2: Materials exist throughout our physical world. The structures of materials influence their physical properties, chemical reactivity and use.

2.3: When materials interact within a closed system, the total mass of the system remains the same.

2.3.1: Explain why the total amount of a material remains the same even when exposed to a variety of physical treatments (e.g., flattening or balling up clay, breaking apart a candy bar, pouring liquid into a tall, slender glass vs. a short, fat glass).

Chemical Changes

3: The flow of energy drives processes of change in all biological, chemical, physical, and geological systems. Energy stored in a variety of sources can be transformed into other energy forms, which influence many facets of our daily lives. The forms of energy involved and the properties of the materials involved influence the nature of the energy transformations and the mechanisms by which energy is transferred. The conservation of energy is a law that can be used to analyze and build understandings of diverse physical and biological systems.

3.1: Energy takes many forms. These forms can be grouped into types of energy that are associated with the motion of mass (kinetic energy), and types of energy associated with the position of mass and with energy fields (potential energy).

3.1.1: Identify sunlight as the source of energy needed for plants to make their own food. Observe that sunlight can also warm objects such as the surface of the Earth.

Cell Energy Cycle
Energy Conversions

3.1.2: Identify that sunlight has three major components; visible, infrared, and ultraviolet, and that the infrared and ultraviolet components cannot be detected by human eyes.

Radiation

3.1.3: Design and implement an investigation to show that white light coming from the sun consists of a variety of component waves that appear to have different colors to our eyes. Record observations of the investigation and use evidence to communicate results.

Additive Colors
Basic Prism

3.1.9: Identify that the energy of a moving object depends upon its speed. Give examples of how an object's energy of motion increases when the object's speed increases.

Sled Wars

3.2: Changes take place because of the transfer of energy. Energy is transferred to matter through the action of forces. Different forces are responsible for the transfer of the different forms of energy.

3.2.1: Use rulers, meter sticks, tapes, and watches to measure the distance objects travel in a given period of time, and how much time it takes for an object to travel a certain distance. Organize the measurements in tables, and construct graphs based on the measurements. Reach qualitative conclusions about the speeds of the objects (faster versus slower).

Free Fall Tower
Graphing Skills

3.2.2: Demonstrate and explain how forces of different sizes and directions can produce different kinds of changes in the motion of an object.

Force and Fan Carts

3.2.3: Explain how the flow of heat energy contributes to the melting and freezing processes. Describe which way heat energy must flow for liquid water to boil.

Phases of Water

3.3: Energy readily transforms from one form to another, but these transformations are not always reversible. The details of these transformations depend upon the initial form of the energy and the properties of the materials involved. Energy may transfer into or out of a system and it may change forms, but the total energy cannot change.

3.3.1: Observe that light travels in a straight line away from its source until it strikes an object. Observe that when light strikes an object, it can reflect off the object, transmit through the object, be absorbed within the object, or a combination of these phenomena. Give examples of light being reflected, transmitted, and/or absorbed by objects.

Basic Prism
Color Absorption
Heat Absorption

3.3.2: Using the physical properties of objects, make predictions about how light will behave when it strikes the object. Categorize materials as transparent, translucent, absorbent or reflective based on how they interact with light.

Basic Prism
Color Absorption
Heat Absorption

6: The natural world is defined by organisms and life processes which conform to principles regarding conservation and transformation of matter and energy. Living organisms use matter and energy to build their structures and conduct their life processes, have mechanisms and behaviors to regulate their internal environments and to respond to changes in their surroundings. Knowledge about life processes can be applied to improving human health and well being.

6.2: All organisms transfer matter and convert energy from one form to another. Both matter and energy are necessary to build and maintain structures within the organism.

6.2.1: Explain that all organisms require a form of energy to survive and that humans and other animals obtain energy and materials from food.

Energy Conversions
Forest Ecosystem

6.3: Organisms respond to internal and external cues, which allow them to survive.

6.3.1: Identify external structures (i.e., legs) and behaviors (i.e., walking) of organisms that enable them to survive in their particular ecosystem and describe how these structures enable the organisms to respond to internal (i.e., hunger) and external (i.e., temperature, danger) cues.

Homeostasis

8: Organisms are linked to one another in an ecosystem by the flow of energy and the cycling of materials. Humans are an integral part of the natural system and human activities can alter the stability of ecosystems.

8.1: Organisms and their environments are interconnected. Changes in one part of the system will affect other parts of the system.

8.1.1: Examine a variety of ecosystems such as marsh, pond, field, forest. Compare how the organisms, the habitat, and the food chains are similar and different in these ecosystems.

Prairie Ecosystem

8.1.2: Differentiate between an organism's "habitat" (where an animal lives) and its "territory" (an area claimed as its own space). Select an organism and describe its habitat and territory.

Forest Ecosystem

8.1.4: Identify environmental factors that affect the growth and reproduction of organisms in an ecosystem (e.g., temperature can affect germination and soil moisture).

Germination

8.2: Matter needed to sustain life is continually recycled among and between organisms and the environment. Energy from the Sun flows irreversibly through ecosystems and is conserved as organisms use and transform it.

8.2.1: Conduct investigations to simulate terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and their interdependence. Demonstrate and describe how alteration of one part of the ecosystem (i.e., change in pH, over fertilization, addition of salt) may cause changes throughout the entire ecosystem.

Pond Ecosystem

8.2.2: Categorize the organisms within an ecosystem according to the function they serve as producers, consumers, or decomposers. Explain why the organism was categorized this way.

Forest Ecosystem

8.2.3: Identify the Sun as a source of energy that drives an ecosystem. Describe the path of energy from the Sun to the producers then to the consumer in the food chain. Recognize that an organism has dependent and independent relationships in an ecosystem.

Forest Ecosystem
Prairie Ecosystem

8.3: Humans can alter the living and non-living factors within an ecosystem, thereby creating changes to the overall system.

8.3.1: Identify natural (i.e., wildfire, flood, drought) and man-made changes (forest clear cutting, input of pollutants, filling in of marshland) to an ecosystem. Discuss how these changes affect the balance of an ecosystem.

Pond Ecosystem