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Students will design and conduct scientific investigations
- Identify questions that can be answered through scientific
investigations
- Use appropriate tools, technology, and techniques to gather,
analyze, and interpret data
- Organize and maintain a journal showing all phases of investigations
- Develop descriptions, explanations, predictions, and models
using evidence and logic
- Use mathematics to explain, interpret, and improve investigations
and communications
- Construct logical relationships between evidence and explanations
- Identify and analyze alternative explanations, models, and
predictions
- Demonstrate understanding about scientific inquiry
- Use fair test procedures
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Students will communicate scientific procedures and
explanations
- Demonstrate effective methods to organize and display scientific
concepts
- Present investigative procedures and results to others verbally,
graphically, and in writing
- Communicate science concepts accurately and clearly, using
scientific vocabulary
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Students will explain the dynamic processes that determine
global climate
- Describe external transfer of energy from the sun to the
Earth
- Explain methods for energy transfer within the Earth, including
radioactive decay and gravitational potential
- Model the forces of plate tectonics as driven by the Earth's
internal heat
- Determine relationships between convection currents in the
atmosphere and oceans, with temperature variations of the Earth's
surface and atmosphere
- Investigate the dynamic processes that influence global climate
(examples: cloud cover and the Earth's rotation, features such
as mountain ranges and oceans)
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Students will relate the Earth's geochemical cycles
to geological processes
- Infer that the Earth's system contains a fixed amount of
stable chemical elements
- Compare how elements cycle among the chemical reservoirs
of the Earth (examples: carbon, nitrogen, oxygen)
- Analyze the chemical, biotic, and physical changes that matter
undergoes as it is driven by the Earth's internal and external
sources of energy
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Students will critique theories related to the origin
and evolution of the Earth
- Investigate scientific theories of the origin of the solar
system
- Compare early Earth conditions with present day conditions
- Use Earth evidences to create a model for the passage of
geological time (examples: fossil evidence, rock sequence, and
decay of radioactive isotopes)
- Explain the dynamic processes that cause changes in geological
features over long periods of time (example: Karst topography)
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Students will understand current theories concerning
the origin and evolution of the universe
- Evaluate models that support current scientific theories
for the creation of the universe
- Describe the formation of stars, galaxies, and clusters to
the visible mass in the universe
- Explain the role of hydrogen fusion in the formation of the
physical universe
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Students will explain how space explorations have increased
current understandings about the universe
- Evaluate the relative technical, experimental, and theoretical
outcomes derived from space explorations
- Create a timeline that illustrates the accumulation of knowledge
about the universe provided by space explorations
- Asses the current program for space exploration and predict
the future
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Students will practice personal well-being and community
health
- Demonstrate consistent, safe laboratory practices
- Summarize the effects of ozone, radon gas, gamma, and solar
radiation upon an individual's personal health
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Students will evaluate factors that influence
the capacity of the environment to support populations
- Investigate how woldwide population growth affects the Earth's
resources
- Distinguish how technology creates positive and negative
changes on the carrying capacity of an environment
- Determine how Earth and space monitoring technology produces
significant changes on the carrying capacity of an environment
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Students will investigate the impact of natural-induced
hazards
- Conclude that normal adjustments of the Earth create hazardous
conditions to humans
- Compare hazards that are rapid and catastrophic (examples:
earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions and severe weather),
with slower changes that result in problems for individuals and
communities (examples: stream channel changes, sedimentation
in lakes and harbors, coastal erosion)
- Describe safe behaviors for individuals during natural hazards
- Debate how changes in the natural environment bring benefits
as well as risks to communities and individuals (examples: flooding,
volcanic action, artesian wells)
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Students will evaluate factors affecting environmental
quality
- Analyze natural and man-made hazards that affect environmental
quality
- Describe how human consumption depletes nonrenewable resources
and places severe stress upon renewable resources
- Evaluate human-created changes to the ecosystem cycles for
detrimental effects to humans and other organisms (examples:
physical, biological, and chemical)
- Investigate factors that influence environmental quality
(examples: population growth, resource use, overconsumption,
the capacity of technology to solve problems, human views about
the Earth)
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E. HISTORY AND NATURE OF SCIENCE |
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Students will know that the human dimensions of science
provides a context for scientific knowledge
- Compare contemporary investigations in earth science that
are conducted by individuals and those conducted by teams of
scientists
- Compare the dynamics of classroom investigations conducted
individually and those by small groups
- Examine the ethical considerations involved in scientific
research and the development of new technologies
- Conduct peer reviews and accurate reporting of investigations
- Investigate careers related to science, technology, and engineering
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Students will understand that science offers tentative
explanations of the natural world through the use of empirical
observations
- Compare knowledge derived from scientific investigations
with other ways of knowing about the natural world (examples:
myths and superstitions)
- Validate that scientific knowledge is subject to change as
new evidence becomes available
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Students will explain how science concepts build on
previous knowledge
- Investigate the contributions of diverse cultures to science
- Create a timeline that shows the development of a science
concept (examples: planetary motion, size of planets, and earth-centered
universe)
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