science Grades 6 to 8 Live now

Cells and Systems Grades 6 to 8

Cells and Systems Grades 6 to 8 is a 12-week life-science course for middle schoolers that uses only things a family already has: glass jars, paper towels, dried bean seeds, a hand lens, a ruler, a timer, a flashlight and a flower or leaf from outside. Students set up the Windowsill at home and keep a Windowsill Log. Week by week they sort living from non-living, watch single cells make a balloon rise, build a cell model, compare plant and animal cells, follow cells to tissues to organs with their own pulse, feel body systems work together after a run, test their reaction time and memory, trap a leaf in the dark to see what light does, model how food is taken apart and rebuilt, grow seeds in light and dark, and look at how flowers, seeds and nests help living things make more of themselves. The course ends with a windowsill growing station designed, built, tested and improved. Short daily lessons with checked answers, a hands-on Windowsill Lab each week and a Saturday Nature Day for the family. 100% free, start to finish.

• Give evidence that living things are made of one cell or many cells and tell living things from non-living things
• Describe a cell as a working system and the jobs of the nucleus, membrane, mitochondria, chloroplasts and cell wall
• Explain how cells form tissues, tissues form organs, and body systems work together, using your own pulse and breathing data
• Describe how senses send signals to the brain for quick action or memory, using a reaction-time test
• Trace matter and energy through photosynthesis and through food that is taken apart and rebuilt in the body
• Explain how environment and inheritance shape growth, how living things make more of themselves, and design a growing station from criteria and constraints