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Kirkwood School District

Dedicated to excellence in education

Kindergarten Science & Engineering

In kindergarten, students learn to observe and describe natural phenomena to look for patterns. Students study how designers create and test solutions. They begin to develop an understanding of structure and function in the built environment and the natural world.

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First Grade Science & Engineering

In first grade, students investigate light and sound, including vibration from sound waves and the effect of different materials on the path of a beam of light. Students use their understanding of light from the Light & Sound unit to understand why the sun, moon, and stars are visible. Students will explore the sequential nature of computer programs through hands-on activities both with and without a computer. The final unit focuses on animals and includes exploration of animal life cycles and survival needs. The concept of variation is introduced by learning that young animals are similar to but not exactly like their parents and that the needs of young animals are sometimes different that those of adults. Students will also explore the design concept of biomimicry - in which structures found in nature are used to design solutions to human problems.

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Second Grade Science & Engineering

In second grade, students will build upon their understanding of the basic needs of plants and animals developed in Kindergarten and First Grade. They will explore materials science and investigate and classify different kinds of materials by their observable properties, including color, texture, and heat conduction. They will explore computer science combining mathematics and computers and investigate numerical relationships while learning about the sequence and structure required in computer programs. Students will learn that in nature, some changes happen slowly and others happen quickly. They will learn about the water cycle and water’s effect on the Earth’s surface.

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Third Grade Science & Engineering

In third grade, students will learn that scientists record patterns of the weather across different times and areas so that they can make predictions about what kind of weather might happen next. Students will analyze data to determine how the motion of an object is changed by an applied force or the mass of an object. Starting with computer-free activities and progressing to programming in a blocks-based language on a tablet, students learn how to think computationally about a problem. Students make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats.

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Fourth Grade Science & Engineering

In fourth grade, students identify the conversion of energy between forms and the energy transfer required to move energy from place to place. They will develop a model of waves to describe patterns in terms of amplitude or wavelength and that waves can cause objects to move. Students will identify evidence from patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers to support an explanation for changes in a landscape over time. In this exploration of how computers work, students are encouraged to make analogies between the parts of the human body and parts that make up a computer. Students are introduced to the structures of plants and animals - with an emphasis on their functions.

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Fifth Grade Science & Engineering

In fifth grade, students will take a deeper, more advanced dive into matter, energy, and their relationship with ecosystems and environments. They will study the characteristics and motion of objects in our solar system and examine how relative distance in space impacts light. Students will end their year with a unit on robotics and automation, developing skills needed to build and program an autonomous robot.

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Science and Engineering

The K-5 curriculum for Science and Engineering is designed to nurture students' natural sense of wonder and curiosity about the world. Emphasis is placed on students engaging in exploration, discovery, problem solving and scientific discourse as they learn content. In order to achieve this, the curriculum includes a balance between the practices, content, and crosscutting concepts of science and engineering.

Grades K-2
Grades 3-5

Students will build on the knowledge and skills developed during their K-2 experience. Over the course of these grades, students will take on an increasing amount of responsibility for independently designing scientific investigations and engineering solutions. Students will continue to study patterns and cause/effect relationships, but in grades 3-5 these crosscutting concepts will be explored in the context of more complex content and the role of simple relationships in systems.
Implementation of Curriculum

Students will directly engage in the practices of science and engineering. The overarching goal is for them to see science and engineering not only as content to be learned, but as processes through which questions can be answered and problems can be solved. By doing so, students will see themselves as scientists and engineers and begin a life-long process of understanding and engaging in these fields.
First Underlying Structure
Seven Crosscutting Concepts
- Patterns. Observed patterns of forms and events guide organization and classification, and they prompt questions about relationships and the factors that influence them.
- Cause and effect. Mechanism and explanation. Events have causes, sometimes simple, sometimes multifaceted. A major activity of science is investigating and explaining causal relationships and the mechanisms by which they are mediated. Such mechanisms can then be tested across given contexts and used to predict and explain events in new contexts.
- Scale, proportion, and quantity. In considering phenomena, it is critical to recognize what is relevant in different measures of size, time, and energy and to recognize how changes in scale, proportion, or quantity affect a system’s structure or performance.
- Systems and system models. Defining the system under study—specifying its boundaries and making explicit a model of that system - provides tools for understanding and testing ideas that are applicable throughout science and engineering.
- Energy and matter. Flows, cycles, and conservation. Tracking fluxes of energy and matter into, out of, and within systems helps one
  understand the systems’ possibilities and limitations.
- Structure and function. The way in which an object or living thing is shaped and its substructure determine many of its properties and
  functions.
- Stability and change. For natural and built systems alike, conditions of stability and determinants of rates of change or evolution of a system are critical elements of study.
Second Underlying Structure

The K-5 Science and Engineering experience is built on two underlying structures. The second underlying structure is the recognition that students must do more than learn about science and engineering or about what scientists and engineers do. Instead, they should actively engage in the same kinds of practices as professional scientists and engineers. To this end, eight science and engineering practices have been identified as those which students should employ as they investigate their world and solve problems.
Practices
- Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering)
- Developing and using models
- Planning and carrying out investigations
- Analyzing and interpreting data
- Using mathematics and computational thinking
- Constructing explanations (for science) and designing solutions (for engineering)
- Engaging in argument from evidence
- Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information
Standards

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