These 4 Mysteries provide 4 weeks of content. This unit develops the idea that by studying how plants reproduce and pass on their traits, we human beings have figured out how to make food plants even more useful to us. Students first discover how plants reproduce by exploring the process of pollination and fruiting. Then students are introduced to the process of plant domestication (selection of traits based on inheritance and variation). Less

These are the first two Mysteries for this unit. These two lessons will eventually become part of a longer unit released in 2017-18. This unit will help students develop the idea that the sun, moon, and stars change position in the sky in ways that are fun to watch and predict. Less

These are the first two Mysteries for this unit. These two lessons will eventually become part of a longer unit released in 2017-18. This unit will help students develop their first concept of “force,” and the idea that by playing with forces and thinking about them, we can accomplish surprisingly big things. Less

These are the first two Mysteries for this unit. These two lessons will eventually become part of a longer unit released in 2017-18. This unit will help students develop the habit of becoming weather watchers who take pleasure in noticing weather patterns and predicting changes. Less

These are the first two Mysteries for this unit. These two lessons will eventually become part of a longer unit released in 2017-18. This unit will develop the idea that by exploring the properties of light and sound, human beings create fun and useful things. Less

These are the first two Mysteries for this unit. These two lessons will eventually become part of a longer unit about plant and animal parts & survival, which will be released in 2017-18. This unit will help students develop the idea that, like a superhero has special powers, every animal and plant has special parts and behaviors that help them to grow and meet their needs. Less

These are the first two Mysteries for this unit. These two lessons will eventually become part of a longer unit about the needs of plants & animals, which will be released in 2017-18. This unit will help students develop the concept that animals and plants need things in order to survive, and their lives are all about meeting those needs… it’s the secret to why they do the many strange and wonderful things that they do! Knowing how they meet their needs can even help students find plants and animals near them. Less

These 5 Mysteries provide 5 weeks of content. In this unit students will develop an appreciation for how animals and the places they live (their habitats) are not constant—they have changed over time. Fossils give us a window to the animals and habitats of the past. Selective breeding shows us not only how some animals of the past became domesticated, but allows us to imagine how they might look in the future. Less

These 5 Mysteries provide 5 weeks of content. This unit develops the idea that plants are truly alive and face challenges every bit as dramatic as those of animals. Students will learn that plants have needs, and will reason from evidence to understand how plants meet their needs. Their attention will be drawn to exciting connections they can observe in their everyday world: why forests are dark, why trees grow so tall, and more. Less

These 4 Mysteries provide 4 weeks of content. This unit takes the perspective that every rock has a story. Students will develop an appreciation for the processes that shape the Earth’s surface. After considering where volcanoes form and how they erupt, they turn to investigations of rocks breaking apart and creating potential hazards. Through hands-on investigation, students explore the world of rocks and design ways of protecting humans from their dangers. Less

These 3 Mysteries provide 3 weeks of content. This introductory energy unit will encourage students to think about the energy that things need to move. Students will explore how energy makes things go, from powering vehicles to moving one’s body. Students will experiment with rubber band racers to discover the relationship between how much energy is stored in a material and how much is released. They will investigate the role that hills play in making roller coasters move and the energy transfer that happens when two objects collide. Students will realize that thinking about the world in terms of energy helps them make sense of how and why things speed up and slow down. Hands-on activities focus on engineering, testing hypotheses and using results to develop their ideas. Less

These 4 Mysteries provide 4 weeks of content. This introductory forces unit will give students a new understanding of the invisible pushes and pulls that operate in the world around them. They will realize that understanding forces will let them do surprising things — from building a sturdy bridge from paper to using the pull of a rubber band to send a cardboard “hopper” flying. What students learn in this unit will connect to the world around them, leading them to think about such things as the force of friction as they slide down a playground slide or the the invisible force that makes magnets cling to the refrigerator. Hands-on activities focus on engineering, investigation, and discovery. Less

These 6 Mysteries provide 6 weeks of content. This astronomy unit helps students develop a new perspective on the world they’re standing on. They will be given evidence that the Earth beneath our feet is actually moving through space, both spinning on its axis, and traveling in a great orbit around the Sun. They will see how these movements account for the patterns we see in our sky (the paths of our Sun across the sky, the changing seasons, and the changing constellations). Accompanying us on this journey are the Moon and planets, which the students will observe have their own patterns of movement in the sky. Throughout this investigation students will engage in actual and simulated observations of the sky, and they will engage in the process of inquiry: beginning with observations, debating a range of possible causes, and reasoning to possible conclusions. Less

These 4 Mysteries provide 4 weeks of content. This introductory human body unit takes the perspective that we can think about our bodies as being like a machine. We have parts for moving around, sensors, and a built-in computer. Students explore their senses and consider how the information we process helps us understand and react to our environment. Less

These 3 Mysteries provide 3 weeks of content. This unit helps students develop the idea that sound is an actual thing, a wave of vibrations traveling through the air. Equipped with this understanding, students can begin to make sense of how sound and music work. Less

These 3 Mysteries provide 3 weeks of content. This unit helps students develop the idea that water is a profoundly important natural resource, but one which requires surprising ingenuity to find and maintain. Less

These 3 Mysteries provide 3 weeks of content. This unit helps students develop the concepts of “substances” and “chemical reactions.” Students see that chemical reactions enable us to make new materials by transforming the ones we have. The results of these reactions are interesting and sometimes profoundly useful. Less

These 3 Mysteries provide 3 weeks of content. This unit on ecology helps students develop the idea that plants, animals, and fungi form a system of interdependent parts, with each part dependent on the other parts for its material nourishment. By the end of the unit, teachers will be able to guide their students to the conclusion that organic matter is cycling through the living world. Less

These 4 Mysteries provide 4 weeks of content. This unit develops the idea that by taking advantage of the properties of materials, we can solve many problems in our lives. Students will develop an appreciation for the manmade materials of everyday objects, and learn to recognize that those materials are chosen based on their properties. Through hands-on investigation, students will explore the material properties involved in meeting basic needs (such as clothing and cooking). They’ll consider the solid and liquid states of matter to understand why plastic was invented. The unit ends with a brainstorming activity about futuristic inventions that might be possible using new materials. Less

These three Mysteries provide three weeks of content. This unit helps students develop the idea that water is a powerful force that reshapes the earth’s surface. Students see that water isn’t just something we drink. It carries sand to create beaches, carves out canyons and valleys and, as ice, scrapes entire areas flat. Less

These 3 Mysteries provide 3 weeks of content. This unit develops the idea that by paying careful attention to clouds, wind, and other weather clues around us, we can predict the daily weather and make sense of why places on earth look and feel the way they do. Less