PS1A: The weight of an object is a measure of how strongly it is pulled down toward the ground by gravity. A spring scale can measure the pulling force.

PS1A.1: Use a spring scale to measure the weights of several objects accurately. Explain that the weight of an object is a measure of the force of gravity on the object. Record the measurements in a table.

Charge Launcher
Force and Fan Carts
Weight and Mass

PS1B: The relative speed of two objects can be determined in two ways: (1) If two objects travel for the same amount of time, the object that has traveled the greatest distance is the fastest. (2) If two objects travel the same distance, the object that takes the least time to travel the distance is the fastest.

PS1B.1: Measure the distance that an object travels in a given interval of time and compare it with the distance that another object moved in the same interval of time to determine which is fastest.

Pendulum Clock

PS1B.2: Measure the time it takes two objects to travel the same distance and determine which is fastest.

Pendulum Clock

PS2A: Substances can exist in different physical states?solid, liquid, and gas. Many substances can be changed from one state to another by heating or cooling.

PS2A.1: Explain that water is still the same substance when it is frozen as ice or evaporated and becomes a gas.

Phases of Water

PS2B: Air is a gas. Air fills a closed container completely. Wind is moving air.

PS2B.2: Describe how the wind can move things (e.g., wind can move the branches of trees when it blows and moves sailboats through the water).

Free Fall Tower

PS3A: Energy has many forms, such as heat, light, sound, motion, and electricity.

PS3A.1: Identify different forms of energy (e.g., heat, light, sound, motion, electricity) in a system.

Energy Conversions
Free Fall Tower
Heat Absorption
Radiation

PS3B: Energy can be transferred from one place to another.

PS3B.1: Draw and label diagrams showing several ways that energy can be transferred from one place to another (e.g., sound energy passing through air, electrical energy through a wire, heat energy conducted through a frying pan, light energy through space).

Conduction and Convection
Energy Conversions
Radiation

PS3C: Heat energy can be generated a number of ways and can move (transfer) from one place to another. Heat energy is transferred from warmer things to colder things.

PS3C.1: Identify several ways to generate heat energy (e.g., lighting a match, rubbing hands together, or mixing different kinds of chemicals together).

Force and Fan Carts

PS3C.2: Give examples of two different ways that heat energy can move from one place to another, and explain which direction the heat moves (e.g., when placing a pot on the stove, heat moves from the hot burner to the cooler pot).

Energy Conversions

PS3D: Sound energy can be generated by making things vibrate.

PS3D.1: Demonstrate how sound can be generated by vibrations, and explain how sound energy is transferred through the air from a source to an observer.

Energy Conversions

PS3E: Electrical energy in circuits can be changed to other forms of energy, including light, heat, sound, and motion. Electric circuits require a complete loop through conducting materials in which an electric current can pass.

PS3E.1: Connect wires to produce a complete circuit involving a battery and at least one other electrical component to produce observable change (e.g., light a bulb, sound a buzzer, and make a bell ring).

Circuit Builder

PS3E.2: Repair an electric circuit by completing a closed loop.

Circuit Builder

PS3E.3: Describe how electrical energy is transferred from one place to another, and how it is transformed from electrical energy to different kinds of energy in the circuit above.

Circuit Builder
Energy Conversions

ES1A: Earth is approximately spherical in shape. Things on or near the Earth are pulled toward Earth?s center by the force of gravity.

ES1A.1: Give evidence to support the idea that Earth is spherical in shape (e.g., research Earth images from space, shape of Earth?s shadow on the Moon during an eclipse of the Moon).

Eclipse
Solar System

ES1A.2: Draw how objects would fall when dropped from various places around Earth, demonstrating that all things fall ?down? toward Earth?s center.

Free Fall Tower
Solar System

ES1C: Earth?s nearly circular yearly orbit around the Sun causes us to see different constellations at different times of year.

ES1C.1: Use a physical model or diagram to show how the different constellations are visible in different seasons, as a consequence of Earth orbiting the sun.

Solar System
Summer and Winter

ES1D: The Sun is a star. It is the central and largest body in our Solar System. The Sun appears much brighter and larger in the sky than other stars because it is many thousands of times closer to Earth.

ES1D.1: Identify that the Solar System contains only one star, the Sun.

Solar System

ES2A: Earth materials include solid rocks and soil, water, and gases of the atmosphere. Materials have different physical and chemical properties which make them useful in different ways. Earth materials provide many of the resources that humans use.

ES2A.1: Describe Earth materials and list their physical and chemical properties.

Solar System

ES2A.2: Explain how the properties of an Earth material make it useful for certain purposes, but not useful for other purposes (e.g., rocks are heavy and strong so they are good for building walls, but they are not as useful as lighter materials for roofs).

Circuit Builder
Solar System

ES2A.3: Give examples of human-made materials, including those that are changed only a little (e.g., wood and stones used for building) and those that look very different from the raw materials (e.g., metal, ceramics, and plastics).

Circuit Builder

ES2D: Soils are formed by weathering and erosion, decay of plant matter, settling of volcanic ash, transport by rain through streams and rivers, and deposition of sediments in valleys, riverbeds, and lakes.

ES2D.1: Explain how the formation of soils is related to the following processes: weathering of rock; decay of plant matter; settling of volcanic ash; transport by rain, streams, and rivers; deposition of sediments in rivers and lakes.

Growing Plants

LS1B: Each animal has different structures and behaviors that serve different functions.

LS1B.1: List parts of an animal?s body and describe how it helps the animal meet its basic needs (e.g., the bones support the body so it can move; the blood carries food and oxygen throughout the body).

Homeostasis

LS1D: Plants and animals have structures and behaviors that respond to internal needs.

LS1D.1: Give examples of how plants and animals respond to internal needs (e.g., plants wilt when they don?t have water; animals seek food when they are hungry).

Growing Plants
Homeostasis
Prairie Ecosystem

LS1E: Nutrition is essential to health. Various kinds of foods are necessary to build and maintain body structures. Individuals have responsibility for their own health and food choices.

LS1E.1: Describe how various types of foods contribute to the maintenance of healthy body structures.

Homeostasis
Prairie Ecosystem

LS1E.2: Based on the above list, develop a balanced plan for eating that will allow you to build and maintain your body.

Homeostasis
Prairie Ecosystem

LS2A: An ecosystem includes all of the plant and animal populations and nonliving resources in a given area. Plants and animals depend on one another and the nonliving resources in their ecosystem to help them survive.

LS2A.1: Identify the living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.

Forest Ecosystem

LS2A.2: Give examples to show how the plants and animals depend on one another for survival (e.g., worms decompose waste and return nutrients to the soil, which helps plants grow).

Forest Ecosystem
Growing Plants
Prairie Ecosystem

LS2A.3: Describe how the plants and animals in an ecosystem depend on nonliving resources.

Forest Ecosystem

LS2B: Plants make their own food using energy from the sun. Animals get food by eating plants and/or other animals that eat plants. Plants make it possible for animals to use the energy of sunlight.

LS2B.1: Explain that plants make their own food, and animals, including humans, get food by eating plants and/or eating other animals.

Forest Ecosystem
Prairie Ecosystem

LS2C: Plants and animals are related in food webs with producers (plants that make their own food), consumers (animals that eat producers and/or other animals), and decomposers (primarily bacteria and fungi) that break down wastes and dead organisms, and return nutrients to the soil.

LS2C.1: Draw a simple food web given a list of three common organisms. Draw arrows properly and identify the producers and consumers.

Forest Ecosystem
Prairie Ecosystem

LS2C.2: Compare the roles of producers, consumers, and decomposers in an ecosystem.

Forest Ecosystem
Prairie Ecosystem

LS2D: Ecosystems can change slowly or rapidly. Big changes over a short period of time can have a major impact on the ecosystem and the populations of plants and animals living there.

LS2D.1: Apply knowledge of a plant or animal?s relationship to its ecosystem and to other plants and animals to predict whether and how a slow or rapid change in the ecosystem might affect the population of that plant or animal.

Forest Ecosystem
Prairie Ecosystem

LS2E: All plants and animals change the ecosystem where they live. If this change reduces another organism?s access to resources, that organism may move to another location or die.

LS2E.1: Describe how one population may affect other plants and/or animals in the ecosystem (e.g., increase in Scotch Broom replaces native plants normally eaten by butterfly caterpillars, reducing the butterfly population).

Forest Ecosystem
Prairie Ecosystem

LS3A: In any ecosystem, some populations of organisms thrive and grow, some decline, and others do not survive at all.

LS3A.1: List some reasons why some populations may not survive as well as others.

Forest Ecosystem
Prairie Ecosystem

LS3A.2: Evaluate similar populations in an ecosystem with regard to their ability to thrive and grow (e.g., bird populations with differently colored feathers).

Prairie Ecosystem

LS3B: Plants and animals inherit many characteristics from their parents. Some inherited characteristics allow organisms to better survive and reproduce in a given ecosystem.

LS3B.1: Communicate that plants and animals inherit many characteristics (e.g., color of a flower or number of limbs at birth) from the parents of the plant or animal.

Inheritance

LS3B.2: Give examples to illustrate an inherited characteristic that would enable an organism to better survive and reproduce in a given ecosystem.

Forest Ecosystem
Prairie Ecosystem

LS3C: Some characteristics and behaviors result from an individual plant?s or animal?s interactions with the environment and are not passed from one generation to the next by heredity.

LS3C.1: Use an example to explain that some characteristics or behaviors result from an individual plant?s or animal?s interactions with the environment and are not passed from one generation to the next by heredity (e.g., trees can lose a limb, animals can have accidents that cause scars, people can exercise and build muscles).

Forest Ecosystem