This resource has 56 correlations with the National Standards.  
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• Science as Inquiry
  • Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
    • Ask a question about objects, organisms, and events in the environment. (K-4)
    • Plan and conduct a simple investigation. (K-4)
    • Use data to construct a reasonable explanation.
    • Communicate investigations and explanations.
    • Identify questions that can be answered through scientific investigations.
    • Design and conduct a scientific investigation.
    • 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.
    • Identify questions and concepts that guide scientific investigations. (9-12)
    • Formulate and revise scientific explanations and models using logic and evidence. (9-12)
    • Recognize and analyze alternative explanations and models. (9-12)
    • Communicate and defend a scientific argument. (9-12)
  • Understandings about scientific inquiry
    • Scientific investigations involve asking and answering a question and comparing the answer with what scientists already know about the world. (K-4)
    • 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)
    • Scientists make the results of their investigations public; they describe the investigations in ways that enable others to repeat the investigations. (K-4)
    • Scientists review and ask questions about the results of other scientists' work. (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.
    • 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)
    • 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)
    • Scientists conduct investigations for a wide variety of reasons. For example, they may wish to discover new aspects of the natural world, explain recently observed phenomena, or test the conclusions of prior investigations or the predictions of current theories. (9-12)
    • In presenting data, graphs are used to convey comparisons or trends. (9-12)
    • Scientific explanations must adhere to criteria such as: a proposed explanation must be logically consistent; it must abide by the rules of evidence; it must be open to questions and possible modification; and it must be based on historical and current scientific knowledge. (9-12)
    • Results of scientific inquiry--new knowledge and methods--emerge from different types of investigations and public communication among scientists. (9-12)
    • In communicating and defending the results of scientific inquiry, arguments must be logical and demonstrate connections between natural phenomena, investigations, and the historical body of scientific knowledge. (9-12)

• History and Nature of Science
  • 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)
    • 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)
  • 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)
    • 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
    • Use inquiry, reflection, interpretation of research, modeling, and guided practice to build understanding and skill in science teaching. (NSES)
    • Provide opportunities to learn and use the skills of research to generate new knowledge about science and the teaching and learning of science. (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 guide and facilitate learning. In doing this, teachers
    • Encourage and model the skills of scientific inquiry, as well as the curiosity, openness to new ideas and data, and skepticism that characterize science.
    • Focus and support inquiries while interacting with students.
    • Orchestrate discourse among students about scientific ideas.
    • Challenge students to accept and share responsibility for their own learning.
  • Teachers provide students with the time, space, and resources needed to learn science.
    • Create a setting for student work that is flexible and supportive of science inquiry.
  • Teachers of science develop communities of science learners that reflect the intellectual rigor of scientific inquiry.
    • Model and emphasize the skills, attitudes, and values of scientific inquiry.