Montana K–6 science standards

Construct an argument supported by evidence for how plants and animals, including humans, can change the environment to meet their needs.

Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants or animals, including humans, and the places they live.

Communicate ideas about the impact of humans on the land, water, air, or other living things in the local environment.

Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time.

Ask questions to obtain information about the purpose of weather forecasting to predict, prepare for, and respond to weather.

Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals, including humans, need to survive.

Plan and conduct an investigation to compare the effects of different strengths or different directions of pushes and pulls on the motion of an object.

Analyze data to determine whether a design solution works as intended to change the speed or direction of an object with a push or a pull.

Construct an explanation based on observations of the effect of sunlight on earth's surface.

Use tools and materials to design and build a structure to reduce the warming effect of sunlight on an area.

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

Make observations at different times of year to relate the amount of daylight to the time of year.

Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking plant and animal structures and functions that help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.

Use information from print and other media to identify patterns in behavior of parents and offspring that help offspring survive.

Make an evidence-based explanation of how young plants and animals are like, but not exactly like, their parents.

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

Make observations to construct an evidence-based explanation that objects can be seen only when illuminated.

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

Design a solution or build a device that facilitates communication over distance using light or sound.

Use information from several sources to provide evidence that Earth events can occur quickly or slowly.

Construct explanations to compare multiple physical and naturally built designs which impact wind or water's effect on the shape of the land.

Develop models to represent the shapes and kinds of land and bodies of water in an area.

Obtain information to identify where water is found on Earth and that water can be solid, liquid, or gas.

Plan and conduct a cause and effect investigation to determine whether plants need sunlight and water to grow.

Develop a simple model that mimics the structure and function of an animal in dispersing seeds or pollinating plants.

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

Plan and conduct an investigation to describe and classify various materials by their observable properties.

Conduct an investigation and analyze data to determine which materials have the properties best suited for an intended purpose.

Make observations to construct an evidence-based claim of how an object made of a small set of pieces can be disassembled and made into a new object.

Construct an argument with evidence that some changes caused by heating or cooling can be reversed and some cannot.

Obtain and represent data using tables and graphical displays to describe observed and predicted weather conditions during a particular season.

Obtain and combine information to describe climate patterns in different regions of the world.

Make a claim based on information about the merit of a design solution that reduces the impacts of a weather-related hazard.

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

Make a claim about the effectiveness of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changes and that the types of plants and animals that live there may change.

Construct a cause and effect argument communicating some animals, including humans, form groups and communities that help members survive.

Analyze and interpret data from fossils to provide evidence of the organisms and the environments in which they lived long ago.

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

Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of these traits exists in a group of similar organisms.

Use evidence to support the explanation that traits can be influenced by the environment.

Use evidence to construct an explanation for how the variations in characteristics among individuals of the same species may provide advantages in surviving, finding mates, and reproducing.

Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence of the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object.

Observe and record qualitative and quantitative data about an object's motion to provide evidence that a pattern can be used to predict future motion.

Ask questions to determine cause and effect relationships of electric or 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.

Obtain and combine information from a variety of sources to communicate that energy and fuels are derived from natural resources and their uses affect the environment.

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

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

Analyze and interpret data from maps as evidence to make a claim about patterns of Earth's features.

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

Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

Use a model to describe that animals receive different types of information through their senses, process the information in their brain, and respond to the information in different ways.

Use evidence to describe the relationship between the speed of an object and the energy of that object.

Make observations to provide evidence of transfer of energy from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents.

Ask questions and predict outcomes about the changes in energy that occur when objects collide.

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

Develop a model of waves to describe patterns in terms of amplitude and wavelength and that waves can cause objects to move.

Develop a model communicating that light reflected from objects into the eye allows objects to be seen.

Generate and compare multiple solutions that use patterns to transfer information.

Develop a model using an example to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, or atmosphere interact.

Graph and explain the proportion and quantities of water and fresh water in various natural and human-made reservoirs to provide evidence about the distribution of water on Earth.

Obtain and combine information from various sources about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth's resources, environment, and systems and describe examples of how American Indians use scientific knowledge and practices to maintain relationships with the natural world.

Use evidence or models to support the claim that differences in the apparent brightness of the sun compared to other stars is due to their relative distances from Earth.

Graph the daily changes in the length, shape, and direction of shadows; lengths of day and night; and the seasonal appearance of select stars to communicate the patterns of the Earth's movement and describe how astronomical knowledge is used by American Indians.

Support an argument that plants get the materials they need for growth chiefly from air and water.

Develop and critique a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.

Develop a model to communicate that matter is made of particles too small to be seen.

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

Observe and record qualitative and quantitative evidence to support identification of materials based on their properties.

Conduct an investigation that produces quantitative and qualitative data to analyze whether the mixing of two or more substances results in new substances.

Use models to describe that energy in animals' food was once energy from the sun.

Support an argument that the gravitational force exerted by Earth on objects is directed toward the center of the Earth.

Develop and use a model of the Earth-sun-moon system to describe the cyclic patterns of lunar phases, eclipses of the sun and moon, and seasons.

Develop and use a model to describe the role of gravity in the motions within galaxies and the solar system.

Analyze and interpret data to determine scale properties of objects in the solar system.

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.

Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth's surface at varying time scales and spatial scales.

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

Develop a model to describe the cycling of earth's materials and the flow of energy that drives this process.

Develop a model to describe the cycling of water through Earth's systems driven by energy from the sun and the force of gravity.

Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how the uneven distributions of Earth's mineral, energy, and groundwater resources are the result of past and current geoscience processes.

Collect data to provide evidence for how the motions and complex interactions of air masses result in changes in weather conditions.

Develop and use a model to describe how unequal heating and rotation of the Earth cause patterns of atmospheric and oceanic circulation that determine regional climates.

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.

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

Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth's systems including indigenous populations.

Conduct an investigation to provide evidence that living things are made of cells, either one cell or many different numbers and types of cells.

Develop and use a model to describe the structure and function of a cell as a whole and ways parts of cells contribute to the function.

Use argument supported by evidence for how the body is a system of interacting subsystems composed of groups of cells.

Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for the role of photosynthesis in the cycling of matter and flow of energy into and out of organisms.

Develop a model to describe how food is rearranged through chemical reactions forming new molecules that support growth, release energy, or both, as this matter moves through an organism.

Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem and analyze scientific concepts used by American Indians to maintain healthy relationships with environmental sources.

Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.

Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.

Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Use argument based on empirical evidence and scientific reasoning to support an explanation for how characteristic animal behaviors and specialized plant structures affect the probability of successful reproduction of animals and plants respectively.

Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how environmental and genetic factors influence the growth and development of organisms.

Develop and use a model to describe why structural changes to genes, such as mutations, may affect proteins and may result in harmful, beneficial, or neutral effects to the structure and function of the organism.

Develop and use a model to describe why asexual reproduction results in offspring with identical genetic information and sexual reproduction results in offspring with genetic variation.

Gather and synthesize information about the technologies that have changed the way humans influence the inheritance of desired traits in organisms.

Analyze and interpret data for patterns in the fossil record that document the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of life forms throughout the history of life on Earth under the assumption that natural laws operate today as in the past.

Apply scientific ideas to construct an explanation for the anatomical similarities and differences among modern organisms and between modern and fossil organisms to infer evolutionary relationships.

Analyze displays of pictorial data to compare patterns of similarities in the embryological development across multiple species to identify relationships not evident in the fully formed anatomy.

Construct an explanation based on evidence that describes how genetic variations of traits in a population increase some individuals' probability of surviving and reproducing in a specific environment.

Use mathematical representations to support explanations of how natural selection may lead to increases and decreases of specific traits in populations over time.

Develop and critique models that describe the atomic composition of simple molecules and extended structures.

Analyze and interpret data on the properties of substances before and after the substances interact to determine if a chemical reaction has occurred.

Gather information to describe that synthetic materials come from natural resources and impact society.

Develop a model that predicts and describes changes in particle motion, temperature, and state of a pure substance when thermal energy is added or removed.

Develop, use, and critique a model to describe how the total number of atoms does not change in a chemical reaction and thus mass is conserved.

Undertake a design project to construct, test, and modify a device that either releases or absorbs thermal energy by chemical processes.

Apply Newton's Third Law of Motion to design a solution to a problem involving the motion of two colliding objects.

Plan an investigation to provide evidence that the change in an object's motion depends on the sum of the forces on the object and the mass of the object.

Ask questions about data to determine the factors affecting electric and magnetic force strengths.

Construct and present arguments using evidence to support the claim that gravitational interactions are attractive and depend on the mass of interacting objects.

Design and conduct an investigation to provide evidence that fields exist between objects exerting forces on each other even though the objects are not in contact.

Construct and interpret graphic displays of data to describe the relationships of kinetic energy to the mass of an object and to the speed of an object.

Develop and critique models to describe that when the arrangement of objects interacting at a distance changes, different amounts of potential energy are stored in the system.

Apply scientific principles to design, construct, and test a device that minimizes or maximizes thermal energy transfer.

Plan an investigation to determine the relationships among the energy transferred, the type of matter, the mass, and the change in the average kinetic energy of the particles as measured by the temperature of the sample.

Construct, use, and present arguments to support the claim that when the kinetic energy of an object changes, energy is transferred to or from the object.

Use mathematical representations to describe a simple model for waves that includes how the amplitude and wavelength of a wave is related to the energy in a wave.

Develop and use a model to describe that waves are reflected, absorbed, or transmitted through various materials.