New Hampshire Science Curriculum Framework

The STANDARDS CORRELATION chart suggests which New Hampshire Science Curriculum Framework standards you can cover using PASSPORT TO THE RAINFOREST in your classroom. We hope you will discover additional standards you can use. These are the ones our Instructional Materials Development team felt most directly related to the activities contained in PASSPORT TO THE RAINFOREST.

For additional New Hampshire Science Curriculum Framework standards you can cover see the STANDARDS CORRELATION chart for the following PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE projects:

PASSPORT TO ANTARCTICA

PASSPORT TO THE SOLAR SYSTEM

PASSPORT TO WEATHER AND CLIMATE

LIVE FROM THE SUN/LIVE FROM THE AURORA

LIVE FROM MARS 2001/2002

LIVE FROM A BLACK HOLE/LIVE FROM THE EDGE OF SPACE AND TIME

End of Grade Six,   End of Grade Ten

End of Grade Six (Elementary)

Proficiency Standards
Science as Inquiry

1a. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing understanding of how the scientific enterprise operates.

 

Students will be able to:

 

Solve problems using a variety of strategies

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Pose questions for scientific investigations and make predictions about the outcomes

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Design and conduct a scientific investigation exploring the relationship between two variables

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Use appropriate tools and techniques to gather, organize, and interpret data

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Compare and estimate very large/very small numbers

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Use appropriate measurement units

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Read bar graphs, line graphs, circle graphs, and tables

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Construct explanations, including the development of simple models, for observations made

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Work in small teams to investigate problems, but form own conclusions

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Discuss the relationship between evidence and explanations

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Recognize and analyze alternative explanations and procedures

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Communicate scientific procedures and explanations

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Make hypotheses and design simple experiments to test hypotheses made

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Recognize the variables in a situation and the importance of controlling them when conducting a scientific investigation

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Seek information for comparing past and present scientific ideas and theories


Science, Technology, and Society

2a. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to use measuring instruments to gather accurate and/or precise information.

 

Students will be able to:

 

Use an assortment of measuring instruments, with a variety of scales, such as rulers, thermometers, graduated cylinders, balances, and timers

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Describe and practice appropriate techniques for using simple measuring devices

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Use technology to explore events in nature, e.g. telescopes, microscopes, computer probes

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2b. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to use technology to observe nature.

 

Students will be able to:

 

Explore nature with simple scientific tools, e.g. magnifying glasses, levers, pulleys, batteries and bulbs

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Use technology to capture information on film, tape, etc.

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2c. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to analyze, synthesize, and communicate scientific information using technology.

 

Students will be able to:

 

Record data using appropriate units

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Use a calculator to determine other important quantitative values from data, using proper units, e.g. speed, density, area, volume, etc.

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Compile and display classroom data on a computer

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Use technology to share data with classmates or other groups of students

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2d. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to understand how technology is used to synthesize new products.

 

Students will be able to:

 

Construct simple projects from readily available materials found at home

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Choose appropriate common materials for mechanical construction of simple models

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Make safe electrical connections with various electrical components

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Assemble and/or take apart a device to identify how it works, e.g. simple motor, door bell, telephone, ice cream maker

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Create and/or reassemble technological models and identify how they work

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Compare and contrast old and new technology, e.g. antique and modern ice cream makers by making ice cream in each

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2e. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to understand that science and technology can affect individuals, and that individuals in turn can affect science and technology.

 

Students will be able to:

 

Describe and defend decisions that they have made involving themselves and their environment

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Identify and gather information needed to make a decision on a science- and/or technology-related issue

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Describe the possible consequences of various alternative decisions to a science- and/or technology-related issue

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2f. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to understand that progress in science and technology is controlled by societal attitudes and beliefs.

 

Students will be able to:

 

Demonstrate that knowledge makes it possible to make informed decisions

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Cite examples which show how society can affect the direction taken by science and technology

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Describe how science and technology affect career choices and the kinds of work people do

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Life Science

3a. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to recognize patterns and products of evolution, including genetic variation, specialization, adaptation, and natural selection.

 

Students will be able to:

 

Classify a variety of organisms based on their characteristics, and use this scheme as a tool to organize information about the diversity of life forms

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Describe/identify random differences between individuals of the same species of plant or animal, e.g. students can examine parts of plants of the same species and recognize variations, and can construct graphs and charts showing the variations

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Describe/identify similarities and differences among multiple offspring of same parents, and between parents and offspring

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Create examples of food chains and webs in several types of ecosystems, e.g. deciduous forest, fresh water, desert, etc.

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3b. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to understand how environmental factors affect all living systems (i.e. individuals, community, biome, the biosphere) as well as species to species interactions.

 

Students will be able to:

 

Demonstrate a basic knowledge of the process of photosynthesis and its importance for all life forms

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Identify and describe the basic requirements for sustaining life, e.g. plants and animals need food for energy and growth

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Conduct an investigation which illustrates how the environment affects the viability of plants or animals within that environment

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Describe and give examples of the various types of interactions that occur among organisms (e.g. predator-prey, symbiotic, producer-consumer-decomposer, host-parasite) to demonstrate how organisms compete or cooperate with each other to gain food, resources or space

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3c. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to understand that organisms are linked to one another and to their physical setting by the transfer and transformation of matter and energy to maintain a dynamic equilibrium.

 

Students will be able to:

 

Identify common materials that cycle through the environment, e.g. carbon, water, carbon dioxide, oxygen

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Explore through models, experiments, and observations how matter and energy interact in any ecosystem

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Describe how organisms can acquire energy directly or indirectly from the energy of the sun

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Earth/Space Science

4c. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to understand that the Earth contains a variety of renewable and non-renewable resources.

 

Students will be able to:

 

Identify Earth resources used in their life

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Explain how some of the Earth's resources are processed to make them useful

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List some ways that the Earth's water supply can be conserved

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Identify/explain some effects human activities have on the atmosphere, e.g. smog, industrial wastes

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4c. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to understand that the Earth contains a variety of renewable and non-renewable resources.

 

Students will be able to:

 

Investigate how human activities, such as reducing the amount of forest cover and increasing the amount and variety of chemicals released into the atmosphere have changed the Earth's land, ocean, and atmosphere

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Cite evidence that our fresh water supply is essential for life and also for most industrial processes

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Describe possible consequences of reducing or eliminating some of the Earth's natural resources

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Identify natural, as well as human-induced, factors which contribute to changes in the Earth's systems

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Unifying Themes and Concepts

6a. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to recognize parts of any object or system, and understand how the parts interrelate in the operation of that object or system.

 

Students will be able to:

 

Identify and describe the essentials parts of any object or system

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Relate structure and function of parts of any object in a system to the system as a whole

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Describe the interrelationships among the parts of an object or system

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6b. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate their understanding of the meaning of stability and change and will be able to identify and explain change in terms of cause and effect.

 

Students will be able to:

 

Identify and describe several ways in which things may change

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Identify and describe several types of change

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Identify and describe how change can be prevented or enhanced

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Distinguish between important and unimportant changes in given situations

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6c. Curriculum Standard: Students will understand the meaning of models, their appropriate use and limitations, and how models can help them in understanding the natural world.

 

Students will be able to:

 

Define and describe various physical models and their uses, e.g. cell model, model cars

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Use graphs, geometric figures, number and time lines, and other devices to represent events and processes in the natural world

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Construct one or more physical models representative of objects or processes in the natural world, and explain how the elements of the model are representative of the real object, e.g. solar system, dinosaurs, telephone

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Recognize that a model is a representation of an object or process and is not identical to the object or process

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6d. Curriculum Standard: Students will increasingly quantify their interactions with phenomena in the natural world, use these results to understand differences of scale in objects and systems, and determine how changes in scale affect various properties of those objects and systems.

 

Students will be able to:

 

Measure properties of objects, to a reasonable degree of accuracy, using standard scientific instruments such as a ruler, balance, clock, and thermometer

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Calculate derived measurements of objects, such as area, volume, and density from direct measurements made in the laboratory

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Estimate the smallest and largest limits, or the range in size, of certain objects in quantitative terms

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Determine that increases in linear dimensions (length), have a large effect on area and volume

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End of Grade Ten (Secondary)

Proficiency Standards
Science as Inquiry

1a. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing understanding of how the scientific enterprise operates.

 

Students will be able to:

 

Formulate questions and use appropriate concepts to guide scientific investigations and to solve real world problems

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Use ratios as a means of comparing very large/very small numbers, e.g. building scale models

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Design and conduct a controlled scientific investigation

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Use technologies as tools in conducting investigations, e.g. microscopes, computer, calculator

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Construct and revise scientific explanations and models using logic and evidence

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Recognize and analyze alternative explanations and models for observed phenomena

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Select, communicate, and defend a scientific argument

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Compare and contrast how technology has shaped our lives both in the past and the present

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Select a science-related social problem and design a solution that reflects an understanding of basic science concepts and their application

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Demonstrate an understanding that science knowledge has, over time, accumulated most rapidly after acceptance of major new theories

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Explain how scientific knowledge is applied in the design and manufacture of products or technological processes, e.g. water purification systems, sewage treatment systems, microwave ovens, resistors

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Science, Technology, and Society

2a. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to use measuring instruments to gather accurate and/or precise information.

 

Students will be able to:

 

Measure with both analog and digital electronic devices, e.g. voltmeter, oscilloscope, and pH meters

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Estimate the error in measurements they make and use procedures to minimize those errors

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Describe ways in which technology has improved measuring instruments and their accuracy

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2b. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to use technology to observe nature.

 

Students will be able to:

 

Explore nature with technology, e.g. microscopes, telescopes, computer probes, and spectroscopes

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Gather information that can only be obtained by using a technological tool, e.g. pH, voltage, amperage, blood pressure, etc.

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2c. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to analyze, synthesize, and communicate scientific information using technology.

 

Students will be able to:

 

Store data in an appropriate technological device

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Manipulate data on a database, e.g. rearranging, sorting, selecting, using a spread sheet

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Analyze data graphically with technological assistance, e.g. graphing calculator

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Communicate data through an electronic medium, e.g. camera, tape recorder, computer modem

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Quantitatively analyze experimental data

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2d. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to understand how technology is used to synthesize new products.

 

Students will be able to:

 

Plan and conduct a scientific research project using technology

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Construct scientific models using common materials or standard laboratory equipment

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Create a model by locating and utilizing appropriate software programs

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2e. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to understand that science and technology can affect individuals, and that individuals in turn can affect science and technology.

 

Students will be able to:

 

Describe immediate and long-term consequences of various alternative solutions for science- and/or technology-related issues , e.g. natural catastrophes, interactions of populations, resources and environment, health and disease

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Defend a personal decision made on a science- and/or technology-related issue

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Determine how technology affects their lives and predict how it might affect their future

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2f. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to understand that progress in science and technology is controlled by societal attitudes and beliefs.

 

Students will be able to:

 

Illustrate, through example, that the knowledge produced through science and technology changes the way members of society think

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Demonstrate, by giving examples, the relationships between the maintenance and progress of society and scientific and technological advancement

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Life Science

3a. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to recognize patterns and products of evolution, including genetic variation, specialization, adaptation, and natural selection.

 

Students will be able to:

 

Relate different kinds of animals and plants to their habitat by observing their physical characteristics

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Develop appropriate food webs for the major biomes of the earth and accurately describe the major biogeochemical cycles which control the interactions between the biotic and physical worlds

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3b. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to understand how environmental factors affect all living systems (i.e. individuals, community, biome, the biosphere) as well as species to species interactions.

 

Students will be able to:

 

Design a controlled investigation that demonstrates the interdependence of plants and animals found within a specific New Hampshire ecosystem, e.g. forest, seashore, lake, river, stream

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Predict, with rationale, the effects of changing one or two factors in an ecosystem, e.g. What would happen if mosquitoes were to suddenly disappear?

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Research and present a model that demonstrates how ecosystems are reasonably stable over hundreds or thousands of years, dependent on climate, limiting factors, carrying capacities, and biogeochemical cycles

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Make predictions about changes in the size or growth rate of a population using mathematical models, e.g from graphs and charts, students can determine relationships among the species within an ecosystem

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Trace the history of an interaction between man and the environment that demonstrates how human activities can deliberately or inadvertently alter the equilibrium in an ecosystem

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3c. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to understand that organisms are linked to one another and to their physical setting by the transfer and transformation of matter and energy to maintain a dynamic equilibrium.

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Design and perform an experiment to show that the number of living things any environment can support is limited by the available energy, water, oxygen, minerals, and ability of an ecosystem to recycle organic material

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Construct models that demonstrate which chemical elements make up the molecules of substances found in living organisms and how these elements pass through food webs

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Compare the transformation of matter and energy during photosynthesis and respiration

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Earth/Space Science

4c. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to understand that the Earth contains a variety of renewable and non-renewable resources.

 

Students will be able to:

 

Investigate how human activities, such as reducing the amount of forest cover and increasing the amount and variety of chemicals released into the atmosphere have changed the Earth's land, ocean, and atmosphere

video
hands-on
online

Cite evidence that our fresh water supply is essential for life and also for most industrial processes

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online

Describe possible consequences of reducing or eliminating some of the Earth's natural resources

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online

Identify natural, as well as human-induced, factors which contribute to changes in the Earth's systems

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online


Unifying Themes and Concepts

6a. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to recognize parts of any object or system, and understand how the parts interrelate in the operation of that object or system.

 

Students will be able to:

 

Demonstrate and describe how parts of a system influence each other, including feedback

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Demonstrate how systems include processes as well as parts, e.g. human body, telephone system, solar system

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Show how one system can be part of another system, and how systems influence each other

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Predict how certain changes in the system will/will not affect the operation of the system

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6b. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate their understanding of the meaning of stability and change and will be able to identify and explain change in terms of cause and effect.

 

Students will be able to:

 

Distinguish among cyclic (e.g. seasons), linear (e.g.distance/time) and irregular (e.g.weather) changes and give examples of each

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Identify and describe varying rates of change and measure selected rates

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Recognize one form of stability as opposing changes occurring at the same rate (dynamic equilibrium) and cite several examples of that type of stability, e.g. homeostasis, saturated solutions, vapor pressure of liquids

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Quantify certain changes and use a mathematical expression to determine past or future states of the system, e.g. gas laws, Newton's laws of motion

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6c. Curriculum Standard: Students will understand the meaning of models, their appropriate use and limitations, and how models can help them in understanding the natural world.

 

Students will be able to:

 

Distinguish among physical (e.g. DNA), mathematical ( e.g. D=RT), and conceptual (e.g. atom) models and give examples of each

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Use different models to represent the same object or process

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Use a computer and mathematical model to determine values of variables beyond the range of phenomena observed in the laboratory

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Compare and explain differences in values obtained using a mathematical model and those obtained in the laboratory

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Illustrate how models allow scientists to better understand the natural world

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6d. Curriculum Standard: Students will increasingly quantify their interactions with phenomena in the natural world, use these results to understand differences of scale in objects and systems, and determine how changes in scale affect various properties of those objects and systems.

 

Students will be able to:

 

Calculate from direct measurements, many of the derived measurements of objects such as density, velocity, inner and surface areas, volumes, perimeters, and changes in heat content

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Calculate averages and ranges of measurement values for certain properties or processes in a system

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Correlate the mathematical relationships among length, area, volume, surface area, mass, etc.

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Convert data collected from measurements into graphs and derive mathematical relationships from the data and graphs

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Determine the degree of error in any measurement given the accuracy of the instruments used

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Express relationships among measurements in the form of a ratio, proportion, or percentage when appropriate

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