The St. Peter's Middle School Science curriculum is based on the NYS Standards for Science and full of many educational opportunities that will last a life time.  Here at St. Peter's, we believe that our students are capable of performing at a higher level, therefore, our students are advanced in the level of science studied.  Compared to the local public school, our 6th grade students' take 7th grade science, our 7th grade students take 8th grade science and our 8th grade students take 10th grade Regents Earth Science.  Each class is loaded with hands-on exploratory activities, laboratory practice, and demonstrations.  The concepts are taught from a real world perspective in order to help the students visualize and relate to topics. There are high expectations set for all students in the area of content knowledge, reading comprehension, writing skills, and verbal articulation.  All science students participate in the Science Fair, except for our Future City Team (8th graders, limited 7th graders).  Every year our middle school team participates in the regional Future City Competition.

The 6th grade students study Life Science--the study of living things such as plants, animals, unicellular and multicellular, including humans and how they interact with the environment.  We start with the basic unit of all life being the cell, and build on that. The topics of discussion include: cell parts, cell division, genetics, body systems, ecology, population dynamics, and classification of living organisms, taxonomy, biomes, plants, animals, and human impact n ecosystems.

The 7th grade studies Physical Science, which explains the phenomena of how everything on Earth functions and changes.  We discuss Physics. which is the science of matter, forces and energy, and Chemistry, which is the structure and properties of matter. We begin with basic unit of matter--the atom--and build on it to create everything around us.  The topics of discussion include: atoms, elements, chemical bonds, energy conversion, states of matter, chemical reactions, the differences between chemical and physical changes, motion, forces, sound, light, electricity, and magnetism.  At the end of this course, the students are full prepared for the NYS 8th grade assessment.

The 8th graders study 10th grade Regents Earth Science--the study of geology, meteorology, astronomy, and oceonography.  We discuss the functions and relationships of the different systems on Earth, composition of Earth, rocks, minerals, weathering, erosion, mass movements, and other natural disasters such as earth quakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, and storms.  We also learn how to read data tables, graphs, weather maps, topographic maps, and other geologic maps.  Other topics of discussion include geologic time, fossil evidence, and human impact n Earth's resources, how the sun and moon affect Earth, our galaxies and other unknown.  At the end of this course, students will take the NYS Earth Science Regents exam; a passing score earns the student on high school science credit and excuses them from taking this course in high school.