Unified Science 8

Course Description

This course consists of three units: Populations and Ecosystems, Planetary Science, and Chemical Interactions. In the first, students raise populations of organisms to discover population dynamics and interactions over a range of conditions, learn about energy flows essential to all life processes, and the role played by reproduction, including limiting factors, heredity, and natural selection. In Planetary Science, students study the Earth as a celestial object before progressing to lunar science and lunar exploration, and then on to the solar system. Activities explore the origin of the Moon, celestial motions, Moon phases, lunar geology, cratering processes, imaging technologies, scaling and space exploration. Finally, in Chemical Interactions students learn the atomic theory of matter and use this notion to think theoretically about familiar materials and chemical interactions. The history of the development of the periodic table of the elements will guide an inquiry into the properties of the elements found on Earth.