Second Grade Science

Student Requirements

Each student is required to complete one oral or written "Response to a Key Question" for each topic studied. Both oral and written responses will include an illustration or a series of illustrations.
 * At last one response will be a written product.
 * At least one response will be an oral presentation
 (See Response to a Key Question Task Description.)		 Each student is required to carry out two "Extended Investigations" based on grade level topics. These investigations may be done as a class. The results of the student participation in the investigation will be assessed using the following task descriptions:
  "Observation"
  "Data Collection and Analysis"
Each student will be assessed for process science skills by being evaluated by the "Teacher Observation of Science Skills" Task Description once a year. Each student is required to keep a "Work Collection." Students will keep this collection of work in a notebook for the school year. This may be organized in several ways: a pocket a folder, a large envelope, a three ring binder, or other storage device. This notebook will store work from all the science topics studied and may include: illustrations, class notes, logbooks, science activity reports, notes for preparing responses to key questions, and others. The teacher will help the students to learn to organize their notebooks and will decide how to evaluate the work collection.
Students will learn to use and master appropriate tools during the investigations carried out in each topic.(See Boston Public Schools Technology Connections)
Once during the year students should devote one activity to a majority of the aspects of the design process as described in the Massachusetts Science and Technology Frameworks and the Boston Public Schools Technology Connections. These activities can be identified in the newly adopted science instructional materials or supplemental materials that can be borrowed from the science department. (Training in integrating technology into the Science
Learning Standards  will be provided over the next several years).		 Students will study one particular technology device or process used in the real world for a specific purpose and investigate how and why it works.(See Boston Public Schools Technology Connections).
Students will pass teacher tests of terms and concepts presented in the year's topics. Students will complete their homework.

 Important note: All students are expected to complete the starred (*) products during the 1998-1999 school year. Task descriptions are provided in a separate document (Science Task Descriptions). Teachers, students, and parents may use these Task Descriptions as students develop their products and as tools to help them assess student work. The technology products (design process, tools, technology device, and technology and society) are adapted from the Massachusetts Science and Technology Frameworks and are further explained in the document: The Boston Public Schools Technology Connections. (Part of the professional development on the newly adopted materials will illustrate how to make this connection.)

Content Objectives:

Topic:  Interaction of Living Things
Key Question:  What do living things need to live?

Subquestions:
 How are living things adapted to various habitats?
 What is the effect of living things, including people, and natural forces on environments?
 What are the elements of the habitats of an organism?
Key Concepts, Principles, Lessons, and Phenomena: 

Students will understand...
  All living things need oxygen, food, and water in order to survive in their environment.
  Habitats provide for an organisms needs.
  Organisms adapt to and survive in a particular habitat.
 Human beings can have a strong impact on a habitat.
Entry Points and Applications:

  Butterflies 
  Eggs 
  Frogs 
  Grasshoppers 
  Meal worms
  Alewife Brook 
  Arnold Arboretum 
  Boston Harbor 
  Jamaica Pond
  Peregrine falcons nesting on the Customs Tower 
  Tropical Rain Forest
 Your neighborhood

Topic:  Balancing and Weighing
Key Questions:

Why do objects balance? How can you  weigh objects?
Subquestions:
 How do you know two objects weigh the same?
 Are big objects always heavier than smaller objects? How do you know?
 Do all cupful of materials  weigh the same? How do you know?
 How does changing the shape of something affect its weight?
 How can you use an equal arm balance to weigh things?
 How are equal arm balances useful to society?

 Key Concepts, Principles, Lessons, and Phenomena: 

Students will understand...
 Balance is affected by the amount of weight, the position of the weight, and the position of the
 fulcrum.
 Weighing is the process of balancing an object against a certain number of standard units.
 The weight of an object is not determined by its size.
 Equal volumes of different foods will not have equal weights; equal weights of different foods will not have equal volumes.

 Entry Points and Applications:

mobiles 
levers 
playgrounds 
tricycles 
bicycles
see-saw circus 
fulcrums 
gymnast(balance beam)

Topic: Sun, Earth and Moon
Key Questions:

What are the physical characteristics of the earth, sun and moon? How are they alike ? How are they different?
Subquestions:
 What objects are in the sky?
  What changes in the sky?
 What causes day and night?

 Key Concepts, Principles, Lessons, and Phenomena:
  Students will understand...
  The sun can be seen only in the daytime.
 The moon can be seen sometimes at night and sometimes during the day.
 Stars (other than the sun) can be only be seen at night.
  The sun and the moon appear to move slowly across the sky.
 The sun is a star, a ball of gases much larger than the Earth.
 The sun gives of heat and light essential for life on earth.
 The Earth is one of the nine planets and is the only planet with life on it. It is surrounded atmosphere and is made of water and rock.
 The moon is an airless, cratered ball of rock only a quarter the size of the Earth. It produces no light of itself only reflected sunlight. there is no water on the moon.		  Entry Points and Applications:

 Sun 
Moon 
Stars
Observatories: 
Museum of Science, 
Boston University, 
University of Massachusetts, 
Harvard College

Topic: Light and Color
Key Questions:

 Where does light come from and how does it travel?
Subquestions:
 How does light affect vision?
 How are shadows formed?
 What is color? How can colors be mixed?

 Key Concepts, Principles, Lessons, and Phenomena:
 Students will understand...
Light travel in straight lines until it strikes an object.
Light can be reflected by a mirror, refracted by a lens,  or absorbed by an object.
 Light can pass through some materials and is stopped by other materials.
 Some objects are a source of light and other objects can be seen because they reflect light.
When a narrow beam of light passes through a prism the light is broken up into a band of
colors called a spectrum. The color of a material depends on the kind of light shining on it.
 Red, yellow and blue are called primary colors of paint because every other color can be produced by mixing different combinations of these colored paints.		 Entry Points and Applications:

 photography 
 lenses 
 prisms 
 mirrors 
 cameras
 eye glasses òácolor filters

The Science Domains: Second Grade Content Connections
Life Sciences  Physical Sciences Earth and Space Sciences
  characteristics of living things
  life cycles
  habitats
  organisms interact with the environment
  interrelationships between organisms
  effect of habitats on humans
  growth and development
  plant and animal adaptations
  human impact on the environment

 

  adaptation 
  fulcrum
  balance
  lever
  weight
  gravity
  energy
 pound
 primary colors
 spectrum
 transparent
 opaque
 gram		  stars
 planets
 moons
 atmosphere
 rotation

 
 

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