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Science as Inquiry
CONTENT STANDARD A:
As a result of activities in grades K-4, all students should develop
 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 tooks to gather data and extend the
senses
- Use data to constrcut 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).
- Simple instruments, such as magnifiers, thermometers, and rulers,
provide more information than scientists obtain using only their senses.
- Scientists develop explanations using observations (evidence) and
what they already know about the world (scientific knowledge). Good explanations are based
on evidence from investigations.
- Scientists make the results of their investigations public; they
describe the investigations in ways that enable others to repeat the investigations.
- Scientists review and ask questions about the results of other
scientists' work.
Physical Science
CONTENT STANDARD B:
As a result of the activities in grades K-4, all students should develop an understanding
of
PROPERTIES
OF OBJECTS AND MATERIALS
- Objects have many observable properties, including size, weight,
shape, color, temperature, and the ability to react with other substances. Those
properties can be measured using tools, such as rulers, balances, and thermometers.
- Objects are made of one or more materials, such as paper, wood, and
metal. Objects can be described by the properties of the materials from which they are
made, and those properties can be used to separate or sort a group of objects or
materials.
- 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.
- The position and motion of objects can be changed by pushing or
pulling. The size of the change is related to the strength of the push or pull.
- Sound is produced by vibrating objects. The pitch of the sound can be
varied by changing the rate of vibration.
LIGHT,
HEAT, ELECTRICITY, AND MAGNETISM
- Light travels in a straight line until it strikes an object. Light
can be reflected by a mirror, refracted by a lens, or absorbed by the object.
- Heat can be produced in many ways, such as burning, rubbing, or
mixing one substance with another. Heat can move from one object to another by conduction.
- Electricity in circuits can produce light, heat, sound, and magnetic
effects. Electrical circuits require a complete loop through which an electrical current
can pass.
- Magnets attract and repel each other and certain kinds of other
materials.
Life Science
CONTENT STANDARD C:
As a result of activities in grades K-4, all students should develop understanding of
THE
CHARACTERISTICS OF ORGANISMS
- Organisms have basic needs. For example, animals need air, water, and
food; plants require air, water, nutrients, and light. Organisms can survive only in
environments in which their needs can be met. The world has many different environments,
and distinct environments support the life of different types of organisms.
- Each plant or animal has different structures that serve different
functions in growth, survival, and reproduction. For example, humans have distinct body
structures for walking, holding, seeing, and talking.
- The behavior of individual organisms is influenced by internal cues
(such as hunger) and by external cues (such as a change in the environment). Humans and
other organisms have senses that help them detect internal and external cues.
LIFE CYCLES OF ORGANISMS
- Plants and animals have life cycles that include being born,
developing into adults, reproducing, and eventually dying. The details of this life cycle
are different for different organisms.
- Plants and animals closely resemble their parents.
- Many characteristics of an organism are inherited from the parents of
the organism, but other characteristics result from an individual's interactions with the
environment. Inherited characteristics include the color of flowers and the number of
limbs of an animal. Other features, such as the ability to ride a bicycle, are learned
through interactions with the environment and cannot be passed on to the next generation.
ORGANISMS
AND THEIR ENVIRONMENTS
- All animals depend on plants. Some animals eat plants for food. Other
animals eat animals that eat the plants.
- An organism's patterns of behavior are related to the nature of that
organism's environment, including the kinds and numbers of other organisms present, the
availability of food and resources, and the physical characteristics of the environment.
When the environment changes, some plants and animals survive and reproduce, and others
die or move to new locations.
- All organisms cause changes in the environment where they live. Some
of these changes are detrimental to the organism or other organisms, whereas others are
beneficial.
- Humans depend on their natural and constructed environments. Humans
change environments in ways that can be either beneficial or detrimental for themselves
and other organisms.
Earth and Space Science
CONTENT STANDARD D:
As a result of their activities in grades K-4, all students should develop an
understanding of
PROPERTIES
OF EARTH MATERIALS
- Earth materials are solid rocks and soils, water, and the gases of
the atmosphere. The varied materials have different physical and chemical properties,
which make them useful in different ways, for example, as building materials, as sources
of fuel, or for growing the plants we use as food. 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, stars, 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 THE 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. The sun, for example,
appears to move across the sky in the same way every day, but its path changes slowly over
the seasons. The moon moves across the sky on a daily basis much like the sun. The
observable shape of the moon changes from day to day in a cycle that lasts about a month.
Science and Technology
CONTENT STANDARD E:
As a result of activities in grades K-4, all students should develop
ABILITIES
OF TECHNOLOGICAL DESIGN
- Identify a simple problem.
- Propose a solution
- Implement proposed solutions
- Evaluate a product of design
- Communicate a problem, design, and solution
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. Trying to determine the effects of solutions
helps people avoid some new problems.
- Scientists and engineers often work in teams with different
individuals doing different things that contribute to the results. This understanding
focuses primarily on teams working together and secondarily, on the combination of
scientist and engineer teams.
- Women and men of all ages, backgrounds, and groups engage in a
variety of scientific and technological work.
- Tools help scientists make better observations, measurements, and
equipment for investigations. They help scientists see, measure, and do things that they
could not otherwise see, measure, and do.
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.
Science in Personal and Social Perspectives
CONTENT STANDARD F:
As a result of activities in grades K-4, all students should develop understanding of
PERSONAL
HEALTH
- Safety and security are basic needs of humans. Safety involves
freedom from danger, risk, or injury. Security involves feelings of confidence and lack of
anxiety and fear. Student understandings include following safety rules for home and
school, preventing abuse and neglect, avoiding injury, knowing whom to ask for help, and
when and how to say no.
- Individuals have some responsibility for their own health. Students
should engage in personal care--dental hygiene, cleanliness, and exercise--that will
maintain and improve health. Understandings include how communicable diseases, such as
colds, are transmitted and some of the body's defense mechanisms that prevent or overcome
illness.
- Nutrition is essential to health. Students should understand how the
body uses food and how various foods contribute to health. Recommendations for good
nutrition include eating a variety of foods, eating less sugar, and eating less fat.
- Different substances can damage the body and how it functions. Such
substances include tobacco, alcohol, over-the-counter medicines, and illicit drugs.
Students should understand that some substances, such as prescription drugs, can be
beneficial, but that any substance can be harmful if used inappropriately.
CHARACTERISTICS
AND CHANGES IN POPULATIONS
- Human populations include groups of individuals living in a
particular location. One important characteristic of a human population is the population
density--the number of individuals of a particular population that lives in a given amount
of space.
- The size of a human population can increase or decrease. Populations
will increase unless other factors such as disease or famine decrease the population.
TYPES OF RESOURCES
- Resources are things that we get from the living and nonliving
environment to meet the needs and wants of a population.
- Some resources are basic materials, such as air, water, and soil;
some are produced from basic resources, such as food, fuel, and building materials; and
some resources are nonmaterial, such as quiet places, beauty, security, and safety.
- The supply of many resources is limited. If used, resources can be
extended through recycling and decreased use.
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
changes are good, some are bad, and some are neither good nor bad. Pollution is a change
in the environment that can influence the health, survival, or activities of organisms,
including humans.
- Some environmental changes occur slowly, and others occur rapidly.
Students should understand the different consequences of changing environments in small
increments over long periods as compared with changing environments in large increments
over short periods.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN LOCAL
CHALLENGES
- People continue inventing new ways of doing things, solving problems,
and getting work done. New ideas and inventions often affect other people; sometimes the
effects are good and sometimes they are bad. It is helpful to try to determine in advance
how ideas and inventions will affect other people.
- Science and technology have greatly improved food quality and
quantity, transportation, health, sanitation, and communication. These benefits of science
and technology are not available to all of the people in the world.
History and Nature of Science
CONTENT STANDARD G:
As a result of activities in grades K-4, all students should develop understanding of
- Science as a human endeavor
SCIENCE AS A HUMAN ENDEAVOR
- Science and technology have been practiced by people for a long time.
- Men and women have made a variety of contributions throughout the
history of science and technology.
- Although men and women using scientific inquiry have learned much
about the objects, events, and phenomena in nature, much more remains to be understood.
Science will never be finished.
- Many people choose science as a career and devote their entire lives
to studying it. Many people derive great pleasure from doing science.
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