California Academic Content Standards

The STANDARDS CORRELATION chart suggests which California Academic Content Standards you can cover using Gravity: Mass, Weight and Motion in your classroom. We hope you will discover additional standards you can use.

For additional California Academic Content Standards you can cover see the STANDARDS CORRELATION chart for the following PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE SCIENCE CONCEPTS IN CONTEXT programs:

Earth Science Modules
Sun and Seasons, Day and Night

Jet Streams and Ocean Currents: the Global Circulation of air and Water

The Greenhouse Effect

The Water, Carbon and Other Geochemical Cycles

Life Science Modules
Photosynthesis: from Sunlight to Life

Food Webs: Connections Across the Natural World

Adaptation and Natural selection: Evolution at Work

Life in Extreme Environments

Physical Science Modules
Light, Optics, Mirros and Telescopes

The Electromagnetic Spectrum

Force and Motion

Convection, Conduction and Radiation

Space Science Modules
Gravity: Mass, Weight and Motion

Objects in the sky: Planets, Stars and More!

Fusion and Fission: Atoms and Energy

How We Explore Space: Extending Our Senses Beyond Earth

Elementary Standards: Kindergarten,   Grade One,   Grade Two,   Grade Three,   Grade Four,   Grade Five
Middle School Standards: Grade Six,   Grade Seven,   Grade Eight
High School Starndards: Grades 9-12

Grade Two

Physical Sciences

1. The motion of objects can be observed and measured. As a basis for understanding this concept:

 

a. Students know the position of an object can be described by locating it in relation to another object or to the background.

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b. Students know an object’s motion can be described by recording the change in position of the object over time.

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c. Students know the way to change how something is moving is by giving it a push or a pull. The size of the change is related to the strength, or the amount of force, of the push or pull.

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d. Students know tools and machines are used to apply pushes and pulls (forces) to make things move.

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e. Students know objects fall to the ground unless something holds them up.

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Investigation and Experimentation

4. Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept and addressing the content in the other three strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:

 

a. Make predictions based on observed patterns and not random guessing.

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b. Measure length, weight, temperature, and liquid volume with appropriate tools and express those measurements in standard metric system units.

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c. Compare and sort common objects according to two or more physical attributes (e.g., color, shape, texture, size, weight).

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d. Write or draw descriptions of a sequence of steps, events, and observations.

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f. Use magnifiers or microscopes to observe and draw descriptions of small objects or small features of objects.

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g. Follow oral instructions for a scientific investigation.

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Grade Eight

Focus on Physical Sciences
Forces

2. Unbalanced forces cause changes in velocity. As a basis for understanding this concept:

 

a. Students know a force has both direction and magnitude.

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b. Students know when an object is subject to two or more forces at once, the result is the cumulative effect of all the forces.

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c. Students know when the forces on an object are balanced, the motion of the object does not change.

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d. Students know how to identify separately the two or more forces that are acting on a single static object, including gravity, elastic forces due to tension or com-pression in matter, and friction.

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e. Students know that when the forces on an object are unbalanced, the object will change its velocity (that is, it will speed up, slow down, or change direction).

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f. Students know the greater the mass of an object, the more force is needed to achieve the same rate of change in motion.

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g. Students know the role of gravity in forming and maintaining the shapes of planets, stars, and the solar system.

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Grade Nine to Twelve

Physics
Motion and Forces

1. Newton’s laws predict the motion of most objects. As a basis for understanding this concept:

 

b. Students know that when forces are balanced, no acceleration occurs; thus an object continues to move at a constant speed or stays at rest (Newton’s first law).

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d. Students know that when one object exerts a force on a second object, the second object always exerts a force of equal magnitude and in the opposite direction (Newton’s third law).

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e. Students know the relationship between the universal law of gravitation and the effect of gravity on an object at the surface of Earth.

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f. Students know applying a force to an object perpendicular to the direction of its motion causes the object to change direction but not speed (e.g., Earth’s gravitational force causes a satellite in a circular orbit to change direction but not speed).

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g. Students know circular motion requires the application of a constant force directed toward the center of the circle.

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Updated July 2001