Objectives
The state standards this unit will address include: designing and conducting investigations to demonstrate an understanding of scientific inquiry, demonstrating an understanding of technological design, conducting investigations to build an understanding of the atmosphere. This unit will specifically address evaluating how humans impact air quality. We will also be conducting investigations to explain the effects of environmental influences on human development and explaining how understanding human body systems can help make informed decisions regarding health.
My particular school is a sixth through eighth grade middle school with approximately 1000 students. I teach on an A day/B day block schedule and I typically have 26-32 students in a class, for an average total of 170 students. Middle school science classes in my district are heterogeneously grouped, which means that I can have the highest achievers, the learning disabled, and ESL (English as a Second Language) students all in the same class. This requires a great deal of creativity, differentiated instruction, and lots of planning. This unit will utilize strategies that can be differentiate, used in small groups, and will lend themselves to whole class discussions easily. Science in seventh grade is no longer a state tested subject, so I have a lot of flexibility in how I teach and the amount of time I can give to specific topics. While I am still expected to cover the standard course of study topics, I am not held as rigorously to a rigid pacing guide as other curriculum areas may be.
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