Aha!Science Foundations for Middle School
Classroom Edition
Designed for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade middle school students who need a review of foundational science concepts to prepare for on-grade-level learning. Supports students working below grade level to review and relearn important science concepts, helping them to experience success and reignite their interest in science.
- Samples
- Curriculum Units
- Assignment Types
- Teacher Account
- Specs & Requirements
Aha!Science’s interactive digital assignments have these unique features:
- Digital coaches that provide students with emotionally consistent instruction and feedback.
- Integrates Science as Inquiry across all concepts.
- Flexible for use with whole class, small group and individual students.
- Can provide "just-in-time" PD for teachers.
Teachers introduce science concepts with instruction modules to the whole class. |
In games, students apply their understanding and problem-solving skills of science topics. |
Self-paced interactive lessons provide science concept review and fun practice. |
Online quizzes allow teachers to evaluate students’ understanding of science concepts. |
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Each Aha!Science curriculum unit includes several interactive digital assignments for understanding the unit’s objective.
Move your mouse over the unit to view its objectives.
Unit 1: Students will learn how plants carry out photosynthesis and will identify the roles various plant parts play in growth, reproduction, and survival. They will also study different environments and the resources they provide that allow plants and animals to survive. In addition, they will discover ways in which adaptations help plants and animals survive.
Unit 2: Students will learn about the living and nonliving components in a variety of ecosystems and how organisms interact with their ecosystem. They will examine the roles of producers, consumers, and decomposers in food chains and food webs. In addition, they will learn about the process of metamorphosis. Finally, students will learn that healthy ecosystems are balanced but that natural events and human activities can change an ecosystem.
Unit 3: Students will learn how adaptations help a species survive, reproduce, and occupy a particular niche in an ecosystem. They will explore examples of structural and behavioral adaptations. They will also discover that some traits are learned and some are inherited.
Unit 4: Students will learn how living organisms are classified into five kingdoms and will discover how to use a classification key. Students will also identify the specialized structures that allow single-celled organisms, plants, and animals to carry out key life processes.
Unit 5: Students will learn how the digestive, urinary (excretory), circulatory, and respiratory systems in the human body work and learn the main parts of each of these systems.
Unit 6: Students will learn the place of the Sun, Earth, and the other planets in our solar system. They will discover that the Earth, Moon, planets, and stars move in predictable ways and will learn the reasons for night and day, the seasons, and the phases of the Moon. They will also learn how telescopes are used to study objects in our solar system and beyond.
Unit 7: Students will learn about the relationship between the Sun, Moon, and Earth. They will discover how they differ in size, location, and structure. They will also learn the causes of the seasons and the phases of the Moon.
Unit 8: Students will learn about the objects that compose the solar system and that gravity is the force that keeps objects in the solar system in orbit.
Unit 9: Students will learn about the basic structure of the Earth and the various forces and processes involved in the formation of soil. They will discover why soil is important to plants and animals.
Unit 10: Students will learn how Earth's water moves through the water cycle, focusing in particular in the role evaporation and condensation play and the processes in which precipitation forms. They will also discover that Earth's supply of fresh water is limited and should be used wisely.
Unit 11: Students will learn about the atmospheric conditions that determine weather. They will also learn that weather can be predicted by observing and measuring various atmospheric conditions.
Unit 12: Students will learn about the various factors that create weather and will discover how meteorologists analyze weather conditions to predict the weather.
Unit 13: Students will learn about the basic structure of the Earth and the various forces and processes involved in the formation of soil. They will discover why soil is important to plants and animals.
Unit 14: Students will learn that minerals have properties that can be used to identify them. They will learn that rocks are made of minerals and that rocks change from one type to another in the rock cycle. Students will also learn about the forces and processes responsible for shaping Earth's landforms.
Unit 15: Students will learn how fossil fuels and minerals form. They will also explore ways in which geological resources are used and learn how to identify minerals. In addition, students will learn about common landforms and the forces that caused them to form.
Unit 16: Students will learn about renewable and nonrenewable resources. They will learn where the resources come from and how humans use them.
Unit 17: Students will learn which natural resources as renewable, nonrenewable, and inexhaustible and how these different resources are used. They will also explore ways in which to conserve resources.
Unit 18: Students will learn that most of the Earth's surface is covered by oceans. They will discover that the ocean contains a variety of organisms and geological features. They will explore the zones of the ocean and learn that amounts of sunlight and temperature decrease with depth, while pressure increases with depth.
Unit 19: Students will learn about how the Earth and the life on it have changed over time and how scientists piece together clues to better understand Earth's history.
Unit 20: Students will learn what energy is and will identify sources of energy. They will investigate different forms such as light, heat, and chemical energy. They will discover that forms of energy can move or change from one form to another.
Unit 21: Students will learn to distinguish between potential energy and kinetic energy and will discover that energy can change from one form to another.
Unit 22: Students will learn how people use solar energy and other forms of energy. They will explore specific uses of solar energy to produce thermal energy and to produce electrical energy.
Unit 23: Students will learn how force and motion are related and will be introduced to different ways that forces affect the motion and direction of objects.
Unit 24: Students will learn about the six types of simple machines and how they transfer energy into motion. They will construct and use simple machines. They will also learn that complex machines consist of simple machines working together as a system.
Unit 25: Students will learn about sources of light and that light travels at high speed in straight lines. They will discover how light behaves when it encounters transparent and opaque materials, exploring in particular the formation of shadows.
Unit 26: Students will learn that white light is composed of all colors of light and that different colors of light have different wavelengths. They will discover how the behavior of light allows us to see objects and different colors. They will also learn how different kinds of surfaces reflect and absorb light.
Unit 27: Students will learn about the behavior of light. They will discover that light can be reflected, refracted, and diffracted, depending on the material the light strikes. They will learn that visible light is just one of the forms of light that make up the electromagnetic spectrum.
Unit 28: Students will learn the three forms (states) of matter and their characteristic properties. They will also discover that adding or removing thermal energy (heat) is what causes matter to change form. Students will learn that all matter is made of atoms that can join together to form molecules. They will also discover that substances can be combined to form mixtures or compounds.
Unit 29: Students will learn about the defining properties of the three states of matter. They will also discover that different types of matter vary in their ability to transfer heat and in their densities.
Unit 30: Students will learn that elements are made of one kind of atom and how elements are arranged in the Periodic Table. They will also learn that elements can combine to form a compound that has properties that are different from the elements from which it is composed. 
Unit 31: Students will learn how sound travels through different media. They will discover how and why sounds differ and will explore ways in which sound is used by animals and humans.
Unit 32: Students will learn about the nature of electricity, electric currents, and electromagnets. They will discover how circuits work and learn about devices that affect the flow of electricity. They will also learn that electrical energy can be converted to other forms of energy.
Unit 33: Students will explore the properties and behaviors of magnets and magnetic fields, including the Earth and its magnetic field. They will learn how a magnetic compass can be used to find directions because it aligns with Earth's magnetic North Pole and will build their own compasses.
Click on the thumbnail image for more information about the assignment type.
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Instruction Modules — Introduce key science concepts in whole-class instruction …
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Lessons — Student-led interactive science concept review and fun practice …
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Games — Students apply conceptual understanding and problem-solving skills in multiple science topics …
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Simulations — Engaging, virtual science experiments and explorations …
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Quizzes &mdash Evaluate students’ understanding of science concepts covered in the curriculum …
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Journals — Students reflect and explore their learning through online prompts and/or questions …
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Activities — Printable PDFs provide experiments, projects and teacher-led explorations …
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Students raise mealworm larvae and watch them undergo complete metamorphosis to become beetles.|
Tools for managing your online science classes
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Create and manage digital science lessons and
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33 Curriculum Units for Grades 3-5 Science Curriculum
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