This resource has 106 correlations with the National Standards.  
[HIDE CORRELATIONS]

• Physical Science
  • Properties of objects and materials
    • Objects have many observable properties, including the ability to react with other substances. (K-4)
    • The observable properties of objects can be measured using tools, such as rulers, balances, and thermometers. (K-4)
    • Materials can exist in different states--solid, liquid, and gas. (K-4)
    • Some common materials, such as water, can be changed from one state to another by heating or cooling. (K-4)
  • Structure and properties of matter
    • Atoms interact with one another by transferring or sharing electrons that are furthest from the nucleus. (9-12)
    • Outer shell electrons govern the chemical properties of the element. (9-12)
    • Solids, liquids, and gases differ in the distances and angles between molecules or atoms and therefore the energy that binds them together. (9-12)
    • In solids the structure is nearly rigid; in liquids molecules or atoms move around each other but do not move apart; and in gases molecules or atoms move almost independently of each other and are mostly far apart. (9-12)
  • Structure of atoms
    • Matter is made of minute particles called atoms, and atoms are composed of even smaller components. (9-12)
    • The components of atoms have measurable properties, such as mass and electrical charge. (9-12)
    • Each atom has a positively charged nucleus surrounded by negatively charged electrons. (9-12)
    • The atom's nucleus is composed of protons and neutrons, which are much more massive than electrons. (9-12)
  • Position and motion of objects
    • The position and motion of objects can be changed by pushing or pulling. (K-4)
  • Light, heat, electricity, and magnetism
    • Light travels in a straight line until it strikes an object. (K-4)
    • Light can be reflected by a mirror, refracted by a lens, or absorbed by the object. (K-4)
    • Electricity in circuits can produce light, heat, sound, and magnetic effects. (K-4)
    • Electrical circuits require a complete loop through which an electrical current can pass. (K-4)
  • 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)
    • Heat moves in predictable ways, flowing from warmer objects to cooler ones, until both reach the same temperature. (5-8)
    • Light interacts with matter by transmission (including refraction), absorption, or scattering (including reflection). To see an object, light from that object—emitted by or scattered from it—must enter the eye. (5-8) (5-8)
    • To see an object, light from that object--emitted by or scattered from it--must enter the eye.
    • Electrical circuits provide a means of transferring electrical energy when heat, light, sound, and chemical changes are produced. (5-8)
  • Motion and Forces
    • Objects change their motion only when a net force is applied. Laws of motion are used to calculate precisely the effects of forces on the motion of objects. (9-12)
    • The magnitude of the change in motion can be calculated using the relationship F = ma, which is independent of the nature of the force. (9-12)
    • Whenever one object exerts force on another, a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction is exerted on the first object. (9-12)
    • Gravitation is a universal force that each mass exerts on any other mass. (9-12)
    • Unbalanced forces will cause changes in the speed or direction of an object's motion. (Acceleration) (5-8)
    • The motion of an object can be described by its position, direction of motion, and speed. (5-8)
    • An object that is not being subjected to a force will continue to move at a constant speed and in a straight line. (inertia) (5-8)
    • If more than one force acts on an object along a straight line, then the forces will reinforce or cancel one another, depending on their direction and magnitude. (5-8)
  • Conservation of energy and increase in disorder
    • Heat consists of random motion and the vibrations of atoms, molecules, and ions. (9-12)
    • The higher the temperature, the greater the atomic or molecular motion. (9-12)

• Life Science
  • The characteristics of organisms
    • Organisms have basic needs. For example, animals need air, water, and food; plants require air, water, nutrients, and light. (K-4)
  • Life cycles of organisms
    • Plants and animals have life cycles that include being born, developing into adults, reproducing, and eventually dying. The details of this life cycle are different for different organisms. (K-4)
  • Organisms and environments
    • All organisms cause changes in the environment where they live. Some of these changes are detrimental to the organism or other organisms, whereas others are beneficial.
  • Structure and function in living systems
    • 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)
    • 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)
  • Reproduction and heredity
    • Reproduction is a characteristic of all living systems; because no individual organism lives forever, reproduction is essential to the continuation of every species. (5-8)
    • Some organisms reproduce sexually. (5-8)
    • In many species, including humans, females produce eggs and males produce sperm. (5-8)
    • Plants also reproduce sexually--the egg and sperm are produced in the flowers of flowering plants. (5-8)
    • An egg and sperm unite to begin development of a new individual. That new individual receives genetic information from its mother (via the egg) and its father (via the sperm). (5-8)
  • Populations and ecosystems
    • Decomposers, primarily bacteria and fungi, are consumers that use waste materials and dead organisms for food. (5-8)
  • The cell
    • The process of photosynthesis provides a vital connection between the sun and the energy needs of living systems. (9-12)
    • Cells have particular structures that underlie their functions. (9-12)
    • Inside the cell is a concentrated mixture of thousands of different molecules which form a variety of specialized structures that carry out such cell functions as energy production, transport of molecules, waste disposal, synthesis of new molecules, and the storage of genetic material. (9-12)
    • Most cell functions involve chemical reactions. (9-12)
    • Food molecules taken into cells react to provide the chemical constituents needed to synthesize other molecules. (9-12)
    • Cell functions are regulated. Regulation occurs both through changes in the activity of the functions performed by proteins and through the selective expression of individual genes. (9-12)
    • Cell function regulation allows cells to respond to their environment and to control and coordinate cell growth and division. (9-12)
  • Interdependence of organisms
    • Energy flows through ecosystems in one direction, from photosynthetic organisms to herbivores to carnivores and decomposers. (9-12)
  • Matter, energy, and organization in living systems
    • Living systems require a continuous input of energy to maintain their chemical and physical organizations. With death, and the cessation of energy input, living systems rapidly disintegrate. (9-12)
    • The chemical bonds of food molecules contain energy. (9-12)
    • Energy is released when the bonds of food molecules are broken and new compounds with lower energy bonds are formed. (9-12)
    • As matter and energy flows through different levels of organization of living systems--cells, organs, organisms, communities--and between living systems and the physical environment, chemical elements are recombined in different ways. (9-12)

• Earth Science
  • Properties of earth materials
    • Earth materials are solid rocks and soils, water, and the gases of the atmosphere.
  • Objects in the sky
    • The sun, moon, stars, clouds, birds, and airplanes all have properties, locations, and movements that can be observed and described.
    • The sun provides the light and heat necessary to maintain the temperature of the earth.
  • Changes in earth and sky
    • Weather changes from day to day and over the seasons.
    • Weather can be described by measurable quantities, such as temperature, wind direction and speed, and precipitation.
  • Structure of the earth system
    • Water, which covers the majority of the earth's surface, circulates through the crust, oceans, and atmosphere in what is known as the "water cycle." (5-8)
    • Water evaporates from the earth's surface, rises and cools as it moves to higher elevations, condenses as rain or snow, and falls to the surface where it collects in lakes, oceans, soil, and in rocks underground. (5-8)
    • Clouds, formed by the condensation of water vapor, affect weather and climate. (5-8)
  • Earth in the solar system
    • Most objects in the solar system are in regular and predictable motion. (5-8)
    • The sun is the major source of energy for phenomena on the earth's surface, such as growth of plants, winds, ocean currents, and the water cycle. (5-8)
    • Seasons result from variations in the amount of the sun's energy hitting the surface, due to the tilt of the earth's rotation on its axis and the length of the day. (5-8)
  • Geochemical cycles
    • The earth is a system containing essentially a fixed amount of each stable chemical atom or element. Each element can exist in several different chemical reservoirs. (9-12)
    • Each element on earth moves among reservoirs in the solid earth, oceans, atmosphere, and organisms as part of geochemical cycles. (9-12)

• Science as Inquiry
  • Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
    • Employ simple equipment and tools to gather data and extend the senses. (K-4)
    • 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.
  • 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).
    • Scientists develop explanations using observations (evidence) and what they already know about the world (scientific knowledge). Good explanations are based on evidence from investigations. (K-4)
    • 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)
    • 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.
    • Scientists usually inquire about how physical, living, or designed systems function. (9-12)
    • Conceptual principles and knowledge guide scientific inquiries. (9-12)
    • Historical and current scientific knowledge influence the design and interpretation of investigations and the evaluation of proposed explanations made by other scientists. (9-12)

• Science in Personal and Social Perspectives
  • Natural resources
    • Natural systems have the capacity to reuse waste, but that capacity is limited. (9-12)

• History and Nature of Science
  • Science as a human endeavor
    • 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)
    • 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)
  • Nature of scientific knowledge
    • Science distinguishes itself from other ways of knowing and from other bodies of knowledge through the use of empirical standards, logical arguments, and skepticism, as scientists strive for the best possible explanations about the natural world. (9-12)
    • Scientific explanations must meet certain criteria. (9-12)
    • First and foremost, scientific explanations must be consistent with experimental and observational evidence about nature, and must make accurate predictions, when appropriate, about systems being studied. (9-12)
    • Scientific explanations should be logical, respect the rules of evidence, be open to criticism, report methods and procedures, and make knowledge public. (9-12)
    • Explanations on how the natural world changes based on myths, personal beliefs, religious values, mystical inspiration, superstition, or authority may be personally useful and socially relevant, but they are not scientific. (9-12)
    • Because all scientific ideas depend on experimental and observational confirmation, all scientific knowledge is, in principle, subject to change as new evidence becomes available. (9-12)

• Process Standards for Professional Development
  • Research-Based
    • Prepares educators to apply research to decision making. (NSDC)
    • Connect and integrate all pertinent aspects of science and science education. (NSES)
    • Address teachers' needs as learners and build on their current knowledge of science content, teaching, and learning. (NSES)

• Teaching Standards
  • Teachers of science plan an inquiry-based science program for their students.
    • Select science content and adapt and design curricula to meet the interests, knowledge, understanding, abilities, and experiences of students.
    • Select teaching and assessment strategies that support the development of student understanding and nurture a community of science learners.
  • Teachers of science engage in ongoing assessment of their teaching and of student learning.
    • Analyze assessment data to guide teaching.
    • Use multiple methods and systematically gather data about student understanding and ability.