6th grade, the beginning of middle school, here is appropriate science topics and sub topics for this age, Feel free to use the printable for your own use.
Science practices and tools
Identify steps of the scientific method
Identify laboratory tools
Designing experiments
Identify control and experimental groups
Identify independent and dependent variables
Identify the experimental question
Identify questions that can be investigated with a set of materials
Understand an experimental protocol about plant growth
Understand an experimental protocol about diffusion
Understand an experimental protocol about evaporation
Engineering practices
Identify parts of the engineering-design process
Evaluate tests of engineering-design solutions
Use data from tests to compare engineering-design solutions
Explore the engineering-design process: going to the Moon!
Matter and mass
Calculate density
Understand conservation of matter using graphs
Atoms and molecules
What are atoms and chemical elements?
How are substances represented by chemical formulas and models?
Match chemical formulas to ball-and-stick models
Complete chemical formulas for ball-and-stick models
Describe the atomic composition of molecules
Classify elementary substances and compounds using chemical formulas
Identify elementary substances and compounds using chemical formulas
Sort elementary substances and compounds using chemical formulas
Classify elementary substances and compounds using models
Identify elementary substances and compounds using models
Sort elementary substances and compounds using models
Chemical reactions
Identify reactants and products
Count atoms and molecules in chemical reactions
Calculate amounts of reactants or products in chemical reactions
Describe energy changes in chemical reactions
Compare physical and chemical changes
Explore chemical structure and properties: soapmaking
Explore chemical structure and properties: food flavors
Velocity, acceleration, and forces
Calculate speed from time and distance
Calculate distance from speed and time
Calculate time from speed and distance
Calculate speed, distance, and time
Identify whether objects are accelerating
How does mass affect force and acceleration?
Predict forces using Newton’s third law
Balanced and unbalanced forces
Kinetic and potential energy
Identify changes in gravitational potential energy
Use tables and graphs to identify patterns about kinetic energy
Explore energy transformations: roller coaster ride
Explore energy transformations: bike ride
Thermal energy
Predict heat flow and temperature changes
How are temperature and mass related to thermal energy?
Compare thermal energy transfers
Particle motion and energy
How does particle motion affect temperature?
Particle motion and changes of state
How does particle motion affect gas pressure?
Identify how particle motion affects temperature and pressure
Waves
Compare amplitudes, wavelengths, and frequencies of waves
Compare energy of waves
Solutions
Compare concentrations of solutions
Diffusion across membranes
Classification and scientific names
Identify common and scientific names
Origins of scientific names
Use scientific names to classify organisms
Biochemistry
Structure and function: carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids
Understanding the chemistry of cellular respiration
Cells
Understanding cells
Identify functions of plant cell parts
Identify functions of animal cell parts
Plant cell diagrams: label parts
Animal cell diagrams: label parts
Compare cells and cell parts
Anatomy and physiology
Body systems: circulation and respiration
Body systems: digestion
Body systems: removing waste
Body systems: perception and motion
Organization in the human body: the heart and the circulatory system
Science literacy: how does the nervous system produce phantom pain?
Genes to traits
Inherited and acquired traits: use evidence to support a statement
Genetics vocabulary: genotype and phenotype
Genetics vocabulary: dominant and recessive
Genetic variation in sexual reproduction
Complete and interpret Punnett squares
Use Punnett squares to calculate ratios of offspring types
Genes, proteins, and traits: understanding the genetic code
Describe the effects of gene mutations on organisms
How do genes and the environment affect plant growth?
Adaptations and natural selection
How can animal behaviors affect reproductive success? Identify evidence to support a claim
Introduction to natural selection
Calculate the percentages of traits in a population
Calculate the averages of traits in a population
Construct explanations of natural selection
Fossils
Compare fossils to modern organisms
Compare ages of fossils in a rock sequence
Plant reproduction
Flowering plant and conifer life cycles
Moss and fern life cycles
Photosynthesis
How do plants use and change energy?
Identify the photosynthetic organism
Ecosystems
Describe populations, communities, and ecosystems
Identify ecosystems
Describe ecosystems
Ecological interactions
How does matter move in food chains?
Interpret food webs
Use food chains to predict changes in populations
Classify symbiotic relationships
Investigate primary succession on a volcanic island
Conservation
Coral reef biodiversity and human uses: explore a problem
Coral reef biodiversity and human uses: evaluate solutions
Natural resources and human impacts
Evaluate claims about natural resource use: groundwater
Evaluate claims about natural resource use: fossil fuels
Rocks and minerals
Identify rocks and minerals
Classify rocks as igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic
Label parts of rock cycle diagrams
Select parts of rock cycle diagrams
Plate tectonics
Label Earth layers
Label Earth features at tectonic plate boundaries
Describe tectonic plate boundaries around the world
Topographic maps
Select parts of a topographic map
Water cycle
Label parts of water cycle diagrams
Select parts of water cycle diagrams
Weather and climate
Weather and climate around the world
Weather or climate? Cite text
Use data to describe climates
Explore air masses
Identify and compare air masses
How do air masses form?
Climate change
The greenhouse effect
Natural hazards
Analyze natural hazard maps
Astronomy
Analyze models of the Earth-Sun-Moon system
Identify phases of the Moon
What causes the seasons on Earth?
Analyze data to compare properties of planets
Units and measurement
Choose customary units of distance, mass, and volume
Choose metric units of distance, mass, and volume
Estimate temperatures
Abbreviate length, speed, and acceleration units
Abbreviate temperature, mass, and volume units
Abbreviate force, energy, and electricity units
