Standard 4
Science

Students will: understand and apply scientific concepts, principles, and theories pertaining to the physical setting and living environment and recognize the historical development of ideas in science.

Physical Setting

 

Key Ideas: Numbers
Performance Indicators: Bullets

 

Students will:

Elementary

Intermediate

Commencement

1. The Earth and celestial phenomena can be described by principles
of relative motion and perspective.
• describe patterns of daily, monthly, and seasonal changes in their environment • explain daily, monthly, and seasonal changes on earth • explain complex phenomena, such as tides, variations in day length, solar insolation, apparent motion of the planets, and annual traverse of the constellations

• describe current theories about the origin of the universe and solar system

2. Many of the phenomena that we observe on Earth involve interactions among components of air, water, and land.
• describe the relationships among air, water, and land on Earth • explain how the atmosphere (air), hydrosphere (water), and lithosphere (land) interact, evolve, and change

• describe volcano and earthquake patterns, the rock cycle, and weather and climate changes

 • use the concepts of density and heat energy to explain observations of weather patterns, seasonal changes, and the movements of the Earth’s plates

• explain how incoming solar radiations, ocean currents, and land masses affect weather and climate

3. Matter is made up of particles whose properties determine the
observable characteristics of matter and its reactivity.
• observe and describe properties of materials using appropriate tools

• describe chemical and physical changes, including changes in states of matter

 • observe and describe properties of materials, such as density, conductivity, and solubility

• distinguish between chemical and physical changes

• develop their own mental models to explain common chemical reactions and changes in states of matter

 • explain the properties of materials in terms of the arrangement and properties of the atoms that compose them

• use atomic and molecular models to explain common chemical reactions

• apply the principle of conservation of mass to chemical reactions

• use kinetic molecular theory to explain rates of reactions and the relationships among temperature, pressure, and volume of a substance