Middle School Science
Hebrew Day has adopted Science Techbook, a comprehensive, digital science program developed by the educators and designers at Discovery Education and written to the California Next Generation Science Standards. The California Next Generation Science Standards expect students to act and think like scientists and engineers, to ask questions about the world around them and solve real-world problems through the application of critical thinking across the domains of science (Life Science, Earth & Space Science, Physical Science).
The Science Techbook is an innovative program that offers engaging, real-world problems to help your student master key scientific concepts and act and think like scientists. Students engage with interactive science instruction to analyze and interpret data, think critically, solve problems, and make connections across science disciplines. In class, students experience dynamic content, explorations, videos, digital tools, Hands-On Activities and labs, and game-like activities that inspire and motivate scientific learning and curiosity.
Science Techbook is divided into units, and each unit is divided into concepts. Each concept online has five tabs: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate with STEM, and Evaluate.
UNIT: Students begin to consider the connections across fields of science in order to understand, analyze, and describe real-world phenomena.
ENGAGE: Students activate their prior knowledge of a concept’s essential ideas and begin making connections to a real-world phenomenon and the Can You Explain question.
EXPLORE: Students develop a more rigorous description of real-world phenomena through a critical reading of the Core Text. Online, students have access to additional resources, Hands-On Activities, and interactives related to the Lesson Questions and the concept’s Can You Explain? question.
EXPLAIN: Students construct scientific explanations using evidence they have gathered and analyzed during Explore.
ELABORATE: Students connect the skills and knowledge they are building in each concept with careers and real-world applications.
6th Grade
Unit 1: Systems on Earth
1.1 Body Systems
Living things are organized into systems and subsystems that work together to maintain life.
1.2 The Cell as a System
Even at a smaller scale, living things can be organized into systems and subsystems. The effects can be devastating when part of the system malfunctions.
1.3 Earth's Interacting Systems
Earth’s systems interact by transferring matter and energy.
Unit 2: Causes of Weather
2.1 Energy Transfer in the Water Cycle
The relationships between the temperature and total energy of a system depend on the types, states, and amount of matter present. Energy is spontaneously transferred out of hotter regions or object and into colder ones.
2.2 Weather Patterns
Weather is influenced by interactions involving sunlight, the ocean, the atmosphere, and landforms. These interactions vary with local and regional geography.
Unit 3: Causes & Effects of Regional Climates
3.1 Creating Climate Regions
Climate is influenced by the interactions of sunlight, oceans, the atmosphere, ice, landforms and living things. These interactions will vary depending on location and geography.
3.2 Environmental & Genetic Influences
Genetic factors, as well as local conditions, have an effect on the growth of plants and animals.
3.3 Reproductive Success
Organisms reproduce, either sexually or asexually, and transfer their genetic information to their offspring. Animals will engage in characteristic behaviors to increase the odds of reproduction. Plants sometimes depend on animal behavior and specialized structures for reproductive success.
3.4 Heredity
In sexually reproducing organisms, each parent contributes half of the genes acquired, at random, by the offspring. Variations of inherited traits come from genetic differences that result from the subset of chromosomes and genes that are passed down from parent to offspring.
Unit 4: Our Changing Climate
4.1 Causes of Climate Change
Climate change can be short-term or long-term, and there is plenty of evidence to support the climate changes that are being observed. There are many factors responsible for the increase in average global temperatures.
4.2 Climate Change Impacts Organisms
Organisms rely upon their habitats for food, shelter, water, and space. Habitat destruction, sometimes caused by climate change, is changing the way some organisms behave.
4.3 Reducing Human Impacts on the Environment
To survive, stay healthy and prevent environmental problems, we must be careful of how much land we use for building and farming. Scientists work to maintain our environment by placing limitations on our consumption of land and designing solutions to solve or prevent environmental problems.
7th Grade
Unit 1: Matter All Around
1.1 Particles in States of Matter
The temperature and state of a pure substance depend on the kinetic energy of the particles that make it up.
1.2 Energy and Changing States
Adding or removing thermal energy can change the state of a pure substance. The temperature at which a change of state occurs is affected by air pressure.
1.3 The Composition of Matter
All matter is composed of atoms, which combine with each other in various ways to create the wide variety of substances that make up our universe.
Unit 2: Matter Cycles and Energy Flow
2.1 How Matter Can Change
When a chemical change occurs, the atoms in molecules rearrange themselves to form new substances with new chemical and physical properties.
2.2 Matter and Energy in Living Systems
Energy flows and matter cycles through living things in the processes of photosynthesis and cellular respiration.
2.3 Formation of Rocks
Energy from the Earth’s interior and from the sun drives processes that cause matter to cycle through different forms of Earth materials.
Unit 3: Shaping Earth's Resources and Ecosystems
3.1 Earth's Moving Surface
Evidence in rocks indicates that Earth’s lithosphere is broken into tectonic plates, which move and interact in ways that produce earthquakes, volcanoes, and a variety of surface features.
3.2 Earth's Natural Resources
Earth’s natural resources are typically limited and nonrenewable, and are distributed unevenly because of geologic processes.
3.3 Interactions in Ecosystems
The availability of resources affects ecosystems and their populations, which have common patterns of interactions.
Unit 4: Sustaining Ecosystems
4.1 Mass Wasting
Most types of mass wasting are natural hazards that can damage ecosystems, yet this damage can be slowed.
4.2 Synthetic Materials
Synthetic materials are produced from natural resources. While they are very useful, they can also cause harm to ecosystems.
4.3 Human Impact on Ecosystems
Human activities can cause harm to biodiversity and ecosystem services, and they can also improve and sustain them.
8th Grade
Unit 1: Objects Move and Collide
1.1 Falling Objects
We can describe motion using common frames of reference. The motion of an object is determined by the sum of the forces acting upon it.
1.2 Energy for Launch
A larger force causes a larger change in motion. Motion energy is called kinetic energy. Kinetic energy is the relationship between mass of the object in motion and the speed of the object.
1.3 Colliding Objects
When transferring energy between two objects, each object exerts a force on each other.
Unit 2: Moving Planets
2.1 Observing Planetary Objects
Planets have different compositions and physical features that can be captured using technology.
Based on Earth’s rotation and orbit, we can observe patterns in the phases of the moon. We can use patterns to predict lunar and solar eclipses.
2.2 Planetary Forces
The strength of magnetic and electrical forces depends on the mass and distance between objects. The greater the distance between charged particles, the weaker the electric field. Every particle has its own electric field. The electric field of a particle can be activated by running current.
Magnetic forces can be attractive and repulsive. A magnetic field can generate electrical current.
2.3 Orbital Forces
The strength of gravitational forces depends on the mass and distance between objects. Objects in orbit experience an attractive gravitational force.
Earth orbits around the sun each year, resulting in the seasons. Earth rotates around an axis that results in 12 hours of daylight. The moon rotates around Earth each month, resulting in the phases of the moon.
2.4 Energy in the Universe
The kinetic energy of objects in the solar system is determined by their velocity and mass. The kinetic energy of a planet in orbit changes as it changes distance from the sun.
Energy is transferred from the potential nuclear energy of the sun to Earth’s surface.
Unit 3: Life's Unity and Diversity
3.1 Earth's History and the Fossil Record
The process of Earth’s formation laid out the conditions needed to support life. Fossils provide an imperfect record of past life forms. Patterns, including the relatedness of life and mass extinction events, can be inferred from the fossil record.
3.2 Evolution and Natural Selection
The naturalist Charles Darwin proposed a hypothesis that accounted for how the diversity of life on Earth has evolved. Evolution is the change in the genetic make-up of populations brought about by genetic mutation and the action of natural selection.
3.3 Evidence for Evolution
Evolution is a scientific theory that is supported by a wide variety of evidence including the fossil record and the structure, development, genetics, and ongoing evolution of living organisms.
3.4 Modifying Organisms
Some organisms have been domesticated. The process of domestication has been accompanied by artificial selection. Scientists can now modify organisms using a process called genetic engineering.
Unit 4: Monitoring Biodiversity
4.1 Nature of Waves
Waves carry energy. There are two types of waves: mechanical waves and electromagnetic waves. Waves have certain characteristics. Waves can be used to transfer information.
4.2 Waves and Matter
When waves interact with matter they are either reflected by it, travel through it, are absorbed by it, or bend around it. Waves change speed when they move from one medium to another.
4.3 Warming Earth
Differences in the amount of solar energy striking Earth causes variation in its climate. Climate is important in determining the distribution of life on Earth. The tilt of Earth’s axis causes seasons.
4.4 Remote Sensing
Remote sensing uses waves to gather information. Satellite remote sensing can provide datasets of large areas over time. These technologies can be used to monitor changes in Earth systems.
4.5 Sustaining Biodiversity
Increases in human population and per capita consumption threaten Earth’s biodiversity. Measures can be taken to reduce these impacts.