Middle School
Science

Science

The primary motivation of Concordia’s Middle School Science department is to help students appreciate science while developing the ability to be both complex thinkers and self-directed learners. We define a complex thinker as one who is creative, analytical, a risk-taker, a problem solver, and meta-cognitive and a self-directed learner as one who sets goals, is inquisitive, is persistent, is a decision maker and is reflective and evaluative. It is our joy to see our students develop and grow to fit each of these definitions.

Space the Final Frontier

This unit is about understanding the composition and structure of the universe and Earth’s place in it. In addition, students explore the regular and predictable motions of the Earth and Moon, the characteristics of the Sun and the gravitational forces that keep the planets and their moons in orbit.

Robotics

Building and programming simple robots is a team effort in this unit. It involves blogging and working with media to create movies to commemorate each robot successfully built. The past, present and future of robotics is also explored.

Climate and Weather

This unit looks into climate, including daily changes in the atmosphere that cause our weather patterns. The understanding of atmospheric processes and the water cycle are a major component.

Biological Systems

Students explore the structure and function of cells in order to understand that they are the fundamental building blocks of life. Cells make up larger organized systems that have their own structure and function at each level.

Sound and Light

Students explore the nature and properties of sound and light with an emphasis on wave characteristics and the electromagnetic spectrum. Students gain an understanding of how mirrors and lenses affect visible light while investigating the many applications to everyday life.

People and Methods

This unit is designed to give students a brief introduction to the development of scientific study. In addition, students explore the scientific method and scientific inquiry as used in the past as well as modern uses today.

Matter

This unit studies the basic structure of matter, its properties, and how it is classified and measured. Furthermore, how matter interacts to form various types of compounds is addressed.

Heat and Electricity

In this unit, students study the influence of heat on the formation of electricity as well as the importance of magnetism on the movement of electricity. Students understand and develop circuitry and it’s applications in electrical devices.

The Scientific Quest

Students explore the nature of scientific inquiry and begin to develop an understanding of science as an exploratory enterprise. Students begin to see how the scientific enterprise is shifting in focus and method.

The Diversity of Life

In this unit students investigate ways to organize living organisms into groups based on structural and functional characteristics. In addition, students explore the ways in which living organisms respond and adapt to their environment.

Ecosystems

In this unit, students explore the relationships between biotic and a biotic factors in an ecosystem. This includes key cycles (water, nitrogen & carbon), energy transfer in food webs, and human impact on ecosystems. Highlighted are concepts of system complexity and recycling of energy and matter.

The Changing Earth

Students explore the history and dynamics of the Earth’s geosphere in order to understand how life can be sustained.

What’s the matter?

This unit investigates the various types of energy, how it is transferred or transformed, the conservation of energy and its link to the processes of photosynthesis and respiration. Students design and execute an experiment to test a feature of energy efficient housing.

Chemistry, it’s Your Life

This unit explores a wide range of concepts, from the states of matter and change of state, through to the structure of the atom, arrangement of elements in the Periodic Table, types of compounds and writing and balancing chemical equations. It is designed to give students the foundations they need for success in High School.

Banking on Blood

This unit explores the relationship between the digestive and circulatory systems and their importance in the process of cellular respiration.

On the Move

Students are exposed to a range of hands-on activities designed to investigate an object’s motion and the effect of balanced and unbalanced forces on that motion. A highlight of this unit is the design and creation of a rocket to apply their understanding of these concepts.

At Concordia, students do learn the basics first: to use scientific terms correctly, develop safe laboratory skills, formulate hypotheses and subsequently, design experiments to test those ideas. While these are essential to understanding science, Concordia’s Middle School students are also taught to develop ‘habits of mind.’ Our Science faculty counsels students to think both critically and creatively via inquiry-based learning and problem solving; developing life-long skills that will be used repeatedly, both in and, beyond the science class at Concordia.

We believe in our obligation to help students become active global citizens and as a result, developing the relevance of science outside of the classroom is a major objective of our curriculum. Middle School students have developed the maturity to comprehend their individual roles in the world and what it means to be part of a larger collective community. Our students leave the Middle School with an assurance that they not only understand scientific concepts, but also knowing that they can confidently apply that skill set to solve unfamiliar problems in diverse situations.