National Science Education Standards

Science Standards for Grades 5 - 8:

CONTENT STANDARD A:  Science as Inquiry
As a result of the activity, all students should develop an understanding of:

Understandings about Scientific Inquiry 

Mathematics is important in all aspects of scientific inquiry. 

Technology used to gather data enhances accuracy and allows scientists to analyze and quantify results of investigations. 

CONTENT STANDARD B:  Physical Science
As a result of the activity, all students should develop an understanding of: 

            Properties and changes of properties in matter 

A substance has characteristic properties, such as density, a boiling point, and solubility, all of which are independent of the amount of the sample.

 Motions and forces

The motion of an object can be described by its position, direction of motion, and speed. That motion can be measured and represented on a graph. 

If more than one force acts on an object along a straight line, then the forces will reinforce or cancel one another, depending on their direction and magnitude. Unbalanced forces will cause changes in the speed or direction of an object's motion. 

Energy is a property of many substances and is associated with heat, light, electricity, mechanical motion, sound, nuclei, and the nature of a chemical. Energy is transferred in many ways. 

Heat moves in predictable ways, flowing from warmer objects to cooler ones, until both reach the same temperature. 

The sun is a major source of energy for changes on the earth's surface. The sun loses energy by emitting light. A tiny fraction of that light reaches the earth, transferring energy from the sun to the earth. The sun's energy arrives as light with a range of wavelengths, consisting of visible light, infrared, and ultraviolet radiation.

CONTENT STANDARD C:  Life Science
As a result of the activity, all students should develop understanding of:

             Populations and ecosystems 

For ecosystems, the major source of energy is sunlight. Energy entering ecosystems as sunlight is transferred by producers into chemical energy through photosynthesis. That energy then passes from organism to organism in food webs.

CONTENT STANDARD D:  Earth and Space Science
As a result of the activity, all students should develop an understanding of: 

             Structure of the earth system

Water, which covers the majority of the earth's surface, circulates through the crust, oceans, and atmosphere in what is known as the "water cycle."

Water is a solvent. As it passes through the water cycle it dissolves minerals and gases and carries them to the oceans. 

The atmosphere is a mixture of nitrogen, oxygen, and trace gases that include water vapor. The atmosphere has different properties at different elevations. 

Clouds, formed by the condensation of water vapor, affect weather and climate. 

Global patterns of atmospheric movement influence local weather. Oceans have a major effect on climate, because water in the oceans holds a large amount of heat. 

CONTENT STANDARD A:  Science as Inquiry
As a result of the activity, all students should develop and understanding of: 

             Understandings about scientific inquiry

Scientists rely on technology to enhance the gathering and manipulation of data. New techniques and tools provide new evidence to guide inquiry and new methods to gather data, thereby contributing to the advance of science. The accuracy and precision of the data, and therefore the quality of the exploration, depends on the technology used. 

Mathematics is essential in scientific inquiry. Mathematical tools and models guide and improve the posing of questions, gathering data, constructing explanations and communicating results. 

CONTENT STANDARD B: Physical Science
As a result of the activity, all students should develop an understanding of: 

           Motions and forces

Objects change their motion only when a net force is applied. Laws of motion are used to calculate precisely the effects of forces on the motion of objects. The magnitude of the change in motion can be calculated using the relationship F = ma, which is independent of the nature of the force.

Whenever one object exerts force on another, a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction is exerted on the first object. 

Interactions of energy and matter

Waves, including sound and seismic waves, waves on water, and light waves, have energy and can transfer energy when they interact with matter.

CONTENT STANDARD C:  Life Science
As a result of the activity, all students should develop understanding of:

             Interdependence of organisms 

Energy flows through ecosystems in one direction, from photosynthetic organisms to herbivores to carnivores and decomposers. 

 Matter, energy, and organization in living systems 

The distribution and abundance of organisms and populations in ecosystems are limited by the availability of matter and energy and the ability of the ecosystem to recycle materials.

CONTENT STANDARD D:  Earth and Space Science
As a result of the activity, all students should develop an understanding of: 

             Energy in the earth system 

Heating of earth's surface and atmosphere by the sun drives convection within the atmosphere and oceans, producing winds and ocean currents. 

Global climate is determined by energy transfer from the sun at and near the earth's surface. This energy transfer is influenced by dynamic processes such as cloud cover and the earth's rotation, and static conditions such as the position of mountain ranges and oceans. 

National Math Standards

Math Standards for Grades 6 - 8

Data Analysis and Probability Standard

Formulate questions that can be addressed with data and collect, organize, and display relevant data to answer them: 

formulate questions, design studies, and collect data about a characteristic shared by two populations of different characteristics within one population; 

select, create, and use appropriate graphical representations of data, including histograms, box  plots, and scatterplots. 

find, use, and interpret measures of center and spread, including mean and interquartile range; 

discuss and understand the correspondence between data sets and their graphical representations, especially histograms, stem-and-leaf plots, box plots, and scatterplots. 

use observations about differences between two or more samples to make conjectures about the populations from which the samples were taken; 

 make conjectures about possible relationships between two characteristics of a sample on the basis of scatterplots of the data and approximate lines of fit.

Problem Solving Standard 

build new mathematical knowledge through problem solving; 

solve problems that arise in mathematics and in other contexts; 

apply and adapt a variety of appropriate strategies to solve problems; 

monitor and reflect on the process of mathematical problem solving.

Connections Standard 

recognize and use connections among mathematical ideas; 

understand how mathematical ideas interconnect and build on one another to produce a coherent whole; 

recognize and apply mathematics in contexts outside of mathematics.

Number and Operations Standard 

Understand meanings of operations and how they relate to one another: 

develop an understanding of properties of, and representations for, the addition and multiplication of vectors and matrices. 

develop fluency in operations with real numbers, vectors, and matrices, using mental computation or paper-and-pencil calculations for simple cases and technology for more-complicated cases. 

understand and represent translations, reflections, rotations, and dilations of objects in the plane by using sketches, coordinates, vectors, function notation, and matrices.

Math Standards for Grades 9 - 12

Data Analysis and Probability Standard 

Formulate questions that can be addressed with data and collect, organize, and display relevant data to answer them: 

understand the differences among various kinds of studies and which types of inferences can legitimately be drawn from each; 

understand the meaning of measurement data and categorical data, of univariate and bivariate data, and of the term variable.

 build new mathematical knowledge through problem solving; 

 solve problems that arise in mathematics and in other contexts; 

apply and adapt a variety of appropriate strategies to solve problems; 

monitor and reflect on the process of mathematical problem solving. 

Connections Standard 

 recognize and use connections among mathematical ideas; 

 understand how mathematical ideas interconnect and build on one another to produce a coherent whole; 

recognize and apply mathematics in contexts outside of mathematics.