Academics: Science

Sixth and Seventh Grades
The teaching of science focuses on the importance of the personal involvement of the student in his/her learning. Through the use of "hands-on/minds-on" opportunities, the students enter the world of integrated science using the Constructivist Model of Learning. Science is taught the way middle school students learn best: through thinking, talking, writing, discovering for themselves, and cooperating on learning teams. Beginning in sixth grade, the students learn to think and write as a scientist. As they progress, they experience science through an integrated, thematic focus. Based on Project 2061 and NSTA's Scope and Sequence, the program seeks to build on the curiosity of the learner, preparing him/her to be "science-literate."

The science program includes many unique features. Throughout the year, students may participate in Weather Watch, Ecology and Recycling Clubs, Women in Science Day at Lehigh University, Starlab and special star/eclipse parties, Earth Week, Energy Day, The Jason Project, field trips to the Franklin Institute and the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., the planting of trees on school property, school grounds beautification, and computer and on-line informational use.

The Indian Valley student council recently purchased a Star Lab for use by our students. This course will be taught from an exciting, process centered, hands-on approach, using integrations of the branches of science to focus on six significant themes: energy, change, patterns of change, scale and structure, stability, and systems and interactions. We will be using the series Science Plus, which incorporates science, technology, and the relations of these to society. Each year, the student will be making discoveries in life, physical, and earth science, as well as developing processes in higher thinking skills. Opportunities in research, higher level thinking, and further explorations will be available throughout the year for those who desire the extra challenges both in and out of class. The general topics to be explored in grade 6 are: Science and Technology, Patterns of Living Things, The Changing Earth, and Investigating Matter. In grade 7 students will investigate Solutions, Forces and Motion, Toward the Stars, and Growing Plants.

The Science Plus program is an outstanding example of the department's commitment to content improvement while at the same time maintaining the critical "hands-on/minds-on" philosophy. It integrates the various disciplines of science, tying them together and helping students see how one field of science is important to the understanding and exploration of another field. The Science Plus program focuses on the knowledge foundation needed for a "scientifically literate" citizen, and then through the use of cooperative-learning strategies and experimental labs.