The Practice of Science

Define a problem from the sixth grade curriculum, use appropriate reference materials to support scientific understanding, plan and carry out scientific investigation of various types, such as systematic observations or experiments, identify variables, collect and organize data, interpret data in charts, tables, and graphics, analyze information, make predictions, and defend conclusions.

The Practice of Science

Explain why scientific investigations should be replicable.

The Practice of Science

Explain the difference between an experiment and other types of scientific investigation, and explain the relative benefits and limitations of each.

The Characteristics of Science Knowledge

Discuss, compare, and negotiate methods used, results obtained, and explanations among groups of students conducting the same investigation.

The Role of Theories, Laws, Hypotheses, and Models

Recognize that science involves creativity, not just in designing experiments, but also in creating explanations that fit evidence.

Characteristics of Science Knowledge

Distinguish science from other activities involving thought.

Characteristics of Science Knowledge

Explain that scientific knowledge is durable because it is open to change as new evidence or interpretations are encountered.

Characteristics of Science Knowledge

Recognize that scientists who make contributions to scientific knowledge come from all kinds of backgrounds and possess varied talents, interests, and goals.

Theories, Laws, Hypotheses, and Models

Recognize and explain that a scientific theory is a well-supported and widely accepted explanation of nature and is not simply a claim posed by an individual.   Thus, the use of the term theory in science is very different than how it is used in everyday life.

Theories, Laws, Hypotheses, and Models

Recognize and explain that a scientific law is a description of a specific relationship under given conditions in the natural world. Thus, scientific laws are different from societal laws.

Theories, Laws, Hypotheses, and Models

Give several examples of scientific laws.

Theories, Laws, Hypotheses, and Models

Identify the role of models in the context of the sixth grade science benchmarks.

Earth Structures

Describe and give examples of ways in which Earth's surface is built up and torn down by physical and chemical weathering, erosion, and deposition.

Earth Structures

Describe the layers of the solid Earth, including the lithosphere, the hot convecting mantle, and the dense metallic liquid and solid cores.

Earth Structures

Identify the patterns within the rock cycle and relate them to surface events (weathering and erosion) and sub-surface events (plate tectonics and mountain building).

Earth Structures

Identify current methods for measuring the age of Earth and its parts, including the law of superposition and radioactive dating.

Earth Structures

Explain and give examples of how physical evidence supports scientific theories that Earth has evolved over geologic time due to natural processes.

Earth Structures

Explore the scientific theory of plate tectonics by describing how the movement of Earth's crustal plates causes both slow and rapid changes in Earth's surface, including volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and mountain building.

Earth Systems and Patterns

Differentiate and show interactions among the geosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere.

Earth Systems and Patterns

Explain how energy provided by the sun influences global patterns of atmospheric movement and the temperature differences between air, water, and land.

Earth in Space and Time

Distinguish the hierarchical relationships between planets and other astronomical bodies relative to solar system, galaxy, and universe, including distance, size, and composition.

Earth in Space and Time

Describe and classify specific physical properties of stars: apparent magnitude (brightness), temperature (color), size, and luminosity (absolute brightness).

Earth in Space and Time

Compare and contrast the properties of objects in the Solar System including the Sun, planets, and moons to those of Earth, such as gravitational force, distance from the Sun, speed, movement, temperature, and atmospheric conditions.

Earth in Space and Time

Explain the impact of objects in space on each other including:

1. The Sun on the Earth including seasons and gravitational attraction

2. The Moon on the Earth, including phases, tides, and eclipses, and the relative position of each body.

Organization of Living Organisms

Describe and identify patterns in the hierarchical organization of organisms from atoms to molecules and cells to tissues to organs to organ systems to organisms.

Organization of Living Organisms

Investigate and explain the components of the scientific theory of cells (cell theory): all organisms are composed of cells (single-celled or multi-cellular), all cells come from pre-existing cells, and cells are the basic unit of life.

Organization of Living Organisms

Compare and contrast the structure and function of major organelles of plant and animal cells, including cell wall, cell membrane, nucleus, cytoplasm, chloroplasts, mitochondria, and vacuoles.

Organization of Living Organisms

Identify and investigate the general functions of the major systems of the human body (digestive, respiratory, circulatory, reproductive, excretory, immune, nervous, and musculoskeletal) and describe ways these systems interact with each other to maintain homeostasis.

Diversity and Evolution of Living Organisms

Analyze and describe how and why organisms are classified according to shared characteristics with emphasis on the Linnaean system combined with the concept of Domains.

Diversity and Evolution of Living Organisms

Recognize that fossil evidence is consistent with the scientific theory of evolution that living things evolved from earlier species.

Diversity and Evolution of Living Organisms

Explore the scientific theory of evolution by recognizing and explaining ways in which genetic variation and environmental factors contribute to evolution by natural selection and diversity of organisms.

Diversity and Evolution of Living Organisms

Explore the scientific theory of evolution by relating how the inability of a species to adapt within a changing environment may contribute to the extinction of that species.

Heredity and Reproduction

Understand and explain that every organism requires a set of instructions that specifies its traits, that this hereditary information (DNA) contains genes located in the chromosomes of each cell, and that heredity is the passage of these instructions from one generation to another.

Heredity and Reproduction

Determine the probabilities for genotype and phenotype combinations using Punnett Squares and pedigrees.

Interdependence

Compare and contrast the relationships among organisms such as mutualism, predation, parasitism, competition, and commensalism.

Matter and Energy Transformations

Cite evidence that living systems follow the Laws of Conservation of Mass and Energy.