons assume some measure of prior scientific knowledge,
K12 lessons offer students a chance to review any concepts they may not
have mastered completely. The Foundations activity begins with one or
more questions designed to help students know if review of applicable
concepts from earlier lessons would be helpful. After answering the question(s),
your student may review one or two screens of background material. If
your student answered the questions correctly, he or she may choose to
go straight to the lesson.
Explore
Lessons begin with a rich, interactive exploration of lesson concepts.
Photos, animations, and illustrations help spark interest in the concepts
covered in the lesson. Explore may feature pop-up graphs, interactive
pictures, biography cards, or interesting science facts. By the end of
the activity, students are ready to begin hands-on explorations into the
subject.
Labs and Activities
There are two kinds of hands-on activities in the Middle School Life
Science Program: laboratories and activities. Activities are brief "wrap-ups"
for each content lesson. These activities offer ways for students to explore
lesson concepts more actively.
In Middle School Science, one or two lessons per unit are Laboratories.
These longer hands-on activities, which may take up to 90 minutes, explore
some concept of the unit in greater depth than the activities. Guided
questions, hands-on experiments, and structured observations will help
your student discover many scientific truths. Students will do most of
these activities away from the computer. For more complicated experiments,
we provide step-by-step photographs or illustrations of the process to
guide the student. As your student completes worksheets and makes informed
observations, your student will be doing the work of a junior scientist.
These activities emphasize scientific inquiry. In fact, they build toward
an entire unit dedicated to scientific methods. These labs encourage your
student to examine details, ask effective questions, and use the techniques
of a professional scientist to discover the answers.
Beyond the Lesson
In many lessons, an optional activity follows the assessment. These
offer creative ways to apply the knowledge and skills acquired in the
lesson. Your student might investigate the job of a zoologist or visit
a website to see photographs of Rafflesia arnoldii, the largest flower
on Earth. Sometimes you'll be directed to explore websites that offer
science games, interesting photographs, additional information, or challenges.
The activity may also recommend books or other sources to supplement the
lesson.
Unit Review
At the end of each unit, students review the central concepts in a Unit
Review lesson. The Unit Review activities can take many forms. Vocabulary
review games, challenge activities, guided discussions, and multimedia
activities reinforce the concepts taught throughout the unit. In this
way, you and your student can be sure that the student has mastered the
unit objectives. This is also a time for your student to continue developing
critical thinking skills.
Materials to Have on Hand
Most materials for Science activities are
common household items or items you can readily find in grocery, office
supply, hardware, or garden stores. Such items include yarn or string,
markers, graph paper, scissors, and tape.
Encourage your student to use an organized system for keeping track
of completed work. This can be a helpful learning tool.
Store examples of your student’s work in a three-ring notebook. You
may wish to divide the notebook into sections using store-bought tabs
or pieces of colored paper to separate different units of science.
As you complete each Science lesson, have your student place Science
work from the day (lab sheets, drawings, notes, project directions, etc.)
into the area of the notebook designated for that unit of study.
Your student can also use the Science Notebook to prepare for assessments.
Your student may choose to review items in the notebook lesson-by-lesson,
and eventually unit-by-unit, to prepare for lesson assessments and semester
assessments.
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