Grade 7
The grade 7 program in the suggested sequence below progressively builds students’ abilities to meet all the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) grade-level performance expectations, as outlined by the NYC DOE, through a three-dimensional instructional sequence. The following is an overview of the sequence of units, a description of each unit’s phenomena and student role, and the NYP-12SLS addressed in them.
Scroll down to see the phenomenon, student role, and performance expectations by unit.
Sequence of units
- Microbiome
- Metabolism
- Phase Change
- Chemical Reactions
- Plate Motion
- Plate Motion Engineering Internship
- Rock Transformations
- Earth’s Changing Climate Engineering Internship
Microbiome
The presence of 100 trillion microorganisms living on and in the human body may keep the body healthy.
As student researchers, students must figure out why a fecal transplant cured a patient suffering from a deadly C. difficile infection. In the process, they learn about cells and about interactions among organisms.
- LS1-1: Living Things Made of Cells
- LS1-2: Cell Parts
Metabolism
Elisa, a young patient, feels tired all the time.
Students take on the role of medical students and diagnose a patient whose body systems aren’t working. They learn about cellular respiration and how body systems work together to get molecules to the cells.
- LS1-3: Body Systems
- LS1-6: Photosynthesis
- LS1-8: Sensory Receptors
Phase Change
A methane lake on Titan no longer appears in images taken by a space probe two years apart.
Students, in their role as student chemists, investigate the mystery of disappearing methane lakes on Saturn's moon, Titan. They must apply what they learn about phase change, matter, and energy.
- PS1-4: Phase Change
Plate Motion
Mesosaurus fossils have been found on continents separated by thousands of kilometers of ocean, even though the Mesosaurus species once lived all together.
Students play the role of geologists working for the fictional Museum of West Namibia to investigate Mesosaurus fossils found both in southern Africa and in South America.
- ESS1-4: Strata and Earth Age
- ESS2-2: Geoscience Processes
- ESS2-3: Evidence for Plate Motion
Plate Motion Engineering Internship
Patterns in earthquake data can be used to design an effective tsunami warning system.
Students act as geohazard engineering interns to design a tsunami warning system. Students communicate like engineers
and scientists do as they use their understanding of plate motion and patterns in data to create and justify their designs.
- ESS3-2: Natural Hazards
Rock Transformations
Rock samples from the Great Plains and from the Rocky Mountains — regions hundreds of miles apart — look very different, but have surprisingly similar mineral compositions.
As geologists, students investigate different ways rocks form and change. Using their new understanding, they explain how rock transformation processes caused rock material from the Rocky Mountains to eventually become part of the Great Plains.
- ESS2-1: Earth's Materials
- ESS2-2: Geoscience Processes
- ESS3-1: Distribution of Natural Resources
Earth’s Changing Climate Engineering Internship
Designing rooftops with different modifications can reduce a city’s impact on climate change.
As civil engineering interns, students apply design and engineering concepts as they create a plan for making changes to building rooftops. Their goal is to make a city more energy efficient, and thus reduce the carbon dioxide produced from combustion.
- ESS3-3: Designs to Minimize Impact
- ESS3-4: Human Population