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 others to repeat the investigations.
• 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, and color.
• Objects are made of one or more materials, such as paper, wood, and metal. 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.

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 its position over time.
• The position and motion of objects can be changed by pushing or pulling. The size of the change is related to the strength of the push or pull.

Light, heat, electricity, and magnetism

• Magnets attract and repel each other and certain kinds of materials.

Life Science

Organisms and their environments

• When an organism’s environment changes, some plants and animals survive and reproduce, and others die or move.
• Humans change environments in ways that can either be beneficial or detrimental for themselves and other organisms.

Earth and Space Science

Properties of earth materials

• Earth materials include solid rocks. These materials have different physical properties that make them useful in different ways.

Changes in the earth and sky

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

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.
• Scientists and engineers often work in teams with 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 investigations.

Science in Personal and Social Perspectives

Personal health

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

Changes in environments

• Changes in environments can be natural or influenced by humans. Some changes are good, some are bad, and some are neither good nor bad. Pollution is a change in the environment that can influence the health, survival, and activities of organisms, including humans.

Science and technology in local challenges

• People continue inventing new ways of doing things, solving problems, and getting work done.

History and Nature of Science

Science as a human endeavor

• Men and women have made a variety of contributions throughout the history of 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

Constancy, change, and measurement

Form and function