Science

Team Members

Mrs. Balderson
Mrs. Balderson


Mrs. MassothMrs. Massoth


Mrs. McBean

Mrs. McBean


Mrs. McGrathMrs. McGrath

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Ms. Nicklas

Ms. Nicklas

The students in grades 5 through 8 investigate Next Generation Science Standards using the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Science Dimensions series.  Each unit contains in-depth lessons that include projects, hands-on labs, and engineering challenges that help students build solid foundational skills to evaluate evidence, make valid claims, develop reasoning skills, and synthesize information using a variety of sources. 

Within middle school each grade level covers a variety of topics.  Fifth grade science topics include the skills of a scientist, engineering and technology, energy and matter in organisms, energy and matter in ecosystems, and systems on Earth and in space.  In sixth grade the topics cover lab safety, design thinking, cells, chemistry, Earth’s geologic processes, and Earth and human activity.  Next, seventh grade also incorporates lab safety and adds experimental design and graphing, the history of life on Earth, evolution, waves, weather and climate, and human impacts on Earth. Finally, as an eighth grader the students cover experimental design & graphing, animal bodies as systems, reproduction, heredity and growth, electric and magnetic forces, motion and forces, energy and energy transfer, the metric system, and scientific notation.