Week 1 - Middle School Science
(I would not plan for anything involving a laptop for this week.)

Day 1

• Check attendance, verify pronunciations
• Introduce yourself
• Give students an overview of the course: 

6th - First we will take some time to get warmed up since it's been a while since you were enrolled in Science and its the first time you will have since for an hour a day.  Raise your hand, tell me something you recall learning in Science in Elem that you enjoyed!  Our first unit of study will be about weather... give an overview of the curriculum map and mention SCPASS at the end. 
​7th, 8th - Give students an overview of the curriculum map.  Mention some fun things you have planned for each unit.

• Have students do something creative.  You will need to distribute colored pencils or markers.

-Give students an outline of a lab apron, they must design their own with their name in bold, then have each student introduce themselves to the class with their apron.  Cut them out and hang them around the classroom. 
-Give out cardstock and have students make a table tent with their name to use the first week so you can learn names.   They must draw a picture of something that represents Science to them.
-Give students a half sheet of white paper to write their goals for the school year.  Tell them to include academic, personal, and athletic goals.  They can paste this to the inside of their notebook. 

• Share the class rules and procedures.  If there is something you want parents to sign, give it to them at the end of class. 

Day 2

• Check attendance.  Make seating chart.
• Remind students of your rules and procedures.  Explain that your rules are important to keeping them safe during lab.
• Show the Lab Safety Video (7th and 8th grade students have likely seen this video already.)  
• Give out markers and paper for students to make posters of the most important lab safety rule.  Hang the posters in the classroom. 
• Design a lab in which students learn the names of lab equipment - beakers, graduated cylinders, thermometers, flasks, etc.
• Design a lab in which students practice their measuring skills - inches vs. centimeters, Celsius vs Fahrenheit, etc.

Day 3

• Check attendance.  Review rules and procedures. 
• ​Have students review/practice the lab safety rules with these scenarios, or these scenarios.
• Give students another opportunity to practice their measurement skills. 

Day 4 

• Check attendance.  Review rules and procedures. ​
• ​Ask students if they know was volume is - the amount of space an object takes up. Ask students if they know there are two different ways to measure the volume of an objects.  The two ways are my measurement then calculation and the other is by displacement.  You will need throwing dice for this. 
  -Students will measure the length, width and height of a dice, then calculate the volume using Length(cm) * Width (cm) * Height(cm) = Volume (cm^3)    
  -Students will fill a graduate halfway with water and record the measurement.  They will carefully drop in a dice, making sure they don't splash out any water, record the new water level.   Students will subtract the original water level from the new water level to obtain the volume by displacement.  
  -Have students compare the volume obtained by linear measurement and multiplication vs the volume obtained by displacement.  Which do they think is more accurate?  Why?
  ​(I would give a formative grade for this assignment.)

Note:  Be careful with your time.  Don't let lessons carry over to the next day.  Plan such that your students finish the assignment.  In the early days practice strategies to speak them along, if needed.  Try to score  their work and return it the next day. 

Day 5

• ​Give an oral check of the rules and procedures.
• Explain to students that you know this is not their first Science course and you want to know what they already know. Students move to groups, then you give them a test to take together.   These are the NC End of Grade Science tests.  Tell them you will score them based on how well they appear to work together - is everyone being included, are they working quietly, and you will give them additional points based on how well they do.  Make a rubric for this assignment that does not make their formative grade totally dependent ing on their group's score on the test.
  -Maybe you go over test taking strategies and you want to hear them quietly talking through the answers as you walk around.
  -Maybe you make this a data collection and analysis activity. 
  6th grade  15 questions, answers at the end. 
  7th grade  35 questions, answers at the end.
  8th grade  60 questions, answers at the end. ​

Week 2 - Middle School Science
This week, plan to teach about the Science & Engineering practices, either in general, or in relation to the grade-level Science standards to come. 

Day 6 

• Introduce the Science & Engineering Practices.  Class discussion.  Poster paper.  Jigsaw. 
  -What is Science?  (Science is the study of how and why things in the natural world work the way they do.)
  -What is Engineering?  (Engineering is the study of how to make things work to our advantage.  Cars have been around for many years, but through engineering, we improve them with each model year.)
  -How are Science and Engineering connected/related?  (In order to improve something, we must first understand how it works.  We must test it collect data on it, analyze the data, then as we make changes we test them collect data, and compare it to the previous data, to know if we have, in fact, made an improvement.) 
• The first SEP is about Asking Questions.  (A practice of science is to ask and refine questions that lead to descriptions and explanations of how the natural and designed world works and which can be empirically tested.)
• Pose the question - How many of you have made slime?  What makes good slime?  Have you ever tested different slime recipes?  What questions would you ask someone who made slime? 
  -Use this link.  You will be forced to make a copy, but please edit as needed. 
  -Lead students to developing a plan for making and testing different slime recipes in class tomorrow.

Alt Assignment:  Engineering for the 3 little pigs  Mrs. Parker can provide plastic cups, so you may not need oil spray.
Alt Assignment:  Engineering a Parachute that falls at 1m/s

​Day 7

• Students make slime (building material for the 3 little pigs, or parachutes)
• Be sure to have students collect and analyze some quantitative and qualitative data. 
• Today's assignment may be graded as a formative assignment. 

Day 8

• Skip down to SEP #7:  Engaging in Argument from Evidence


• Introduce Claims Evidence Reasoning.  Give students opportunities to practice. 

Day 9

Day 10