Monthly Unit Updates
Math
Current Unit
9/22 - Our 2nd math unit for the year is Fractions as Quotients and Fraction Multiplication. In this unit students will interpret fractions as the division of the numerator by the denominator and multiply fractions whole numbers by fractions.
Sub-Unit 1: Fractions as Quotients
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Represent and explain the relationship between division and fractions.
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Solve problems involving division of whole numbers leading to answers that are fractions.
Sub-Unit 2 : Fractions of Whole Numbers
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Explain the relationship between division by a whole number and multiplication by a unit fraction.
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Explain how different equivalent expressions represent the product of a whole number and a non-unit fraction.
Sub-Unit 3 : Area and Fractional Side Lengths
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Determine the area of a rectangle with 1 whole-number side length and 1 fractional side length.
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Write, interpret, and evaluate numerical expressions that represent the area of a rectangle with a whole-number side length and a fractional side length.
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Represent and solve problems involving the multiplication of a whole number by a fraction or mixed number.
Here is the Caregiver Resource for this unit!
8/25 - Our first math unit for the year is Volume! In this unit students will have hands on opportunity to build, compare and discuss differences in capacity. Students will be able to understand volume and apply understanding of multiplication to determine the volumes of rectangular prisms.
Sub-Unit 1: Unit Cubes and Volume
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Describe and determine the volume of a rectangular prism using its layered structure.
Sub-Unit 2: Calculating Volume of Rectangular Prisms
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Determine the volume of a rectangular prism using the formulas Base X height = V and length X width X height = V
Sub-Unit 3: Volume of Solid Figures
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Determine the volume of a figure composed of rectangular pris
Check our this Caregiver resource straight from Amplify Desmos for more at home practice and conversation starters based on our 1st Unit.
Science
Current Unit
In Unit 1, Vision and Light, students work to answer the question 'Why is an increase in light affecting the health of Tokay geckos in a Philippine rain forest?'.
Working as conservation biologists, students figure out why a population of Tokay geckos has decreased since the installation of new highway lights in the rain forest. Students use their understanding of vision, light, and information processing to figure out why an increase in light in the geckos’ habitat is affecting the population. Then students turn their attention to humans by designing their own investigations in order to learn more about how our senses help us survive.
Chapter 1: How does a Tokay gecko get information about its environment?
Students figure out: In order to survive, a gecko must avoid predators and find prey. To do this, geckos use structures to get information from their environment. For instance, a gecko uses its ears to hear if there is a predator nearby and its vision to watch for predators.
How they figure it out: Students do hands-on investigations with their own senses to learn that information travels to them from their environment. They read about what senses different animals use to find their food. Through a Mystery Box activity, students learn that we need light to see.
Chapter 2: How does light allow a Tokay gecko to see its prey?
Students figure out: First, light travels from a source to the gecko’s prey. Then, it reflects off the prey and travels to the gecko’s eyes. As it travels from the prey to the gecko’s eyes, it carries information about the prey.
How they figure it out: Students use the Vision and Light Simulation to explore the path of light from a source to an object and to an animal’s eye, a process that is necessary for the animal to see. Students confront several common misconceptions about the role of light in vision by improving inaccurate models of how light reaches the eye.
Chapter 3: How does a Tokay gecko know that it is looking at its prey?
Students figure out: Light from a source reflects off the prey and travels to the Tokay gecko’s eyes. The light enters the eye through the pupil and then reaches light receptors. The light receptors respond to the light and send information from the light to the brain. The brain processes this information and forms an image. By comparing the image to memories, the gecko can recognize what it is looking at and make a decision that might help it survive.
How they figure it out: Through research in the Simulation and Handbook of Animal Eyes, students learn that light enters the eye through the pupil and then reaches light receptors. These light receptors respond and send information to the brain. Students return to the Simulation to investigate how a predator knows if it’s looking at prey or at an animal that would be toxic to eat.
Chapter 4: How could more light at night make it hard for a Tokay gecko to see its prey?
Students figure out: When light gets to a Tokay gecko’s eyes, the gecko’s light receptors respond and send information to the brain. The brain processes this information to form an image. Since the highway lights were installed, there is much more light at night. Tokay geckos have light receptors that form clear images in very low-light conditions, so the extra light at night makes it difficult for them to form clear images of their prey.
How they figure it out: Students use an informational text to learn that different animals sense information in different ways due to having specialized receptors with varying sensitivities. Students use the Simulation along with a digital model to compare the vision of nocturnal and diurnal animals in differing amounts of light. They build physical models of nocturnal and diurnal eyes and use them to explain the role of light in vision and survival.
Chapter 5: How do our senses help us understand our environment?
Students figure out: By designing an investigation that only changes one variable at a time, it’s possible to understand how human structures and receptors inform our senses and help us survive.
How they figure it out: Using a jigsaw approach, groups of students design, conduct, and share the results of hands-on investigations into one of three human senses: hearing, smell, or touch. The shared results of multiple investigations allow students to learn about other senses and to compare the results of multiple investigations.