Science

About this course

Second grade covers the same eight fields as first grade but goes noticeably deeper. Life science moves past naming animals into classification, vertebrates and invertebrates, adaptations, food webs, ecosystems, photosynthesis, and the parts of a cell. Earth science takes up the layers of the planet, the three rock types, minerals, soil horizons, weathering and erosion, volcanoes and earthquakes, cloud types, and oceans. Physical science distinguishes physical from chemical change and introduces Newton's laws in simple form, work, and energy. Space covers the inner and outer planets one group at a time, moon phases and tides, constellations, and galaxies. The body unit walks through the skeletal, muscular, circulatory, respiratory, digestive, nervous, immune, and endocrine systems in turn. Chemistry reaches atoms, molecules, elements, compounds, the periodic table, acids and bases, combustion, and oxidation. Physics adds velocity, acceleration, potential and kinetic energy, electricity, and magnetism. The last unit is stewardship: the dominion mandate, air and water, soil and food, deforestation, endangered animals, and gardening.

There are 108 lessons in 9 units of 12. As in first grade, the ninth unit repeats the life science unit from the beginning of the year lesson for lesson, so the closing stretch is review. A lesson is planned for about 25 minutes and is still parent-led, with prompts addressed to you ("Say to your student," "Ask your student") woven through a short explanation. Each lesson has a King James verse, a hands-on activity or drawing task, and a ten-question multiple-choice quiz that grades itself.

Materials stay at pencil, paper, and crayons. Activities are mostly drawing and labeling (a cell with its membrane, nucleus, and cytoplasm; a four-square periodic table), noticing something already at hand, or planting a bean in a pot on a windowsill. Coming in, your student should be able to follow a short read-aloud explanation and answer questions about it; the reading is still yours to do. One lesson in the body unit says in general terms that hormones bring on the changes of growing up and leaves it there. Creation is the stated frame throughout, and several lessons say directly that the design they describe points to a Creator.

What the course covers

• Classifying plants and animals, vertebrates and invertebrates
• Cells, photosynthesis, food webs, and ecosystems
• Earth's layers, rocks, minerals, soil, and erosion
• Volcanoes, earthquakes, clouds, weather, and oceans
• Properties and states of matter, physical and chemical change
• Atoms, elements, compounds, the periodic table, acids and bases
• Forces, Newton's laws, work, energy, electricity, and magnetism
• The solar system, moon phases, constellations, and galaxies
• The body's skeletal, circulatory, respiratory, nervous, immune, and endocrine systems
• Stewardship: pollution, deforestation, conservation, and gardening

What your student will be able to do

• Group living things by their characteristics and explain the grouping
• Label the main parts of a plant cell and an animal cell
• Tell a physical change from a chemical change with examples
• Read an element's symbol and atomic number from the periodic table
• Name each major body system and describe the job it does
• Explain moon phases and the order of the planets from the sun

Scope and sequence

All 9 units of Science for Grade 2, in the order they are taught.

Every lesson, by title

All 108 lesson titles are listed here — nothing is withheld until you download. Open a unit to read its contents.

One whole lesson, exactly as it comes

This is a real lesson taken from the middle of the course — the teaching text, the practice, the homework, and the first three quiz questions with their answers. It is not a marketing excerpt.

What you will need

Drawn from the materials named across all 108 lessons of this course. Most families already own most of it.