English Language Arts | Fine Arts | Foreign Language | Health | Math | Phys Ed | Science | Social Studies | Technology | Advanced Learner

Learning Standards for Mathematics, Science, and Technology at Three Levels

Standard 4: Science - Intermediate

Students will understand and apply scientific concepts, principles, and theories pertaining to the physical setting and living environment and recognize the historical development of ideas in science.
 

Physical Setting

1. The Earth and celestial phenomena can be described by principles of relative motion and perspective.

Students:

     explain daily, monthly, and seasonal changes on earth.

This is evident, for example, when students:

     create models, drawings, or demonstrations describing the arrangement, interaction, and movement of the Earth, moon, and sun.
     plan and conduct an investigation of the night sky to describe the arrangement, interaction, and movement of celestial bodies.
 

2. Many of the phenomena that we observe on Earth involve interactions among components of air, water, and land.

Students:

     explain how the atmosphere (air), hydrosphere (water), and lithosphere (land) interact, evolve, and change.
     describe volcano and earthquake patterns, the rock cycle, and weather and climate changes.

This is evident, for example, when students:

     add heat to and subtract heat from water and graph the temperature changes, including the resulting phase changes.
     make a record of reported earthquakes and volcanoes and interpret the patterns formed worldwide.
 

3. Matter is made up of particles whose properties determine the observable characteristics of matter and its reactivity.

Students:

     observe and describe properties of materials, such as density, conductivity, and solubility.
     distinguish between chemical and physical changes.
     develop their own mental models to explain common chemical reactions and changes in states of matter.

This is evident, for example, when students:

     test and compare the properties (hardness, shape, color, etc.) of an array of materials.
     observe an ice cube as it begins to melt at temperature and construct an explanation for what happens, including sketches and written descriptions of their ideas.
 

4. Energy exists in many forms, and when these forms change energy is conserved.

Students:

     describe the sources and identify the transformations of energy observed in everyday life.
     observe and describe heating and cooling events.
     observe and describe energy changes as related to chemical reactions.
     observe and describe the properties of sound, light, magnetism, and electricity.
     describe situations that support the principle of conservation of energy.

This is evident, for example, when students:

     design and construct devices to transform/transfer energy.
     conduct supervised explorations of chemical reactions (not including ammonia and bleach products) for selected household products, such as hot and cold packs used to treat sport injuries.
     build an electromagnet and investigate the effects of using different types of core materials, varying thicknesses of wire, and different circuit types.
 
 

5. Energy and matter interact through forces that result in changes in motion.

Students:

     describe different patterns of motion of objects.
     observe, describe, and compare effects of forces (gravity, electric current, and magnetism) on the motion of objects.

This is evident, for example, when students:

     investigate physics in everyday life, such as at an amusement park or a playground.
     use simple machines made of pulleys and levers to lift objects and describe how each machine transforms the force applied to it.
     build "Rube Goldberg" type devices and describe the energy transformations evident in them.