What does a student learn in StateWest Virginia,GradeGrade 7,SubjectScience?

Students read and build graphs that show how a moving object's energy changes when it gets heavier or faster. A heavier car rolling downhill has more energy than a lighter one; a faster car has more energy than a slower one.

Objects that interact at a distance, like magnets or a ball above the ground, store energy based on how far apart they are. Move them closer or farther and the stored energy changes.

Students design and build a device to control heat transfer, then test whether it works. Think of it as engineering an insulated lunchbox or a heat-collecting solar panel and measuring how well it does the job.

Students plan and run an experiment to see how the type and amount of a material affects how much its temperature changes when heat is added. More mass or a different material can mean a bigger or smaller temperature shift.

When a moving object speeds up or slows down, energy is moving too. Students argue, using real examples, that the change in motion means energy either flowed into the object or left it.

When two objects collide, each one pushes the other with equal force in the opposite direction. Students use that principle to design a solution, like padding or a barrier, that controls what happens when the objects hit.

Students plan and run a test to show that a heavier object needs more force to speed up or slow down, and that multiple forces on the same object add together to decide how it moves.

Students look at data to figure out what makes electric and magnetic forces stronger or weaker, such as how distance or the size of a current changes the pull or push between objects.

Students build a written or oral argument explaining why gravity pulls objects toward each other and why heavier objects pull harder. They back up that claim with evidence, not just a guess.

Students test how magnets or electrically charged objects push and pull each other without touching. They also judge whether the experiment was set up fairly and what the results actually show.

Students gather evidence that every living thing is built from cells. They run investigations to see that some organisms are a single cell while others are made of many cells working together.

Students learn how a cell works as a living unit and what each part inside it does. Think of it like a tiny factory: every compartment has a job, and the cell only runs when those jobs work together.

Students build an argument, backed by evidence, for how body systems like the heart, lungs, and digestive tract work together as one system. The focus is on how groups of cells form each organ system and how those systems depend on each other to keep the body running.

Sensory receptors pick up signals from the world around us, then send those signals to the brain. The brain uses them to react on the spot or store them as memories students can draw on later.

Students build a diagram or model showing how rock, water, and soil move through Earth over time, and what energy sources (like heat from inside Earth or sunlight) keep those cycles going.

Students build a diagram or model showing how water moves through rain, rivers, oceans, and clouds. The sun's heat and gravity keep that cycle running.

Students explain why oil, minerals, and freshwater aren't spread evenly across Earth by connecting those patterns to geologic processes like volcanic activity, erosion, and the movement of tectonic plates over millions of years.

Rock layers act like pages in Earth's history book. Students use evidence from those layers to explain how scientists divide Earth's 4.6-billion-year past into chunks of time, from the oldest buried rock to the surface.

Geoscience processes like erosion, volcanic eruptions, and shifting tectonic plates have reshaped Earth's surface over millions of years. Students explain how these forces work differently depending on the size of the area and the span of time involved.

Fossils, rock layers, and the shapes of continents all leave clues about how Earth's surface has shifted over millions of years. Students read maps and data to piece together how the plates once fit together and where they moved.

Students design a real plan to track and reduce a human impact on the environment, like pollution or habitat loss, using science to back up each step.

Students spell out exactly what a solution must do and what it cannot do before building anything. That means naming real limits like cost, materials, and safety, and thinking through how the design might affect people or the environment.

Students look at test results from several design ideas and decide which parts worked best. Then they combine those parts into one improved design that meets the goal better than any single idea did on its own.