Science as Inquiry

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.

• 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.
• Simple instruments, such as magnifiers, 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).

Properties of objects and materials

• Objects have many observable properties, including size, shape, color, temperature. and the ability to react with other substances. Those properties can be measured using tools.
• 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.

Light, heat, electricity, and magnetism

• Heat can be produced in many ways such as burning or mixing one substance with another.

Properties of earth materials

• Earth materials are varied and have different physical and chemical properties that make them useful in different ways. Earth materials provide many of the resources needed by humans.

Understandings 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 to solve them.
• Scientists and engineers often work in teams with different individuals doing different things that contribute to the results.
• 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.

Personal health

• Safety and security are basic needs of humans. Safety involves freedom from danger, risk, or injury.

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 and some are produced from basic resources.

Science as a human endeavor

• Although men and women using scientific inquiry have learned much about the objects, events, and phenomena in nature, much more remains to be understood.
• Many people choose science as a career and devote their entire lives to studying it. Many people derive great pleasure from doing science.

Systems, order, and organization

Evidence, models, and explanation

Constancy, change, and measurement