7th grade Standards/Essential Questions

7th grade Science

Process Skills 

NGSS Standards	Essential Questions for student inquiry
Integrate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in text with a version of that information expressed visually. (ELA RST 6-8.7)	How does your data provide support for an inference?
Analyze and interpret data to determine similarities and differences in findings. (MS-ETS 1-3)	Why is it essential to follow safety expectations during a lab investigation?
Follow precisely a multistep procedure when carrying out experiments, taking measurements, or performing technical tasks. (ELA RST 6-8.2)	Why are the steps within the scientific method essential to answer a research question?
Develop a model to generate data to test ideas about designed systems, including those representing inputs and outputs. (MS-ETS 1-4)	What are some ways in which you can determine if your data is valid/reliable?
Define a design problem that can be solved through the development of an object, tool, process, or system and includes multiple criteria and constraints, including scientific knowledge that may limit possible solutions. (MS-ETS 1-1)

7th grade Science

Matter and Chemistry

NGSS Standards	Essential Questions for student inquiry
Develop models to describe the atomic composition of simple molecules and extended structures. (MS-PS 1-1)	How and why can a scientist use the Periodic Table as a source of reference in any lab investigation?
Plan an investigation to determine the relationships among the energy transferred, the type of matter, the mass, and the change in the average kinetic energy of particles as measured by the temperature of the sample. (MS- PS-3-4)	How is the Periodic Table arranged?
Gather and make sense of information to describe that synthetic materials come from natural resources and impact society. (MS-PS 1-3)	Why and how can matter change?
Develop a model that predicts and describes changes in particle motion, temperature, and state of a pure substance when thermal energy is added or removed. (MS-PS 1-4)	How do we identify different materials our world is made up of?
	What is the world made up of?

7th grade Science

Physics 

NGSS Standards	Essential Questions for student inquiry
Conduct an investigation and evaluate the experimental design to provide evidence that fields exist between objects exerting forces on each other even though the objects are not in contact. (MS- PS 2-5)	How do Newton’s Laws allow us to describe motion?
Develop a model to describe that when the arrangement of objects interacting at a distance changes, different amounts of potential energy are stored in the system. (MS- PS 3-2)	Why is potential and kinetic energy affected by gravity?
Construct and interpret graphical displays of data to describe the relationships of kinetic energy to the mass of an object and to the speed of an object.  (MS- PS 3-1)	What variables can affect motion and force of an object?
Construct, use, and present arguments to support the claim that when the kinetic energy of an object changes, energy is transferred to or from the object. (MS- PS 3-5)	What are the relationships between forces and motion?
As questions about data to determine the factors that affect the strength of electric and magnetic forces.  (MS-PS 2-3)
Plan an investigation to provide evidence that the change in an object’s motion depends on the sum of the forces on the object and the mass of the object. (MS- PS 2-2)
Apply Newton’s 3rd Law to design a solution to a problem involving the motion of two colliding objects. (MS- PS 2-1)

7th grade Science

Physics 

NGSS Standards	Essential Questions for student inquiry
Reproducing offspring receives genes (at random) from each parent.  Individuals have two of each chromosome and hence to alleles of each gene, one acquired from each parent.  These versions may be identical and may be different from each other. (MS-LS 3-2)	How do cells play a role in living things?
Develop and use a model to describe why structural changes to genes (mutations) located on the chromosomes may affect proteins and may result in harmful, beneficial, or neutral effects to the structure and function of the organism. (MS-LS 3-1)	What role does heredity play in living things?