1: Matter and Its Interactions

1: Plan and carry out investigations (e.g., adding air to expand a basketball, compressing air in a syringe, dissolving sugar in water, evaporating salt water) to provide evidence that matter is made of particles too small to be seen.

Phase Changes
Phases of Water

2: Investigate matter to provide mathematical evidence, including graphs, to show that regardless of the type of reaction (e.g., new substance forming due to dissolving or mixing) or change (e.g., phase change) that occurs when heating, cooling, or mixing substances, the total weight of the matter is conserved.

Chemical Changes

3: Examine matter through observations and measurements to identify materials (e.g., powders, metals, minerals, liquids) based on their properties (e.g., color, hardness, reflectivity, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, response to magnetic forces, solubility, density).

Chemical Changes
Circuit Builder
Magnetism
Mineral Identification
Mystery Powder Analysis
Solubility and Temperature

4: Investigate whether the mixing of two or more substances results in new substances (e.g., mixing of baking soda and vinegar resulting in the formation of a new substance, gas; mixing of sand and water resulting in no new substance being formed).

Chemical Changes

2: Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions

6: Construct an explanation from evidence to illustrate that the gravitational force exerted by Earth on objects is directed downward towards the center of Earth.

Free Fall Tower
Gravity Pitch

3: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics

8: Defend the position that plants obtain materials needed for growth primarily from air and water.

Plants and Snails

9: Construct an illustration to explain how plants use light energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into a storable fuel, carbohydrates, and a waste product, oxygen, during the process of photosynthesis.

Energy Conversions

10: Construct and interpret models (e.g., diagrams, flow charts) to explain that energy in animals’ food is used for body repair, growth, motion, and maintenance of body warmth and was once energy from the sun.

Energy Conversions

11: Create a model to illustrate the transfer of matter among producers; consumers, including scavengers and decomposers; and the environment.

Carbon Cycle
Food Chain
Forest Ecosystem
Plants and Snails
Prairie Ecosystem
Ecosystems

4: Earth’s Place in the Universe

13: Analyze data and represent with graphs to reveal patterns of daily changes in length and direction of shadows, day and night, and the seasonal appearance of some stars in the night sky (e.g., shadows and the position and motion of Earth with respect to the sun, visibility of select stars only in particular months).

Observing Weather (Customary)
Observing Weather (Metric)
Seasons: Earth, Moon, and Sun
Summer and Winter

5: Earth’s Systems

14: Use a model to represent how any two systems, specifically the atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere, and/or hydrosphere, interact and support life (e.g., influence of the ocean on ecosystems, landform shape, and climate; influence of the atmosphere on landforms and ecosystems through weather and climate; influence of mountain ranges on winds and clouds in the atmosphere).

Carbon Cycle
Coastal Winds and Clouds
Coastal Winds and Clouds - Metric
Erosion Rates
Greenhouse Effect
Greenhouse Effect - Metric
Hurricane Motion
Hurricane Motion - Metric
River Erosion
Rock Cycle
Water Cycle
Weathering

15: Identify the distribution of freshwater and salt water on Earth (e.g., oceans, lakes, rivers, glaciers, ground water, polar ice caps) and construct a graphical representation depicting the amounts and percentages found in different reservoirs.

Water Cycle

6: Earth and Human Activity

16: Collect and organize scientific ideas that individuals and communities can use to protect Earth’s natural resources and its environment (e.g., terracing land to prevent soil erosion, utilizing no-till farming to improve soil fertility, regulating emissions from factories and automobiles to reduce air pollution, recycling to reduce overuse of landfill areas).

Water Pollution