1: Properties and Principles of Matter and Energy

1.1: Changes in properties and states of matter provide evidence of the atomic theory of matter

1.1.A: Objects, and the materials they are made of, have properties that can be used to describe and classify them

1.1.A.a: Identify matter is anything that has mass and volume

Density Experiment: Slice and Dice
Density Laboratory
Weight and Mass

1.1.A.b: Describe and compare the volumes (the amount of space an object occupies) of objects or substances directly, using a graduated cylinder, and/or indirectly, using displacement methods

Density Laboratory
Determining Density via Water Displacement

1.1.A.c: Describe and compare the masses (amounts of matter) of objects to the nearest gram using a balance

Density Experiment: Slice and Dice
Density Laboratory
Weight and Mass

1.1.A.d: Classify the types of matter in an object into pure substances or mixtures using their specific physical properties

Mineral Identification

1.1.B: Properties of mixtures depend upon the concentrations, properties, and interactions of particles

1.1.B.b: Describe appropriate ways to separate the components of different types of mixtures (sorting, evaporation, filtration, magnets, boiling, chromatography, screening)

Magnetism

1.1.C: Properties of matter can be explained in terms of moving particles too small to be seen without tremendous magnification

1.1.C.a: Describe evidence (e.g., diffusion of food coloring in water, light reflecting off of dust particles in the air, condensation of water vapor by increased pressure or decreased temperature) that supports the theory that matter is composed of small particles (atoms, molecules) that are in constant, random motion

Boyle's Law and Charles' Law
Colligative Properties
Temperature and Particle Motion

1.1.D: Physical changes in the state of matter that result from thermal changes can be explained by the Kinetic Theory of Matter

1.1.D.a: Describe the relationship between the change in the volume of water and changes in temperature as it relates to the properties of water (i.e., water expands and becomes less dense when frozen)

Freezing Point of Salt Water
Phase Changes

1.1.G: Properties of objects and states of matter can change chemically and/or physically

1.1.G.a: Identify and classify changes in matter as chemical and/or physical

Density Experiment: Slice and Dice
Freezing Point of Salt Water

1.1.G.b: Identify chemical changes (i.e., rusting, oxidation, burning, decomposition by acids, decaying, baking) in common objects (i.e., rocks such as limestone, minerals, wood, steel wool, plants) as a result of interactions with sources of energy or other matter that form new substances with different characteristic properties

Balancing Chemical Equations

1.1.G.c: Identify physical changes in common objects (e.g., rocks, minerals, wood, water, steel wool, plants) and describe the processes which caused the change (e.g., weathering, erosion, cutting, dissolving)

Density Experiment: Slice and Dice
Freezing Point of Salt Water
Rock Classification

1.1.I: Mass is conserved during any physical or chemical change

1.1.I.a: Demonstrate and provide evidence that mass is conserved during a physical change

Balancing Chemical Equations
Chemical Equation Balancing

1.2: Energy has a source, can be stored, and can be transferred but is conserved within a system

1.2.A: Forms of energy have a source, a means of transfer (work and heat), and a receiver

1.2.A.a: Identify sources of visible light (e.g., the Sun and other stars, flint, bulb, flames, lightning)

Radiation

1.2.A.b: Describe evidence (i.e., cannot bend around walls) that visible light travels in a straight line, using the appropriate tools (i.e., pinhole viewer, ray box, laser pointer)

Atwood Machine
Distance-Time Graphs
Fan Cart Physics
Inclined Plane - Sliding Objects
Radiation

1.2.A.c: Compare the reflection of visible light by various surfaces (i.e., mirror, smooth and rough surfaces, shiny and dull surfaces, Moon)

Heat Absorption
Laser Reflection
Mineral Identification
Radiation
Ray Tracing (Mirrors)

1.2.A.d: Compare the refraction of visible light passing through different transparent and translucent materials (e.g., prisms, water, a lens)

Basic Prism
Ray Tracing (Lenses)
Refraction

1.2.A.e: Predict how different surfaces (transparent, translucent, opaque) and lenses (convex, concave) affect the behavior of visible light rays and the resulting image of an object

Basic Prism
Ray Tracing (Lenses)
Ray Tracing (Mirrors)

1.2.A.f: Identify receivers of visible light energy (e.g., eye, photocell)

Energy Conversion in a System
Energy Conversions
Radiation

1.2.A.g: Recognize and explain that an object is "seen" only when the object emits or reflects light to the eye

Bohr Model of Hydrogen
Bohr Model: Introduction

1.2.A.h: Recognize differences in wavelength and energy levels within that range of visible light that can be seen by the human eye are perceived as differences in color

Color Absorption
Radiation

1.2.A.i: Describe how sound energy is transferred by wave-like disturbances that spread away from the source through a medium

Energy Conversion in a System
Energy Conversions

1.2.A.j: Describe how changes in energy cause changes in loudness and pitch of a sound

Sound Beats and Sine Waves

1.2.C: Electromagnetic energy from the Sun (solar radiation) is a major source of energy on Earth

1.2.C.a: Recognize and describe how energy from the Sun is transferred to Earth in a range of wavelengths and energy levels, including visible light, infrared radiation, and ultraviolet radiation

Energy Conversion in a System
Energy Conversions
Herschel Experiment
Radiation

1.2.C.b: Recognize and apply the fact that energy from the Sun is the source of almost all energy used to produce the food for living organisms

Energy Conversions
Food Chain
Prairie Ecosystem

3: Characteristics and Interactions of Living Organisms

3.1: There is a fundamental unity underlying the diversity of all living organisms

3.1.A: Organisms have basic needs for survival

3.1.A.a: Describe the common life processes necessary to the survival of organisms (i.e., growth, reproduction, life span, response to stimuli, energy use, exchange of gases, use of water, elimination of waste)

Cell Energy Cycle
Growing Plants
Human Homeostasis
Photosynthesis Lab
Prairie Ecosystem

3.1.C: Cells are the fundamental units of structure and function of all living things

3.1.C.a: Recognize all organisms are composed of cells, the fundamental units of life, which carry on all life processes

Cell Structure
Paramecium Homeostasis

3.2: Living organisms carry out life processes in order to survive

3.2.A: The cell contains a set of structures called organelles that interact to carry out life processes through physical and chemical means

3.2.A.a: Compare and contrast the following plant and animal cell structures: cell membrane, nucleus, cell wall, chloroplast, and cytoplasm

Cell Energy Cycle
Cell Structure
Photosynthesis Lab

3.2.A.b: Recognize the chloroplast as the cell structure where food is produced in plants and some unicellular organisms (e.g., algae, some protists)

Cell Energy Cycle
Cell Structure
Food Chain
Forest Ecosystem
Photosynthesis Lab
Prairie Ecosystem

3.2.B: Photosynthesis and cellular respiration are complementary processes necessary to the survival of most organisms on Earth

3.2.B.a: Describe how plants use energy from the Sun to produce food and oxygen through the process of photosynthesis

Cell Energy Cycle
Food Chain
Forest Ecosystem
Photosynthesis Lab
Pond Ecosystem
Prairie Ecosystem

4: Changes in Ecosystems and Interactions of Organisms with their Environments

4.1: Organisms are interdependent with one another and with their environment

4.1.A: All populations living together within a community interact with one another and with their environment in order to survive and maintain a balanced ecosystem

4.1.A.a: Identify the biotic factors (populations of organisms) and abiotic factors (e.g., quantity of light and water, range of temperatures, soil composition) that make up an ecosystem

Forest Ecosystem
Pond Ecosystem

4.1.B: Living organisms have the capacity to produce populations of infinite size, but environments and resources are finite

4.1.B.a: Identify populations within a community that are in competition with one another for resources

Forest Ecosystem
Prairie Ecosystem
Rabbit Population by Season

4.1.B.b: Identify the factors that affect the number and types of organisms an ecosystem can support (e.g., food availability, abiotic factors such as quantity of light and water, temperature and temperature range, soil composition, disease, competitions from other organisms, predation)

Food Chain
Forest Ecosystem
Growing Plants
Rabbit Population by Season

4.1.B.c: Predict the possible effects of changes in the number and types of organisms in an ecosystem on the populations of other organisms within that ecosystem

Food Chain
Forest Ecosystem
Interdependence of Plants and Animals
Prairie Ecosystem
Rabbit Population by Season

4.1.D: The diversity of species within an ecosystem is affected by changes in the environment, which can be caused by other organisms or outside processes

4.1.D.a: Describe beneficial and harmful activities of organisms, including humans (e.g., deforestation, overpopulation, water and air pollution, global warming, restoration of natural environments, river bank/coastal stabilization, recycling, channelization, reintroduction of species, depletion of resources), and explain how these activities affect organisms within an ecosystem

Water Pollution

4.1.D.b: Predict the impact (beneficial or harmful) of a natural environmental change (e.g., forest fire, flood, volcanic eruption, avalanche) on the organisms in an ecosystem

Prairie Ecosystem

4.1.D.c: Describe possible solutions to potentially harmful environmental changes within an ecosystem

Forest Ecosystem
Prairie Ecosystem

4.2: Matter and energy flow through an ecosystem

4.2.A: As energy flows through the ecosystem, all organisms capture a portion of that energy and transform it to a form they can use

4.2.A.a: Diagram and describe the transfer of energy in an aquatic food web and a land food web with reference to producers, consumers, decomposers, scavengers, and predator/prey relationships

Food Chain
Forest Ecosystem
Prairie Ecosystem

4.2.A.b: Classify populations of unicellular and multicellular organisms as producers, consumers, and decomposers by the role they serve in the ecosystem

Food Chain
Forest Ecosystem
Human Evolution - Skull Analysis
Paramecium Homeostasis
Prairie Ecosystem

4.3: Genetic variation sorted by the natural selection process explains evidence of biological evolution

4.3.A: Evidence for the nature and rates of evolution can be found in anatomical and molecular characteristics of organisms and in the fossil record

4.3.A.a: Identify fossils as evidence some types of organisms (e.g., dinosaurs, trilobites, mammoths, giant tree ferns) that once lived in the past, and have since become extinct, have similarities with and differences from organisms living today

Human Evolution - Skull Analysis
Natural Selection

4.3.C: Natural selection is the process of sorting individuals based on their ability to survive and reproduce within their ecosystem

4.3.C.a: Relate examples of adaptations (specialized structures or behaviors) within a species to its ability to survive in a specific environment (e.g., hollow bones/flight, hollow hair/insulation, dense root structure/compact soil, seeds/food, protection for plant embryo vs. spores, fins/movement in water)

Evolution: Mutation and Selection
Natural Selection
Rainfall and Bird Beaks

4.3.C.b: Predict how certain adaptations, such as behavior, body structure, or coloration, may offer a survival advantage to an organism in a particular environment

Evolution: Mutation and Selection
Natural Selection
Rainfall and Bird Beaks

5: Processes and Interactions of the Earth's Systems (Geosphere, Atmosphere, and Hydrosphere)

5.1: Earth's systems (geosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere) have common components and unique structures

5.1.B: The hydrosphere is composed of water (a material with unique properties), gases, and other materials

5.1.B.a: Identify and describe the properties of water that make it an essential component of the Earth system (e.g., its ability to act as a solvent, its ability to remain as a liquid at most Earth temperatures)

Solar System

5.2: Earth's Systems (geosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere) interact with one another as they undergo change by common processes

5.2.A: The Earth's materials and surface features are changed through a variety of external processes

5.2.A.a: Make inferences about the formation of sedimentary rocks from their physical properties (e.g., layering and the presence of fossils indicate sedimentation)

Rock Classification
Rock Cycle

5.2.A.b: Explain how the formation of sedimentary rocks depends on weathering and erosion

Rock Classification
Rock Cycle

5.2.A.d: Describe how the Earth's surface and surface materials can change abruptly through the activity of floods, rock/mudslides, or volcanoes

Rock Cycle

5.2.B: There are internal processes and sources of energy within the geosphere that cause changes in Earth's crustal plates

5.2.B.a: Identify events (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions) and the landforms created by them on the Earth's surface that occur at different plate boundaries

Earthquake - Determination of Epicenter
Earthquake - Recording Station
Plate Tectonics

5.2.D: Changes in the Earth over time can be inferred through rock and fossil evidence

5.2.D.b: Use fossil evidence to make inferences about changes on Earth and in its environment (i.e., superposition of rock layers, similarities between fossils in different geographical locations, fossils of seashells indicate the area was once underwater)

Human Evolution - Skull Analysis

5.3: Human activity is dependent upon and affects Earth's resources and systems

5.3.A: Earth's materials are limited natural resources affected by human activity

5.3.A.a: Relate the comparative amounts of fresh water and salt water on the Earth to the availability of water as a resource for living organisms and human activity

Solar System

5.3.A.b: Describe the affect of human activities (e.g., landfills, use of fertilizers and herbicides, farming, septic systems) on the quality of water

Water Pollution

5.3.A.c: Analyze the ways humans affect the erosion and deposition of soil and rock materials (e.g., clearing of land, planting vegetation, paving land, construction of new buildings, building or removal of dams) and propose possible solutions.

Rock Classification
Rock Cycle
Water Pollution