Minnesota K–6 science standards

Ask questions to obtain information from weather forecasts to prepare for and respond to severe weather.

Ask questions about how a person may reduce the amount of natural resources the individual uses.

Make daily and seasonal observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time.

Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats.

Record and use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.

Develop a simple model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants and animals (including humans) and the places they live.

Collect and organize observational data to determine the effect of sunlight on Earth's surface.

Sort objects in terms of natural/human-made, color, size, shape, and texture, then communicate the reasoning for the sorting system.

Identify and describe patterns that emerge from the effects of different strengths or different directions of pushes and pulls on the motion of an object.

Design and build a structure to reduce the warming effect of sunlight on Earth's surface.

Construct an argument supported by evidence for whether a design solution works as intended to change the speed or direction of an object with a push or a pull.

Communicate design ideas for a structure that reduces the warming effect of sunlight on Earth's surface.

Use quantitative data to identify and describe patterns in the amount of time it takes for Earth processes to occur and determine whether they occur quickly or slowly.

Construct an argument based on observational evidence for how plants and animals (including humans) can change the non-living aspects of the environment to meet their needs.

Construct an argument with evidence to evaluate multiple solutions designed to slow or prevent wind or water from changing the shape of the land.

Communicate solutions that will reduce the impact of humans on the land, water, air, and/or other living things in the local environment.

Ask questions based on observations about the similarities and differences between young plants and animals and their parents.

Develop a simple model based on evidence to represent how plants or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.

Plan and design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.

Obtain information using various features of texts and other media to determine patterns in the behavior of parents and offspring that help offspring survive.

Plan and conduct investigations to provide evidence that vibrating materials can make sound and that sound can make materials vibrate.

Identify and describe patterns obtained from testing different materials and determine which materials have the properties that are best suited for producing and/or transmitting sound.

Design and build a device that uses light or sound to solve the problem of communicating over a distance.

Communicate solutions that use materials to provide shelter, food, or warmth needs for communities including Minnesota American Indian Tribes and communities.

Represent data to describe typical weather conditions expected during a particular season.

Analyze data from tests of objects designed to reduce the impacts of weather-related hazards and compare the strengths and weaknesses of how each performs.

Obtain and use information from multiple sources to identify where water is found on Earth.

Obtain and use information from multiple sources, including electronic sources, to describe climates in different regions of the world.

Engineer a device that mimics the structures and functions of plants or animals in seed dispersal.

Construct an argument with evidence that evaluates how in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.

Ask questions about an object's motion based on observation that can be answered by an investigation.

Plan and conduct an investigation to describe how heating and cooling affects different kinds of materials based upon their observable properties.

Identify and predict quantitative patterns of the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object.

Develop a simple diagram or physical model to illustrate how some changes caused by heating or cooling can be reversed and some cannot.

Obtain information and communicate how Minnesota American Indian Tribes and communities and other cultures apply knowledge of the natural world in determining which materials have the properties that are best suited for an intended purpose.

Record observations of the sun, moon, and stars and use them to describe patterns that can be predicted.

Organize and electronically present collected data to identify and describe patterns in the amount of daylight in different times of the year.

Gather information and communicate how Minnesota American Indian Tribes and communities and other cultures use patterns in stars to make predictions and plans.

Plan and conduct an investigation to determine how amounts of sunlight and water impact the growth of a plant.

Develop multiple models to describe how organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have birth, growth, reproduction, and death in common.

Construct an explanation using evidence from various sources for how the variations in characteristics among individuals of the same species may provide advantages in surviving, finding mates, and reproducing.

Construct an argument about strategies animals use to survive.

Obtain information from various types of media to support an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

Ask questions based on observations about why objects in darkness can be seen only when illuminated.

Plan and conduct a controlled investigation to determine the effect of placing objects made with different materials in the path of a beam of light.

Develop a model to describe that light reflecting from objects and entering the eye allows objects to be seen.

Ask questions about how water moves through the Earth system and identify the type of question.

Make observations and measurements to provide evidence of the effects of weathering or the rate of erosion by the forces of water, ice, wind, or vegetation.

Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to improve a model or prototype to prevent erosion.

Interpret charts, maps and/or graphs of the amounts of salt water and fresh water in various reservoirs to provide evidence about the distribution of water on Earth.

Develop a model based in part on student observations or data to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere interact.

Identify evidence from patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers to support an explanation for changes in a landscape over time.

Generate and compare multiple solutions to reduce the impacts of natural Earth processes on humans.

Read and comprehend grade appropriate complex texts and/or other reliable media to describe that energy and fuels are derived from natural resources and their uses affect the environment.

Obtain and combine multiple sources of information about ways individual communities, including Minnesota American Indian Tribes and communities and other cultures, use evidence and scientific principles to make decisions about the uses of Earth's resources.

Construct or support an argument that traits can be influenced by different environments.

Obtain information from various media sources to determine that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of these traits exists in a group of similar organisms.

Ask questions to determine cause and effect relationships of electric and magnetic interactions between two objects not in contact with each other.

Define a simple design problem that can be solved by applying scientific ideas about magnets.

Use data to describe patterns in the daily changes in length and direction of shadows, day and night, and the seasonal appearance of some stars in the night sky.

Use evidence to support an argument that the apparent brightness of the Sun and stars is due to their relative distances from Earth.

Plan and conduct an investigation to obtain evidence that plants get the materials they need for growth chiefly from air and water.

Create an electronic visualization of the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.

Evaluate the merit of a solution to a problem caused by changes in plant and animal populations as a result of environmental changes.

Ask investigatable questions and predict reasonable outcomes about the changes in energy, related to speed, that occur when objects interact.

Conduct an investigation to determine whether the mixing of two or more substances results in new substances.

Evaluate appropriate methods and tools to identify materials based on their properties prior to investigation.

Analyze and interpret data to show that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents.

Measure and graph quantities to provide evidence that regardless of the type of change that occurs when heating, cooling, or mixing substances, the total weight of matter is conserved.

Develop and refine a model to describe that matter is made of particles too small to be seen.

Use models to describe that energy in animals' food (used for body repair, growth, and motion and to maintain body warmth) was once energy from the Sun.

Construct an explanation based on evidence relating the speed of an object to the energy of that object.

Students will be able to use their understanding of scientific principles and the engineering design process to design solutions that meet established criteria and constraints.

Apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another.

Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.

Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects.

Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how the uneven distribution of Earth's mineral, energy, or groundwater resources is the result of past geological processes.

Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.

Ask questions to examine an interpretation about the relative ages of different rock layers within a sequence of several rock layers.

Collect data and use digital data analysis tools to identify patterns to provide evidence for how the motions and complex interactions of air masses result in changes in weather conditions.

Analyze and interpret data on the distribution of fossils, rocks, continental shapes, and seafloor structures to provide evidence of past plate motions.

Develop a model, based on observational evidence, to describe the cycling and movement of Earth's rock material and the energy that drives these processes.

Develop a model, based on observational and experimental evidence, to describe the cycling of water through Earth's systems driven by energy from the Sun and the force of gravity.

Construct an argument, supported by evidence, for how geoscience processes have changed Earth's surface at varying time and spatial scales.

Ask questions that arise from observations of patterns in the movement of night sky objects to test the limitations of a solar system model.

Analyze and interpret data to determine similarities and differences among features and processes occurring on solar system objects.

Develop and use scale models of solar system objects to describe the sizes of objects, the location of objects, and the motion of the objects; and include the role that gravity and inertia play in controlling that motion.

Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence from rock strata for how the geologic time scale is used to organize Earth's 4.6-billion-year-old history.

Communicate how a series of models, including those used by Minnesota American Indian Tribes and communities and other cultures, are used to explain how motion in the Earth-Sun-Moon system causes the cyclic patterns of lunar phases, eclipses and seasons.