Energy & matter and Cause & Effect are the crosscutting concepts we are focusing on this year.
Unit 0 is the set up and interest piece for students to see how one situation brings in every aspect of what they will be learning about during the year.
Unit 1 is about the big picture of the ecosystem, including how animals interact with each other and the earth.
After covering how living things interact with the world, the focus in Unit 2 is shifted to the development of the earth and realizing that the living portion is a very small piece to the larger geological timescale.
Unit 3 is truly integrated discussing resources through the 3 lenses: Effects of resource availability on organisms (LS), uneven resource availability due to past and current geoscience processes (ES), and how synthetic materials come from natural resources (PS).
Unit 4 follows up with the closer look at the chemical level of photosynthesis and how that fits in with the cycles of matter. It includes the basic chemical structures of the molecules involved with photosynthesis and addresses where matter really comes from. It also looks deeper into the chemical reactions in photosynthesis and makes a clear connection between Unit 1 and all other units.
Finally Unit 5 brings everything together focusing on human impact. How are populations changing due to physical and biological changes, natural hazards and resources availability? And what are some solutions to these challenges?