Curriculum Connections

In this scope, students will learn natural resources (like soil, water, rocks, and air) are materials found in nature that we use to meet our basic needs.

Explore 1: Activity - Natural Resources Chains

In this activity, students learn about different ways that humans use natural resources in their everyday lives to meet their needs.

Explore 2: Activity - What Is It Made Of?

In this activity, students sort different objects based on whether they are made from plants, animals, or rocks.

In this scope, students begin to explore the foundational concept that young animals resemble their parents and that traits can vary even among the same species.

Explore 1: Activity - Bugs!

In this activity, students create and observe how offspring differ by incorporating various traits from both mother and father bugs.

Explore 2: Activity - Are You My Parents?

In this activity, students match animal babies to their parents based on their traits.

In this scope, students learn that plants have traits, young plants resemble parent plants, and there can be variations even among plants of the same type.

Explore 1: Activity - Plant Babies

In this activity, students make a model showing traits that can appear in offspring.

Explore 2: Activity - Who Are My Parents?

In this activity, students observe images of plants and match offspring with parents.

Explore 1: Scientific Investigation - Heat it Up!

In this investigation, students discover the effect heat has on different materials.

Explore 2: Make a Mini Water Cycle - NOT in STEMscopes

In this engineering solution, students will earn that water is always changing from a liquid to a gas and back again as it is heated and cooled. This process is called the water cycle.

The main focus of this unit will be for students to experience how people barter to exchange good and services as well as how money is used to buy and sell goods and services. They will need to understand the relationship of income, labor, and wages and describe personal cost-benefit analysis. Finally, students will learn the difference between consumption and production as they relate to goods and services within our region.

3rd grade students may be finishing this last social studies unit of the year.

Unit 4: Economy and Government of Missouri is an approximately two week unit where students learn about Missouri's branches of government, laws, symbols, and constitution. Students also learn about different types of businesses in Missouri, how taxes work, and how people in Missouri use banks.

Unit 4: Physical Science is about four weeks long and contains two scopes, Objects and Motion and Electric and Magnetic Forces.

In Topic 1: Objects and Motion, students focus on the question: How do balanced and unbalanced forces affect objects? Students will investigate forces and their effect on an object and will look for patterns to predict future motion.

Explore 1: Activity: Motion Stations Students explore and test force and motion through a variety of learning stations. They record their data and compare the results.

Explore 2: Inquiry Investigation: My Motion Investigation Students will work in groups to design and conduct an investigation about the motion of objects caused by balanced and unbalanced forces.

In Topic 2: Electric and Magnetic Forces, students focus on the question: How do magnets interact with each other?

Explore 1: Activity-Forces in Motion Students rotate through six stations where they explore magnetic forces and the force of static electricity.

Explore 2: Engineering Solutions-Magnetic Racetrack (OPTIONAL) Students will use the scientific knowledge they gained as well as the 21st Century Skill of collaboration to design and construct a toy car racetrack that can move a toy car around the racetrack in 30 seconds or less using the force of magnetism.

Unit 4: Earth and Space Science is about six weeks long and contains three scopes: Rock Patterns, Changing Land, and Plate Tectonics.

In Topic 1: Rock Patterns students focus on the question, If environments change so slowly, how can we know what they used to be like? In this scope students identify evidence from patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers to support an explanation for changes in a landscape over time.

Explore 1: Activity: Rock Layers In this activity, students will observe fossil evidence in layers of clay to see what kinds of events affect the layers of Earth.

Explore 2: Activity: Earthquake Students will observe how an earthquake causes changes in the pattern of rock formations.

Topic 2 uses the scope Changing Land, which focuses on the question: How do landforms change over time?

Explore 1: Scientific Investigation: Waves on the Beach Students investigate and observe the effects of waves on the beach.

Explore 2: Activity: What Processes Can Change Land? Students will create models to demonstrate the processes that can change Earth's surface.

Explore 3: Scientific Investigation: Rushing Water Students investigate and observe the rate of water erosion as the slope of the area changes.

Explore 4: Activity: Agents of Weathering and Erosion (OPTIONAL) Students identify the agents of weathering and erosion by sorting cards into the proper category.

Topic 3 uses the scope Plate Tectonics, which focuses on the question: What causes the patterns of Earth's features?

Explore 1: Activity: Patterns in Land In this activity, students will use maps to make connections between the edges of tectonic plates and the location of certain landforms. You can also use the activity Could a Volcano Pop Up Where You Live? found in Coaches' Corner in the 4th grade folder in the Science/STEMscopes folder.

Explore 2: Activity: Tectonic Plates Students will use graham crackers and marshmallow fluff to model plate movement and resulting landforms on Earth.

Explore 3: Tuva: Volcanoes Around the World (OPTIONAL) Students will describe where most volcanoes and earthquakes occur.

5th grade students may be finishing this last social studies unit of the year.

Unit 4: The Changes in Economic, Political, and Social Rights of Individual Groups Over Time is a 4-week unit. In this unit students will learn about the cultural impact and changing roles among Native Americans, Immigrants, African Americans, and women from 1800-2000. They will apply this knowledge to present day situations dealing with inequality and civil rights.

Topic 2 of Unit 4: Physical Science uses the scope Changes to Matter. Students focus on the question: Can matter just disappear?

Explore 1: Activity: State of Matter Changes Students melt different materials and determine whether or not a change in the physical state of matter changes the matter's total weight.

Explore 2: Activity:Sweet Tea By making a cup of tea, students learn that the total weight of a solution or mixture is equal to the weight of the individual ingredients.

Explore 3: Scientific Investigation: What's My Weight? (OPTIONAL) Students investigate what happens to the weight of a mixture during a chemical reaction.

Topic 3 of Unit 4: Physical Science uses the scope Mixtures. Students focus on the question: Do we ever create new substances?

Explore 1: Scientific Investigation:Expect the Unexpected Students explore how a change in temperature and the production of gas are signs of a chemical reaction.

Explore 2: Scientific Investigation:Reaction or Not? Students investigate to determine if the mixing of two substances results in the formation of a new substance with different properties.

Explore 3: Inquiry Investigation:My Mixtures Investigation (OPTIONAL) Students will work in groups to design and conduct an investigation to determine whether mixing two or more substances results in a new substance.