Science

Demonstrate curiosity about the world and begin to use practices of science and engineering to answer questions and solve problems.

• Express wonder and curiosity about their world by asking questions, solving problems and designing things.
• Develop and use models to represent their ideas, observations, and explanations through approaches such as drawing, building, or modeling with clay.
• Plan and carry out simple investigations.
• Collect, describe, compare and record information from observations and investigations.
• Use mathematical and computational thinking.
• Make meaning from experience and information by describing, talking, and thinking about what happened during an investigation.
• Generate explanations and communicate ideas/conclusions about their investigations.

Explore concepts and information about the physical, earth and life sciences.

• Observe, investigate, describe, and categorize living things.
• Show an awareness of changes that occur in oneself and the environment.
• Describe and compare basic needs of living things.
• Show respect for living things.
• Identify, describe, and compare the physical properties of objects.
• Experiment with changes in matter when combined with other substances.
• Describe the effects of forces in nature.
• Observe and describe characteristics of earth, water, and air.
• Observe and discuss changes in weather and seasons using common vocabulary.

Understand important connections and understandings in science and engineering.

• Use nonstandard and standard scientific tools for exploration.
• Become familiar with technological tools that can aid in scientific inquiry.

• Plan and conduct an investigation to compare the effects of different strengths or different directions of pushes and pulls on the motion of an object.
• Analyze data to determine if a design solution works as intended to change the speed or direction of an object with a push or a pull.
• Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.
• Construct an argument supported by evidence for how plants and animals (including humans) can change the environment to meet their needs.
• Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants or animals (including humans) and the places they live.
• Communicate solutions that will reduce the impact of humans on the land, water, air, and/or other living things in the local environment.
• Make observations to determine the effect of sunlight on Earth’s surface.
• Use tools and materials to design and build a structure that will reduce the warming effect of sunlight on an area.
• Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time.
• Ask questions to obtain information about the purpose of weather forecasting to prepare for, and respond to, severe weather.

• Plan and conduct investigations to provide evidence that vibrating materials can make sound and that sound can make materials vibrate.
• Make observations to construct an evidence-based account that objects can be seen only when illuminated.
• Plan and conduct an investigation to determine the effect of placing objects made with different materials in the path of a beam of light.
• Use tools and materials to design and build a device that uses light or sound to solve the problem of communicating over a distance.
• Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.
• Read texts and use media to determine patterns in behavior of parents and offspring that help offspring survive.
• Make observations to construct an evidence-based account that young plants and animals are like, but not exactly like, their parents.
• Use observations of the sun, moon, and stars to describe patterns that can be predicted.
• Make observations at different times of year to relate the amount of daylight to the time of year.

• Plan and conduct an investigation to describe and classify different kinds of materials by their observable properties.
• Analyze data obtained from testing different materials to determine which materials have the properties that are best suited for an intended purpose.
• Make observations to construct an evidence-based account of how an object made of a small set of pieces can be disassembled and made into a new object.
• Construct an argument with evidence that some changes caused by heating or cooling can be reversed and some cannot.
• Plan and conduct an investigation to determine if plants need sunlight and water to grow.
• Develop a simple model that mimics the function of an animal in dispersing seeds or pollinating plants.
• Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats.
• Use information from several sources to provide evidence that Earth events can occur quickly or slowly.
• Compare multiple solutions designed to slow or prevent wind or water from changing the shape of the land.
• Develop a model to represent the shapes and kinds of land and bodies of water in an area.
• Obtain information to identify where water is found on Earth and that it can be solid or liquid.

• Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence of the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object.
• Make observations and/or measurements of an object’s motion to provide evidence that a pattern can be used to predict future motion.
• Ask questions to determine cause and effect relationships of electric or magnetic interactions between two objects not in contact with each other.
• Define a simple design problem that can be solved by applying scientific ideas about magnets.
• Construct an argument that some animals form groups that help members survive.
• Analyze and interpret data from fossils to provide evidence of the organisms and the environments in which they lived long ago.
• Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
• Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changes and the types of plants and animals that live there may change.
• Develop models to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death.
• Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of these traits exists in a group of similar organisms.
• Use evidence to support the explanation that traits can be influenced by the environment.
• Use evidence to construct an explanation for how the variations in characteristics among individuals of the same species may provide advantages in surviving, finding mates, and reproducing.
• Represent data in tables and graphical displays to describe typical weather conditions expected during a particular season.
• Obtain and combine information to describe climates in different regions of the world.
• Make a claim about the merit of a design solution that reduces the impacts of a weather-related hazard.

• Use evidence to construct an explanation relating the speed of an object to the energy of that object.
• Make observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents.
• Ask questions and predict outcomes about the changes in energy that occur when objects collide.
• Apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another.
• Obtain and combine information to describe that energy and fuels are derived from natural resources and their uses affect the environment.
• Develop a model of waves to describe patterns in terms of amplitude and wavelength and that waves can cause objects to move.
• Generate and compare multiple solutions that use patterns to transfer information.
• Develop a model to describe that light reflecting from objects and entering the eye allows objects to be seen.
• Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
• Use a model to describe that animals receive different types of information through their senses, process the information in their brain, and respond to the information in different ways.
• Identify evidence from patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers to support an explanation for changes in a landscape over time.
• Make observations and/or measurements to provide evidence of the effects of weathering or the rate of erosion by water, ice, wind, or vegetation.
• Analyze and interpret data from maps to describe patterns of Earth’s features.
• Generate and compare multiple solutions to reduce the impacts of natural Earth processes on humans.

• Develop a model to describe that matter is made of particles too small to be seen.
• Measure and graph quantities to provide evidence that regardless of the type of change that occurs when heating, cooling, or mixing substances, the total weight of matter is conserved.
• Make observations and measurements to identify materials based on their properties.
• Conduct an investigation to determine whether the mixing of two or more substances results in new substances.
• Use models to describe that energy in animals’ food (used for body repair, growth, motion, and to maintain body warmth) was once energy from the sun.
• Support an argument that plants get the materials they need for growth chiefly from air and water.
• Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.
• Develop a model using an example to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and/or atmosphere interact.
• Describe and graph the amounts and percentages of water and fresh water in various reservoirs to provide evidence about the distribution of water on Earth.
• Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.
• Support an argument that the gravitational force exerted by Earth on objects is directed down.
• Support an argument that differences in the apparent brightness of the sun compared to other stars is due to their relative distances from Earth.
• Represent data in graphical displays to reveal patterns of daily changes in length and direction of shadows, day and night, and the seasonal appearance of some stars in the night sky.
• Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.
• Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
• Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved.

• Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for the role of photosynthesis in the cycling of matter and flow of energy into and out of organisms.
• Develop a model to describe how food is rearranged through chemical reactions forming new molecules that support growth and/or release energy as this matter moves through an organism.
• Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.
• Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.
• Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
• Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.
• Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.
• Develop a model to describe the cycling of Earth’s materials and the flow of energy that drives this process.
• Develop a model to describe the cycling of water through Earth’s systems driven by energy from the sun and the force of gravity.
• Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how the uneven distributions of Earth’s mineral, energy, and groundwater resources are the result of past and current geoscience processes.
• Collect data to provide evidence for how the motions and complex interactions of air masses results in changes in weather conditions.
• Develop and use a model to describe how unequal heating and rotation of the Earth cause patterns of atmospheric and oceanic circulation that determine regional climates.
• Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
• Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.
• Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
• Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved.

• Develop models to describe the atomic composition of simple molecules and extended structures.
• Develop a model that predicts and describes changes in particle motion, temperature, and state of a pure substance when thermal energy is added or removed.
• Analyze and interpret data on the properties of substances before and after the substances interact to determine if a chemical reaction has occurred.
• Develop and use a model to describe how the total number of atoms does not change in a chemical reaction and thus mass is conserved.
• Undertake a design project to construct, test, and modify a device that either releases or absorbs thermal energy by chemical processes.
• Conduct an investigation to provide evidence that living things are made of cells; either one cell or many different numbers and types of cells.
• Develop and use a model to describe the function of a cell as a whole and ways parts of cells contribute to the function.
• Use argument supported by evidence for how the body is a system of interacting subsystems composed of groups of cells.
• Develop and use a model to describe why asexual reproduction results in offspring with identical genetic information and sexual reproduction results in offspring with genetic variation.
• Develop and use a model to describe why structural changes to genes (mutations) located on chromosomes may affect proteins and may result in harmful, beneficial, or neutral effects to the structure and function of the organism.
• Gather and synthesize information about the technologies that have changed the way humans influence the inheritance of desired traits in organisms.
• Analyze and interpret data for patterns in the fossil record that document the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of life forms throughout the history of life on Earth under the assumption that natural laws operate today as in the past.
• Analyze and interpret data on the distribution of fossils and rocks, continental shapes, and seafloor structures to provide evidence of the past plate motions.
• Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence from rock strata for how the geologic time scale is used to organize Earth’s 4.6-billion-year-old history.
• Apply scientific ideas to construct an explanation for the anatomical similarities and differences among modern organisms and between modern and fossil organisms to infer evolutionary relationships.
• Analyze displays of pictorial data to compare patterns of similarities in the embryological development across multiple species to identify relationships not evident in the fully formed anatomy.
• Construct an explanation based on evidence that describes how genetic variations of traits in a population increase some individuals’ probability of surviving and reproducing in a specific environment.
• Use mathematical representations to support explanations of how natural selection may lead to increases and decreases of specific traits in populations over time.

• Plan an investigation to provide evidence that the change in an object’s motion depends on the sum of the forces on the object and the mass of the object.
• Apply Newton’s Third Law to design a solution to a problem involving the motion of two colliding objects.
• Ask questions about data to determine the factors that affect the strength of electric and magnetic forces.
• Conduct an investigation and evaluate the experimental design to provide evidence that fields exist between objects exerting forces on each other even though the objects are not in contact.
• Construct and interpret graphical displays of data to describe the relationships of kinetic energy to the mass of an object and to the speed of an object.
• Develop a model to describe that when the arrangement of objects interacting at a distance changes, different amounts of potential energy are stored in the system.
• Construct, use, and present arguments to support the claim that when the kinetic energy of an object changes, energy is transferred to or from the object.
• Apply scientific principles to design, construct, and test a device that either minimizes or maximizes thermal energy transfer.
• Plan an investigation to determine the relationships among the energy transferred, the type of matter, the mass, and the change in the average kinetic energy of the particles as measured by the temperature of the sample.
• Use mathematical representations to describe a simple model for waves that includes how the amplitude of a wave is related to the energy in a wave.
• Develop and use a model to describe that waves are reflected, absorbed, or transmitted through various materials.
• Develop and use a model to describe the role of gravity in the motions within galaxies and the solar system.
• Analyze and interpret data to determine scale properties of objects in the solar system.
• Construct and present arguments using evidence to support the claim that gravitational interactions are attractive and depend on the masses of interacting objects.
• Develop and use a model of the Earth-sun-moon system to describe the cyclic patterns of lunar phases, eclipses of the sun and moon, and seasons.
• Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth’s systems.
• Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
• Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.

KINDERGARTEN

• Forces and Interactions: Pushes and Pulls
• Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems: Animals, Plants and their Environment
• Weather and Climate

FIRST GRADE

• Waves: Light and Sound
• Structure, Function, and Information Processing
• Space Systems: Patterns and Cycles

SECOND GRADE

• Structure and Properties of Matter
• Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems
• Earth’s Systems: Processes that Shape the Earth

THIRD GRADE

• Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems
• Inheritance and Variation of Traits
• Earth’s Systems: Processes that Shape the Earth
• Weather and Climate

FOURTH GRADE

• Forces and Interactions
• Energy
• Waves
• Structure, Function, and Information Processing

FIFTH GRADE

• Structure and Properties of Matter
• Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems
• Earth’s Systems
• Space Systems: Stars and the Solar System
• Engineering Design

SIXTH GRADE

• Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems
• Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems
• Earth’s Systems
• Weather and Climate
• Engineering Design

District 54 Science Units of Instruction

Engage

These lessons mentally engage the students with an event or question. Engagement activities help students to make connections with what they know and can do.

What the Teacher Does

• Creates interest
• Generates curiosity
• Raises questions
• Elicits responses that uncover what the students know or think about the concept/topic

What the Student Does

• Asks questions, such as Why did this happen? What do I already know about this? What can I find out about this?
• Shows interest in the topic

Explore

Students work with one another to explore ideas through hands-on activities. Under the guidance of the teacher, students clarify their own understanding of major concepts and skills.

What the Teacher Does

• Encourages the students to work together without direct instruction from the teacher
• Observes and listens to the students as they interact
• Asks probing questions to redirect the students’ investigation when necessary
• Provides time for students to puzzle through problems
• Acts as a consultant for students

What the Student Does

• Thinks freely, but within the limits of the activity
• Tests predictions and hypothesis
• Forms new predictions and hypotheses
• Tries alternatives and discusses them with others
• Records observations and ideas
• Suspends judgment

Explain

Students explain their understanding of the concepts and processes they are learning. Teachers clarify students’ understanding and introduce new concepts and skills.

What the Teacher Does

• Encourages the students to explain concepts and definitions in their own words
• Asks for justification (evidence) and clarification from students
• Formally provides definitions, explanations, and new labels
• Uses students’ previous experiences as the basis for explaining concepts

What the Student Does

• Explains possible solutions or answers to others
• Listens critically to one another’s explanations
• Questions one another’s explanations
• Listens to and tries to comprehend explanations the teacher offers
• Refers to previous activities
• Uses recorded observation in explanations

Elaborate

These lessons challenge students to apply what they have learned and build on the students’ understanding of concepts to extend their knowledge and skills.

What the Teacher Does

• Expects the students to use formal labels, definitions, and explanations provided previously
• Encourages the students to apply or extend the concepts and skills in new situations
• Reminds the students of alternative explanations
• Refers the students to existing data and evidence and asks: What do you already know? Why do you think…? (Strategies from Explore apply here also.)

What the Student Does

• Applies new labels, definitions, explanations, and skills in new, but similar situations
• Uses previous information to ask questions, propose solutions, make decisions, design experiments
• Draws reasonable conclusions from evidence
• Records observations and explanations
• Checks for understanding among peers

Evaluate

Students assess their own knowledge, skills, and abilities. These lessons allow teachers to evaluate students’ progress.

What the Teacher Does

• Observes the students as they apply new concepts and skills
• Accesses students’ knowledge and/or skills
• Looks for evidence that the students have changed their thinking or behaviors
• Allows students to access their own learning and group-process skills
• Asks open-minded questions, such as Why do you think…? What evidence do you have? What do you know about it? How would you explain it?

What the Student Does

• Answers open-ended questions by using observations, evidence, and previously accepted explanations
• Demonstrates an understanding or knowledge of the concept or skill
• Evaluates his or her own progress and knowledge
• Asks related questions that would encourage future investigations

Inquiry is the science, art and spirit of imagination. It can be defined as the scientific process of active exploration by which we use critical, logical and creative-thinking skills to raise and engage in questions of personal interests. Driven by our curiosity and wonder of observed phenomena, inquiry investigations usually involve

Try these out at home!

Friction

This little ball slides easily up and down a string until you tighten the string to put on the “brakes.”

Materials: 2 feet of aluminum foil, 3 feet of string, pencil and scissors

Procedure:

1. Crumple a sheet of aluminum foil into a tight ball.
2. Use a pencil to make a shallow, V-shaped tunnel in the ball, first poking through one side of the ball and then poking through the other.
3. Push the string through the tunnel in the foil ball.
4. If you leave the string relaxed, the foil ball should slide easily up and down the string.
5. When you pull hard on the ends to tighten the string, the ball will stop until you relax the string again. (Note: If the foil ball doesn’t stop when you pull on the string, your tunnel doesn’t have enough of a V shape.)

Air Has Weight

Does a balloon filled with air weigh the same as a balloon that has been punctured?

Materials: Two identical balloons, yardstick, tape and string

Procedure:

1. Blow up two balloons so that they’re the same size.
2. Tape one balloon to one end of the yardstick and the other balloon to the other end of the stick.
3. Tie one end of a piece of string around the yardstick, between the two balloons. Hold the other end of the string so that the stick hangs horizontally and the balloons are balanced.
4. What will happen if one of the balloons is punctured? Will the balloons remain balanced? Why or why not?
5. Puncture one of the balloons. The end of the stick with the punctured balloon on it will rise. The full balloon has air in it, which makes it heavier than the punctured balloon.

Secret Messages

Turn an ordinary sheet of paper into a secret message!

Materials: Freshly-squeezed lemon juice, white vinegar, or whole milk, small containers; Q-tip; paper; light bulb

Procedure:

1. Lemon juice, vinegar, or milk is the ink. A Qtip is the pen. Write a secret message on paper.
2. Allow the paper to dry completely.
3. Heat the paper by holding it over a light bulb.
4. Move the paper around so that all the invisible writing is warmed. The secret message should slowly become visible.
5. Is it possible to make the visible writing become invisible again? Why or why not?
6. Try different liquids as the secret ink. Which liquids work well? What types of liquids don’t work?

Musical Kazoo

Create your very own musical instrument.

Materials: Toilet paper roll cardboard inner tube, wax paper and rubber band

Procedure:

1. Cut a small square of wax paper about one inch larger than the end of the cardboard tube.
2. Wrap the wax paper over one of the ends of the tube and put a rubber band over the paper to hold it in place.
3. Now, put the open end of your kazoo up to your mouth and hum a tune into it.
4. Notice how the kazoo buzzes and vibrates to amplify (make louder) the sound of your voice.