|
ParkWise
> Teachers >
National Standards
for Science
Content Standard A:
Science as Inquiry
Grades K-4:
- Abilities necessary
to do scientific inquiry:
- ask a question
about objects, organisms and events in the environment;
- plan and conduct
a simple investigation;
- employ simple
equipment and tools to gather data and extend the senses;
- use data to
construct a reasonable explanation;
- communicate
investigations and explanations;
- Understanding
about scientific inquiry
- scientific investigations involve asking and answering
a question and comparing the answer;
- scientists use different kinds of investigations;
- simple instruments provide more information than using
only senses;
- scientists develop explanations using observations and
what they already know;
- scientists make the results public;
- scientists review and ask questions about the results
of other scientists' work.
Grades 5-8:
- Abilities necessary
to do scientific inquiry:
- identify questions
that can be answered through scientific investigations;
- design and conduct
a scientific investigation;
- use appropriate
tools and techniques to gather, analyze, and interpret data;
- develop descriptions,
explanations, predictions and models using evidence;
- think critically
and logically to make the relationships between evidence
and explanations;
- recognize and
analyze alternative explanations and predictions;
- communicate
scientific procedures and explanations;
- use mathematics
in all aspects of scientific inquiry.
- Understanding
about scientific inquiry
- different kinds of questions suggest different kinds
of scientific investigation;
- current scientific knowledge and understanding guide
investigations;
- mathematics is important in all aspects of scientific
inquiry;
- technology used to gather data enhances accuracy and
analysis;
- scientific explanations emphasize evidence;
- science advances through legitimate skepticism, answering
and querying others' work;
- scientific investigations can result in new ideas or
methods for study;
Grades 9-12:
- Abilities necessary
to do scientific inquiry:
- Identify questions
and concepts that guide scientific investigations;
- Design and conduct
a scientific investigation;
- use technology
and mathematics to improve investigations and communications;
- formulate and
revise scientific explanations and models using logic and
evidence;
- recognize and
analyze alternative explanations and models;
- communicate
and defend a scientific argument;
- Understanding
about scientific inquiry
- scientists usually inquire about how systems function,
concepts guide inquiry, history and knowledge influence
design and interpretation;
- scientists conduct investigations for a wide variety
of reasons;
- scientists rely on technology to enhance the gathering
and manipulation of data;
- mathematics is essential in scientific inquiry;
- scientific explanations must adhere to criteria, including
logic, consistency, etc.
- results of inquiry - new knowledge and methods - emerge
from different types of investigations and public communication
between scientists;
Content Standard C:
Life Science
Grades K-4:
- The characteristics
of organisms
- organisms
have basic needs, the world has many different environments;
- each plant
or animal has different structures that serve different
functions in growth, survival, and reproduction;
- behavior of
organisms is influenced by internal and external cues;
- Life cycles of
organisms
- Plants and
animals have life cycles;
- Plants and
animals closely resemble their parents;
- many characteristics
are inherited, others come from interactions with the
environment;
- Organisms and
environments
- all animals
depend on plants. Some animals eat plants for food;
- an organism's
patterns of behavior are related to the nature of that
organism's environment, when the environment changes,
some organisms survive and reproduce, and others die or
move;
- all organisms
cause changes in the environment where they live, some
are detrimental, some are beneficial;
- humans depend
on their natural and constructed environments, humans
change the environment;
Grades 5-8:
- Structure and function in living systems
- living systems at all levels of organization demonstrate
the complementary natures of structure and function;
- all organisms are composed of cells;
- cells carry on the many functions need to sustain life;
- specialized cells perform specialized functions in multicellular
organisms;
- the human organism has systems that interact with each
other;
- disease is a breakdown in structures or functions;
- Reproduction and heredity
- reproduction is a characteristic of all living systems
and is essential to the continuation of every species;
- sexual reproduction includes egg and sperm and the transfer
of genetic information;
- every organism requires a set of instructions for specifying
its traits;
- hereditary information is contained in genes;
- characteristics of an organism are a combination of
inherited traits and traits from interactions with the
environment;
- Regulation and Behavior
- all organisms must be able to obtain and use resources,
grow, reproduce and maintain stable internal conditions
while living in a constantly changing environment;
- regulation of an organisms internal environment involves
sensing it and changing physiological activities;
- behavior is one kind of response to an internal or environmental
stimulus, it is a set of actions determined by heredity
and experience;
- behavior evolves through adaptation;
- Populations and Ecosystems
- a population consists of all individuals of a species
that occur together at a given place and time; populations
living together compose an ecosystem;
- populations of organisms can be categorized by the function
they serve in an ecosystem;
- sunlight is the major source of energy for ecosystems;
- the number of organisms an ecosystem can support depends
on the resources;
- Diversity and adaptations of organisms
- millions of species are alive today, they may look dissimilar,
but the unity is apparent from their internal structures;
- biological evolution accounts for the diversity of species
developed over many generations; species acquire many
characteristics through biological adaptation;
- extinction occurs when the environment changes and the
adaptive characteristics of a species are insufficient.
Grades 9-12:
- The cell
- Molecular basis
of heredity
- Biological evolution
- species evolve over time;
- the great diversity of organisms is the result of evolution;
- millions of different species are related by descent
from common ancestors;
- biological classifications are based on how organisms
are related, classification is hierarchical based on similarities;
- Interdependence
of organisms
- atoms and molecules cycle in the biosphere;
- energy flows through ecosystems in one direction;
- organisms both cooperate and compete in ecosystems,
the interrelationships may generate ecosystems stable
for hundreds or thousands of years;
- living organisms have the capacity to produce populations
of infinite size, but environments and resources are finite;
- human beings live within the world's ecosystems, humans
alter habitats and ecosystems could be irreversibly affected;
- Matter, energy,
and organization in living systems
- all matter tends toward more disorganization;
- energy for life primarily derives from the sun;
- chemical bonds of food molecules contain energy;
- complexity and organization of organisms accommodates
the need for obtaining, transforming, transporting, releasing
and eliminating matter and energy used to sustain the
organism;
- distribution and abundance are limited by availability
of matter and energy;
- as matter and energy flows through living systems, chemical
elements are recombined in different ways;
- Behavior of organisms
- multicellular
animals have nervous systems that generate behavior;
- organisms have
behavioral responses to internal changes and to external
stimuli, behavior must be flexible to deal with uncertainty
and change in the environment;
- behaviors have
evolved through natural selection;
- behavioral biology
has implications for humans, as it provides links to psychology,
sociology and anthropology.
Content Standard
D: Earth and Space Science
Grades K-4:
- Properties of
earth materials:
- earth materials
are solid rocks and soils; water, and the gases of the atmosphere;
the materials have different physical and chemical properties;
earth materials provide many of the resources that humans
use;
- soils have properties
of color and texture, capacity to retain water, and ability
to support the growth of many kinds of plants, including
those in our food supply;
- fossils provide
evidence about the plants and animals that lived long ago
and the nature of the environment at that time;
- Objects in the
sky:
- the sun, moon, starts, clouds, birds, and airplanes
all have properties, locations, and movements that can
be observed and described;
- the sun provides the light and heat necessary to maintain
the temperature of the earth;
- Changes in earth
and sky
- the surface of the earth changes, some changes are due
to slow processes, such as erosion and weathering, and
some changes are due to rapid processes, such as landslides,
volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes;
- weather changes from day to day and over the seasons.
Weather can be described by measurable quantities such
as temperature, wind direction and speed, and precipitation;
- Objects in the sky have patterns of movement.
Grades 5-8:
- Structure of the
earth system:
- the solid earth
is layered with a lithosphere; hot, convecting mantle; and
dense, metallic core;
- lithospheric
plates on the scales of continents and oceans constantly
move at rates of centimeters per year in response to movements
in the mantle. Major geological
events, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and mountain
building, result from these plate motions;
- land forms are
the result of a combination of constructive and destructive
forces. Constructive forces include curstal deformation,
volcanic eruption, and deposition of sediment, while destructive
forces include weathering and erosion;
- some changes
in the solid earth can be described as the "rock cycle"...
- soil consists
of weathered rocks and decomposed organic material from
dead plants, animals, and bacteria. Soils are often found
in layers, with each having a different chemical composition
and texture;
- water, which
covers the majority of the earth's surface, circulates through
the crust, oceans, and atmosphere in what is known as the
"water cycle"...
- water is a solvent.
As it passes through the water cycle it dissolves minerals
and gases and carries them to the oceans;
- the atmosphere
is a mixture of nitrogen, oxygen, and trace gases that include
water vapor. The atmosphere has different properties at
different elevations;
- clouds, formed
by the condensation of water vapor, affect weather and climate;
- global patterns
of atmospheric movement influence local weather. Oceans
have a major effect on climate, because water in the oceans
holds a large amount of heat;
- living organisms
have played many roles in the earth system, including affecting
the composition of the atmosphere, producing some types
of rocks, and contributing to the weathering of rocks.
- Earth's history:
- the earth processes
we see today, including erosion, movement of lithospheric
plates, and changes in atmospheric composition, are similar
to those that occurred in the past. Earth history is also
influenced by occasional catastrophes, such as the impact
of an asteroid or comet;
- fossils provide
important evidence of how life and environmental conditions
have changed;
- 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. Those motions explain such phenomena
as the day, the year, phases of the moon, and eclipses;
- Gravity is the force that keeps planets in orbit around
the sun and governs the rest of the motion in the solar
system. Gravity alone holds us to the earth's surface
and explains the phenomena of the tides;
- the sun is the major source of energy for phenomena
on the earth's surface, such as growth of plants, winds,
ocean currents, and the water cycle. Seasons result from
variations in the amount of the sun's energy hitting the
surface, due to the tilt of the earth's rotation on it's
axis and the length of the day.
Grades 9-12:
- Energy in the
earth system
- earth systems
have internal and external sources of energy, both of which
create heat;
- the outward
transfer of earth's internal heat drives convection circulation
in the mantle that propels the plates comprising earth's
surface across the face of the globe;
- heating of earth's
surface and atmosphere by the sun drives convection within
the atmosphere and oceans, producing winds and ocean currents;
- global climate
is determined by energy transfer from the sun at and near
the earth's surface. This energy transfer is influenced
by dynamic processes such as cloud cover and the earth's
rotation, and static conditions such as the position of
mountain ranges and oceans
- Geochemical cycles
- the earth is a system containing essentially a fixed
amount of each stable chemical atom or element. Each element
can exist in several different chemical reservoirs...
- movement of matter between reservoirs is driven by the
earth's internal and external sources of energy. These
movements are often accompanied by a change in the physical
and chemical properties of the matter.
- 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. The early earth was very different from the
planet we live on today;
- geologic time can be estimated by observing rock sequences
and using fossils to correlate the sequences at various
locations. Current methods include using the known decay
rates of radioactive isotopes present in rocks to measure
the time since the rock was formed;
- interactions among the solid earth, the oceans, the
atmosphere, and organisms have resulted in the ongoing
evolution of the earth system; changes are on a human
time scale and other take place over hundreds of millions
of years;
- evidence for one-celled forms of life - the bacteria
- extends back more than 3.5 billion years. The evolution
of life caused dramatic changes in the composition of
the earth's atmosphere, which did not originally contain
oxygen.
- Origin and evolution
of the universe
- the origin of the universe remains one of the greatest
questions in science, the big bang theory...;
- early in the history of the universe, matter, primarily
the light atoms hydrogen and helium, clumped together
by gravitational attraction to form countless trillion
of stars. Billions of galaxies, each of which is a gravitationally
bound cluster of billions of stars, now form most of the
visible mass in the universe;
- stars produce energy from nuclear reactions, primarily
the fusion of hydrogen to form helium. These and other
processes in stars have led to the formation of all the
other elements.
Content Standard
E: Science and Technology
Grades K-4:
- Abilities of technological
design :
- identify a simple
problem ;
- propose a solution;
- implementing
proposed solutions;
- evaluate a product
or design;
- communicate
a problem, design, and solution;
- Understanding
about science and technology
- Science is one way of answering questions and explaining
the natural world;
- people have always had problems and invented tools and
techniques to solve them;
- scientists and engineers often work in teams with different
individuals doing different things that contribute to
the results;
- women and men of all ages, backgrounds and groups engage
in scientific and technological work;
- tools help scientists make better observations, measurements,
and equipment for investigations;
- Abilities to distinguish
between natural objects and objects made by humans
- some objects occur in nature, others have been designed
and made by people to solve human problems and enhance
the quality of life;
- objects can be categorized into two groups, natural
and designed;
Grades 5-8:
- Abilities of technological
design :
- identify appropriate
problems for technological design;
- design a solution
or product;
- implement a
proposed design;
- evaluate completed
technological designs or products;
- communicate
the process of technological design;
- Understandings
about science and technology
- scientific inquiry and technological design have similarities
and differences;
- many different people in different cultures have contributed
to science and technology;
- science and technology are reciprocal;
- perfectly designed solutions do not exist;
- technological designs have constraints;
- technological solutions have intended benefits and unintended
consequences;
Grades 9-12:
- Abilities of technological
design
- identify a problem
or design an opportunity;
- propose designs
and choose between alternative solutions;
- implement a
proposed solution;
- evaluate the
solution and its consequences;
- communicate
the problem, process, and solution;
- Understandings
about science and technology
- scientists in different disciplines ask different questions,
use different methods and accept different types of evidence,
many investigations require contributions from different
disciplines;
- science often advances with the introduction of new
technologies;
- creativity, imagination and a good knowledge base are
all required;
- science and technology are pursued for different purposes,
science tries to understand the world, technology tries
to meet human needs;
- technological knowledge is often not made public because
of patents and the financial potential of the idea or
invention;
Content Standard
F: Science in Personal and Social Perspectives
Grades K-4:
- Personal health
- safety and security are basic needs of humans;
- individuals have some responsibility for their own health;
- nutrition is essential to health;
- different substances can damage the body and how it
functions;
- Characteristics
and changes in populations
- human populations include groups of individuals living
in a particular location, population density;
- the size of a human population can increase or decrease.
- Types of resources
- resources are things we get from the living and nonliving
environment to meet the needs and wants of a population;
- some resources are basic materials, some are produced
from basic materials, and some are nonmaterial;
- the supply of many resources is limited.
- Changes in environments:
- environments
are the space, conditions and factors that affect an individual's
and a population's ability to survive and their quality
of life;
- changes in environments
can be natural or influenced by humans, some are good, bad
or neither, pollution can influence organisms;
- some environment
changes are rapid, others are slow;
- Science and technology
in local challenges
- people keep
inventing new ways of doing things and solving problems;
- science and
technology have greatly improved food quality and quantity,
transportation, health, sanitation, and communication,
but are not available to all people of the world.
Grades 5-8:
- Personal health:
- regular exercise;
- injury prevention;
- tobacco increases
the risk of illness;
- alcohol and
drugs are abused substances;
- food provides
energy and nutrients for growth and development;
- sex drive is
natural;
- natural environments
may contain harmful substances, maintaining environmental
health includes monitoring;
- Populations, resources,
and environments
- when an area becomes overpopulated, the environment
will become degraded due to the increased use of resources;
- causes of environmental degradation and resource depletion
vary;
- Natural hazards
- internal and external processes of the earth system
causes natural hazards that change or destroy habitats;
- human activities can induce hazards that can accelerate
natural changes;
- natural hazards can present challenges
- Risks and benefits
- risk analysis considers the type of hazard and estimates
the number of people likely to be exposed and the number
likely to suffer;
- risks associated with natural hazards;
- individuals can think critically about risks and benefits;
- important personal and social decisions are made based
on perceptions of benefits and risks;
- Science and technology
in society
- science influences society through its knowledge and
world view;
- societal challenges can inspire questions for research;
- technology influences society through products and processes;
- science and technology have advanced through contributions
of many different people and cultures;
- scientists and engineers work in many different settings;
- scientists and engineers have ethical codes about human
subjects;
- science cannot answer all questions and technology cannot
solve all human problems or meet all human needs;
Grades 9-12:
- Personal and community
health
- hazards exist, humans can reduce or modify them;
- severity of disease symptoms depends on many factors;
- personal choice concerning fitness and health involves
multiple factors;
- mood and behavior can be modified by substances;
- selection of foods and eating patterns determines nutritional
balance;
- families serve basic health needs, especially for younger
children;
- sexuality is basic to the physical, mental and social
development of humans;
- Population growth
- populations grow or decline through births, deaths,
emigration and immigration, population growth affects
resource use and environmental pollution;
- various factors affect birth and fertility rates;
- populations can reach limits to growth, carry capacity;
- Natural resources
- human populations use resources in the environment in
order to maintain and improve their existence;
- the earth does not have infinite resources;
- humans use many natural systems as resources
- Environmental
quality
- natural systems provide an array of basic processes
that affect humans, humans are changing many of these
processes and this may be detrimental;
- materials from human societies affect both physical
and chemical cycles of the earth;
- many factors influence environmental quality;
- Natural and human-induced
hazards
- normal adjustments of the earth may be hazardous for
humans;
- human activities can enhance the potential for hazards;
- some hazards are rapid and spectacular, other are slow
and progressive;
- natural and human-induced hazards present the need for
humans to assess potential danger and risk;
- Science and technology
in local, national, and global challenges
- science and
technology are essential social enterprises but cannot indicate
what will happen without human decisions about that knowledge;
- understanding
basic concepts and principles of science and technology
should precede active debate about economics, policies,
politics and ethics of various challenges;
- progress in
science and technology can be affected by social issues
and challenges;
- individuals
and societies must decide on proposals involving new research
and the introduction of new technologies into society;
- humans have
a major effect on other species;
Content Standard
G: History and Nature of Science
Grades K-4:
- Science as a human
endeavor :
- science and
technology have been practiced for a long time;
- men and women
have made a variety of contributions throughout history;
- although scientific
inquiry has taught us much, there is still much more to
learn, science will never be finished;
- many people
choose science as a career;
Grades 5-8:
- Science as a human
endeavor:
- women and men
of various backgrounds engage in science and related professions,
alone or in teams;
- science requires
different abilities, and relies on basic human qualities
such as reasoning, insight, energy, skill and creativity..
- Nature of science
- scientists formulate and test their explanations of
nature using observation, experiments, and theoretical
and mathematical models;
- scientists can have different opinions in areas of active
research;
- it is part of scientific inquiry to evaluate the results
of scientific investigations;
- History of science
- many individuals have contributed to the traditions
of science;
- in historical perspective, science has been practiced
by different individuals in different cultures;
- tracing the history of science can show how difficult
it was for innovators to break through accepted ideas
of their time.
Grades 9-12:
- Science as a human
endeavor
- individuals and teams contribute to the scientific enterprise;
- scientists have ethical traditions;
- scientists are influenced by societal, cultural and
personal beliefs and ways of viewing the world;
- Nature of scientific
knowledge
- science distinguishes itself from other ways of knowing
through the use of empirical standards, logical arguments,
and skepticism;
- scientific explanations must meet certain criteria,
first and foremost, they must be consistent with experimental
and observational evidence;
- because scientific ideas depend on experiment and observation,
they are subject to change as new evidence becomes available;
- Historical perspectives
- in history, diverse cultures have contributed to scientific
knowledge and technological inventions;
- usually, changes in science occur as small modifications
to extant knowledge;
- occasionally, there are advances in science and technology
that have important and long-lasting effects on science
and society;
- the historical perspective of scientific explanations
demonstrates how scientific knowledge changes by evolving
over time.
>
go to Teacher
Resources for additional units >
|
