Science 5: Integrated Science I
Students investigate interactions of living things, environmental issues, water as an essential resource, ocean life, and physical and life sciences. They are involved in laboratory activities, individual and group projects, class discussions, field trips, and visits by guest speakers. Students are encouraged to compare and contrast ideas, to sharpen observational skills, to detect relationships and patterns, to graph data they have collected, and to explain interrelationships among topics.
Science 6: Integrated Science II
Students investigate the structure of the earth, its weather, our solar system, and the universe using the study of earth, space, and physical sciences. They are involved in laboratory activities, individual and group projects, class discussions, field trips (e.g., The Christa MacAuliffe Center), and visits by guest speakers. Students practice making observations, formulating hypotheses, testing and experimenting, collecting and recording data, looking for patterns in and connections among their data, and formulating conclusions.
Science 7: Life Science
This course is designed to develop students’ skills in using the scientific method: formulating a problem statement, conducting background research, designing a hypothesis and an experiment to test that hypothesis, collecting and displaying data, and analyzing results.
Topics covered include the cell, Linnaean classification, bacteria and viruses, protists and fungi, plants, and human body systems. Through a guided research process, all students develop an independent investigation that is exhibited and judged at the Newton Country Day School Science Fair.
Science 8: Physical Science
This course introduces students to the fundamental principles of physical science and chemistry and prepares them for the study of science at the Upper School level. In this laboratory-based course, students design their own individual and group experiments to test principles learned through readings and class discussions. They also learn to use an inductive, inquiry-based approach to formulate hypotheses from their observations. They maintain a laboratory notebook, prepare laboratory reports, and make presentations to classmates about their experiments. They apply mechanics learned in the classroom to build, test, and modify an independent engineering project, which is exhibited and judged at the Newton Country Day School Science Fair.