Author Description

Grade 1: Invites students to discover relationships between plant and animal parts and their relationships - Grade 2: Introduces students to the diversity and interdependence of living things in ecosystems. Students compare the properties and functions of different kinds of matter and analyze the processes that shape Earth over long and short periods of time - Grade 3: Explores the variations in traits of different organisms and the factors in changing environments that affect survival today and tin the past. Students quantify and predict weather conditions in different areas and a t different times and investigate the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on motion - Grade 4: Examines the functions of internal and external plant and animal structures in growth, reproduction and information processing. Students explore the roles weathering, erosion, and deposition in shaping Earth's surface. They analyze patterns in wave motion and how energy is transferred by sound, light, heat and electric currents - Grade 5: Guides students in understanding the role of decomposers, consumers and producers in a healthy ecosystem. They study the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere and learn how these systems interact. They develop models to examine patterns caused by the relative positions of Earth and the sun, and identify matter as particles of matter too small to be seen [descriptions from TCI website].