This resource has 129 correlations with the National Standards.  
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• Physical Science
  • Transfer of Energy
    • Energy is a property of many substances and is associated with heat, light, electricity, mechanical motion, sound, nuclei, and the nature of a chemical. (5-8)
    • Energy is transferred in many ways. (5-8)
    • Electrical circuits provide a means of transferring electrical energy when heat, light, sound, and chemical changes are produced. (5-8)

• Life Science
  • Structure and function in living systems
    • Living systems at all levels of organization demonstrate the complementary nature of structure and function (5-8)
    • Important levels of organization for structure and function include cells, organs, tissues, organ systems, whole organisms, and ecosystems (5-8)
    • All organisms are composed of cells--the fundamental unit of life (5-8)
    • Most organisms are single cells; other organisms, including humans, are multicellular. (5-8)
    • Cells carry on the many functions needed to sustain life. They grow and divide, thereby producing more cells. (5-8)
    • This requires that cells take in nutrients, which they use to provide energy for the work that cells do and to make the materials that a cell or an organism needs. (5-8)
    • Specialized cells perform specialized functions in multicellular organisms. (5-8)
    • Groups of specialized cells cooperate to form a tissue, such as a muscle. (5-8)
    • Different tissues are in turn grouped together to form larger functional units, called organs. (5-8)
    • Each type of cell, tissue, and organ has a distinct structure and set of functions that serve the organism as a whole. (5-8)
    • The human organism has systems for digestion, respiration, reproduction, circulation, excretion, movement, control, and coordination, and for protection from disease. These systems interact with one another. (5-8)
    • Disease is a breakdown in structures or functions of an organism. Some diseases are the result of intrinsic failures of the system. Others are the result of damage by infection by other organisms. (5-8)
  • Regulation and behavior
    • All organisms must be able to obtain and use resources, grow, reproduce, and maintain stable internal conditions while living in a constantly changing external environment. (5-8)
    • Regulation of an organism's internal environment involves sensing the internal environment and changing physiological activities to keep conditions within the range required to survive (homeostasis). (5-8)
    • Behavior is one kind of response an organism can make to an internal or environmental stimulus. (5-8)
    • A behavioral response requires coordination and communication at many levels, including cells, organ systems, and whole organisms.
    • Behavioral response is a set of actions determined in part by heredity and in part from experience. (5-8)
    • An organism's behavior evolves through adaptation to its environment. (5-8)
    • How a species moves, obtains food, reproduces, and responds to danger are based in the species' evolutionary history (5-8)

• Science as Inquiry
  • Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
    • Use data to construct a reasonable explanation.
    • Communicate investigations and explanations.
    • Identify questions that can be answered through scientific investigations.
    • Use appropriate tools and techniques to gather, analyze, and interpret data.
    • Develop descriptions, explanations, predictions, and models using evidence.
    • Think critically and logically to make the relationships between evidence and explanations.
    • Recognize and analyze alternative explanations and predictions.
    • Communicate scientific procedures and explanations.
  • Understandings about scientific inquiry
    • Scientists use different kinds of investigations depending on the questions they are trying to answer.
    • Types of investigations include describing objects, events, and organisms; classifying them; and doing a fair test (experimenting).
    • Different kinds of questions suggest different kinds of scientific investigations. Some investigations involve observing and describing objects, organisms, or events; some involve collecting specimens; some involve experiments; some involve seeking more information; some involve discovery of new objects and phenomena; and some involve making models. (5-8)
    • Current scientific knowledge and understanding guide scientific investigations. (5-8)
    • Different scientific domains employ different methods, core theories, and standards to advance scientific knowledge (5-8)
    • Technology used to gather data enhances accuracy and allows scientists to analyze and quantify results of investigations. (5-8)
    • Scientific explanations emphasize evidence, have logically consistent arguments, and use scientific principles, models, and theories. (5-8)
    • The scientific community accepts and uses such explanations until displaced by better scientific ones. When such displacement occurs, science advances.
    • Science advances through legitimate skepticism. Asking questions and querying other scientists' explanations is part of scientific inquiry. (5-8)
    • Scientists evaluate the explanations proposed by other scientists by examining evidence, comparing evidence, identifying faulty reasoning, pointing out statements that go beyond the evidence, and suggesting alternative explanations for the same observations. (5-8)
    • Scientific investigations sometimes result in new ideas and phenomena for study, generate new methods or procedures for an investigation, or develop new technologies to improve the collection of data. All of these results can lead to new investigations. (5-8)

• Science and Technology
  • Abilities of technological design
    • Identify a simple problem.
    • Propose a solution.
    • Implementing proposed solutions
    • Evaluate a product or design.
    • Communicate a problem, design, and solution.
    • Identify appropriate problems for technological design.
    • Design a solution or product.
    • Implement a proposed design.
    • Evaluate completed technological designs or products
    • Communicate the process of technological design
  • Understanding about science and technology
    • People have always had questions about their world. Science is one way of answering questions and explaining the natural world.
    • People have always had problems and invented tools and techniques (ways of doing something) to solve problems.
    • Trying to determine the effects of solutions helps people avoid some new problems.
    • Scientists and engineers often work in teams with different individuals doing different things that contribute to the results. This understanding focuses primarily on teams working together and secondarily, on the combination of scientist and engineer teams.
    • Women and men of all ages, backgrounds, and groups engage in a variety of scientific and technological work.
    • Tools help scientists make better observations, measurements, and equipment for investigations. They help scientists see, measure, and do things that they could not otherwise see, measure, and do.
    • Scientific inquiry and technological design have similarities and differences. (5-8)
    • Scientists propose explanations for questions about the natural world, and engineers propose solutions relating to human problems, needs, and aspirations. (5-8)
    • Technological solutions are temporary; technologies exist within nature and so they cannot contravene physical or biological principles. (5-8)
    • Technological solutions have side effects; and technologies cost, carry risks, and provide benefits. (5-8)
    • Many different people in different cultures have made and continue to make contributions to science and technology. (5-8)
    • Science and technology are reciprocal. (5-8)
    • Science helps drive technology, as it addresses questions that demand more sophisticated instruments and provides principles for better instrumentation and technique. (5-8)
    • Technology is essential to science, because it provides instruments and techniques that enable observations of objects and phenomena that are otherwise unobservable due to factors such as quantity, distance, location, size, and speed. (5-8)
    • Technology provides tools for investigations, inquiry, and analysis.
    • Perfectly designed solutions do not exist. All technological solutions have trade-offs, such as safety, cost, efficiency, and appearance. (5-8)
    • Engineers often build in back-up systems to provide safety. (5-8)
    • Risk is part of living in a highly technological world. Reducing risk often results in new technology. (5-8)
    • Technological designs have constraints. Some constraints are unavoidable, for example, properties of materials, or effects of weather and friction. (5-8)
    • Technological designs have constraints. Some constraints limit choices in the design, for example, environmental protection, human safety, and aesthetics. (5-8)
    • Technological solutions have intended benefits and unintended consequences. Some consequences can be predicted, others cannot. (5-8)

• Science in Personal and Social Perspectives
  • Personal health
    • Safety and security are basic needs of humans.
    • Safety involves freedom from danger, risk, or injury.
    • Security involves feelings of confidence and lack of anxiety and fear.
    • Student understandings include following safety rules for home and school, preventing abuse and neglect, avoiding injury, knowing whom to ask for help, and when and how to say no.
    • Individuals have some responsibility for their own health. Students should engage in personal care--dental hygiene, cleanliness, and exercise--that will maintain and improve health.
    • Understandings include how communicable diseases, such as colds, are transmitted and some of the body's defense mechanisms that prevent or overcome illness.
    • Nutrition is essential to health.
    • Students should understand how the body uses food and how various foods contribute to health.
    • Different substances can damage the body and how it functions. Such substances include tobacco, alcohol, over-the-counter medicines, and illicit drugs.
    • Regular exercise is important to the maintenance and improvement of health. (5-8)
    • The benefits of physical fitness include maintaining healthy weight, having energy and strength for routine activities, good muscle tone, bone strength, strong heart/lung systems, and improved mental health. (5-8)
    • The potential for accidents and the existence of hazards imposes the need for injury prevention. (5-8)
    • Safe living involves the development and use of safety precautions and the recognition of risk in personal decisions. (Electrical Safety) (5-8)
    • Injury prevention has personal and social dimensions.
    • The use of tobacco increases the risk of illness. (5-8)
    • Students should understand the influence of short-term social and psychological factors that lead to tobacco use, and the possible long-term detrimental effects of smoking and chewing tobacco. (5-8)
    • Alcohol and other drugs are often abused substances. Such drugs change how the body functions and can lead to addiction. (5-8)
    • Food provides energy and nutrients for growth and development (5-8)
    • Nutrition requirements vary with body weight, age, sex, activity, and body functioning. (5-8)
  • Risks and benefits
    • Risk analysis considers the type of hazard and estimates the number of people that might be exposed and the number likely to suffer consequences. (5-8)
    • The results of risk analysis are used to determine the options for reducing or eliminating risks. (5-8)
    • Students should understand the risks associated with chemical hazards (pollutants in air, water, soil, and food). (5-8)
    • Students should understand the risks associated with personal hazards (smoking, dieting, and drinking). (5-8)
    • Individuals can use a systematic approach to thinking critically about risks and benefits. Examples include applying probability estimates to risks and comparing them to estimated personal and social benefits. (5-8)
    • Important personal and social decisions are made based on perceptions of benefits and risks. (5-8)
  • Science and technology in society
    • Science influences society through its knowledge and world view. (5-8)
    • Scientific knowledge and the procedures used by scientists influence the way many individuals in society think about themselves, others, and the environment. (5-8)
    • The effect of science on society is neither entirely beneficial nor entirely detrimental. (5-8)
    • Societal challenges often inspire questions for scientific research, and social priorities often influence research priorities through the availability of funding for research. (5-8)
    • Technology influences society through its products and processes. (5-8)
    • Technology influences the quality of life and the people act and interact. (5-8)
    • Technological changes are often accompanied by social, political, and economic changes that can be beneficial or detrimental to individuals and to society. (5-8)
    • Social needs, attitudes, and values influence the direction of technological development ways. (5-8)
    • Science and technology have contributed enormously to economic growth and productivity among societies and groups within societies. (5-8)
    • Scientists, engineers, (and doctors) have ethical codes requiring that human subjects involved with research are fully informed about risks and benefits associated with the research before the individuals choose to participate. (medical ethics) (5-8)
    • The ethical codes of scientists and engineers extends to potential risks to communities and property. In short, prior knowledge and consent are required for research involving human subjects or potential damage to property. (5-8)
    • Science cannot answer all questions and technology cannot solve all human problems or meet all human needs. (5-8)
    • Students should understand the difference between scientific and other questions.
    • Students should appreciate what science and technology can reasonably contribute to society and what they cannot do. For example, new technologies often will decrease some risks and increase others.

• History and Nature of Science
  • Science as a human endeavor
    • Science and technology have been practiced by people for a long time.
    • Men and women have made a variety of contributions throughout the history of science and technology.
    • Although men and women using scientific inquiry have learned much about the objects, events, and phenomena in nature, much more remains to be understood. Science will never be finished.
    • Many people choose science as a career and devote their entire lives to studying it.
    • Many people derive great pleasure from doing science.
    • Women and men of various social and ethnic backgrounds--and with diverse interests, talents, qualities, and motivations--engage in the activities of science, engineering, and related fields such as the health professions. (5-8)
    • Some scientists work in teams, and some work alone, but all communicate extensively with others. (5-8)
    • Science requires different abilities, depending on such factors as the field of study and type of inquiry. (5-8)
    • Science is very much a human endeavor, and the work of science relies on basic human qualities, such as reasoning, insight, energy, skill, and creativity--as well as on scientific habits of mind, such as intellectual honesty, tolerance of ambiguity, skepticism, and openness to new ideas. (5-8)
  • Nature of science
    • Scientists formulate and test their explanations of nature using observation, experiments, and theoretical and mathematical models. Those ideas are not likely to change greatly in the future. (5-8)
    • Although all scientific ideas are tentative and subject to change and improvement in principle, for most major ideas in science, there is much experimental and observational confirmation. (5-8)
    • Scientists do and have changed their ideas about nature when they encounter new experimental evidence that does not match their existing explanations.
    • In areas where active research is being pursued and in which there is not a great deal of experimental or observational evidence and understanding, it is normal for scientists to differ with one another about the interpretation of the evidence or theory being considered. (5-8)
    • Different scientists might publish conflicting experimental results or might draw different conclusions from the same data. (5-8)
    • Ideally, scientists acknowledge such conflict and work towards finding evidence that will resolve their disagreement. (5-8)
    • It is part of scientific inquiry to evaluate the results of scientific investigations, experiments, observations, theoretical models, and the explanations proposed by other scientists. As scientific knowledge evolves, major disagreements are eventually resolved through such interactions between scientists. (5-8)
    • Evaluation includes reviewing the experimental procedures, examining the evidence, identifying faulty reasoning, pointing out statements that go beyond the evidence, and suggesting alternative explanations for the same observations. (5-8)
    • Although scientists may disagree about explanations of phenomena, about interpretations of data, or about the value of rival theories, they do agree that questioning, response to criticism, and open communication are integral to the process of science. (5-8)