Anchored Science by Mi-STAR is a comprehensive middle school science curriculum driven by a bold vision for the future, where science isn’t just a subject but a powerful, integrated body of knowledge that equips students to tackle today’s pressing societal challenges. This curriculum harnesses the full potential of the Next Generation Science Standards, empowering students to actively engage with science and engineering practices. They’ll move beyond the classroom, using their skills to solve real-world problems, making learning both impactful and deeply relevant to their lives and the world around them.
Each unit delivers a NGSS-aligned assessment package that fully integrates tools to measure student progress and deepen their engagement with science. The Professional Learning program provides a dynamic range of flexible, ongoing opportunities, enabling teachers to not only master the unit content but also continually enhance their skills, while motivating and challenging their students.
Unit 6.3: Nutrition and the Chemistry of Digestion "You Are What You Eat"
In this unit, students learn that our bodies break down the food we eat to grow and gain energy, and what happens to food as it moves through the digestive system. Throughout the unit, students use hands-on activities and experiments to generate data to analyze and interpret, use and create models to show the physical and chemical reactions that occur as we eat and digest food and other unobservable mechanisms, and conclude the unit by designing a solution that meets specific design criteria and constraints.
Unit Challenge Question: How does what we eat affect our health and well-being?
Included with this purchase is a 1 year license to access the Student ebook and digital resources through our online platform, Flourish. The printed Student Workbook is sold separately.
MICHIGAN TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
Originally founded in 1885 as a Mining School, Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech) is historically known for its presence in engineering research and technology development. Over the years, the university has expanded its offerings to more than 160 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and related fields. It is one of the leading public research universities in the country.
Mi-STAR was created in 2015 by teams of teachers, scientists, engineers, and curriculum designers through generous support provided by the Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation. Mi-STAR has also received substantial support from the National Science Foundation, the MiSTEM Advisory Council through the Michigan Department of Education, and Michigan Technological University.