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.

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.
• 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).
• Scientists make the results of their investigations public; they describe the investigations in ways that enable other to repeat the investigations.
• Scientists review and ask questions about the results of other scientists’ work.

Properties of objects and materials

• Objects have many observable properties, including size, shape, color, temperature, and the ability to react with other substances.
• 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.

Light, heat, electricity, and magnetism

• Heat can be produced in many ways, one of which is by mixing one substance with another.

Properties of earth materials

• Earth materials are solid rocks, soil, water, and the gases of the atmosphere. These materials have different physical and chemical properties.

Changes in the earth and sky

• Weather changes from day to day and over the seasons.

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.

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.
• Scientists and engineers often work in teams in which different individuals do different things that contribute to the results.
• Tools help scientists make better observations, measurements, and equipment for investigations.

Personal health

• Safety and security are basic needs of humans. Safety involves freedom from danger, risk, or injury. Student understanding includes following safety rules for home and school.

Science as a human endeavor

• Many people derive great pleasure from doing science.

Systems, order, and organization

Evidence, models, and explanation

Constancy, change, and measurement