Captain Elementary School

Solids and Liquids – Winter

The Solids and Liquids Module provides experiences that heighten primary students' awareness, curiosity, and understanding of the physical world and provides opportunities for young students to engage in scientific and engineering practices. Matter with which we interact exists in three fundamental states: solid, liquid, and gas. In this module, students will:

• Investigate and sort objects based on their properties.
• Observe, describe, and compare the properties and behaviors of solids and liquids. Record observations with pictures, numbers, and words.
• Recognize the properties of solid materials that make them appropriate for tower construction; build towers.
• Combine and separate solid materials of different particle sizes using tools.
• Observe, describe, and record what happens when solids and water are mixed and when liquids and water are mixed.
• Use knowledge to conduct an investigation on an unknown material(toothpaste).    

Air and Weather – March-May

The Air and Weather Module provides experiences that heighten primary students' awareness, curiosity, and understanding of Earth's dynamic atmosphere and provides opportunities for young students to engage in scientific and engineering practices. Students explore the natural world by using simple instruments to observe and monitor change. In this module, students will:

• Discover properties of air by observing interactions of air with objects.
• Demonstrate that compressed air can be used to make things move.
• Construct parachutes, pinwheels, and kites, and observe how they interact with air.
• Use weather instruments, including a thermometer, an anemometer, and a wind vane, to measure air conditions.
• Observe and describe daily weather on a calendar; record observations using pictures, words, and data.
• Graph weather observations to look for patterns in local weather conditions, precipitation, and temperature throughout the seasons.
• Monitor and record the changing appearance of the Moon over a month.    

Insects and Plants – September and October

The Insects and Plants Module provides experiences that heighten students' awareness of the living world. They come to know firsthand the life cycles of a number of insects. Students see the life cycles of insects unfold in real time and compare the stages exhibited by each species. At the same time, students grow one type of plant from seed and observe it through its lifecycle to produce new seeds. In this module, students will

• Provide for the needs of living insects and growing.
• Observe beetles, moths, and butterflies change from larvae to pupae to adult. Observe insect mating and egg laying.
• Compare structures on milkweed bugs to other kinds of insects.
• Observe incomplete and complete metamorphosis.
• Compare plant and animal life cycles.
• Make predictions about the moth and butterfly life cycles, based on observations of other insects.
• Communicate observations of the life cycle of plants and the structure,behavior, and life cycle of insects in words and drawings.