Junior High Science at St. Patrick's
Mrs. Jill Fecko
Curriculum Highlights:
The chronological breakdown of specific content standards covered:
Students in 6th grade strive to:
- Implement basic scientific inquiry skills through a self-generated testable question.
- Model the scale and motion of planets, moons, our sun, and other objects in space relative to one another.
- Illustrate the movement of energy, heat, water, and other materials throughout our atmosphere and the total effect on climate and weather.
- Highlight specific geological processes and their tangible effects both beneath and on Earth’s surface.
Students in 7th grade strive to:
- Recognize that the fundamental difference between organisms begins at a cellular level.
- Investigate the differences and similarities between characteristics of bacterial, plant, and animal cells via microscopes.
- Develop a presentation summarizing the epidemiology of a bacterial or viral infectious disease.
- Explore the properties of plant species through the dissection of their basic structures.
Students in 8th grade strive to:
- Outline the structure of an atom and how the arrangement of its individual particles results in the creation of all substances.
- Group elements based on their similarities through the same reasoning used to create the periodic table.
- Diagram a chemical reaction at the molecular level to visualize the breakdown and/or bonding after a change.
- Compare the different unbalanced forces of nature and their cumulative affect on daily life.
Expectations of Excellence
Students will strive to:
- Obtain, analyze, and apply knowledge attained through study and practice in different scientific fields
- Acquire knowledge and skills involved in the scientific inquiry process
- Participate in activities designed to stimulate and accommodate all senses and learning styles
- Learn through multiple intelligences allowing students to participate in and review understanding more thoroughly than rote memorization
- Discuss the material with the intention of building critical analysis skills and an enduring knowledge of the content
- Engage in STEM like activities that encourage a cross-curricular participation in the content via design and creation of physical artifacts