California Science — Grade 7
Comprehensive Course Syllabus
Course Overview
California Grade 7 Science develops students’ understanding of life science, physical science, Earth and space science, and engineering through investigation and evidence-based reasoning. Students explore ecosystems, matter and chemical reactions, energy, Earth’s systems, natural selection, and human impacts on the environment.
The syllabus is aligned with the California Next Generation Science Standards (CA NGSS). California’s preferred middle-school model is an Integrated Learning Progression for Grades 6–8, while California also provides a discipline-specific Grade 7 Life Science course model. This syllabus follows an integrated Grade 7 approach so students experience connections across Life, Physical, Earth and Space, and Engineering Sciences.
Matter, Atoms & Chemical Reactions
Atomic Structure & Molecules
Students explore atoms, elements, molecules, and how atoms combine to form different substances.
Properties of Substances
Students investigate physical and chemical properties and learn how these properties can be used to identify substances.
Chemical Reactions
Students identify evidence of chemical reactions and analyze what happens when different substances interact.
Conservation of Mass
Students learn that atoms are rearranged during chemical reactions and that the total mass remains conserved.
Synthetic Materials & Natural Resources
Students explore how synthetic materials are produced from natural resources and consider their effects on people and the environment.
Thermal Energy from Chemical Processes
Students investigate chemical processes that can release or absorb thermal energy and explore their practical applications.
California Grade 7 CA NGSS includes modeling atomic composition, analyzing evidence of chemical reactions, examining synthetic materials and natural resources, conservation of atoms and mass, and designing devices involving thermal energy from chemical processes.
Energy, Motion & Energy Transfer
Forms of Energy
Students explore different forms of energy, including kinetic, potential, thermal, chemical, electrical, and radiant energy.
Kinetic Energy
Students investigate how an object’s mass and speed affect its kinetic energy.
Potential Energy
Students examine how an object’s position, arrangement, or condition can store potential energy.
Energy Transfer
Students investigate how energy moves between objects and systems and how energy can change from one form to another.
Thermal Energy
Students explore how thermal energy is transferred and how temperature changes can provide evidence of energy movement.
Energy in Everyday Systems
Students apply energy concepts to machines, transportation, household devices, and other real-world systems.
California middle-school CA NGSS includes quantitative relationships involving kinetic energy and the investigation of energy transfer and transformation in physical systems.
Ecosystems & Energy Flow
Ecosystem Components
Students identify living and nonliving components of ecosystems and investigate how they interact.
Food Chains & Food Webs
Students trace how energy moves through producers, consumers, and decomposers within ecosystems.
Matter Cycling in Ecosystems
Students explore how matter such as carbon, water, and nutrients moves between organisms and the environment.
Population Relationships
Students investigate how organisms depend on one another and how changes in one population can affect others.
Ecosystem Stability
Students explore how ecosystems respond to changes and how biodiversity can contribute to ecosystem resilience.
Human Effects on Ecosystems
Students examine how human activities can change habitats, populations, biodiversity, and ecosystem processes.
California’s middle-school standards include interdependent relationships in ecosystems, cycles of matter and energy transfer, ecosystem dynamics, and human impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem stability.
Earth Systems, Water & Natural Processes
Earth’s Systems
Students explore how the atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere interact as connected Earth systems.
Earth’s Surface Processes
Students investigate weathering, erosion, deposition, and other processes that continually change Earth’s surface.
Water Movement & the Water Cycle
Students examine how water moves through Earth’s systems and how this movement affects landscapes and living systems.
Plate Tectonics & Earth’s Surface
Students explore how interactions between tectonic plates contribute to earthquakes, volcanoes, mountains, and other large-scale features.
Weather & Climate Patterns
Students analyze patterns in weather and climate and investigate how Earth’s systems influence these patterns.
Natural Hazards
Students investigate hazards such as earthquakes, floods, landslides, severe storms, and volcanic activity and consider ways to reduce their impacts.
California CA NGSS includes Earth materials and systems, plate tectonics, the roles of water in Earth’s surface processes, weather and climate, and natural hazards within the Grades 6–8 learning progression.
Heredity, Variation & Natural Selection
Inheritance of Traits
Students explore how traits are passed from parents to offspring and how genetic information influences characteristics.
Variation of Traits
Students investigate why individuals within a population can have different traits and characteristics.
Environmental Influences
Students examine how environmental conditions can influence the development, survival, and reproduction of organisms.
Natural Selection
Students learn how differences in traits can affect an organism’s ability to survive and reproduce in a particular environment.
Adaptation
Students explore how populations become better suited to their environments over generations through natural selection.
Evidence for Evolution
Students examine fossils, anatomical similarities, genetic evidence, and other observations that provide evidence of common ancestry and biological change.
California middle-school CA NGSS includes inheritance and variation of traits, evidence of common ancestry and diversity, natural selection, adaptation, and biodiversity.
Biodiversity & Human Impact on Earth
Biodiversity
Students explore the variety of living organisms and understand why biological diversity is important to healthy ecosystems.
Population Changes
Students analyze how environmental changes, available resources, competition, and other factors can affect populations.
Human Impact on Ecosystems
Students investigate how agriculture, development, pollution, resource use, and other human activities affect ecosystems.
Natural Resources
Students explore renewable and nonrenewable resources and consider how humans depend on Earth’s resources.
Climate & Environmental Change
Students examine how human activities can influence Earth’s systems and contribute to environmental changes.
Conservation & Sustainability
Students evaluate possible approaches for protecting biodiversity, conserving resources, and reducing environmental impacts.
California CA NGSS connects biodiversity and human impacts with ecosystem dynamics, natural resources, human impacts on Earth systems, and global climate change.
Scientific Investigation & Engineering Design
Asking Scientific Questions
Students learn to develop testable questions and define problems that can be investigated using scientific evidence.
Planning Investigations
Students design investigations, identify variables, collect measurements, and follow appropriate scientific procedures.
Data Collection & Analysis
Students organize data using tables, graphs, models, and calculations to identify patterns and relationships.
Scientific Models
Students develop and use models to explain structures, systems, processes, and relationships that may be difficult to observe directly.
Evidence-Based Explanations
Students construct explanations and scientific arguments using observations, data, evidence, and logical reasoning.
Engineering Design
Students define engineering problems, develop possible solutions, test designs, analyze results, and improve solutions based on evidence.
Communicating Scientific Ideas
Students communicate scientific findings through written explanations, presentations, diagrams, models, and evidence-based arguments.
CA NGSS emphasizes science and engineering practices such as asking questions, developing models, planning investigations, analyzing data, constructing explanations, arguing from evidence, and communicating information.
Teaching Methodology
Students learn through:
Learning Outcomes
By the end of Grade 7 Science, students should be able to:
Assessment & Progress Tracking
Student progress is evaluated through: