BARC 2024(Bighelp Boston Area Regional Contests 2024)

BigHelp BARC Science Bee

Students will be tested for a variety of life, physical, and earth science skills and information based on the grade level

1st Grade and 2nd Grade Science Syllabus

Life Science
• Plants
• Animals
• Where plants and animals live

Physical Science
• Grouping objects
• Sound, Light, and Heat
• Moving and Working

Earth Science
• The Earth
• Weather
• The Sky

Human Body
• The Senses
• Growing and Changing
• Taking care of your health

3rd Grade and 4th Grade Science Syllabus

How Plants Live and Grow
• Plants parts and their purposes
• Pollen's purpose
• Flower's and cones
• Life cycle of flowering plants and conifers

How Animals Grow and Change
• Importance of egg in life cycles
• Life Cycles of mammals
• Life Cycles of spiders, insects, fish, and frogs.

Ecosystem, Living Things and Their Changing Environments
• Mammals grow and learn
• Habitats are changed
• Mammals make adaptations

Matter and how it Changes
• Characteristics of matter
• Matter changes
• Three stages of Matter
• Chemical changes of Matter

Forces, Machines, and Work
• Friction and Gravity
• Simple machines effect work

Magnets
• How magnets work
Weather
• Clouds form differently
• Stages of the water cycle
• Differences in tornadoes, thunderstorms and hurricanes

Rocks and Minerals of the Earth
• Fossils form
• Locations of fossils
• Different types of fossils

Healthy Human Bodies
• Body Systems
• Fighting Germs
• Good nutrition

5th Grade Science Syllabus

1. Life Science
Classifying Plants and Animals
• The building blocks of life
• Grouping living things
• Classifying plants
• Classifying animals
• Animal adaptations

Energy From Plants
•Plants' characteristics
• Parts of plants
• How plants reproduce
• Life cycle of a plant

Ecosystems
• The parts of ecosystems
• Energy flow in ecosystems
• Matter flow in ecosystems
• Balance
• Organism interaction

2. Physical Science
Properties of Matter
• Define matter
• Measure matter
• Mixtures and solutions
• How matter changes

Heat
• Why matter has energy
• How heat moves

Electricity & Magnetism
• How matter becomes charged
• How electric charges flow
• How electricity transforms to magnetism
• How magnetism transforms to electricity

Sound and Light
• Define sound energy
• How sound is made
• Define light energy
• How light and matter interact

Objects in Motion
• Define motion
• How force affects moving objects
• How force, mass, and energy relate to one another

3. Earth Science
Minerals and Rocks
• Define minerals
• Formation of sedimentary rocks
• Explore igneous and metamorphic rocks

Changes to Earth's Surface
• How Earth's surface wears away
• How weathered materials move
• How Earth's surface can change rapidly

Using Natural Resources
• Define natural resources
• How resources are used for energy

4. Space and Technology/Health
Earth's Cycles
• How Earth moves
• Patterns in the sky

Inner and Outer Planets
• The makeup of the universe
• Explore the inner planets
• What we know about Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus
• What we know about Neptune and beyond

Effects of Technology
• How technology effects our lives
• How technology has changed communication and transportation

5. Systems of the Human Body
• Skeletal, Muscular, Digestive, Respiratory, Circulatory, Respiratory, and Nervous systems

6th Grade Science Syllabus

1. Scientific Method
• Lab Safety
• Science Fair Projects
• Data and graphing

2. Earth and Space Science
• Atmosphere
• Weather
• Air Pollution
• Water
• Oceans

3. Life Science
• Cells
• Bacteria, Protists, and Fungi
• Plants
• Animals

4. Physical Science
• Rocks and minerals
• Weathering and Erosion
• Resources

5. Scientific enquiry
• Scientific Method, design and experimentation
• Skills of inquiry, Metric system and measurement
• Dependent variable, independent variable, control variable,
• Hypothesis, observation, gathering data, reaching conclusions and inference.

7th & 8th Grade Science Syllabus

LIFE SCIENCES

I. Cell Biology
• Main components and functions of animal and plants
• Light and electron microscopes; Mitosis and Meiosis; Haploid and Diploid cells; DNA and RNA.

II. Classification of Living organisms:
• Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species, origins of Life, Binomial nomenclature.

III. Plants:
• Main features of vascular and non-vascular plants, Seedless and seed plants.
• Monocots and Dicots.
• Leaf: Photosynthesis, Photoperiods, Cellular Respiration, Plant Tropism and Plant hormones
• Life cycles: Plant Reproduction ; non-vascular seedless plants (moss), vascular seedless plants (ferns), and seed plants (gymnosperms and angiosperms

IV. Animals:
• Bacteria and fungi : Characteristics of bacteria, eubacteria and archaebacteria, Main features of 3 types of Protists , Different types of Fungi
• Invertebrate: Key features of sponges, cnidarians, mollusks ,echinoderms, arthropods, flatworms ,roundworms and segmented worms
• Vertebrates : Key features of mammals , birds , amphibians , and reptile fish Adaptations of birds and other animals

V. Life Processes:
• Key aspects of Skeletal and Muscular systems , main layers and functions of skin(Integumentary system)
• Functions of different organs of Digestive system, food pyramid, different class of nutrients
• Functions of different organs of Respiratory and Excretory Systems, diseases
• Circulatory System: Functions of heart, arteries, capillaries and veins blood groups, measuring blood pressure
• Active and Passive Immunity , infectious diseases caused by viruses, bacteria, protists and fungi
• Components of Nervous System, Central and Peripheral Nervous System, parts of brain and their functions
• Inheritance : Dominant and recessive traits , terms like Genetic engineering, gene therapy and mutations.
• Behavior: innate behavior , learned behavior social and territorial behavior, communication.

VI.Ecosystems:
• Biotic and Abiotic factors, features of 6 major biomes Ocean Ecosystems : plankton, nekton and bottom dwellers Migration, camouflage, mimicry, hibernation
• Species interdependence: Operation of food chains and food webs Roles of producers, consumers, decomposers, and energy pyramid Terms :Population, community, habitat, biotic potential, endangered species, threatened species, extinction, primary succession and secondary succession.
• Evolution: Theory of Darwin’s Natural Selection, Relative and Absolute Dating, Homologous ,Vestigial structures

EARTH SCIENCES

I.Geology:
• Landforms: Major landforms, Key features of the ocean floor, plains , plateaus and mountains
• Plate tectonics: Continental drift and seafloor spreading Terms: Divergent, convergent and transform boundaries
• Erosion: Types of erosion , Soil formation Terms : Mechanical and chemical weathering; glacial erosion and deposition.
• Rocks: Rock cycle, Properties of minerals . Soil types and horizons , Intrusive and Extrusive Igneous rocks, Sedimentary and Metamorphic rocks.
• Fossils: Different types of fossils – mold, cast, imprint, amber, Relative versus Absolute age, Era, fossil fuels.

II. Earth and Space:
• Spin: Consequences of Earth’s tilted axis, cause for day and night , Seasons, Solstices and Equinoxes, Key features of the Moon Terms: Lunar phases, lunar eclipse, and solar eclipse.
• Space probes: Radiation from space , ISS, Hubble Space Telescope Reflecting telescope, refracting telescope and radio telescope.
• Solar system: Origin of Solar System , Sun’s layers , Sunspots, Prominences, flares , inner and outer planets and their moons. Terms : asteroids and meteoroids, comets, Oort Clouds. Stellar evolution: Evolution of medium-sized and massive stars , Big Bang Theory

III. Oceans:
• • De Salination , surface currents, density currents Key features of ocean waves and tides, Tidal range, tidal bore, spring tides, and Neap tides.

IV. Weather:
• Atmosphere: Key features and temperature changes in the layers of Earth’s atmosphere , Relative humidity and dew point, Cloud classification,
• Wind: Easterlies, Westerlies, Trade winds, Jet Streams, Coriolis effect, masses and fronts. Sea breeze vs. Land breeze.
• • Currents and climate: climatic changes , El Nino, La Nina , Global warming
• Earthquakes: focus, epicenter, P, S and surface waves of earthquake, Liquefaction and the Richter scale and Mercalli intensity scale.
• Volcanoes: Types of Volcanoes by lava content and shape .
• Pressure : Formation of thunderstorms, hurricanes, tornados and blizzards . High and low pressure centers , tornado watches and tornado warnings.
• water, carbon and nitrogen cycles

• Pollution: Causes of soil, air and water pollution, water and soil conservation. Terms : ozone layer, smog, acid rain, Global warming.
• Conservation: The 3 Rs of resource conservation, Renewable and Non-Renewable energy sources. Main features of wind, water, geothermal, solar, and nuclear energy.

PHYSICAL SCIENCES

I. Matter:
• States and transitions: states of matter, their transition and change of properties like viscosity, surface tension due to change of state. Terms : dissolution, vaporization, condensation, sublimation, deposition, and specific heat, different physical properties and units of measurements. Melting point, boiling point
• Reactions: Physical and changes in a reaction. Reversible and irreversible reactions. chemical equation, reactants, products, activation energy, endothermic reaction, and exothermic reaction. Balancing of a chemical equation, Law of Conservation of Energy, Acids, Bases , Neutralization, solute, solvent, solution
• The Periodic Table: symbol and formula. Atoms and its constituents Terms: period, group, representative elements, transition elements , metals, non metals, metalloids, alkali metals, alkaline metals, Oxygen family ,Halogens, Noble gases, Lanthanides and Actinides. Metallic bonds, ions, covalent bonds, single bonds, double bonds Polar and non polar molecules , isotopes.
• Atoms: electrons, protons and neutrons, Electron configuration, Atomic models, Alpha particles , Beta Rays, carbon dating, radio active isotopes.
• Laws of gases: Boyle’s law, Charles’s Law, Ideal gas law,
II. Forces:
• Laws of motion: Distance , speed , velocity, acceleration, Newton Laws of Motion, Balanced Forces, unbalanced forces, Friction, Inertia, Momentum, Law of Conservation of momentum, solar system
• Work: Work and Power and its relation to forces
• Simple Machines : pulley , lever and inclined plane machines, Mechanical advantage , Efficiency and balance of forces .
• Buoyancy – Archimedes and Pascal’s principles
III. Energy:
• Forms, conservation, and transformation: Relation between energy and work. Different forms of energy – Potential , Kinetic, Thermal , Electrical , Magnetic and Chemical energy Law of Conservation of Energy, Renewable and Non renewable resources, Conduction, Convection and Radiation
• Electricity: Electric charges, Electric field and Electric force, cause of lightning, Electric current and its units. Terms : induction, insulator, conductor, static charge, electric and discharge; Ohms law and the relation between current, resistance and voltage , series and parallel circuits.
• Magnetism: magnetism, electro magnetism, relation between electricity and magnetism , electromagnetic induction Advantages of alternating current over direct current, transformers, super conductors
• Duality of matter: Waves, transfer of energy in waves, interaction of waves with particles, electro magnetic spectrum, transverse waves, compressional waves and electromagnetic waves.
Terms : wavelength, amplitude, frequency, wave speed, crest, and trough ; reflection, refraction, diffraction, and interference, total internal reflection
• Sound: Propagation of Sound waves. Terms : compression, rarefaction, loudness, pitch, intensity and reverberation