Category: Grade 2 Science

Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems

Unit description:  Students examine how animals and plants depend on each other for survival. They explore areas where plants and animals live on land and in water, and how each area is made up of many different kinds of living things.

Download the complete Grade 2 Science Unit 3 framework to customize for your own planning. 

Essential Questions and Big Ideas

How do plants and animals depend on each other to survive?

• • Animals depend on plants or other animals for food. (2-LS2-2)
  • Designs can be conveyed through sketches, drawings, or physical models. These representations are useful in communicating ideas to other people (secondary to 2-LS2-2)
  • Plants depend on water, light and air to grow. (2-LS2-1)
  • Some plants depend on animals for pollination and for dispersal of seeds from one location to another. (2-LS2-2)
  • There are many different kinds of living things in any area, and they exist in different places on land and in water. (2-LS4-1)

Prerequisite Skills/Science & Engineering Practices

Plan and conduct an investigation to make a determination, develop a model to illustrate a concept, make observations to compare.

Structure & Properties of Matter

Suggested Timeframe: Winter (Jan-March)

Unit description: Students explore how to describe and classify different types of materials based on observable properties. They learn how heating and cooling can cause changes to solids and liquids, and that sometimes these changes are reversible, and sometimes they are not.

Download the complete Grade 2 Science Unit 2 framework to customize for your own planning.

Essential Questions and Big Ideas

How do we describe matter?

• • Different kinds of matter exist and many of them can be either solid or liquid, depending on temperature. Matter can be described and classified by its observable properties. (2-PS1-1)
  • Different properties are suited to different purposes. (2-PS1-2),(2-PS1-3)
  • A great variety of objects can be built up from a small set of pieces. (2-PS1-3)

What are ways we can change matter?

• • Heating or cooling a substance may cause changes that can be observed. Sometimes these changes are reversible, and sometimes they are not. (2-PS1-4)

Prerequisite Skills/Science & Engineering Practices

Plan and conduct an investigation to describe and classify, analyze data to make determinations, make observations to construct evidence-based accounts, construct an argument supported by evidence.

Download the complete Grade 2 Science Unit 2 framework to customize for your own planning.

Earth’s Systems: Processes That Shape the Earth

Students learn about short and long term events/processes that shape our land.  They explore the varied shapes and kinds of land and bodies of water found on Earth.

Download the complete Grade 2 Science Unit 1 framework to customize for your own planning.

Standards

• 2-ESS2-3. Obtain information to identify where water is found on Earth and that it can be solid or liquid.
• 2-ESS2-2. Develop a model to represent the shapes and kinds of land and bodies of water in an area.
• 2-ESS2-1. Compare multiple solutions designed to slow or prevent wind or water from changing the shape of the land.
• 2-ESS1-1. Use information from several sources to provide evidence that Earth events can occur quickly or slowly.

Essential Questions

• Why does Earth look the way it does?
  • Some events happen very quickly; others occur very slowly, over a time period much longer than one can observe. (2-ESS1-1)
  • Wind and water can change the shape of the land. (2-ESS2-1)
  • Because there is always more than one possible solution to a problem, it is useful to compare and test designs. (secondary to 2-ESS2-1)
• How can we find different areas of land and water on our Earth?
  • Maps show where things are located. One can map the shapes and kinds of land and water in any area. (2-ESS2-2)
  • Water is found in the ocean, rivers, lakes, and ponds. Water exists as solid ice and in liquid form. (2-ESS2-3)

Download the complete Grade 2 Science Unit 1 framework to customize for your own planning.