OpenSciEd Chemistry + Earth & Space Unit 2: Structure & Properties of Matter Student Edition

OpenSciEd High School addresses all high school NGSS standards. This comprehensive science curriculum empowers students to question, design, investigate, and solve the world around them. 

• Phenomenon Based - Centered around exploring phenomena or solving problems
• Driven by Student Questions - Storyline based on students’ questions and ideas 
• Grounded in Evidence - Incremental building and revision of ideas based on evidence 
• Collaborative - class and teacher figure out ideas together
• Equitable - Builds a classroom culture that values ideas and learning of all

The OpenSciEd model uses a storyline approach, introducing phenomena that anchors storylines developing disciplinary core ideas, concepts, and science/engineering practices. Students are encouraged to dive deep into key points and solve problems through five activities. 

C.2 Structure & Properties of Matter: What causes lightning and why are some places safer than others when it strikes?

This unit is designed to help students build a deeper understanding of atomic structure and atomic-scale force interactions through exploration of phenomena surrounding lightning and other static interactions. Students engage with stories and data about lightning and investigate a similar phenomenon in water droppers. They further investigate static interactions with various materials, including sticky tape, digging down to the subatomic level. Students apply these ideas back to lightning and further investigate force interactions, developing Coulomb’s law and ideas about polarization that can be applied to other phenomena. They identify electric fields as the source of the large energy transfers in lightning and explain lightning’s sudden behavior using ionization. They consider why structures made of certain materials provide protection from lightning and investigate why bodies of water, most of which contain dissolved salts, are particularly dangerous during storms. Finally, students develop a consensus model and transfer their understandings to the phenomena of airplane radomes and conducting gels used to simulate brains.