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.
• Scientists use different kinds of investigations, depending on the questions they are trying to answer.
• Simple instruments, such as 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).
• Scientists make the results of their investigations public.
• Scientists review and ask questions about the results of other scientists’ work.

Physical Science

Properties of objects and materials

• Objects have many observable properties, including size and shape, and can be measured using tools, such as rulers.
• Properties can be used to separate or sort a group of objects.

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 an object can be changed by pushing or pulling. The size of the change is related to the strength of the push or pull.

Science and Technology

Abilities of technological design

• Identify a simple problem.
• Propose a solution.
• 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 and explaining questions about the natural world.
• People have always had problems and invented tools and techniques (ways of doing something) to solve problems.
• Scientists and engineers often work in teams with different individuals doing different things that contribute to the results.
• 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 investigation.

History and Nature of Science

Science as a human endeavor

• Many people derive great pleasure from doing science.

Unifying Concepts and Processes

Systems, order, and organization

Evidence, models, and explanation

Constancy, change, and measurement

Form and function