Science
Richland Two provides high-quality science curricula and instruction aligned with the current South Carolina science standards.
Elementary School
At the elementary level, students are introduced to science topics through an inquiry approach that includes hands-on activities and integration with other subject areas.
In fourth grade, students take the South Carolina Palmetto Assessment of State Standards (SCPASS) for science.
Middle School
From the South Carolina College- and Career-Ready Science Standards 2021 pp. 2-3
The standards are performance expectations that are three-dimensional. These three dimensions are:
- Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs),
- Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs), and
- Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs).
The standards derive from foundational research that ensures in-depth opportunities for students to authentically explore the core ideas of the natural and human built world as scientists and engineers.
The standards are considered flexible for the organization of any course as they are not sequenced for instruction and do not represent a curricular scope or sequence. The three-dimensional standards describe a small number of disciplinary core ideas, so that all students learn what is most important for proficiency in the discipline at a particular level.
In accordance with the South Carolina Educational Accountability Act of 1998 (S.C. Code Ann. § 59- 18- 110), the purpose of academic standards is to provide the basis for the development of local curricula and statewide assessment.
Sixth Grade
Unit 1 — Waves and Their Applications (20 days)
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Big ideas: How light and sound travel and interact with materials.
- Students will: Develop and use models (drawings, simulations, descriptions) to show that waves are reflected (bounce), absorbed (soaked up), or transmitted (pass through). Explain that sound needs a medium, light can travel through space, and light bends when passing between different transparent materials.
- Evidence of learning: Models, demonstrations, class discussions, short investigations, qualitative explanations.
- Family supports: Observe shadows/reflections, compare materials (transparent, opaque, translucent), ask your child to draw how light bends at water.
Unit 2 — Matter and Interactions (30 days)
- Big ideas: Particle models explain solids, liquids, gases and how heat changes state and particle motion.
- Students will: Use molecular-level models to predict changes in particle motion, temperature, and state when thermal energy is added/removed. Design, build, and test devices that minimize or maximize thermal energy transfer (e.g., insulated box, solar cooker). Plan investigations relating energy transfer, material type, mass, and temperature change.
- Evidence of learning: Lab reports, models, device design and testing, data analysis (qualitative).
- Family supports: Test simple insulation at home, compare heating/cooling rates of different materials, ask for explanations of particle behavior during melting/freezing.
Unit 3 — Weather and Human Activity (35 days)
- Big ideas: Water cycles through Earth’s systems; air masses and circulation drive weather and climate; natural hazards can be analyzed and mitigated.
- Students will: Develop models of the water cycle showing state changes driven by the sun and gravity. Analyze data to explain how air mass motion and interactions change weather and why forecasts are probabilistic. Model how unequal heating and Earth’s rotation create atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns that shape regional climates. Analyze natural hazard data to identify patterns and technologies to reduce impacts.
- Evidence of learning: Models, data analyses, weather maps/graphs, projects on hazards and mitigation.
- Family supports: Track daily weather together, map local precipitation, discuss weather forecasts and uncertainty, review local hazard preparedness.
Unit 4 — Earth’s Systems (35 days)
- Big ideas: Earth’s history and surface changes are explained by rock strata, plate tectonics, and cycling of materials driven by energy flows.
- Students will: Use rock layers and fossil evidence to construct explanations for relative ages in Earth’s history. Develop models describing cycling of Earth materials and energy (melting, crystallization, weathering, deformation, sedimentation). Analyze fossils, continental shapes, and seafloor features as evidence of past plate motions and surface-change processes across different time scales.
- Evidence of learning: Model-based explanations, data interpretation, fossil/rock analysis activities.
- Family supports: Visit local rock outcrops, museums, or virtual fossil collections; ask your child to explain how rock layers tell a story of Earth’s past.
Unit 5 — Cells and the Human Body (30 days)
- Big ideas: Living things are made of cells; cell parts support whole-cell functions; body systems are networks of interacting subsystems; senses send information to the brain.
- Students will: Investigate evidence that organisms are unicellular or multicellular. Build and use models to describe cell functions and how organelles (nucleus, mitochondria, chloroplasts, cell membrane, cell wall) contribute to the whole. Use evidence-based arguments that cells form tissues and organs making interacting body systems (circulatory, respiratory, digestive, excretory, muscular, skeletal, nervous). Gather and synthesize information on how sensory receptors detect stimuli and send signals to the brain.
- Evidence of learning: Investigations, models, written explanations, group projects.
- Family supports: Look at simple microscope slides or images, discuss how body systems work together (e.g., how breathing supports activity), ask them to model a cell and explain each part’s role.
Quick notes for families
- Assessments emphasize models, investigations, and evidence-based explanations rather than heavy calculations.
- Ways to help: Ask probing questions (“What did you observe? How do you know?”), invite demonstrations, support simple home experiments, and encourage documentation (drawings, photos, short explanations).
Seventh Grade
Unit 1 — Matter: Structure & Properties (≈20 days)
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Big ideas: Everything is made of atoms that join to form molecules or extended structures (like crystals). Different arrangements give different properties (e.g., diamond vs. graphite).
- Students will:
- Develop models (drawings, 3D or digital) of simple molecules and extended structures.
- Observe and describe solids, liquids, and gases and how composition affects properties.
- Family connections: Ask your student to show a molecule model (ball‑and‑stick drawing) and explain why two forms of carbon can feel and look so different.
Unit 2 — Chemical Reactions (≈25 days)
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Big ideas: Chemical reactions rearrange atoms to form new substances; mass (total number of atoms) is conserved; some reactions release or absorb heat.
- Students will:
- Analyze data on properties (density, melting/boiling point, solubility, flammability, odor) to tell if a chemical reaction occurred.
- Model conservation of atoms/mass in reactions (using drawings or counters).
- Design and test a small device that absorbs or releases thermal energy (e.g., endothermic/exothermic mixes), and modify it based on results.
- Explore how synthetic materials come from natural resources and their societal impacts.
- Family connections: Students may bring home simple demos (baking soda + vinegar) or explain why mass appears unchanged in a sealed reaction.
Unit 3 — Matter & Energy in Life (≈20 days)
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Big ideas: Photosynthesis and cellular processes move matter and energy through organisms; food molecules are rearranged to support growth and release energy.
- Students will:
- Construct explanations (with evidence) for the role of photosynthesis in cycling matter and energy into/out of organisms.
- Model how food molecules are broken down and rebuilt as matter flows through organisms.
- Explore food webs showing matter and energy transfer among producers, consumers, and decomposers.
- Family connections: Have your student trace carbon from air → plant → animal in everyday foods.
Unit 4 — Ecosystem Interactions (time varies)
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Big ideas: Organisms depend on resources and on each other; changes to physical or biological parts affect populations and ecosystem health.
- Students will:
- Analyze data on how resource availability affects individual growth and population size.
- Predict patterns of interactions (competition, predation, mutualism) across ecosystems.
- Use empirical evidence to argue how changes (natural or human‑caused) affect populations.
- Evaluate design solutions to maintain biodiversity and ecosystem services, considering scientific, economic, and social constraints.
- Family connections: Discuss a local species or habitat and what might happen if a key resource becomes scarce.
Unit 5 — Earth’s Resources & Human Impact (≈35 days)
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Big ideas: Earth's resources (minerals, water, energy) formed by geologic processes and are unevenly distributed and often limited; human activity affects Earth systems and climate.
- Students will:
- Explain how past geoscience processes led to uneven resource distribution.
- Design monitoring and mitigation methods to reduce human impacts (water use, land use, pollution).
- Construct evidence‑based arguments about how population and consumption affect Earth systems.
- Ask and evaluate evidence about factors influencing global temperature change (human and natural).
- Family connections: Invite students to identify one way your household uses resources and brainstorm a practical way to reduce impact.
Unit 6 — Potential & Kinetic Energy (≈15 days)
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Big ideas: Kinetic energy relates to mass and (strongly) to speed; systems have stored (potential) energy depending on arrangement; energy transfers accompany changes in motion.
- Students will:
- Create and interpret graphs showing how kinetic energy changes with mass and speed (descriptively — no heavy calculations).
- Model how changing positions (height, magnet orientation, charge proximity) changes potential energy in a system.
- Build arguments, using evidence (temperature change, motion), showing energy transfer when kinetic energy changes.
- Family connections: Try simple observations (rolling different‑mass balls, changing speed on a bike) and have students explain energy concepts.
How you can support your student
- Ask them to explain or show a model or lab result in plain language.
- Encourage evidence‑based explanations: “What data shows that…?”
- Connect lessons to everyday life: food, household energy use, local ecosystems.
- Celebrate curiosity and iterative design — science improves through testing and revision.
Eighth Grade
Unit 1 — Forces & Motion [Contact Forces] (≈25 days)
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What students will do:
- Apply Newton’s Third Law to design solutions for collisions (e.g., car bumpers, spacecraft).
- Plan and carry out investigations showing how an object’s motion changes when forces and mass change.
- Construct arguments using evidence that gravity is always attractive and depends on mass and distance.
- Big ideas families can discuss:
- Forces come in pairs—every push or pull has an equal-and-opposite response.
- More force or less mass → bigger change in motion.
- Gravity acts at a distance and shapes motion in the Solar System.
- Real-world connections: car safety features, space travel, tides.
Unit 2 — Electric & Magnetic Interactions [Forces at a Distance] (≈25 days)
- What students will do:
- Analyze data to find factors affecting electric and magnetic force strength (e.g., coils, magnet number).
- Investigate and evaluate designs showing that fields exist between objects (magnetic/electric fields act without contact).
- Big ideas:
- Electric and magnetic forces can attract or repel; strength depends on magnitude and distance.
- Fields are a way to explain forces acting across empty space.
- Real-world connections: motors, generators, electromagnets in recycling or medical devices.
Unit 3 — Waves & Information (≈25 days)
- What students will do:
- Use simple math and models to describe wave properties and how amplitude relates to energy.
- Communicate how digital devices use waves to send reliable information.
- Big ideas:
- Waves have repeating patterns (wavelength, frequency, amplitude).
- Digitizing signals (pulses) helps preserve and transmit information accurately.
- Real-world connections: sound, communication tech, fiber optics, Wi‑Fi.
Unit 4 — Earth’s Place in the Universe (≈35 days)
- What students will do:
- Develop and use models of the Earth–Sun–Moon system to explain phases, eclipses, tides, and seasons.
- Model the role of gravity in motions of the Solar System and galaxies.
- Evaluate information about scale and properties of Solar System objects.
- Big ideas:
- Cyclical patterns (phases, seasons, eclipses) are predictable with models.
- Gravity governs orbits and large-scale structure.
- Real-world connections: calendars, satellite motion, space exploration.
Unit 5 — Heredity, Growth & Development (≈25 days)
- What students will do:
- Use evidence to explain how behaviors and plant structures affect reproductive success.
- Explain how environmental and genetic factors influence growth.
- Model how mutations can change proteins and affect organisms.
- Compare asexual and sexual reproduction and model genetic variation (Punnett squares).
- Big ideas:
- Traits come from genes and environment; mutations can be beneficial, harmful, or neutral.
- Sexual reproduction increases variation; asexual reproduction produces near-identical offspring.
- Real-world connections: agriculture, conservation, health.
Unit 6 — Natural Selection (≈40 days)
- What students will do:
- Analyze fossil data to find patterns of change and diversity over time.
- Explain anatomical similarities/differences to infer ancestry.
- Use evidence to show how variation affects survival and reproduction.
- Research human technologies that influence inheritance (artificial selection) and model population trait changes mathematically.
- Big ideas:
- Fossil and anatomical evidence document life’s changes over time.
- Natural selection changes trait frequencies in populations across generations.
- Real-world connections: biodiversity, breeding programs, conservation decisions.
Family notes — how you can help
- Ask your student to show their models, data, or lab write‑ups.
- Discuss everyday examples: vehicle safety features, medical technologies, local weather & seasons, or a family pet’s traits.
- Encourage curiosity: ask “How do we know?” and “What evidence supports that claim?”
- Support safe hands-on exploration and use of simulations when labs are at home.
Assessment & Skills
- Students will demonstrate understanding through investigations, models, data analysis, written arguments, and presentations tied to grade‑level targets.
- Emphasis on evidence-based reasoning, experimental design, model use, and quantitative/qualitative analysis.
High School
From the South Carolina College- and Career-Ready Science Standards 2021 pp. 2-3
The standards are performance expectations that are three-dimensional. These three dimensions are:
- Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs),
- Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs), and
- Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs).
The standards derive from foundational research that ensures in-depth opportunities for students to authentically explore the core ideas of the natural and human built world as scientists and engineers.
The standards are considered flexible for the organization of any course as they are not sequenced for instruction and do not represent a curricular scope or sequence. The three-dimensional standards describe a small number of disciplinary core ideas, so that all students learn what is most important for proficiency in the discipline at a particular level.
In accordance with the South Carolina Educational Accountability Act of 1998 (S.C. Code Ann. § 59- 18- 110), the purpose of academic standards is to provide the basis for the development of local curricula and statewide assessment.
Biology 1
Here’s a short, clear snapshot of what Biology 1 students will learn during the semester. Each unit lists the big ideas, what students will do, and how it connects to everyday life.
Unit 1 — Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy & Dynamics (≈4 weeks)
Big ideas
- Ecosystems have limits (carrying capacity) set by resources, space, climate, predators, disease and other factors.
- Carbon cycles through living things, air, water and earth via photosynthesis and respiration.
- Human activities (habitat loss, pollution, invasive species, overuse, climate change) can harm biodiversity; we can design solutions to reduce impacts.
What students will do
- Use graphs, charts or models to compare how biotic and abiotic factors affect population size in different ecosystems (e.g., pond vs. ocean).
- Build models showing how photosynthesis and respiration move carbon among the biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and geosphere.
- Design, test, and refine realistic solutions to reduce human impacts on biodiversity, considering costs and trade‑offs.
Why it matters at home
- Helps explain local population changes (e.g., more algae in a pond after runoff).
- Connects to everyday choices (waste, energy use, habitat protection) and community actions that support healthy ecosystems.
Unit 2 — From Molecules to Organisms: Structures & Processes (≈7 weeks)
Big ideas
- Photosynthesis converts sunlight into stored chemical energy (sugars); cellular respiration releases energy from food.
- The products of photosynthesis (sugars) can be used to build larger molecules (amino acids, proteins) needed for life.
- Cell division (mitosis) and differentiation create and maintain complex organisms.
What students will do
- Use diagrams and models to explain inputs/outputs of photosynthesis and how energy is stored.
- Explain how carbon, hydrogen and oxygen from sugars become building blocks for larger biomolecules.
- Model how cellular respiration transfers energy and compare aerobic vs. anaerobic efficiency.
- Model how DNA and cell division relate to growth, repair and cancer (conceptual, not biochemical detail).
Why it matters at home
- Explains how plants power food webs (and why green spaces matter).
- Connects nutrition, exercise and cellular energy use.
- Helps families talk about growth, development and health.
Unit 3 — Heredity: Inheritance & Variation of Traits (≈3 weeks)
Big ideas
- Genetic variation comes from new combinations (meiosis), replication errors, and environment‑caused mutations.
- Both genetics and environment influence how traits appear and spread in populations; probability and statistics describe trait distributions.
What students will do
- Analyze data to support claims about how variation arises.
- Use probability and statistics to explain why traits vary in a population (no hard population genetics math required).
Why it matters at home
- Helps families understand inherited traits, why siblings differ, and how the environment shapes development.
Unit 4 — Biological Evolution: Unity & Diversity (≈3 weeks)
Big ideas
- Multiple lines of evidence (fossils, DNA, anatomy, embryos) support common ancestry and evolution.
- Evolution by natural selection results from: potential to increase numbers, heritable variation, competition for limited resources, and survival/reproduction of better‑adapted individuals.
- Environmental changes can increase some populations, cause new species over a long time, or lead to extinction.
- Human actions can reduce biodiversity; designing solutions requires weighing social, cultural and environmental impacts.
What students will do
- Evaluate and communicate evidence for common ancestry and evolutionary change.
- Use data and simple models to explain how natural selection leads to adaptation.
- Assess how environmental change affects species and biodiversity and propose mitigation strategies.
Why it matters at home
- Explains why conservation matters and how human choices (land use, resource use) shape the world’s biodiversity.
Earth Science
This course explores Earth as a dynamic system and how people interact with our planet. Below is a clear, family-friendly snapshot of what students will learn across seven units.
Big Ideas
- Earth is made of interacting systems (geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, biosphere, cryosphere).
- Internal heat and plate motions shape continents and ocean floors.
- Water and carbon cycle through Earth’s systems, affecting climate and life.
- Human choices about resources and technology influence Earth’s systems and communities.
- Evidence from rocks, fossils, and space helps us understand Earth’s past and future.
Unit 1 — Intro to Earth Systems (2 weeks)
- Focus: How internal (mantle convection, plate tectonics) and external (weathering, erosion) processes form and change Earth’s surface.
- Students use evidence (rocks, seismic, paleomagnetism) to explain mountains, trenches, ridges, coasts.
- Human connection: How natural hazards and resource locations affect communities.
Unit 2 — Earth Materials & Geologic Time (3 weeks)
- Focus: Using meteorites, moon rocks, and Earth’s oldest minerals to reconstruct Earth’s formation and early history.
- Skills: Radiometric dating, comparing planetary surfaces, interpreting the rock record.
- Human connection: How resource needs and technologies relate to Earth’s history and available materials.
Unit 3 — Internal Processes (3 weeks)
- Focus: Plate tectonics, mantle convection, and Earth’s layered interior; how these explain ages and distribution of crustal rocks.
- Evidence: Seafloor ages, magnetic stripes, seismic data.
- Human connection: How tectonic activity creates hazards and shapes landscapes people depend on.
Unit 4 — Surface Processes (2 weeks)
- Focus: Water’s unique properties (energy storage, transport, freezing expansion, dissolving) and how water drives weathering, erosion, deposition, and soil formation.
- Skills: Investigate hydrogeologic interactions and the role of water in landscapes and ecosystems.
- Human connection: Water’s role in agriculture, infrastructure, and hazard risk.
Unit 5 — The Hydrosphere (2 weeks)
- Focus: Fresh water, oceans, groundwater — how availability and hazards influence settlement, agriculture, and industry.
- Skills: Evaluate resource management and design solutions that reduce human impacts.
- Human connection: Sustainability, conservation, and technology to protect water and biodiversity.
Unit 6 — Atmosphere & Climate Change (3 weeks)
- Focus: Energy flows into/out of Earth, climate drivers, and feedback (for example: greenhouse gases → warming → ice melt → less reflection → more warming).
- Skills: Analyze data and model short- and long-term climate changes; interpret model projections and regional impacts.
- Human connection: How human activities alter climate and what mitigation/adaptation options exist.
Unit 7 — Space Systems (2 weeks)
- Focus: Sun-Earth relationships, orbital motion, and evidence for the Big Bang and stellar nucleosynthesis.
- Skills: Use mathematical or computational representations to predict orbits and explain how stars produce energy and elements.
- Human connection: Solar energy, satellite technology, and how space science informs Earth studies.
Course Skills & Practices Families Can Expect
- Interpreting scientific evidence (data, maps, rock samples, models)
- Constructing explanations and models
- Designing and evaluating solutions to resource and hazard challenges
- Communicating findings clearly to different audiences
How this benefits students
- Builds critical thinking using real-world evidence
- Connects science to local and global decisions about resources, safety, and sustainability
- Prepares students for informed citizenship and possible STEM pathways
Chemistry
Here’s a short, family-friendly summary of what students will learn in this chemistry course, including the big ideas and why they matter.
Unit 1 — Matter: Structure & Properties (7-8 weeks)
What students learn
- Use the periodic table to predict how elements behave by looking at their outer electrons (how they bond, react, or act like metals).
- Investigate materials to compare how particles stick together and how that affects melting/boiling points, vapor pressure, and surface tension.
- Explain why a material’s molecular structure controls how it works (e.g., metals conduct electricity; long-chain molecules are flexible).
Why it matters at home
- Helps explain why salt dissolves, why metals rust, and why some materials are stretchy or conduct electricity.
- Connects classroom models to everyday products and materials students use.
Assessment focus (what students will be asked to do)
- Predict patterns for main-group elements using the periodic table.
- Compare bulk properties to infer relative strengths of particle attractions.
- Communicate, using given molecular structures, why materials behave as they do.
Unit 2 — Chemical Reactions (7-8 weeks)
What students learn
- Explain outcomes of simple chemical reactions using outer electron patterns and periodic trends (e.g., why sodium reacts with chlorine).
- Use math and proportional reasoning to show atoms (and mass) are conserved in reactions (stoichiometry basics).
- Model how bond breaking/forming relates to energy release or absorption.
- Explain how changing temperature or concentration affects reaction rates (collision idea).
- Propose one change to a reaction system to increase product formation (basic equilibrium concepts).
Why it matters at home
- Helps students understand cooking, combustion, batteries, and how medicines or cleaners work.
- Builds practical reasoning about how changing conditions (heat, concentration) changes outcomes.
Assessment focus
- Qualitative and proportional reasoning with main-group element reactions and simple stoichiometric relationships.
- Explanations and models of energy changes in reactions and of factors affecting reaction rate and equilibrium (one variable at a time).
Unit 3 or 4 — Energy (Nuclear, Thermal & Electromagnetic) or Waves and Information (2 weeks)
What students learn
- Build simple models of nuclear processes (fission, fusion, alpha/beta/gamma decay) and compare the scale of energy released.
- Investigate heat transfer in a closed system to see how energy flows toward a more uniform distribution (second law of thermodynamics).
- Evaluate claims about how different frequencies of electromagnetic radiation affect matter (qualitatively).
- Explain how technologies use the electromagnetic spectrum (e.g., medical imaging, communications) in everyday life.
Why it matters at home
- Gives tools to understand news about nuclear energy, radiation safety, thermal insulation, and common technologies like radios or X-rays.
Assessment focus
- Qualitative models of nuclear changes and energy, data-based conclusions about heat transfer, and evaluation of claims about radiation and technology.
Family tips for supporting learning
- Ask students to explain patterns they see (e.g., why some materials melt at different temperatures).
- Connect lessons to everyday examples: cooking, batteries, wiring, plastics, and medical devices.
- Encourage modeling: drawings, simple diagrams, and proportional reasoning rather than memorization.
Physics
Unit 1 — Forces & Motion (3 weeks)
- What students will learn
- Newton’s Second Law: how net force, mass, and acceleration are related (students collect and analyze data to support this).
- How gravitational and electrostatic forces between two objects can be described and predicted using mathematical relationships.
- In student-friendly terms
- Pushes and pulls change how things speed up or slow down; heavier objects need more force to change their motion.
- Gravity and electric charge create forces between objects even when they aren’t touching.
- How you can help at home
- Ask your child to explain a lab result: which forces were acting and how mass affected acceleration.
- Try simple demos (dropping different objects, using magnets) and discuss what the child observed.
Unit 2 — Forces at a Distance (4 weeks)
- What students will learn
- Continue applying Newton’s Second Law to one-dimensional motion.
- Use Newton’s law of universal gravitation and Coulomb’s law for two-object systems.
- Investigate how electric current creates magnetic fields and how changing magnetic fields can make currents (hands‑on investigations).
- Explore how the molecular structure of materials affects whether they conduct or insulate electricity.
- Model forces and energy changes when objects interact through electric or magnetic fields.
- In student-friendly terms
- Some forces act across space (like gravity and static electricity).
- Electric currents can make magnets, and changing magnetic fields can make electricity — this is how many technologies work.
- Tiny arrangements of atoms determine whether something conducts electricity or not.
- How you can help at home
- Discuss everyday examples: magnets on the fridge, how plug cords carry electricity, and devices that use electromagnets (speakers, motors).
- Encourage drawing simple models showing two interacting objects and where energy is stored.
Unit 3 — Energy Conversion (6 weeks)
- What students will learn
- Build simple computational or algebraic models to track energy changes in a system (inputs, outputs, and transfers).
- Use models to show how energy relates to motion and position at both visible (macroscopic) and particle (microscopic) levels.
- Design, build, test, and improve devices that convert energy from one form to another (e.g., mechanical → electrical, light → heat).
- Understand conservation of energy: total energy in a system is conserved; it can move between forms but isn’t destroyed.
- Model how field-mediated interactions change stored energy when objects move relative to one another.
- In student-friendly terms
- Energy can move between types (motion, heat, electrical) but the total amount stays the same.
- Students will design and test simple devices (like a small generator or solar oven) and explain how energy moves through the system.
- How you can help at home
- Ask about the devices they design and what energy goes in vs. what comes out.
- Provide simple building materials and time for hands‑on tinkering.
Unit 4 — Waves & Electromagnetic Radiation (3 weeks)
- What students will learn
- Relationships among wave speed, frequency, and wavelength and how these change across different media.
- How waves carry and encode information (digital signals, pixels, etc.) and how to improve devices that store/transmit information.
- How electromagnetic radiation can be described as waves or particles depending on the situation.
- How different frequencies of electromagnetic radiation interact with matter (e.g., heating vs. potential for damage).
- Examples of technology that use the electromagnetic spectrum (medical imaging, communications).
- In student-friendly terms
- Waves (sound, light, radio) have patterns that determine how fast they travel and how much information they can carry.
- High-energy light can change atoms and potentially damage tissue; lower-energy waves usually become heat.
- Students will explore how devices use these principles to send and store information.
- How you can help at home
- Talk about devices your family uses (phones, microwaves, medical imaging) and ask your child which part of the spectrum is involved.
- Encourage critical thinking about online claims regarding radiation and health — ask your child to identify the claim, the evidence, and whether it seems reliable.
Assessment & Classroom Work
- Assessments focus on data analysis, models, hands-on investigations, and design projects.
- Expect labs, group work, short computational/algebraic problems (limited to two‑ or three‑component systems), and an engineering-style project for energy conversion.
Skills Students Build
- Collecting and interpreting data (tables, graphs)
- Building and testing models and devices
- Mathematical reasoning to describe forces and energy changes
- Communicating scientific explanations clearly (claims, evidence, reasoning)
Helpful Resources
Online textbooks are available through your student’s Classlink account.
Course: Biology 1 CP
Textbook: Biology
Publisher: National Geographic/Cengage
App in Classlink: NGL Sync
Course: Biology 1 Honors
Textbook:South Carolina Miller & Levine Biology
Publisher: Savvas
App in Classlink: Savvas
Course: Chemistry 1 CP & Honors
Textbook: Experience Chemistry
Publisher: Savvas
App in Classlink: Savvas
Course: Earth Science
Textbook:Earth and Space Science
Publisher: National Geographic/Cengage
App in Classlink: NGL Sync
Course: Physics, CP & Honors
Textbook: Experience Physics
Publisher: Savvas
App in Classlink: Savvas
Teacher resources (NGSS) | Science | Khan Academy - for parents
Dr. Ed Emmer
Elementary Science, Health, and P.E. Content Specialist
eemmer@richland2.org
803.738.8469
Dr. Holly Sullivan
Middle/High Science and Health Specialist
hsullivan@richland2.org
803.738.3382