Science 1

Five scientist steps (notice, wonder, think, test, found) learned with a paper-drop test, then safety rules and tools: a hand lens, a ruler and a homemade hanger balance. Observing with the senses and making labeled drawings, turning a wondering into a question you can test, predicting, measuring with cubes and a ruler, tally marks and picture graphs, and tests that change only one thing, ending with a review and a check.

• 1 · What do scientists do?
• 2 · Science safety and tools
• 3 · Observing carefully with senses and a hand lens
• 4 · Using tools: hand lens, ruler and balance
• 5 · Asking questions and making predictions
• 6 · Measuring with rulers and cubes
• 7 · Charts and picture graphs
• 8 · Testing one thing at a time
• 9 · Change only one thing: spot the unfair test
• 10 · Unit review: scientist skills
• 11 · Unit assessment: scientist skills

The six design steps (ask, imagine, plan, create, test, improve) on a corner bookmark, a squirrel-proof bird feeder model, a long-reach grabber and a drip-bottle plant waterer, comparing two designs with test counts each time. Then tests that pick a material for a job (paper shapes that hold books, tug, soak and rain tests), a mini-project of the child's own, a review and a check.

• 12 · What do engineers do? A quick review of the design steps
• 13 · Ask and imagine: define the problem
• 14 · Plan and create: draw it, then build it
• 15 · Test and improve
• 16 · Engineering challenge: design a bird feeder squirrels cannot raid
• 17 · Bird feeder: test and improve
• 18 · Engineering challenge: design a grabber for hard-to-reach things
• 19 · Grabber: compare two designs with test data
• 20 · Engineering challenge: design a plant waterer that works while we are away
• 21 · Plant waterer: redesign and retest
• 22 · What makes a good material for the job?
• 23 · Test: which paper shape holds the most weight?
• 24 · Test: which material is strongest?
• 25 · Test: which material soaks up the most water?
• 26 · Test: which material keeps you driest?
• 27 · Choosing the best material for a job
• 28 · Engineering mini-project: solve a problem of your own
• 29 · Unit review: the design process
• 30 · Unit assessment: engineering

Sound comes from vibrations, felt in a humming throat and seen on a rice drum. Loud and quiet, high and low sounds with a ruler and a rubber-band guitar, sound traveling through a table and a string, sound making things vibrate, stopping a sound by stopping the vibration and building a quiet box. Then plucked, hit and blown instruments and a homemade one, ears and hearing safety, animal sounds and a sound walk.

• 31 · What is sound?
• 32 · Feel the vibrations
• 33 · See the vibrations
• 34 · Loud and quiet sounds
• 35 · High and low sounds
• 36 · Rubber-band guitar: changing the sound
• 37 · Investigation: which cup makes the loudest sound?
• 38 · Sound near and far
• 39 · How sound travels
• 40 · Sound makes things vibrate
• 41 · Stop the vibration, stop the sound
• 42 · Which materials block sound?
• 43 · Musical instruments and sound
• 44 · Sorting instruments by how they make sound
• 45 · Project: build an instrument
• 46 · Ears and hearing
• 47 · Sound safety
• 48 · Animal sounds and hearing
• 49 · Sound walk: listening in nature
• 50 · Unit review: sound
• 51 · Unit assessment: sound

A dark-box test shows we see things only when light shines on them. Light sources, light traveling in straight lines, shadows (with a classic shadow poem) and how they change with a flashlight sun and with distance, a shadow theater, sorting materials as transparent, translucent or opaque, bouncing light off a mirror to hit a target, colored filters and a colored-light window, and an outdoor shadow hunt.

• 52 · What is light?
• 53 · Can we see in the dark? A dark-box investigation
• 54 · Light sources: sun, lamps, flames and living things
• 55 · How light travels
• 56 · Shadows
• 57 · Shadows change through the day
• 58 · Shadow investigation: size, shape and distance
• 59 · Project: shadow theater
• 60 · Transparent, translucent and opaque
• 61 · Test: which materials block the most light?
• 62 · Sorting materials by what light does
• 63 · Reflection: bouncing light
• 64 · Mirror challenge: steer a beam of light
• 65 · Colored filters and rainbows
• 66 · Project: a colored-light window
• 67 · Outdoor shadow hunt
• 68 · Unit review: light and shadows
• 69 · Unit assessment: light

An engineering unit about sending a message far away without walking there. Flashlight signals and sound signals tested and compared, flashlight covers tested from the end of a hallway, a tap-and-flash code, a cup-and-string phone built, tested at longer distances and improved, signals all around us, Morse code and flag signals, and a message challenge across a yard.

• 70 · The problem: sending a message far away
• 71 · Sending messages with light
• 72 · Sending messages with sound
• 73 · Comparing light signals and sound signals
• 74 · Test: which flashlight cover is easiest to see?
• 75 · Designing a signal code
• 76 · Build a signal device
• 77 · Test and improve the signal device
• 78 · Signals all around us
• 79 · Signal flags and codes through history
• 80 · Project: the playground message challenge
• 81 · Unit review: communicating over a distance
• 82 · Unit assessment: signals

Roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds and the job each does, found on real plants, with a celery test that shows water moving up. Observing and measuring a plant, sorting leaves, sorting kitchen foods by plant part, how thorns, strong smells and bark keep plants safe (and a bark coat that copies bark), cactus, water lily and tree parts compared, and a green-onion growth journal.

• 83 · Parts of a plant
• 84 · Roots and their job
• 85 · Stems and leaves
• 86 · Plant detective: observe a real plant
• 87 · Leaf collection: sorting leaves
• 88 · Plant parts people eat
• 89 · Sorting foods by plant part
• 90 · How plants protect themselves: thorns and spines
• 91 · How plants protect themselves: bad tastes and smells
• 92 · How plants protect themselves: thick bark and tough leaves
• 93 · Plant parts for different homes
• 94 · Plant journal: watching a plant change
• 95 · Unit review: plants
• 96 · Unit assessment: plants

Fur, feathers, scales and moist skin, then body parts for moving, eating, staying safe and sensing, tested with a paddle test, kitchen-tool beaks and eggshell domes. Camouflage, coverings that suit icy, desert and ocean homes, a duck-feather water test, behaviors like hiding, huddling and a skunk’s warning, plant and animal protection compared, inventions copied from animals, a beak tool to build and improve, and an animal study page.

• 97 · Animals have fur
• 98 · Animals have feathers
• 99 · Animals have scales
• 100 · Animals have smooth, moist skin
• 101 · Sorting animals by body covering
• 102 · Body parts that help animals move
• 103 · Feet and fins: comparing how animals move
• 104 · Body parts that help animals eat
• 105 · Bird beaks: tools for eating
• 106 · Body parts that help animals stay safe
• 107 · Eyes and ears: how animals see and hear
• 108 · Nose and whiskers: how animals smell and touch
• 109 · Animals with super senses
• 110 · Camouflage
• 111 · Body coverings that fit the habitat
• 112 · Behaviors that help animals stay safe and fed
• 113 · Comparing how plants and animals protect themselves
• 114 · Copying nature: ideas from animal parts
• 115 · Project: invent a tool from an animal part
• 116 · Project: an animal study
• 117 · Unit review: animal bodies
• 118 · Unit assessment: animal bodies

Young plants and animals are like their parents but not exactly: baby spider plants, leaves of one tree, kittens and zebra foals, and how people look alike and different. Opening a bean to find the tiny plant inside and sprouting beans in a bag, then how animal parents feed, warm, protect and carry their young, the homes they prepare, sound, movement and color signals between parents and babies, learning by practice, and a parent-and-baby poster.

• 119 · Baby plants look like their parent plants
• 120 · Seeds: a baby plant inside
• 121 · Watching a seed sprout
• 122 · Project: our bean-seed journal
• 123 · Leaves of one tree: alike but not the same
• 124 · Baby animals: alike but not exactly the same
• 125 · Animal babies grow up
• 126 · Family resemblance: how we are alike and different
• 127 · How animal parents help their babies survive
• 128 · Homes parents build for their young
• 129 · Parents and young: signals with sound
• 130 · Parents and young: signals with movement
• 131 · Parents and young: color and markings
• 132 · Comparing how animal families communicate
• 133 · How young animals learn: play and practice
• 134 · Project: a parent and baby animal pair
• 135 · Unit review: parents and young
• 136 · Unit assessment: parents and young

A sky journal: sunrise and sunset, tracing a stick's shadow to follow the sun across the sky, a paper-plate sundial, day and night and the animals busy at each. Drawing the moon's shape over many nights and predicting the next shapes, counting stars through a paper tube, finding the Big Dipper and comparing the day sky with the night sky.

• 137 · Becoming a sky watcher
• 138 · The sun rises and sets every day
• 139 · The sun's path across the sky and shadows
• 140 · Project: build a sundial
• 141 · Day and night: a pattern we can see
• 142 · Animals that are active by day and by night
• 143 · The moon looks different every night
• 144 · Project: keeping a moon journal
• 145 · Predicting the next moon shapes
• 146 · How many stars can you count?
• 147 · Star patterns and stories
• 148 · Drawing the day sky and the night sky
• 149 · Project: a week-long sky journal
• 150 · What patterns have we noticed in the sky?
• 151 · Unit review: sun, moon and stars
• 152 · Unit assessment: sun, moon and stars

Summer has the most daylight and winter the least: a light-or-dark log at dinner and bedtime, sunrise and sunset tables, and picture and bar graphs to find the longest and shortest days and predict next month. Clue hunts for spring, summer, fall and winter, a four-seasons chart, one place compared in two seasons, and how animals respond to shorter days by migrating, hibernating or storing food.

• 153 · Daylight changes with the seasons
• 154 · Reading daylight: sunrise and sunset tables
• 155 · Seasons: spring
• 156 · Seasons: summer
• 157 · Seasons: fall
• 158 · Seasons: winter
• 159 · Comparing the four seasons: daylight and temperature
• 160 · Project: one place in two seasons
• 161 · How animals notice the season: migration, hibernation and storing food
• 162 · Daylight across the year: reading sunrise and sunset tables
• 163 · Graphing daylight: the longest and shortest days
• 164 · Predicting daylight: what will next month be like?
• 165 · Unit review: seasons
• 166 · Unit assessment: seasons

The child's own project: a testable question, research in books and with a trusted adult, a test with recorded results, a poster and a presentation at a home science fair. Then reviews of living things, light and sound, the sky and seasons, and engineering, a final check, a science hunt around the house, a reflection page and a celebration.

• 167 · Final project: choosing a topic
• 168 · Final project: research
• 169 · Final project: observe and record
• 170 · Final project: creating a poster
• 171 · Final project: practicing the presentation
• 172 · Science fair day: sharing our projects
• 173 · Cumulative review: living things
• 174 · Cumulative review: light and sound
• 175 · Cumulative review: earth and sky
• 176 · Cumulative review: engineering and testing
• 177 · Final assessment: Science 1
• 178 · Science around the house
• 179 · Reflecting on a year of science
• 180 · Science 1 celebration