Grades 5 - 8
Science as Inquiry
Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
- Identify questions that can be answered through scientific investigations.
- Develop descriptions, explanations, predictions, and models using evidence.
- Think critically and logically to make the relationships between evidence and explanations.
- Communicate scientific procedures and explanations.
Understandings about scientific inquiry
- Different kinds of questions suggest different kinds of scientific investigations. Some investigations involve observing and describing objects, or events; some involve experiments; some involve seeking more information; some involve discovery of new objects and phenomena; and some involve making models.
- Current scientific knowledge and understanding guide scientific investigations. Different scientific domains employ different methods, core theories, and standards to advance scientific knowledge and understanding.
- Scientific explanations emphasize evidence, have logically consistent arguments, and use scientific principles, models, and theories. The scientific community accepts and uses such explanations until displaced by better scientific ones. When such displacement occurs, science advances.
- Scientific investigations sometimes result in new ideas and phenomena for study, generate new methods or procedures for an investigation, or develop new technologies to improve the collection of data. All of these results can lead to new investigations.
Physical Science
Properties and changes of properties in matter
- A mixture of substances often can be separated into the original substances using one or more of the characteristic properties.
- Substances react chemically in characteristic ways with other substances to form new substances (compounds) with different characteristic properties. In chemical reactions, the total mass is conserved.
- Substances react chemically in characteristic ways with other substances to form new substances (compounds) with different characteristic properties. In chemical reactions, the total mass is conserved.
Motions and forces
- The motion of an object can be described by its position, direction of motion, and speed. That motion can be measured and represented on a graph.
- Unbalanced forces will cause changes in the speed or direction of an object's motion.
Transfer of energy
- Energy is a property of many substances and is associated with heat, light, electricity, mechanical motion, sound, nuclei, and the nature of a chemical. Energy is transferred in many ways.
- Heat moves in predictable ways, flowing from warmer objects to cooler ones, until both reach the same temperature.
- In most chemical and nuclear reactions, energy is transferred into or out of a system. Heat, light, mechanical motion, or electricity might all be involved in such transfers.
Earth and Space Science
Earth in the solar system
- The earth is the third planet from the sun in a system that includes the moon, the sun, eight other planets and their moons, and smaller objects, such as asteroids and comets. The sun, an average star, is the central and largest body in the solar system.
- Most objects in the solar system are in regular and predictable motion.
- Gravity is the force that keeps planets in orbit around the sun and governs the rest of the motion in the solar system.
Science and Technology
Abilities of technological design
- Design a solution or product.
- Implement a proposed design.
- Evaluate completed technological designs or products.
Understandings about science and technology
- Scientific inquiry and technological design have similarities and differences. Scientists propose explanations for questions about the natural world, and engineers propose solutions relating to human problems, needs, and aspirations.
- Many different people in different cultures have made and continue to make contributions to science and technology.
- Technology is essential to science, because it provides instruments and techniques that enable observations of objects and phenomena that are otherwise unobservable due to factors such as quantity, distance, location, size, and speed. Technology also provides tools for investigations, inquiry, and analysis.
- Perfectly designed solutions do not exist.
Science in Personal and Social Perspectives
Personal health
- Natural hazards include possible impacts of asteroids.
Science and technology in society
- Science and technology have advanced through contributions of many different people, in different cultures, at different times in history.
History and Nature of Science
Nature of science
- Scientists formulate and test their explanations of nature using observation.
Unifying Concepts and Processes (K-12)
Evidence, models, and explanation
Grades K-4
Science as Inquiry
Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
- Plan and conduct a simple investigation.
- Use data to construct a reasonable explanation.
- Communicate investigations and explanations.
Understandings about scientific inquiry
- Scientific investigations involve asking and answering a question and comparing the answer with what scientists already know about the world.
- Scientists use different kinds of investigations depending on the questions they are trying to answer. Types of investigations include describing objects, events, and organisms; classifying them; and doing a fair test (experimenting).
- Scientists develop explanations using observations (evidence) and what they already know about the world (scientific knowledge). Good explanations are based on evidence from investigations.
Physical Science
Properties of objects and materials
- Objects have many observable properties, including size, weight, shape, color, temperature, and the ability to react with other substances.
- Materials can exist in different states - solid, liquid, and gas. Some common materials, such as water, can be changed from one state to another by heating or cooling.
Position and motion of objects
- The position of an object can be described by locating it relative to another object or the background.
- An object's motion can be described by tracing and measuring its position over time.
Earth and Space Science
Changes in the earth and sky
- Objects in the sky have patterns of movement.
Science and Technology
Understanding about science and technology
- People have always had questions about their world. Science is one way of answering questions and explaining the natural world.
- People have always had problems and invented tools and techniques (ways of doing something) to solve problems.
- Tools help scientists see, measure, and do things that they could not otherwise see, measure, and do.
Grades 9-12
Science as Inquiry
Understandings about scientific inquiry
- Scientists usually inquire about how physical, living, or designed systems function. Conceptual principles and knowledge guide scientific inquiries. Historical and current scientific knowledge influence the design and interpretation of investigations and the evaluation of proposed explanations made by other scientists.
- Scientists conduct investigations for a wide variety of reasons.
- Scientists rely on technology to enhance the gathering and manipulation of data. New techniques and tools provide new evidence to guide inquiry and new methods to gather data, thereby contributing to the advance of science. The accuracy and precision of the data, and therefore the quality of the exploration, depends on the technology used.
Physical Science
Structure and properties of matter
- Atoms interact with one another by transferring or sharing electrons that are furthest from the nucleus.
- An element is composed of a single type of atom.
- Bonds between atoms are created when electrons are paired up by being transferred or shared. A substance composed of a single kind of atom is called an element. The atoms may be bonded together into molecules or crystalline solids. A compound is formed when two or more kinds of atoms bind together chemically.
- The physical properties of compounds reflect the nature of the interactions among its molecules. These interactions are determined by the structure of the molecule, including the constituent atoms and the distances and angles between them.
- Carbon atoms can bond to one another in chains, rings, and branching networks to form a variety of structures, including synthetic polymers, oils, and the large molecules essential to life.
Motions and forces
- Gravitation is a universal force that each mass exerts on any other mass.
Conservation of energy and the increase in disorder
- In all energy transfers, the overall effect is that the energy is spread out uniformly.
Earth and Space Science
The origin and evolution of the earth system
- The sun, the earth, and the rest of the solar system formed from a nebular cloud of dust and gas 4.6 billion years ago.
Science and Technology
Understandings about science and technology
- Science often advances with the introduction of new technologies. Solving technological problems often results in new scientific knowledge. New technologies often extend the current levels of scientific understanding and introduce new areas of research.
History and Nature of Science
Science as a human endeavor
- Individuals and teams have contributed and will continue to contribute to the scientific enterprise.
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