Grade 7 Science
9 units matched to the New Brunswick Curriculum.
Learning focus
- Grade focus: Earth Surface Processes.
- Scientific Literacy: Investigation. Plan investigations to answer questions about relationships between and among variables observed in matter and Earth surface processes.
- Scientific Literacy: Sensemaking. Analyze and interpret qualitative and quantitative data to construct explanations and conclusions.
- Scientific Literacy: Communication. Communicate procedure, result, and conclusion using a variety of media and working collaboratively.
- Learning and Living Sustainably: Responsible and Sustainable Application. Apply scientific and technological knowledge and an understanding of sustainable practices responsibly with respect to matter and Earth surface processes.
Units
Unit 1
Ecosystems
Biotic and abiotic parts of an ecosystem, how they interact, and the limiting factors and carrying capacity that decide how many organisms an ecosystem can support.
Skill descriptor: Learning and Living Sustainably: Responsible and Sustainable Application · ecosystems and the living things in them
Unit 2
Food Chains & Energy
Producers, consumers and decomposers, food chains and webs, how energy shrinks as it passes up a chain (about 10% each step), and what happens when part of a chain changes.
Skill descriptor: Learning and Living Sustainably: Responsible and Sustainable Application · food chains and energy in an ecosystem
Unit 3
People & Ecosystems
How agriculture, harvesting and technologies affect ecosystems, such as monoculture, overfishing, invasive species and runoff, and ways to protect and restore balance. Includes reading simple data about an environmental measure.
Skill descriptor: Learning and Living Sustainably: Responsible and Sustainable Application · how people affect ecosystems
Unit 4
Particles & Mixtures
The particle theory of matter, the states of matter, pure substances versus mixtures, and homogeneous versus heterogeneous mixtures.
Skill descriptor: Scientific Literacy: Sensemaking · particles and mixtures
Unit 5
Heat & Particles
Heat as energy linked to particle motion, temperature, expansion and contraction, changes of state, and the ways heat is generated (friction, electricity, burning, chemical reactions and the Sun).
Skill descriptor: Scientific Literacy: Sensemaking · heat and particles
Unit 6
Structures & Forces
Solid, frame and shell structures, centre of gravity and stability, symmetry, and the size, direction and point of application of forces, including tension, compression, torsion and shear.
Skill descriptor: Scientific Literacy: Sensemaking · forces acting on structures
Unit 7
Safe Structures
Why structures fail (overloading, fatigue, corrosion, freeze-thaw), choosing materials, how engineers assess and maintain safety, the engineering design process, and social, economic and environmental factors in design, including ergonomics.
Skill descriptor: Scientific Literacy: Sensemaking · designing structures that are safe and strong
Unit 8
Restless Earth
Earth's layers, plate tectonics, earthquakes and volcanoes, fossils in rock layers, and the order of major events in Earth's 4.6-billion-year history. Includes how First Nations oral histories and scientific evidence together date the great 1700 earthquake.
Skill descriptor: Scientific Literacy: Sensemaking · Earth's changing crust, fossils and geological time
Unit 9
Natural Selection
Variation, inherited versus acquired traits, adaptations, and how natural selection changes populations over generations, with fossils and other evidence. Includes reading data from a predator–prey model.
Skill descriptor: Scientific Literacy: Sensemaking · how living things change over time
Ready to try Gradelings?
Curriculum-matched practice for Kindergarten to Grade 9 in British Columbia and Ontario and Alberta and Saskatchewan and Manitoba and Yukon and Northwest Territories and Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, with kind hints, learning games and no ads. Subscribe now, or try everything free for 30 days with no card.