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Vocabulary, Skills, and Assessment Practices K-4, 5-8, 9-12

Science Curriculum Overview
Grades 5-8

*Understand: “understand” does not mandate “belief.” While students may be required to understand some concepts that researchers use to conduct research and solve practical problems, they may accept or reject the scientific concepts presented. This applies particularly where students’ and/or parents’ beliefs may be at odds with current scientific theories or concepts. (KS Science Standards, February 14, 2001, p. 76)

Standard 1: Science as Inquiry (Investigation). All students in grades 5-8 will develop the abilities to do scientific inquiry, be able to demonstrate how scientific investigation is applied, and develop understandings about scientific investigation. All 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students in USD #417 will complete at least one (1) “full investigation” each quarter for a minimum of four (4) “full investigations” during the school year.

Benchmark 1: The students will demonstrate abilities necessary to do the processes of scientific inquiry.

¯ 1. Identify questions that can be answered through scientific investigation.
¯ 2. Design and conduct a scientific investigation.
¯ 3. Use appropriate tools, mathematics, technology, and techniques to gather, analyze, and interpret data.
¯ 4. Think critically to identify the relationship between evidence and logical conclusions.
¯ 5. Apply mathematical reasoning to scientific investigations.
¯ 6. Communicate scientific procedures and explanations.

Benchmark 2: The students will apply different kinds of investigations to different kinds of questions.

¯ 1. Differentiate between a qualitative and a quantitative investigation.
¯ 2. Develop questions and adapt the inquiry process to guide an investigation.

Benchmark 3: The students will analyze how science advances through new ideas, scientific investigations, skepticism, and examining evidence of varied explanations.

¯ 1. After doing an investigation, generate alternative methods of investigation and/or further questions for investigation.
¯ 2. Determine evidence, which supports or contradicts a scientific breakthrough.
¯ 3. Identify faulty reasoning or conclusions that go beyond evidence and/or are not supported by data.

Standard 2: Physical Science. All students in grades 5 and 8 will apply process skills to develop an understanding of physical science including: properties, changes of properties of matter, motion and forces, and transfer of energy. All 5th and 8th grade students in USD #417 will demonstrate the ability to apply appropriate process skills in a variety of concepts within the study of Physical Science.
Instructional Goal: Each Benchmark and Indicator will be addressed one or more times throughout the year.

Benchmark 1: The students will observe, compare, and classify properties of matter.

¯ 1. Identify and communicate properties of matter, including phases of matter, boiling point, solubility, and density.
¯ 2. Using the characteristic properties of each original substance, distinguish components of various types of mixtures.
¯ 3. Categorize chemicals to develop an understanding of properties.

Benchmark 2: The students will observe, measure, infer, and classify changes in properties of matter.

¯ 1. Measure and graph the effects of temperature on matter.
¯ 2. Understand that total mass is conserved in chemical reactions.
¯ 3. Understand the relationship of elements to compounds.

Benchmark 3: The students will investigate motion and forces.

¯ 1. Describe motion of an object (position, direction of motion, speed, potential, and kinetic energy).
¯ 2. Measure motion and represent data in a graph.
¯ 3. Demonstrate an understanding that an object not being subjected to a force will continue to move at a constant speed in a straight line (Law of Inertia).
¯ 4. Demonstrate and mathematically communicate that unbalanced forces will cause changes in the speed or direction of an object’s motion.
¯ 5. Understand that a force (e.g., gravity and friction) is a push or a pull.
¯ 6. Investigate force variables of simple machines.

Benchmark 4: The students will understand and demonstrate the transfer of energy.

¯ 1. Understand that energy can be transferred from one form to another, including mechanical, heat, light, electrical, chemical, and nuclear energy.
¯ 2. Sequence the transmission of energy through various real life systems.
¯ 3. Observe and communicate how light interacts with matter: transmitted, reflected, refracted, absorbed.
¯ 4. Understand that heat energy can be transferred from hot to cold by radiation.

Standard 3: Life Science. All students in grades 5 and 7 will apply process skills to explore and understand structure and function in living systems, reproduction and heredity, regulation and behavior, populations and ecosystems, and diversity and adaptations of organisms. All 5th and 7th grade students in USD #417 will demonstrate the ability to apply appropriate process skills in a variety of concepts within the study of Life Science.
Instructional Goal: Each Benchmark and Indicator will be addressed one or more times throughout the year.

Benchmark 1: The students will model structures or organisms and relate functions to structures.

¯ 1. Relate the structure of cells, organs, tissues, organ systems, and whole organisms to their functions.
¯ 2. Compare organisms composed of single cells with organisms that are multi-cellular.
¯ 3. Conclude that breakdowns in structure or function of an organism may be caused by disease, damage, heredity, or aging.

Benchmark 2: The students will understand the role of reproduction and heredity for all living things.

¯ 1. Conclude that reproduction is essential to the continuation of a species.
¯ 2. Differentiate between asexual and sexual reproduction in plants and animals.
¯ 3. Infer that the characteristics of an organism result from heredity and interactions with the environment.
¯ 4. Understand that heredity information contained in the genes (part of the chromosomes) of each cell is passed from one generation to the next.

Benchmark 3: The students will describe the effects of a changing external environment on the regulation/balance of internal conditions and processes of organisms.

¯ 1. Understand the effects of a change in environmental conditions on behavior of an organism by carrying out a full investigation.
¯ 2. Identify behaviors of an organism that are responses made to internal or environmental stimuli.
¯ 3. Explain that all organisms must be able to maintain and regulate stable internal conditions to survive in a constantly changing external environment.

Benchmark 4: The students will identify and relate interactions of populations of organisms within an ecosystem.

¯ 1. Recognize that all populations living together and the physical factors with which they interact compose an ecosystem.
¯ 2. Classify organisms in a system by the function they serve (producers, consumers, decomposers).
¯ 3. Trace the energy flow from the sun (source) to producers (chemical energy) to other organisms in food webs.
¯ 4. Relate the limiting factors of biotic and abiotic resources with a species’ population growth, decline, and survival.

Benchmark 5: The students will observe the diversity of living things and relate their adaptations to their survival or extinction.

¯ 1. Conclude that millions of species of animals, plants, and microorganisms may look dissimilar on the outside but have similarities in internal structures, developmental characteristics, and chemical processes.
¯ 2. Understand that adaptations or organisms – change in structure, function, or behavior – contribute to biological diversity.
¯ 3. Associate extinction of a species with environmental changes and insufficient adaptive characteristics.

Standard 4: Earth and Space Science. All students in grades 5 and 6 will apply process skills to explore and develop an understanding of the structure of the earth system, earth’s history, and earth in the solar system. All 5th and 6th grade students in USD #417 will demonstrate the ability to apply appropriate process skills in a variety of concepts within the study of Earth and Space Science.
Instructional Goal: Each Benchmark and Indicator will be addressed one or more times throughout the year.

Benchmark 1: The students will understand that the structure of the earth’s system is constantly changing due to the earth’s physical and chemical processes.

¯ 1. Predict patterns from data collected.
¯ 2. Identify properties of the solid earth, the oceans and fresh water, and the atmosphere.
¯ 3. Model earth’s cycle.
¯ 4. Model earth’s plate movements that result in major geologic events.
¯ 5. Understand water’s major role in changing the solid surface of the earth, such as the effect of oceans on climates and water as an erosion force.

Benchmark 2: The students will understand that past and present earth processes are similar.

¯ 1. Understand the dynamics of earth’s constructive and destructive forces over time.
¯ 2. Model geologic time to scale.
¯ 3. Relate geologic evidence to a record of earth’s history.
¯ 4. Compare the current arrangement of the continents with the arrangement of continents throughout the earth’s history.

Benchmark 3: The students will identify and classify planets and other solar system components.

¯ 1. Compare and contrast the characteristics of the planets.
¯ 2. Develop understanding of spatial relationships via models of the earth/moon/planets/sun system to scale.
¯ 3. Research smaller components of the solar system such as asteroids and comets.
¯ 4. Identify the sun as a star and compare its characteristics to those of other stars.
¯ 5. Trace cultural as well as scientific influences on the study of astronomy.

Benchmark 4: The students will model motions and identify forces that explain earth phenomena.

¯ 1. Demonstrate object/space/time relationships that explain phenomena such as the day, the month, the year, and seasons.
¯ 2. Model earth/moon positions that create phases of the moon and eclipses.
¯ 3. Apply principles of force and motion to understand the solar system.
¯ 4. Understand the effect of the angle of incidence of solar energy striking the earth’s surface on the amount of heat energy absorbed at the earth’s surface.

Standard 5: Science and Technology. All students in grades 7 and 8 will explore and demonstrate abilities of technological design and understandings about science and technology. All 7th and 8th grade students in USD #417 are enrolled in Technology Lab where science concepts are integrated with real world applications using technology as a tool, media, and resource.

Standard 6: Science and Personal and Environmental Perspectives. All students in grades 5, 6, 7, and 8 will apply process skills to explore and develop an understanding of issues of personal health, population, resources and environment, and natural hazards. All 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grades students in USD #417 will develop and explore health and environmental issues through Science content studies and studies integrated with science concepts such as: Physical Education, Health and Human Sexuality, and Technology Laboratory.

Standard 7: History and Nature of Science. All students in grades 5, 6, 7, and 8 will examine and develop an understanding of science as a historical human endeavor. All 5th,, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students in USD #417 will model appropriate principles that will maintain the integrity of science discovery through inquiry, content studies, and integrated studies.

The Students will…
¯ Practice intellectual honesty.
¯ Demonstrate skepticism appropriately.
¯ Display open-mindedness to new ideas.
¯ Base decisions on evidence.
¯ Recognize that new knowledge leads to new questions and new discoveries.
¯ Replicate historic experiments to understand principles of science.
Relate contributions of men and women to the fields of science

Last Updated November 26, 2002