Science
Grade Level Indicators
Earth and Space Sciences
Students demonstrate an understanding about how Earth systems and processes interact in the geosphere resulting in the habitability of Earth. This includes demonstrating an understanding of the composition of the Universe, the Solar System and Earth. In addition, it includes understanding the properties and the interconnected nature of Earth’s systems, processes that shape the Earth and Earth’s history. Students also demonstrate an understanding of how the concepts and principles of energy, matter, motion and forces explain Earth systems, the Solar System, and the Universe. Finally, they grasp an understanding of the historical perspectives, scientific approaches and emerging scientific issues associated with Earth and space science
The
Universe 1. Observe that the Sun can be seen only in the daytime, but the Moon
can be seen sometimes at night and sometimes during the day.
Processes
That
Shape
Earth 2. Explore that animals and plants cause changes to their
surroundings.
3.
Explore
that sometimes change is too fast to see and sometimes change is too slow to
see.
4.
Observe
and describe day-to-day weather changes (e.g., today is hot, yesterday we had
rain).
5.
Observe
and describe seasonal changes in weather.
Earth Systems 1. Identify
that resources are things that we get from the living (e.g., forests) and
nonliving (e.g., minerals, water) environment and that resources are necessary
to meet the needs and wants of a population.
2. Explain that the supply of many resources is limited but
the supply can be extended through careful use, decreased use, reusing and/or
recycling.
Processes That
Shape Earth 3. Explain
that all organisms cause changes in the environment where they live; the
changes can be very noticeable or slightly noticeable, fast or slow. (e.g., spread of grass cover slowing soil
erosion, tree roots slowly breaking sidewalks).
The Universe 1. Recognize
that there are more stars in the sky than anyone can easily count.
2.
Observe
and describe how the Sun, Moon and stars all appear to move slowly across the
sky.
3.
Observe
and describe how the Moon appears a little different every day but looks nearly
the same again about every four weeks.
Earth
Systems 4. Observe and describe that some weather changes occur throughout
the day and some changes occur in a repeating seasonal pattern.
5.
Describe
weather by measurable quantities such as temperature and precipitation.
Earth Systems 1. Compare
distinct properties of rocks (e.g., color, layering, texture).
2.
Observe
and investigate that rocks are often found in layers.
3.
Describe
that smaller rocks come from the breakdown of larger rocks through the actions
of plants and weather.
4.
Observe
and describe the composition of soil (e.g., small pieces of rock and decomposed
pieces of plants and animals, and products of plants and animals).
5.
Investigate
the properties of soil (e.g., color, texture, capacity to retain water, ability
to support plant growth).
6.
Investigate
that soils are often found in layers and can be different from place to place.
Earth Systems 1. Explain
that air surrounds us, takes up space, moves around us as wind, and may be
measured using barometric pressure.
2.
Identify
how water exists in the air in different forms (e.g., in clouds, fog, rain,
snow and hail).
3.
Investigate
how water changes from one state to another (e.g., freezing, melting,
condensation, evaporation).
4.
Describe
weather by measurable quantities such as temperature, wind direction, wind
speed, precipitation, and barometric pressure.
5.
Record
local weather information on a calendar or map and describe changes over a
period of time (e.g., barometric pressure, temperature, precipitation symbols,
cloud conditions).
6.
Trace
how weather patterns generally move from west to east in the United States.
7.
Describe
the weather which accompanies cumulus, cumulonimbus, cirrus and stratus clouds.
Processes That
Shape Earth 8. Describe
how wind, water and ice shape and reshape Earth’s land surface by eroding rock
and soil in some areas and depositing them in other areas producing
characteristic landforms (e.g., dunes, deltas, glacial moraines).
9.
Identify
and describe how freezing, thawing and plant growth reshape the land surface by
causing the weathering of rock.
10.
Describe
evidence of changes on Earth’s surface in terms of slow processes (e.g.,
erosion, weathering, mountain building, deposition) and rapid processes (e.g.
volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, landslides).
The Universe 1. Describe
how night and day are caused by Earth’s rotation.
2.
Explain
that Earth is one of several planets to orbit the Sun, and that the Moon orbits
Earth.
3.
Describe
the characteristics of Earth and its orbit about the Sun (e.g., three-fourths
of Earth’s surface covered by a layer of water [some of it frozen], the entire planet surrounded by a thin blanket
of air, elliptical orbit, tilted axis, spherical planet).
4.
Explain that stars are like
the Sun, some being smaller and some larger, but so far away that they look
like points of light.
Earth Systems 5. Explain
how the supply of many non-renewable resources is limited and can be extended through reducing, reusing
and recycling but cannot be extended indefinitely.
6.
Investigate ways Earth’s
renewable resources (e.g., fresh water, air, wildlife and trees) can be
maintained.
Earth Systems 1. Describe
the rock cycle and explain that there are sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic
rocks that have distinct properties (e.g., color, texture) and are formed in different
ways.
2.
Explain
that rocks are made of one or more minerals.
3.
Identify
minerals by their characteristic properties.
Earth Systems 1. Explain the
biogeochemical cycles which move materials between the lithosphere (land),
hydrosphere (water) and atmosphere (air).
2. Explain that Earth’s capacity to absorb and
recycle materials naturally (e.g., smoke, smog, sewage) can change the
environmental quality depending on the length of time involved (e.g. global
warming).
3.
Describe
the water cycle and explain the transfer of energy between the atmosphere and
hydrosphere.
4.
Analyze
data on the availability of fresh water that is essential for life and for most
industrial and agricultural processes.
Describe how rivers, lakes and groundwater can be depleted or polluted
becoming less hospitable to life and even becoming unavailable or unsuitable
for life.
5.
Make
simple weather predictions based on the changing cloud types associated with
frontal systems.
6.
Determine how weather
observations and measurements are combined to produce weather maps and that
data for a specific location at one point in time can be displayed in a station
model.
7.
Read a weather map to
interpret local, regional and national weather.
8.
Describe how temperature and
precipitation determine climatic zones (biomes) (e.g., desert, grasslands,
forests, tundra, alpine).
9.
Describe the connection
between the water cycle and weather-related phenomenon (e.g., tornadoes,
floods, droughts, hurricanes).
The Universe 1. Describe
how objects in the Solar System are in regular and predictable motions that
explain such phenomena as days, years, seasons, eclipses, tides and moon
cycles.
2.
Explain
that gravitational force is the dominant force determining motions in the Solar
System and in particular keeps the planets in orbit around the Sun.
3.
Compare
the orbits and composition of comets and asteroids with that of Earth.
4.
Describe
the effect that asteroids or meteoroids have when moving through space and
sometimes entering planetary atmospheres (e.g., meteor-“shooting star” and
meteorite).
5.
Explain that the universe
consists of billions of galaxies that are classified by shape.
6.
Explain interstellar distances
are measured in light years (e.g., the nearest star beyond the sun is 4.3 light
years away).
7.
Examine the life cycle of a
star and predict the next likely stage of a star.
8.
Name and describe tools used
to study the universe (e.g., telescopes, probes, satellites and spacecraft).
Earth Systems 9. Describe the interior structure of Earth and Earth’s crust as divided into tectonic plates riding on top of the slow moving currents of magma in the mantle.
10. Explain that most major geological events (e.g.,
earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hot spots and mountain building) result from
plate motion.
11. Use models to analyze the size and shape of Earth, its
surface and its interior (e.g., globes, topographic maps, satellite images).
12. Explain that some processes involved in the rock cycle
are directly related to thermal energy and forces in the mantle that drive plate
motions.
13. Describe how landforms are created through a combination
of destructive (e.g., weathering and erosion) and constructive processes (e.g.,
crustal deformation, volcanic eruptions and deposition of sediment).
14. Explain that folding, faulting and uplifting can
rearrange the rock layers so the youngest is not always found on top.
15. Illustrate how the three primary types of plate
boundaries (transform, divergent and convergent) cause different landforms
(e.g., mountains, volcanoes, ocean trenches).
The Universe 1. Describe
that stars produce energy from nuclear reactions and that processes in stars
have led to the formation of all elements beyond hydrogen and helium.
2.
Describe
the current scientific evidence that supports the theory of the explosive
expansion of the universe, the Big Bang, over 10 billion years ago.
3.
Explain
that gravitational forces govern the characteristics and movement patterns of
the planets, comets and asteroids in the Solar System.
Earth
Systems 4. Explain the relationships of the oceans to
the lithosphere and atmosphere (e.g., transfer of energy, ocean currents,
landforms).
Processes
that
Shape
Earth 5. Explain how the slow movement of material within Earth results
from
a.
thermal
energy transfer (conduction and convection) from the deep interior
b.
the
action of gravitational forces on regions of different density
6.
Explain the results of plate
tectonic activity (e.g., magma generation, igneous intrusion, metamorphism,
volcanic action, earthquakes, faulting and folding).
7.
Explain sea-floor spreading
and continental drift using scientific evidence (e.g., fossil distributions,
magnetic reversals and radiometric dating).
Historical
Perspectives and
Scientific Revolutions 8. Use
historical examples to explain how new ideas are limited by the context in
which they are conceived; are often initially rejected by the scientific
establishment; sometimes spring from unexpected findings; and usually grow
slowly through contributions from many different investigators (e.g., heliocentric
theory and plate tectonics theory).
Earth Systems 1. Summarize
the relationship between the climatic zone and the resultant biomes. (This
includes explaining the nature of the rainfall and temperature of the
mid-latitude climatic zone that supports the deciduous forest.)
2.
Explain
climate and weather patterns associated with certain geographic locations and
features (e.g., tornado alley, tropical hurricanes and lake effect snow).
3.
Explain
how geologic time can be estimated by multiple methods (e.g., rock sequences,
fossil correlation, radiometric dating).
4.
Describe
how organisms on Earth contributed to the dramatic change in oxygen content of
Earth’s early atmosphere.
5.
Explain
how the acquisition and use of resources, urban growth and waste disposal can
accelerate natural change and impact the quality of life.
6.
Describe
ways that human activity can alter biogeochemical cycles (e.g., carbon and
nitrogen cycles) as well as food webs and energy pyramids (e.g., pest control,
legume rotation crops vs. chemical fertilizers).
Historical
Perspectives and
Scientific Revolutions 7. Describe advances and issues in Earth and space science that have important long-lasting effects on science and society (e.g., geologic time scales, global warming, depletion of resources, exponential population growth).
The Universe 1. Describe
how the early Earth was different from the planet we live on today, and explain
the formation of the Sun, Earth and the rest of the Solar System from a nebular
cloud of dust and gas approximately 4.5 billion years ago.
Earth
Systems 2. Analyze how the regular and predictable motions of Earth, Sun and
Moon explain phenomena on Earth (e.g., seasons, tides, eclipses and phases of
the Moon).
3. Explain heat and energy transfers in and out of the atmosphere and its involvement in weather and climate (radiation, conduction, convection and advection).
4.
Explain the impact of oceanic
and atmospheric currents on weather and climate.
5.
Use appropriate data to
analyze and predict upcoming trends in global weather patterns (e.g., el Niño
and la Niña, melting glaciers and icecaps, changes in ocean surface
temperatures).
6.
Explain how interactions among
Earth’s lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere have resulted in the
ongoing changes of Earth’s system.
7.
Describe the effects of
particulates and gases in the atmosphere including those originating from
volcanic activity.
8. Describe the normal adjustments of Earth, which may be hazardous for humans. Recognize that humans live at the interface between the atmosphere driven by solar energy and the upper mantle where convection creates changes in Earth's solid crust. Realize that as societies have grown, become stable and come to value aspects of the environment, vulnerability to natural processes of change has increased.
9.
Explain the effects of biomass
and human activity on climate (e.g., climatic change, global warming).
10. Interpret weather maps and their symbols to predict
changing weather conditions worldwide (e.g., monsoons, hurricanes and
cyclones).
11. Analyze how materials from human societies (e.g.,
radioactive waste, air pollution) affect both physical and chemical cycles of
Earth.
12. Explain ways in which humans have had a major effect on
other species (e.g., the influence of humans on other organisms occurs through
land use, which decreases space available to other species and pollution, which
changes the chemical composition of air, soil and water).
13. Explain how human behavior affects the basic processes
of natural ecosystems and the quality of the atmosphere, hydrosphere and
lithosphere.
14. Conclude that
Earth has finite resources and explain that humans deplete some resources
faster than they can be renewed.
Historical
Prespectices And
Scientific Revolutions 15. Use
historical examples to show how new ideas are limited by the context in which
they are conceived; are often rejected by the social establishment; sometimes
spring from unexpected findings; and usually grow slowly through contributions
from many different investigators (e.g., global warming, Heliocentric Theory,
Theory of Continental Drift).
16. Describe advances in Earth and space science that have
important long-lasting effects on science and society (e.g., global warming,
heliocentric theory, plate tectonics theory).
The Universe 1. Explain how
scientists obtain information about the universe by using technology to detect
electromagnetic radiation that is emitted, reflected or absorbed by stars and
other objects.
2.
Explain
how the large-scale motion of objects in the universe is governed by
gravitational forces and detected by observing electromagnetic radiation.
3.
Explain
how information about the universe is inferred by understanding that stars and
other objects in space emit, reflect or absorb electromagnetic radiation, which
we then detect.
4. Explain how astronomers infer that the whole universe is expanding by understanding how light seen from distant galaxies has longer apparent wavelengths than comparable light sources close to Earth.
Earth Systems 5. Investigate how thermal energy transfers in the world’s oceans impact
physical features (e.g., ice caps, oceanic and atmospheric currents) and
weather patterns.
6.
Describe
how scientists estimate how much of a given resource is available on Earth.