Students will work in cooperative groups to create an accurate arrangement of mirrors that work together to relay a laser beam from a Mars space station to Earth’s Mission Control, which will model utilizing satellites in space for communication, an accommodation necessary for manned space exploration.

Students will categorize cells as prokaryotic or eukaryotic by identifying the presence or lack of a nucleus.

Students compare and contrast potential and kinetic energy by creating a real-world model through a movie.

Students will work in partners to investigate Newton’s second law by testing a series of experiments with varying conditions.

Students will work with partners to investigate how mass, potential energy, and kinetic energy act on objects dropped from varying heights.

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Students collaboratively determine how the characteristics of a real-world job correlate with each of Newton’s Laws and why that is relevant to their own lives.

Students will collaborate on a electronic slideshow presentation and observe, record, and describe the role of ecological succession including both primary and secondary succession.

Students will design and test models that will identify crustal features formed by convergent plate boundaries.

Students will use hover pucks to measure speed over a distance of six meters. Once speed has been calculated, students will determine velocity using the same data. Finally, students will be able to label all points of acceleration.

Students will model the effects of human activity on watersheds.

In this lesson, students will be introduced to the concept of motion representation using distance vs. time graphs. Students will recognize labeling of axes, steepness related to speed, horizontal lines as non-motion, and downward slope as return to origin.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills Related to the Unit

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After a brief review of direct and indirect sunlight, students will arrange heat maps and globes around a drawing of the Sun based on the tilt of Earth and how it affects Earth’s temperature.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) Related to the Unit

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Students model the path of digestion using household items.

Students will review the steps of the scientific method and conduct an investigation that involves sorting magnetic and nonmagnetic objects.

Students will explore biodiversity concepts through several activities including a video, a card sort, think-pair-shares, food webs, and four corners.

Students will explore abiotic and biotic factors in various ecosystems by working through stations. Students will be able to identify and describe abiotic and biotic factors within an ecosystem.

Students will explore sound energy by creating their own drums using a variety of materials. Then, students will listen for the loud and soft sounds that each of the drums creates.

Students will participate in stations that reinforce their understanding of gravity, especially gravity in space.

Students will work in groups to complete an escape room challenge that replicates the process of gene expression.

The students will work collaboratively in small, ability-based groups in stations that will require them to use their academic vocabulary, academic language, and self-assessment to generate a product showing what they have learned.