Fundamental Concepts and Principles Addressed (Grades 5-8) in Electrical Energy and Circuit Design

Physical Science

• Energy is a property of many substances and is associated with heat, light, electricity, mechanical motion, sound, nuclei, and the nature of chemical energy. Energy is transferred in many ways.
• Electrical Circuits provide a means of transferring electrical energy when heat, light, sound, and chemical changes are produced.

Science and Technology

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 made and continue to make contributions 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.

Science as Inquiry

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.

Understandings about Scientific Inquiry

• Different kinds of questions suggest different kinds of scientific investigations. Some investigations involve observing and describing objects, organisms or events; some involve collecting specimens; some involve experiments; some involve seeking more information; some involve the 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.
• Mathematics is important in all aspects of scientific inquiry.
• Technology used to gather data enhances accuracy and allows scientists to analyze and quantify results of investigations.
• 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 ones. When such displacement occurs, science advances.

Science in Social and Personal Perspectives

• Science influences society through its knowledge and worldview. Scientific knowledge and the procedures used by scientists influence the way many individuals in society think about themselves, others and the environment. The effect of science on society is neither entirely beneficial nor entirely detrimental.
• Technology influences society through its products and processes. Technology influences the quality of life and the ways people act and interact. Technological changes are often accompanied by social, political and economic changes that can be beneficial or detrimental to individuals and society. Social needs, attitudes, and values influence the direction of technological development.
• Science and technology have advanced through contributions of many different people in different cultures at different times in history. Science and technology have contributed enormously to economic growth and productivity among societies and groups within societies.
• Scientists and engineers work in many different settings, including colleges and universities, businesses and industries, specific research institutes and government agencies.

History and Nature of Science

Science as a Human Endeavor

• Women and men of various social and ethnic backgrounds- and with diverse interests, talents, qualities and motivations- engage in the activities of science, engineering, and related fields. Some scientists work in teams, and some work alone, but all communicate extensively with others.
• Science requires different abilities, depending on such factors as the field of study and the type of inquiry. Science is very much a human endeavor, and the work of science relies on basic human qualities, such as reasoning, insight, energy, skill, and creativity- as well as on scientific habits of mind, such as intellectual honesty, tolerance of ambiguity, skepticism, and openness to new ideas.
• Scientists formulate and test their explanations of nature using observation, experiments, and theoretical and mathematical models. Although all scientific ideas are tentative and subject to change and improvement in principle, for most major ideas in science, there is much experimental; and observational confirmation. Those ideas are not likely to change greatly in the future. Scientists do and have changed their ideas about nature when they encounter new experimental evidence that does not match their existing explanations.
• In areas where active research is being pursued and in which there is not a great deal of experimental or observational evidence and understanding it is normal for scientists to differ with one another about the interpretation of the evidence or theory being considered. Different scientists might publish conflicting experimental results or might draw different conclusions from the same data. Ideally scientists acknowledge such conflict and work towards finding evidence that will resolve their agreement.
• It is part of scientific inquiry to evaluate the results of scientific investigations, experiments, observations, theoretical models, and the explanations proposed by other scientists. Evaluation includes reviewing the experimental procedures, examining the evidence, identifying faulty reasoning, pointing out statements that go beyond the evidence, and suggesting alternative explanations for the same observations. Although scientists may disagree about explanations of phenomena, about interpretations of data, or about the value of rival theories, they do agree that questioning, response to criticism, and open communication are integral to the process of science.

History of Science

• Many individuals have contributed to the traditions of science. Studying some of these individuals provides further understanding of scientific inquiry, science as a human endeavor, the nature of science, and the relationships between science and society.
• In historical perspective, science has been practiced by different individuals in different cultures. In looking at the history of many peoples, one finds that scientists and engineers of high achievement are considered to be among the most valued contributors to their culture.
• Tracing the history of science can show how difficult it was for scientific innovators to break through the accepted ideas of their time to reach the conclusions that we currently take for granted.
• Science advances through legitimate skepticism. Asking questions and querying other scientists’ explanations is part of scientific inquiry. Scientists evaluate the explanations proposed by other scientists by examining evidence, identifying faulty reasoning, pointing out statements that go beyond the evidence and suggesting alternative explanations for the same observations.
• 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.

Unifying Concepts and Processes

Systems, order, and organization.

Evidence, models, and explanation.

Change, constancy, and measurement.

Form and function.