Physical Sciences
- Materials come in different forms (states), including solids, liquids, and gases. As a basis for understanding this concept:
- Students know solids, liquids, and gases have different properties.
- Students know the properties of substances can change when the substances are mixed, cooled, or heated.
Life Sciences
- Plants and animals meet their needs in different ways. As a basis for understanding this concept:
- Students know different plants and animals inhabit different kinds of environments and have external features that help them thrive in different kinds of places.
- Students know both plants and animals need water, animals need food, and plants need light.
- Students know animals eat plants or other animals for food and may also use plants or even other animals for shelter and nesting.
- Students know how to infer what animals eat from the shapes of their teeth (e.g., sharp teeth: eats meat; flat teeth: eats plants).
- Students know roots are associated with the intake of water and soil nutrients and green leaves are associated with making food from sunlight.
Earth Sciences
- Weather can be observed, measured, and described. As a basis for understanding this concept:
- Students know how to use simple tools (e.g., thermometer, wind vane) to measure weather conditions and record changes from day to day and across the seasons.
- Students know that the weather changes from day to day but that trends in temperature or of rain (or snow) tend to be predictable during a season.
- Students know the sun warms the land, air, and water.
Investigation and Experimentation
- 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:
- Draw pictures that portray some features of the thing being described.
- Record observations and data with pictures, numbers, or written statements.
- Record observations on a bar graph.
- Describe the relative position of objects by using two references (e.g., above and next to, below and left of).
- Make new observations when discrepancies exist between two descriptions of the same object or phenomenon.