7th grade Science
18 units matched to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS).
Focus areas
- Elements, compounds, solutions, and physical and chemical change
- Speed, velocity, Newton's first law and thermal energy
- The solar system, plate tectonics, and watersheds and oceans
- Energy pyramids, body systems, reproduction, selection and classification
Units
Unit 1
Atoms & Elements
Elements versus compounds and mixtures, chemical symbols (H, O, Na, Cl, Fe, Au…), counting atoms in formulas like H₂O and C₆H₁₂O₆, metals and non-metals, and the basics of the periodic table.
TEKS student expectation: 7.6(A); 7.6(B) · elements and compounds, chemical symbols and formulas, and the periodic table
Unit 2
Physical or Chemical?
Telling a physical change from a chemical change, spotting the signs of a new substance, and how making and throwing away everyday products affects the environment.
TEKS student expectation: 7.6(C) · physical and chemical changes
Unit 3
Solutions & Separating
Solutes, solvents and solubility, what makes things dissolve faster, saturated and unsaturated solutions, concentration, why water is called the universal solvent, ways to separate mixtures, and some environmental effects of industrial separation.
TEKS student expectation: 7.6(D); 7.6(E) · solutes, solvents and concentration, and what speeds up dissolving
Unit 4
Motion, Forces & Newton’s Laws
Practices speed, velocity, acceleration, forces, friction, gravity and Newton's three Laws of Motion, with stability. It follows the Grade 8 science skill descriptors on motion and stability and the Laws of Motion in the New Brunswick curriculum.
TEKS student expectation: 7.7(A); 7.7(D) · average speed, and balanced and unbalanced forces (Newton's first law)
Unit 5
Moving Heat
How heat is transmitted by conduction, convection and radiation, how the Sun's radiation heats different surfaces, and technologies such as insulation and double-pane windows that reduce heat loss.
TEKS student expectation: 7.8(A) · conduction, convection and radiation
Unit 6
Heat & Particles
Heat as energy linked to particle motion, temperature, expansion and contraction, changes of state, and the ways heat is generated (friction, electricity, burning, chemical reactions and the Sun).
TEKS student expectation: 7.8(B); 7.8(C) · thermal energy flowing from warm to cool, and temperature and particle motion
Unit 7
Our Solar System
The planets in order, rocky versus giant planets, reading a table of planet data, moons, dwarf planets, comets and the asteroid belt.
TEKS student expectation: 7.9(A) · the Sun, planets, moons and asteroid belt
Unit 8
Natural Selection
Variation, inherited versus acquired traits, adaptations, and how natural selection changes populations over generations, with fossils and other evidence. Includes reading data from a predator–prey model.
TEKS student expectation: 7.13(D) · natural and artificial selection changing traits over generations
Unit 9
Food Chains & Energy
Producers, consumers and decomposers, food chains and webs, how energy shrinks as it passes up a chain (about 10% each step), and what happens when part of a chain changes.
TEKS student expectation: 7.12(A); 7.12(B) · energy flow through trophic levels, and matter recycling in ecosystems
Unit 10
Human Body Systems
The main jobs of the respiratory, circulatory, digestive, excretory and nervous systems, how they work together, and what affects healthy function, such as exercise and air quality.
TEKS student expectation: 7.13(A) · the main functions of human body systems
Unit 11
Heart, Bones & Muscles
The heart and blood vessels, bones, joints, muscles and tendons, how body systems work together, and heart-rate data.
TEKS student expectation: 7.13(A) · the circulatory, skeletal and muscular systems
Unit 12
Cells, Tissues & Organs
Why cells are the basic unit of life, how plant and animal cells differ, how materials move into and out of cells, and how cells form tissues, organs and systems. Includes working out microscope magnification.
TEKS student expectation: 7.13(B) · cells, tissues, organs and organ systems
Unit 13
Sorting Living Things
Telling mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish apart, vertebrates from invertebrates, the kingdoms, and the levels of classification.
TEKS student expectation: 7.14(A); 7.14(B) · the taxonomic system and the kingdoms of living things
Unit 14
Speed, Velocity & Motion Graphs
Practices calculating average speed from distance and time, telling speed from velocity (which includes direction) and distance from displacement, and reading distance-time graphs.
TEKS student expectation: 7.7(A); 7.7(B); 7.7(C) · average speed, speed and velocity, and distance-time graphs
Unit 15
Solar System Tour
Practices the properties, locations and movements of objects in the solar system (the Sun, planets, moons, meteors, asteroids, comets, the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud), how gravity governs their motion, and what makes Earth able to support life.
TEKS student expectation: 7.9(A); 7.9(B); 7.9(C) · objects in the solar system, gravity's role in their motion, and why Earth supports life
Unit 16
Watersheds & Oceans
Practices how human activity helps or harms groundwater and surface water in a watershed (aquifers such as the Edwards and the Ogallala, runoff, pollution, conservation) and how people depend on and affect ocean systems, using Gulf Coast examples.
TEKS student expectation: 7.11(A); 7.11(B) · human effects on groundwater, surface water and ocean systems
Unit 17
Asexual & Sexual Reproduction
Practices comparing asexual reproduction (budding, runners, cuttings, splitting) and sexual reproduction (two parents) in plants and animals, how each affects variety in offspring, and why variety matters for a population over time.
TEKS student expectation: 7.13(C) · asexual and sexual reproduction, diversity of offspring, and population change
Unit 18
Plate Tectonics
Practices the evidence that Earth has changed over time (fossils, matching continents, superposition of rock layers) and how plate tectonics causes ocean basins, earthquakes, mountain building and volcanic eruptions, including hot spots and supervolcanoes such as Yellowstone.
TEKS student expectation: 7.10(A); 7.10(B) · evidence that Earth has changed, and how plate tectonics shapes Earth's surface
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