6-8 Science

CURRICULUM

The Corte Madera Science curriculum is developed based on the California Next Generation Science Standards, in alignment with PVSD's goals and priorities. All of our students are provided a high-quality program that motivates, engages, and challenges them to be critical thinkers and problem solvers.

6th Grade Science

Diversity of Life - students consider what it means to be a living organism and learn the characteristics that scientists use to define life from the smallest single celled organisms to the incredibly complex and large multicellular organisms. 

Human Systems and Interactions - students explore how organ systems interact to support each and every cell in the body to answer the guiding question: How do humans live, grow, and respond to their environment? 

Water and Weather - students learn about the basic elements of weather and how it happens. Additionally learning about the role that convection currents, ocean currents, radiation and the water cycle play. 

Climate Change and Human Impact - In the final module, students will delve into some of the issues around Climate Change, and work on coming up with possible solutions to this global problem.

Castellanos Syllabus SY24-25

Curriculum used:  FOSS and other activities brought in to highlight current events or to make the content relevant and engaging.

7th Grade Science

Chemical Interactions -  students explore the unique properties of matter and how these properties cause matter to interact to create unique substances.

Earth History - students explore the ways in which geologic events and systems have shaped both Earth’s physical structures and life forms.

Populations and Ecosystems - students explore how organisms exchange energy within and across ecosystems and the critical role of all living and nonliving elements of an ecosystem to its overall health.

Health Curriculum - Alcohol, Tobacco and Drug Resistance, presented in the Spring.

Castellanos Syllabus SY24-25 

Dr.Dowd 2024-'25/ 7th Grade Syllabus
Curriculum used: FOSS, Open SciEd, Project Alert and other activities brought in to highlight current events or to make the content relevant and engaging.

8th Grade Science

Electricity and Magnetism -  Students will measure the force of invisible magnetic fields, learn to build a circuit, design an electromagnet, and explain the energy transfers that make it all possible. The anchor phenomena for this course are force interactions and effects. The driving question for the course is what is the relationship between magnetic and electric forces?

Gravity and Kinetic Energy - How does gravity cause objects to move? What happens to an object’s energy when it moves faster? What happens when moving objects collide? How can humans protect themselves in collisions? These are the fundamental physics questions explored by students in this course as they explore the anchor phenomena of falling objects and collisions.

Planetary Science - The driving question for the course is- "What is my cosmic address?" Astronomy is the study of everything we can observe and imagine beyond Earth—the Moon, the Sun, the solar system, the Milky Way, and the vastness of the cosmos. 

Heredity and Adaptation - This course begins to explore the anchor phenomenon of the biodiversity that exists on Earth. The driving question for this course is how can we explain the diversity of life that has lived on Earth?

Sexuality Education and Reproductive Health - This will happen in the Spring. More information to follow.

Dr.Dowd 2024-'25/ 8th Grade Syllabus

Dr.Dowd 2024-'25/ STEAM : Wilderness Science Syllabus
Curriculum used:  FOSS, Open SciEd, and other activities brought in to highlight current events or to make the content relevant and engaging.