Anchored Science

Unit 6.1: The Water Cycle "Water on the Move"
Unit Challenge Question: How does human development affect how water moves through our community?

In this unit, students explore the water cycle (hydrologic cycle) and how human activity can alter this cycle but not stop it. Students work to describe why a local community is having flooding problems and evaluate proposed solutions to address this problem.

Unit 6.3: Nutrition and the Chemistry of Digestion "Food Gives Us Energy"
Unit Challenge Question: How does what we eat affect our health and well-being?

In this unit, students learn that our bodies grow and gain energy from the food we eat and learn what happens to food as it moves through our bodies. Throughout the unit, students use hands-on activities and experiments and create their own models to show the physical and chemical reactions that occur as we eat and digest food.

Unit 6.4: Force of Gravity in Solar System Motions "Protect Your Cell Phone"
Unit Challenge Question: How can we design a case that protects a cell phone from being damaged in a collision?

In this unit, students use systems and system models ideas to explore the motions of the objects (elements) in the solar system. Students then learn the science concepts underlying the motions and describe how gravitational forces are involved when a large object (like the Sun) holds another much smaller object (like a planet or a human-made satellite) in its orbit. In exploring the forces controlling the system, students also determine how solar system elements are characterized and interact with each other, as well as how the patterns observed in our solar system seem to be prevalent in the greater universe.

Unit 7.1: Energy and Energy Transformations "Off-the-Grid Gaming"
Unit Challenge Question: How can we generate electricity to power a gaming console without having to constantly exercise?

In this unit, students investigate energy in order to identify options to power a gaming console while living “off-the-grid” during a summer vacation. 

Unit 7.3: Moving Thermal Energy "Cooling Hot Dogs"
Unit Challenge Question: How can scientific principles be used to design, construct, and test a device to keep a dog crate from overheating during hot days?

 In this unit, students conduct investigations and develop evidence-based models of thermal energy transfer as part of designing a system to cool an outdoor dog crate. The system models are used in combination with engineering practices to design, test, and improve a physical model of a “pet crate” that will keep a dog cool during hot summer days.

​Unit 7.4: Life of Materials "The Stuff We Use and Where it Comes From"
Unit Challenge Question: How can we reduce our impacts to the environment and reduce the use of natural resources through our choice of food/beverage container?

In this unit, students use product life cycle models to explore the relationships between the things we manufacture and use to meet society's needs and the natural resources utilized to make these things. Throughout the unit students are challenged to discover and use scientific evidence to select the best wall insulation material for a community building.

Unit 7.5: Protecting Our Drinking Water Resources "What's In YOUR Water?"
Unit Challenge Question: How can we protect our drinking water resources?

In this unit, students dive into the details of their Water Quality Report to understand where their drinking water comes from, the types of contaminants that may be present  in drinking water, and how we can reduce or prevent contamination of our drinking water resources. 

Unit 8.3: Sound & Light "Ride the Waves!"
Unit Challenge Question: How can we control the sound and light in and around the concert venue?

In this unit, students learn about different types of waves, how they travel, and how they interact with objects in their path. Students apply their knowledge of waves to solve the sound and light problems at a local concert venue. Along with satisfying the desires of the concert-goers, they must also consider the needs and desires of the surrounding community who are impacted by this concert venue.

Unit 8.4: Force of Gravity in Solar System Motions "Plotting a Cosmic Collision Course"
Unit Challenge Question: How can we identify an unknown object traveling toward Earth and determine if it will collide with Earth?

In this unit, students use systems and system models ideas to explore the motions of the objects  (elements) in the solar system. Students then learn the science concepts underlying the motions and describe how gravitational forces are involved when a large object (like the sun) holds another much smaller object (like a planet or a man-made satellite) in its orbit. In exploring the forces controlling the system, students also determine how solar system elements are characterized and interact with each other, as well as how the patterns observed in our solar system seem to be prevalent in the greater universe.

Unit 6.2: Investigating and Modeling Body Systems "The Rad Disease"
Unit Challenge Questions: How do germs make us sick?; How do we keep sicknesses from spreading?

In this unit, students address the problem of emerging diseases and the use of tissue engineering to solve problems by learning of a fictitious outbreak of the Random Acts of Dance (RAD) disease within their school. As students progress through the unit, they identify the pathogen, construct explanations about how the pathogen affects organ systems and their subsystems, and design a tissue engineering strategy to repair the damage. 

Unit 6.3: Nutrition and the Chemistry of Digestion "Food Gives Us Energy"
Unit Challenge Question: How does what we eat affect our health and well-being?

In this unit, students learn that our bodies grow and gain energy from the food we eat and learn what happens to food as it moves through our bodies.  Throughout the unit, students use hands-on activities and experiments and create their own models to show the physical and chemical reactions that occur as we eat and digest food.

Unit 6.5: The Factors that Influence Individual Growth "Grow Baby Grow"
Unit Challenge Question: What affects how plants grow?

In this unit, students examine how environmental conditions, resource availability, competition, and inherited traits affect organism growth and reproduction. Students conduct an experiment to understand the impacts of these factors on plants grown in the classroom. They make a recommendation for how to maximize plant growth and reproduction, as well as practice developing predictions and making claims supported by evidence and reasoning.

Unit 6.6: Population Growth and Ecological Interactions "Failing Fishermen"
Unit Challenge Question: What is the most likely cause of the sportfish decline in the Illinois River?

In this unit, students investigate how ecological interactions can cause populations to increase or decline, in order to solve the puzzling problem of sportfish decline in the presence of Bigheaded carp.

Unit 6.7: Cycling of Energy and Matter Through Food Webs "Eat Your Garbage?!"
Unit Challenge Question: How can we use old food to make new food?

In this unit, students uncover how an unorthodox partnership between a school and local farmer is helping to keep food waste out of landfills and reduce the environmental impact of food. Students model how, even in human systems, producers, consumers and decomposers cycle of matter and energy within and between ecosystems.

Unit 7.6: What Determines Our Traits? "The Popsicle Vandal"
Unit Challenge Question: How is it possible that people can have traits that others in their family do not have?

Students investigate how individuals can have traits, such as red-green colorblindness, that their family members do not have. They develop evidence-based models to explain this phenomenon using ideas of genetics and inheritance.

Unit 8.1: Adaptation & Natural Selection "Bugs in the Beds!?"
Unit Challenge Question: How can a species survive a change in the environment?

In this unit, students discover how a species can survive a change in the environment through the processes of natural selection and adaptation.

Unit 8.2: Fossils, Rocks, and Change "Found Fossils"
Unit Challenge Question: How has life changed in our region over Earth's history?

In this unit, students begin to draw back the curtain of time and get a peek at what Michigan used to look like, not just hundreds years ago, but back into deep time, millions to billions of years in the past. They discover the ecosystems which form the backdrop of our lives are not constant; they have undergone radical changes over the course of time. Students find and follow the trail of evidence hidden beneath our very feet to describe how Michigan has changed drastically over the course of geologic time.

Unit 6.1: The Water Cycle "Water on the Move"
Unit Challenge Question: How does human development affect how water moves through our community?

In this unit, students explore the water cycle (hydrologic cycle) and how human activity can alter this cycle but not stop it. Students work to describe why a local community is having flooding problems and evaluate proposed solutions to address this problem.

Unit 7.2A: Characterizing Volcanoes and Their Impact "Volcano Vacations"
Unit Challenge Question: How can people locate a volcano that will look and behave in a particular way?

In this unit, students learn the practical meaning of “the flow of energy and cycling of matter” by investigating one of Earth’s most spectacular examples: volcanoes and volcanic eruptions. The students use models, experiments, and hands-on activities to study key components and processes in volcanic activity.

Unit 7.2B: Earth's Dynamic Surface "Shoreline"
Unit Challenge Question: What causes shorelines to change?

In this unit, students discover that even though Michigan is not near a plate boundary or on the flanks of an active volcano, the environment is dynamic and changing.

Unit 7.4: Life of Materials "The Stuff We Use and Where it Comes From"
Unit Challenge Question: How can we reduce our impacts to the environment and reduce the use of natural resources through our choice of food/beverage container?

In this unit, students use product life cycle models to explore the relationships between the things we manufacture and use to meet society's needs and the natural resources utilized to make these things. Throughout the unit students are challenged to discover and use scientific evidence to select the best wall insulation material for a community building.

Unit 7.5: Protecting Our Drinking Water Resources "What's In YOUR Water?"
Unit Challenge Question: How can we protect our drinking water resources?

In this unit, students dive into the details of their Water Quality Report to understand where their drinking water comes from, the types of contaminants that may be present  in drinking water, and how we can reduce or prevent contamination of our drinking water resources.

Unit 8.2: Fossils, Rocks, and Change "Found Fossils"
Unit Challenge Question: How has life changed in our region over Earth's history?

In this unit, students begin to draw back the curtain of time and get a peek at what Michigan used to look like, not just hundreds years ago, but back into deep time, millions to billions of years in the past. They discover the ecosystems which form the backdrop of our lives are not constant; they have undergone radical changes over the course of time. Students find and follow the trail of evidence hidden beneath our very feet to describe how Michigan has changed drastically over the course of geologic time.

Unit 8.5A: Regional Climate "Home Away From Home"
Unit Challenge Question: What causes regions on Earth to have different climates?

In this unit, students develop and use models, conduct experiments, and analyze data to discover how Earth’s climate regions are created.

Unit 8.5B: Weather "Statewide Snow Day Policy?!"
Unit Challenge Question: What causes snowfall patterns?

In this unit, students use experiments, modeling, research, and data analysis to discover the different ways that Michigan snowstorms are “made”.

Unit 8.6: Reducing the Impacts of Natural Hazards "When Nature Strikes"
Unit Challenge Question: How can we protect people from natural hazards?

In this unit, students take on the role of scientists who conduct a Hazard Assessment for one U.S. state.  They use historical data to support a long-term forecast about which natural hazard is likely to most threaten the state. They investigate what causes the hazard and the damages associated with it. Based on this information, they identify technologies that the state could invest in to reduce the hazard’s negative effects on people and property.

Unit 8.7: Global Climate Change "Living in Greenhouse Earth"
Unit Challenge Question: What can we do about rising global temperatures?

In this unit, Students take on the challenge to educate the community about Earth’s climate system. Students learn about Earth’s greenhouse atmosphere, causes and impacts of natural climate changes in the past, identify human activities that are responsible for causing current climate change, and what actions communities can take to mitigate the effects of global climate change.