D1: Students explain the movements and describe the location, composition, and characteristics of our solar system and universe, including planets, the sun, and galaxies.

D1.a: Describe the different kinds of objects in the solar system including planets, sun, moons, asteroids, and comets.

Comparing Earth and Venus
Solar System
Solar System Explorer

D1.b: Explain the motions that cause days, years, phases of the moon, and eclipses.

2D Eclipse
3D Eclipse
Moonrise, Moonset, and Phases
Seasons: Earth, Moon, and Sun

D2: Students describe the various cycles, physical and biological forces and processes, position in space, energy transformations, and human actions that affect the short-term and long-term changes to the Earth.

D2.a: Explain how the tilt of Earth's rotational axis relative to the plane of its yearly orbit around the sun affects the day length and sunlight intensity to cause seasons.

Seasons Around the World
Seasons in 3D
Seasons: Earth, Moon, and Sun
Seasons: Why do we have them?
Summer and Winter

D2.b: Describe Earth Systems - biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere - and cycles and interactions within them (including water moving among and between them, rocks forming and transforming, and weather formation).

Rock Cycle
Water Cycle

D2.e: Describe the effect of gravity on objects on Earth.

Free Fall Tower
Free-Fall Laboratory
Gravitational Force

D3: Students describe physical and chemical properties of matter, interactions and changes in matter, and transfer of energy through matter.

D3.a: Describe that all matter is made up of atoms and distinguish between/among elements, atoms, and molecules.

Element Builder

D3.c: Describe the difference between physical and chemical change.

Chemical Changes

D3.d: Explain the relationship of the motion of atoms and molecules to the states of matter for gases, liquids, and solids.

Temperature and Particle Motion

D3.f: Explain and apply the understanding that substances have characteristic properties, including density, boiling point, and solubility and these properties are not dependent on the amount of matter present.

Density Experiment: Slice and Dice
Density Laboratory

D3.g: Use the idea of atoms to explain the conservation of matter.

Chemical Changes
Chemical Equations

D3.h: Describe several different types of energy forms including heat energy, chemical energy, and mechanical energy.

Energy Conversion in a System
Energy Conversions
Energy of a Pendulum
Inclined Plane - Sliding Objects
Roller Coaster Physics

D3.i: Use examples of energy transformations from one form to another to explain that energy cannot be created or destroyed.

Air Track
Energy Conversion in a System
Energy Conversions
Energy of a Pendulum
Inclined Plane - Sliding Objects
Roller Coaster Physics

D3.j: Describe how heat is transferred from one object to another by conduction, convection, and/or radiation.

Conduction and Convection
Heat Transfer by Conduction
Radiation

D3.k: Describe the properties of solar radiation and its interaction with objects on Earth.

Seasons Around the World

D4: Students describe the force of gravity, the motion of objects, the properties of waves, and the wavelike property of energy in light waves.

D4.c: Describe and apply an understanding of how the gravitational force between any two objects would change if their mass or the distance between them changed.

Gravitational Force

D4.d: Describe and apply an understanding of how electric currents and magnets can exert force on each other.

Magnetic Induction

D4.e: Describe and apply an understanding of the effects of multiple forces on an object, and how unbalanced forces will cause changes in the speed or direction.

Free Fall Tower
Free-Fall Laboratory

E1: Students differentiate among organisms based on biological characteristics and identify patterns of similarity.

E1.a: Compare physical characteristics that differentiate organisms into groups (including plants that use sunlight to make their own food, animals that consume energy-rich food, and organisms that cannot easily be classified as either).

Dichotomous Keys
Human Evolution - Skull Analysis

E1.b: Explain how biologists use internal and external anatomical features to determine relatedness among organisms and to form the basis for classification systems.

Dichotomous Keys

E1.c: Explain ways to determine whether organisms are the same species.

Dichotomous Keys
Human Evolution - Skull Analysis

E2: Students examine how the characteristics of the physical, non-living (abiotic) environment, the types and behaviors of living (biotic) organisms, and the flow of matter and energy affect organisms and the ecosystem of which they are part.

E2.b: Describe ways in which two types of organisms may interact (including competition, predator/prey, producer/consumer/decomposer, parasitism, and mutualism) and describe the positive and negative consequences of such interactions.

Food Chain
Forest Ecosystem
Prairie Ecosystem

E2.c: Describe the source and flow of energy in the two major food webs, terrestrial and marine.

Forest Ecosystem

E2.d: Describe how matter and energy change from one form to another in living things and in the physical environment.

Energy Conversions
Food Chain

E2.e: Explain that the total amount of matter in the environment stays the same even as its form and location change.

Chemical Changes

E3: Students describe the hierarchy of organization and function in organisms, and the similarities and differences in structure, function, and needs among and within organisms.

E3.a: Describe the basic functions of organisms carried out within cells including the extracting of energy from food and the elimination of wastes.

Cell Structure
Osmosis
Paramecium Homeostasis

E3.b: Explain the relationship among cells, tissues, organs, and organ systems, including how tissues and organs serve the needs of cells and organisms.

Circulatory System
Digestive System

E3.c: Compare the structures, system, and interactions that allow single-celled organisms and multi-celled plants and animals, including humans, to defend themselves, acquire and use energy, self-regulate, reproduce, and coordinate movement.

Cell Structure

E3.d: Explain that all living things are composed of cells numbering from just one to millions.

Paramecium Homeostasis

E4: Students describe the general characteristics and mechanisms of reproduction and heredity in organisms, including humans, and ways in which organisms are affected by their genetic traits.

E4.c: Describe asexual reproduction as a process by which all genetic information comes from one parent and determines the inherited traits that are a part of every cell.

Inheritance

E5: Students describe the evidence that evolution occurs over many generations, allowing species to acquire many of their unique characteristics or adaptations.

E5.a: Explain how the layers of sedimentary rock and their contained fossils provide evidence for the long history of Earth and for the long history of changing life.

Human Evolution - Skull Analysis

E5.b: Describe how small differences between parents and offspring can lead to descendants who are very different from their ancestors.

Evolution: Mutation and Selection

E5.c: Describe how variations in the behavior and traits of an offspring may permit some of them to survive a changing environment.

Natural Selection
Rainfall and Bird Beaks - Metric