The STANDARDS CORRELATION chart will suggest which NSES (NAS/NRC) standards most directly relate to PASSPORT TO THE SOLAR SYSTEM. We hope and expect that you will find many more connections between the Activities and national, state and local guidelines.

Program Segment 1 and suggested activities in the Implementation Guide:

3.3.2 Knows characteristics and movement patterns of the nine planets in our Solar System (e.g., planets differ in size, composition, and surface features; planets move around the Sun in elliptical orbits; some planets have moons, rings of particles, and other satellites orbiting them)

3.3.3 Knows that the planet Earth and our Solar System appear to be somewhat unique, although similar systems might yet be discovered in the universe

Comment added: please note that this Standard, like that relating to habitats which might support life beyond Earth, has already been shown to need updating or modification.

3.3.4 Knows that gravitational force keeps planets in orbit around the Sun and moons in orbit around the planets

3.3.7 Knows that many billions of galaxies exist in the universe (each containing many billions of stars), and that incomprehensible distances separate these galaxies and stars from one another and from the Earth

Program Segment 2 and suggested activities in the Implementation Guide:

10.3.1 Knows that matter is made up of tiny particles called atoms, and different arrangements of atoms into groups compose all substances

11.3.3 Knows how the Sun acts as a major source of energy for changes on the Earth's surface (i.e., the Sun loses energy by emitting light; some of this light is transferred to the Earth in a range of wavelengths including visible light, infrared radiation, and ultraviolet radiation)

11.3.4 Knows that heat can be transferred through conduction, convection, and radiation; heat flows from warmer objects to cooler ones until both objects reach the same temperature

13.3.1 Knows that just as electric currents can produce magnetic forces, magnets can cause electric currents

Program Segment 3 and suggested activities in the Implementation Guide:

1.3.3 Knows the composition and structure of the Earth's atmosphere (e.g., temperature and pressure in different layers of the atmosphere, circulation of air masses)

1.3.4 Knows ways in which clouds affect weather and climate (e.g., precipitation, reflection of light from the Sun, retention of heat energy emitted from the Earth's surface)

1.3.6 Knows factors that can impact the Earth's climate (e.g., changes in the composition of the atmosphere; changes in ocean temperature; geological shifts such as meteor impacts, the advance or retreat of glaciers, or a series of volcanic eruptions)

1.3.7 Knows the processes involved in the water cycle (e.g., evaporation, condensation, precipitation, surface run-off, percolation) and their effects on climatic patterns

2.2.4 Knows how features on the Earth's surface are constantly changed by a combination of slow and rapid processes (e.g., weathering, erosion, and deposition of sediment caused by waves, wind, water, and ice; sudden changes in the landscape caused by landslides, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes)

2.3.4 Knows that the Earth's crust is divided into plates that move at extremely slow rates in response to movements in the mantle

2.3.5 Knows how land forms are created through a combination of constructive and destructive forces (e.g., constructive forces such as crustal deformation, volcanic eruptions, and deposition of sediment; destructive forces such as weathering and erosion)

Program Segment 4 and suggested activities in the Implementation Guide:

1.3.7 Knows the processes involved in the water cycle (e.g., evaporation, condensation, precipitation, surface run-off, percolation) and their effects on climatic patterns

1.3.8 Knows the properties that make water an essential component of the Earth system (e.g., its ability to act as a solvent, its ability to remain a liquid at most Earth temperatures)

2.2.1 Knows that smaller rocks come from the breakage and weathering of bedrock and larger rocks

2.2.2 Knows that rock is composed of different combinations of minerals

2.2.4 Knows how features on the Earth's surface are constantly changed by a combination of slow and rapid processes (e.g., weathering, erosion, and deposition of sediment caused by waves, wind, water, and ice; sudden changes in the landscape caused by landslides, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes)

2.3.2 Knows that sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks contain evidence of the minerals, temperatures, and forces that created them

Program Segment 5 and suggested activities in the Implementation Guide:

11.3.1 Knows that energy is a property of many substances (e.g., heat energy is in the disorderly motion of molecules and in radiation; chemical energy is in the arrangement of atoms; mechanical energy is in moving bodies or in elastically distorted shapes; electrical energy is in the attraction or repulsion between charges)

11.3.2 Understands that energy cannot be created or destroyed but only changed from one form to another

11.3.6 Knows that most chemical and nuclear reactions involve a transfer of energy (e.g., heat, light, mechanical motion, electricity)

Program Segment 6 and suggested activities in the Implementation Guide:

3.3.5 Knows characteristics and movement patterns of asteroids, comets, and meteors

Program Segment 7 and suggested activities in the Implementation Guide:

1.3.1 Knows that the Earth is the only body in our solar system that appears able to support life

7.3.5 Knows factors that affect the number and types of organisms an ecosystem can support (e.g., available resources; abiotic factors such as quantity of light and water, range of temperatures, and soil composition; disease; competition from other organisms within the ecosystem; predation)

8.3.1 Knows how energy is transferred through food webs in an ecosystem (e.g., energy enters ecosystems as sunlight, and green plants transfer this energy into chemical energy through photosynthesis; this chemical energy is passed from organism to organism; animals get energy from oxidizing their food, releasing some of this energy as heat)

9.3.1 Knows that the fossil record, through geologic evidence, documents the appearance, diversification, and extinction of many life forms

Program Segment 8 and suggested activities in the Implementation Guide:

12.3.3 Knows that only a narrow range of wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation can be seen by the human eye; differences of wavelength within that range of visible light are perceived as differences in color

12.3.6 Knows that an object that is not being subjected to a force will continue to move at a constant speed and in a straight line

14.3.2 Knows that all scientific ideas are tentative and subject to change and improvement in principle, but for most core ideas in science, there is much experimental and observational confirmation

16.3.1 Knows that people of all backgrounds and with diverse interests, talents, qualities, and motivations engage in fields of science and engineering; some of these people work in teams and others work alone, but all communicate extensively with others

16.3.2 Knows that the work of science requires a variety of human abilities, qualities, and habits of mind (e.g., reasoning, insight, energy, skill, creativity, intellectual honesty, tolerance of ambiguity, skepticism, openness to new ideas)

16.3.3 Knows various settings in which scientists and engineers may work (e.g., colleges and universities, businesses and industries, research institutes, government agencies)

16.3.6 Knows ways in which science and society influence one another (e.g., scientific knowledge and the procedures used by scientists influence the way many individuals in society think about themselves, others, and the environment; societal challenges often inspire questions for scientific research; social priorities often influence research priorities through the availability of funding for research)