Fundamental Concepts and Principles Addressed (5-8)

Science as Inquiry

Ability necessary to do scientific inquiry

• Use appropriate tools and techniques to gather, analyze, and interpret data.
• Develop descriptions, explanations, predictions, and models using evidence.
• 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, and events; some involve collecting specimens; and some involve discovery of new objects.
• Current scientific knowledge and understanding guide scientific investigations.
• 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.
• Science advances through legitimate skepticism.
• 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.

Transfer of energy

• Light interacts with matter by transmission (including refraction), absorption, or scattering (including reflection). To see an object, light from that object—emitted by or scattered from it—must enter the eye.

Structure and function in living systems

• Living systems at all levels of organization demonstrate the complementary nature of structure and function. Important levels of organization for structure and function include cells and tissues.
• All organisms are composed of cells—the fundamental unit of life. Most organisms are single cells; other organisms are multicellular.
• Cells carry on the many functions needed to sustain life. They grow and divide, thereby producing more cells. This requires that they take in nutrients.

Reproduction and heredity

• Reproduction is characteristic of all living systems. Some organisms reproduce asexually.

Regulation and behavior

• All organisms must be able to obtain and use resources, grow, reproduce, and maintain stable internal conditions.
• Behavior is one kind of response an organism can make to an internal or environmental stimulus.

Diversity and adaptations of organisms

• Millions of species of animals, plants, and microorganisms are alive today.

Understandings about science and technology

• Many different people in different cultures have made and continue to make contributions to science and technology.
• Science and technology are reciprocal. Science helps drive technology, as it addresses questions that demand more sophisticated instruments.
• Technology is essential to science, because it provides instruments and techniques that enable observations of objects and phenomena that are otherwise unobservable due to factors such as size.

Science and technology in society

• Science influences society through its knowledge and world view.
• Technology influences society through its products and processes.
• Science and technology have advanced through contributions of many different people, in different cultures, at different times in history.

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 such as the health professions. 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 type of inquiry.

Nature of science

• Scientists formulate and test their explanations of nature using observation, experiments, and theoretical and mathematical models.
• Different scientists might draw different conclusions from the same data.

History of science

• Many individuals have contributed to the traditions of science.
• In historical perspective, science has been practiced by different individuals in different cultures.
• 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.

Systems, order, and organization

Evidence, models, and explanation

Form and function

Fundamental Concepts and Principles Addressed (K-4)

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. Types of investigations include describing objects, events, and organisms.
• Simple instruments, such as magnifiers and 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, weight, shape, color, temperature, and the ability to react with other substances. Those properties can be measured using tools.
• Objects are made of one or more materials and can be described by the properties of the materials from which they are made.

Light, heat, electricity, and magnetism

• Light travels in a straight line until it strikes an object. Light can be reflected by a mirror, refracted by a lens, or absorbed by the object.

Life Science

Characteristics of organisms

• Organisms have basic needs. The world has many different environments, and distinct environments support the life of different types of organisms.
• Each plant or animal has different structures that serve different functions in growth, survival, and reproduction.
• The behavior of individual organisms is influenced by internal cues (such as hunger) and by external cues (such as change in the environment).

Life cycles of organisms

• Plants and animals have life cycles that include being born, developing into adults, reproducing, and eventually dying.

Science and Technology

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 (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.
• 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 while others have been designed by people to solve human problems.

Science in Personal and Social Perspectives

Science and technology in local challenges

• People continue inventing new ways of doing things and solving problems.
• Science and technology have greatly improved food quality and quantity, transportation, health, sanitation, and communication. These benefits of science and technology are not available to all of the people of the world.

History and Nature of Science

Science as a human endeavor

• There is still much more to be understood about science.
• Many people choose science as a career. Many people derive great pleasure from doing science.

Unifying Concepts and Processes

Systems, order, and organization

Evidence, models, and explanation

Form and function