Grade 4—Earth Science

A. Solid Earth (lithosphere)

1. Composition of the Earth:

• Students can classify substances such as soil, sand, or rock.

• Students can identify common geographic features of landscapes.

2. Forces that alter the Earth’s surface:

• Students can describe/explain basic facts about major features of the Earth’s surface and natural changes in those features (for example, volcanoes, glaciers):

—Students can predict the effects of weathering (for example, rain and wind on sand piles, mud piles, rock).

—Students can describe the relative difference in time it takes to erode a sand pile, a mud pile, and a rock pile (Conceptual Understanding, Patterns of Change).

—Given a picture, topographical map or globe, or word description of a major Earth feature (for example, canyon, mountain range, Great Lake, cavern, island), students can identify a geologic force that contributed to producing that feature (Conceptual Understanding, Models).

3. Rocks: Their formation, characteristics, and uses:

• Students can identify common rocks and minerals and can explain how we can investigate what they are made of and how they form:

  —Students can classify rock samples according to color, texture, or other identifying properties (Scientific Investigation, Nature of Science).

  —Students can explain that molten rock comes out of volcanoes, hardens, and becomes part of the landscape (Conceptual Understanding, Patterns of Change).

4. Soil: its changes and uses:

• Students know some facts about the composition of soil.

• Students can separate soil samples into component parts (Scientific Investigation, Nature of Science, Systems).

• Students recognize that plants grow in soil and that soil provides both nutrients and support for the plant.

• Students can classify and relate major solid types of soil (for example, clay, sand, loam, subsoil) to their ability to support plant growth; that is, students can identify/predict the major plant types likely to grow in those soils (Conceptual Understanding, Nature of Science).

5. Resources from the Earth used by humankind:

• Students can identify Earth resources used in everyday life.

• Students can identify common uses of rock in the human environment (for example, buildings, roads, walls) (Practical Reasoning, Nature of Technology).

• Students can explain/identify that gasoline is processed from oil, which is pumped from the Earth (Practical Reasoning, Nature of Technology).

A. Cells and their functions

1. Cells:

• Students can describe their observations of cells under the microscope:

  —Students can demonstrate the use of a microscope to examine a tissue, plant, or animal and to differentiate between plant and animal cells (for example, students can look at an animal cell and a plant cell and notice that an animal cell is flexible and a plant cell is not) (Scientific Investigation, Systems);

  —Students can look at pond water through a microscope and describe outstanding features/activities of the protista they see (for example, locomotion, nutrition, excretion) (Scientific Investigation).

  —Students can observe diatoms and try to distinguish as many features as possible (Scientific Investigation).

• Students can explain, in a general way, the advantages of cellular interdependence versus independence (for example, multicellular animals versus single-celled animals).

• Students can describe, in general terms, the difference between asexual and sexual reproduction in cells and the advantages and disadvantages of each (the stages of mitosis are not to be tested).

B. Organisms

1. Reproduction, growth, and development:

• Students can describe growth, development, and reproduction of the human organism:

  —Students can identify the age ranges at which human beings go through common stages of development (for example, can recognize their parents; can learn to walk, talk, and socialize; can conceive or give birth) (Conceptual Understanding, Patterns of Change).

  —Students can identify the changes human beings undergo at puberty and can explain their functions (Conceptual Understanding, Patterns of Change).

  —Students can, in simple terms, describe changes in human embryo development and the effects of environmental influences such as smoking, drugs, disease, and the mother’s diet on the development of the embryo (Conceptual Understanding, Patterns of Change).

2. Life cycles:

• Students can identify some major influences on the human life cycle (for example, diet, disease):

  —Students can discuss the influence of diet and food availability on human life cycles worldwide (Practical Reasoning, Patterns of Change).

  —Students can explain that microorganisms can cause disease and can identify some common diseases caused by microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, protista (differences between viruses and bacteria are not to be tested) (Conceptual Understanding).

  —Students can describe the immune system of animals as helping the animal fight disease and as controlled, in part, by the white blood cells in the body (Conceptual Understanding).

3. Functions and interactions of systems within organisms:

• Students are aware that, although different systems of the body have different functions, the functioning of each system affects other systems (for example, students can describe/identify major organ systems of the human body, state their major functions, and describe some of their interactions):

  —Students can describe the primary tissues of the body (for example, blood, lymph, muscle) and relate the special characteristics of each to its function (Conceptual Understanding, Systems).

  —Students can distinguish cells from other structures under the microscope (for example, between an onion cell and a salt crystal) (Scientific Investigation, Systems).

  —Students can describe how two or more organs of the body work together to perform a function (for example, the heart and lungs working together in respiration) (Conceptual Understanding, Systems).

• Students demonstrate an understanding of the functions and interactions of organ systems to maintain a stable internal environment that can resist disturbances from within or without (homeostasis).

Grade 12—Physical Science

A. Matter and its transformations

1. Diversity of matter (materials): Classification and types, particulate nature of matter, conservation of matter:

• Students can distinguish/classify objects, both regular and irregular; pure substances, both elements and compounds; and mixtures, both homogeneous (solutions, liquids, gases) and nonhomogeneous.

• Students can describe, measure, and compare substances in terms of mass, volume, and density/specific gravity:

  —Given a substance of unknown volume or weight and appropriate laboratory equipment, students can determine its specific gravity (Scientific Investigation).

  —Given an irregular solid and the appropriate laboratory equipment, students can determine the density of an object (Scientific Investigation).

  —Students can offer a simplified distinction between weight and density (Conceptual Understanding).

• Students can identify evidence that matter is composed of tiny particles (for example, atoms, molecules) and that the particles are in motion (kinetic molecular theory).

• Students can define, describe, and contrast physical, chemical, and nuclear changes in molecular terms. Given various examples of changes in materials, students can distinguish among chemical, physical, and nuclear changes (Conceptual Understanding, Patterns of Change).

• Students can discuss the conservation of matter in physical, chemical, and nuclear changes (can also be tested under temperature and states of matter, or energy and its transformations).

2. Temperature and states of matter (physical changes):

• Students can discuss/identify the relationship of physical states of matter to molecular energy:

  —Students can associate energy states with molecular motion (Conceptual Understanding).

  —Students can discuss/identify the energy transfers involved in the change of phase from solid to liquid to gas and the reverse (also tested under energy and its transformations) (Conceptual Understanding, Patterns of Change).

• Students can discuss/identify the relationship of physical changes in substances (for example, melting, boiling, thermal expansion and contraction, compression and expansion under pressure, increase or decrease in density) to changes in the structural organization of the atoms or molecules of which they are composed:

  —Students can explain how antifreeze solutions work to prevent freezing of water in car radiators (Practical Reasoning, Systems).

  —Students can explain why NaCl (sodium chloride/salt) is added to ice when making ice cream (Practical Reasoning).

3. Properties and uses of materials: Modifying properties, synthesis of materials with new properties:

• Students can relate the physical properties (for example, compressibility, structural rigidity) of pure substances in solid, liquid, and gaseous states to the structural organization of particles in the substance and their freedom of motion. Students can explain/identify that the molecules in a crystal are arranged in a regular pattern that gives the crystal rigidity and causes it to take a simple geometric shape (Conceptual Understanding, Models).

• Students can examine/utilize useful properties of materials:

  —Given an unknown liquid and a universal indicator with a chart, students can determine the pH of the liquid (Scientific Investigation).

  —Given an unknown marking pen, students can use paper chromatography to identify the brand of marking pen from among several other brands (Scientific Investigation, Nature of Science).

• Students can describe how common artificial materials are made, recognizing that substances can be designed to have certain properties and that the addition of relatively small amounts of some substances can significantly alter the properties.

• Students can describe how common artificial materials are disposed of or recycled and can discuss the technological and environmental issues involved in these processes.

4. Resource management:

• Students can discuss scientific, technological, and social issues involved in resource management.

• Students can discuss the issue of worker safety in manufacturing processes that involve poisonous chemicals (Practical Reasoning, Nature of Technology).

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Science Framework for the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress