Erosion & Earth’s Surface Unit
⭐ New - Lesson 1: Where’s the best place to hide a treasure?
📝 Revised - Anchor Layer (Coming soon)
States of Matter Unit (New!)
⭐ New - Lesson 1: Where do animals find the water they need?
⭐ New - Lesson 2: How is an ice cube like a crayon?
🔀 Shifted in - Lesson 3: Why are so many toys made out of plastic?
- Previously in Material Properties unit
⭐ New - Anchor Layer (Coming soon)
Material Properties Unit
🔀 Shifted out - Lesson 3: Why are so many toys made out of plastic?
- Now in States of Matter unit
📦 Archived - Lesson 4: What materials might be invented in the future?
📝 Revised - Anchor Layer (Coming soon)
Why did Mystery Science make these curriculum updates?
Erosion & Earth’s Surface Unit
- ⭐ New - Lesson 1: Where’s the best place to hide a treasure?
- 2-ESS2-2. Develop a model to represent the shapes and kinds of land and bodies of water in an area.
- Reasons for Development: Mystery Science partially covers 2-ESS2-2 in other lessons within this unit, but we previously lacked a lesson that focused specifically on creating maps and identifying land and water features. This lesson encourages students to recognize and identify a variety of landforms and bodies of water. In the hands-on activity, students reconstruct a treasure map, using clues to identify where certain landforms and bodies of water are located. They discover that one of the best places to hide a treasure is a unique place that can be described using the shapes and kinds of land and water around it.
States of Matter Unit (New!)
- ⭐ New - Lesson 1: Where do animals find the water they need?
- 2-ESS2-3. Obtain information to identify where water is found on Earth and that it can be solid or liquid.
- Reasons for Development: This lesson was developed to provide stronger alignment to 2-ESS2-3, and introduce the concepts of solids and liquids to students. In the hands-on activity, students go on a virtual adventure of the Arctic and document all the different ways that animals are interacting with the liquid water and solid ice in this region. Students discover through this journey that water in both its liquid state and solid state are important to the survival of these animals. (An internal note that we are removing 2-ESS2-3 from our other lesson “If you floated down a river, where would you end up?” due to poor alignment of this standard with the content of that lesson.)
- ⭐ New - Lesson 2: How is an ice cube like a crayon?
- 2-PS1-4. Construct an argument with evidence that some changes caused by heating or cooling can be reversed and some cannot.
- Reasons for Development: Mystery Science partially covers 2-PS1-4 in the lesson “Why are so many toys made out of plastic?” (see below), and this lesson expands that coverage to include irreversible changes. This lesson continues the discussion of water, but focuses on how it has the unique ability to change from a solid to a liquid and back to a solid – the Power to Undo! In the hands-on activity, students make observations through a virtual investigation where they gather evidence on the properties of several materials at room temperate, after being warmed up in the Hot Ring, and then after being cooled down in the Chill Zone. They use these observations as evidence to describe that some changes caused by heating and cooling can be reversed (reversible changes) while others cannot (irreversible changes). For those teachers who LOVE butter, it is featured prominently in this lesson!
- 🔀 Shifted in - Lesson 3: Why are so many toys made out of plastic?
- Previously in Material Properties unit
- 2-PS1-4. Construct an argument with evidence that some changes caused by heating or cooling can be reversed and some cannot.
- Reasons for Shift: This lesson focuses on reversible changes and the liquid and solid states of materials, so we shifted this lesson into this unit with the other lessons that have a similar topic focus.
Material Properties Unit
- 📦 Archived - Lesson 4: What materials might be invented in the future?
- K-2-ETS1-1. Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.
- Reasons for Archival: This lesson has very weak standards alignment, has a simplistic activity that isn’t up to our current team standards, and has the most negative teacher reviews of any 2nd grade lesson. Based on all this, we decided this was the best time to retire this lesson. since we are adding several new, standards aligned lessons for our 2nd grade audience.
- 🔀 Shifted out - Lesson 3: Why are so many toys made out of plastic?
- Moved to States of Matter unit
- 2-PS1-4. Construct an argument with evidence that some changes caused by heating or cooling can be reversed and some cannot.
- Reasons for Shift: This lesson focuses on reversible changes and the liquid and solid states of materials, so we shifted this lesson into this unit with the other lessons that have a similar topic focus.