Unifying Concepts and Processes

Use concepts and processes of change, constancy, and measurement.

Grade 5 Benchmark
- Describe and explain different rates of change.

Grade 8 Benchmark
- Identify and explain patterns of change as cycles and trends.

Students will: understand that there are many kinds of cycles operating on time scales from less than a billionth of a second, to millions of years…

CIM/Grade 10 Benchmark
- Describe the relationship between constancy and change within systems.

Use concepts and processes of evidence, models, and explanation.

Grade 5 Benchmark
- Use models to explain how objects, events, and/or processes work in the real world.

Students will: use physical models to explain such phenomena as the solar system or surface features of Earth, continents, river systems, and their neighborhood.

Grade 8 Benchmark
- Use a model to make predictions about familiar and unfamiliar phenomena in the natural world.

CIM/Grade 10 Benchmark
- Use conceptual and/or mathematical models to explain natural systems.

Students will: compare and contrast scale models, conceptual models, and mathematical models.

Students will: use conceptual models to predict natural events.

Use concepts and processes of evolution and equilibrium.

Grade 5 Benchmark
- Organize evidence of a change over time.

Students will: observe and record change in phenomena for a period of time.

Grade 8 Benchmark
- Identify and explain evidence of physical and biological changes over time.

Students will: analyze diagrams of rock layers to determine the order in which they were deposited.

- Explain how the layers in which fossils have been found indicate their relative age.

- Relate modern occurrences such as earthquakes, volcanoes, continental movement detected by satellites, and floods to historical evidence of how Earth has changed.

- Explain how equilibrium can be achieved through the interaction of forces and changes.

Students will: describe how physical and biological systems reach stability and remain stable until their surroundings change again.

CIM/Grade 10 Benchmark
- Explain how change occurs over time arising from materials and forms of the past.

- Analyze how physical, biological, or geological systems can maintain equilibrium.

Students will: explain the forces that maintain geographic features.

Physical Science

Describe electrical, magnetic, gravitational, and other forces and the motions resulting from them.

Grade 5 Benchmark
- Describe and compare the motion of objects.

Students will: describe an object's motion by tracing and measuring its position over time.

Grade 8 Benchmark
- Explain interactions between force and matter and relationships among force, mass, and motion.

Students will: identify real-world examples of forces affecting the motion of objects.

Students will: recognize how force, mass, and acceleration are related.

CIM/Grade 10 Benchmark
- Describe and explain the effects of multiple forces acting on an object.

Earth and Space Science

Identify the structure of the Earth system and changes that can occur in its physical properties.

Grade 5 Benchmark
- Identify causes of Earth surface changes.

Students will: identify effects of wind and running water on Earth materials, for example, erosion of soil by wind.

Students will: identify the effects of rapid changes, i.e., earthquakes, tornadoes, volcanoes, on Earth materials.

Grade 8 Benchmark
- Describe how the Earth's surface changes over time.

Students will: distinguish between constructive (crustal deformation, volcanic eruption, and sediment deposition) and destructive (weathering and erosion) forces in land formation.

Students will: discriminate between steps in the rock cycle, types of rocks formed (sedimentary, metamorphic, igneous), and consequent changes to Earth's surface.

Students will: identify the processes that result in different kinds of land forms.

Students will: identify factors affecting water flow, soil erosion, and deposition.

CIM/Grade 10 Benchmark
- Analyze evidence of ongoing evolution of the Earth system.

Students will: describe and evaluate theories of Earth's origin and early history using scientific evidence.

Students will: analyze geologic evidence to determine geologic history.

History and Nature of Science

Explain how scientific knowledge changes by evolving over time, almost always building on earlier knowledge.

Grade 5 Benchmark
- Identify examples of how scientific knowledge changes over time.

Grade 8 Benchmark
- Describe and explain how scientific knowledge and processes have changed over time.

CIM/Grade 10 Benchmark
- Analyze advances in science and technology that have had important, long-lasting effects on science and society.

Explain that scientific knowledge is developed through the use of empirical standards, logical arguments, and skepticism.

Grade 8 Benchmark
- Identify in scientific investigations examples of the use of logic, respect for rules of evidence, openness to criticism, and public reporting of methods and procedures.

CIM/Grade 10 Benchmark
- Analyze scientific investigations for the use of logic, respect for the rules of evidence, openness to criticism, and public reporting of methods and procedures.