Tennessee K–6 science standards

Make observations to gather weather data (i.e. precipitation, wind, temperature, cloud cover) using tools (e.g. thermometer, rain gauge).

Use simple graphs and pictorial weather symbols to describe weather patterns that occur over time (i.e. hourly, daily).

Develop and use models to predict weather and identify patterns in spring, summer, autumn, and winter.

Use a model to represent the way the environment meets the basic needs (shelter, food, water) of living things (including humans) and the places they live.

Explain the purpose of weather forecasting to prepare for, and respond to, severe weather in Tennessee.

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

Apply an engineering design approach to identify and solve practical problems.

Use drawings and labels to communicate ideas and designs accurately.

Ask and answer questions about the scientific world and gather information using the senses.

Use appropriate tools (e.g. magnifying glass, rain gauge, basic balance scale) to make observations and answer testable scientific questions.

Use information from observations to identify the differences between plants and animals and how they live and grow.

Recognize differences between living organisms and non-living materials and sort them into groups by observable physical attributes.

Explain how animals, including humans, use their five senses to interact with the environment.

Collect and analyze observational data to show that young living things are like, but not exactly like, their parents.

Plan and conduct an investigation using patterns to classify different kinds of materials by their observable properties (i.e. absorbency, color, texture, hardness, and flexibility), by their uses, and by whether they occur naturally or are manufactured.

Conduct investigations to understand that matter can exist in different states (i.e. solid and liquid) and has properties that can be observed and tested.

Construct an evidence-based account of how an object made of a small set of pieces (e.g. blocks, snap cubes) can be disassembled and made into a new object.

Record data from an investigation using senses to detect light, sound, and vibrations and communicate observations.

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

Observe natural objects in the sky that can be seen from Earth with the naked eye and recognize that a telescope, used as a tool, can provide greater detail of objects in the sky.

Make observations to predict patterns between sunrise and sunset, and the change of seasons.

Apply an engineering design approach to identify and solve practical problems.

Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved.

Develop a simple sketch, drawing, or physical model that communicates solutions to others.

Develop and use a model to explain the structure of plants (i.e., roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits) and describe the function of the parts (taking in water and air, producing food, making new plants).

Observe and analyze how living organisms grow and change over time.

Analyze and interpret data from observations to describe how plants respond to changes in the environment (e.g., turn leaves toward the sun).

Conduct an experiment to show how plants depend on air, water, minerals from soil, and light to grow and thrive.

Obtain and communicate information to classify plants by where they grow (i.e., water, land) and the plant’s physical characteristics.

Develop and use models to show how plants and animals depend on their surroundings and other living things to meet their needs in the places they live.

Make observations to determine how sunlight warms Earth’s surfaces (i.e. sand, soil, rocks, and water).

Make observations to construct an evidence-based account that objects are visible when light shines on them or if they produce their own light (e.g., very hot objects), and that different amounts of light influence what we can see.

Conduct an investigation to describe how the path of a beam of light can be changed by interactions with different materials (i.e. light passes through, some light passes through, light changes directions, or light is blocked which can cause shadows).

Recognize that some of Earth’s natural processes are cyclical, while others have a beginning and an end. Some events happen quickly, while others occur slowly over time.

Compare the effectiveness of multiple solutions designed to slow or prevent wind or water from changing the shape of the land.

Observe and analyze how blowing wind and flowing water can move Earth materials (soil, rocks) from one place to another, changing the shape of a landform and affecting the habitats of living things.

Develop and compare simple maps of different land areas to observe the shapes and kinds of land (rock, soil, sand) and water (river, stream, lake, pond).

Use information obtained from reliable sources to explain that water is found in the ocean, rivers, streams, lakes, and ponds, and may be solid or liquid.

Apply an engineering design approach to identify and solve practical problems.

Recognize that to solve a problem, one may need to break the problem into parts, address each part, and then bring the parts back together.

Compare and contrast solutions to a design problem by using evidence to point out strengths and weaknesses of the design.

Use appropriate tools to make observations, record data, and refine design ideas.

Predict and explain how human life and the natural world would be different without current technologies.

Use evidence and observations to explain that many animals use their body parts and senses in different ways to see, hear, grasp objects, protect themselves, move from place to place, and seek, find, and take in food, water, and air.

Obtain and communicate information to classify animals (i.e., vertebrates: mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, fish; and invertebrates: insects) based on their physical characteristics.

Identify ways in which some animals, both parents and offspring, participate in behaviors that help the offspring survive.

Develop and use models to compare how animals depend on their surroundings and other living things to meet their needs in the places they live.

Predict what happens to animals when the environment changes (temperature, cutting down trees, wildfires, pollution, salinity, drought, land preservation).

Analyze the push or the pull that occurs when objects collide or are connected.

Plan and carry out an investigation to demonstrate how pushing and/or pulling an object affects the motion of the object within a system.

Demonstrate how a stronger push or pull makes things go faster and how faster speeds during a collision can cause a bigger change in the shape of the colliding objects.

Make observations and conduct experiments to provide evidence that friction produces heat and reduces or increases the motion of an object.

Plan and conduct investigations to demonstrate the cause and effect relationship between vibrating materials and sound.

Use tools and materials to design and build a device to understand that light and sound travel in waves and can send signals over a distance.

Obtain information to describe how devices communicate over a distance using light or sound.

Use data to categorize different bodies in our solar system including inner and outer planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and meteoroids according to their physical properties and motion.

Develop a model to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and/or atmosphere interact.

Develop a model to describe the cycling of water through Earth's spheres driven by energy from the sun.

Use tables, graphs, and tools to describe precipitation, temperature, clouds, and wind (i.e., direction and speed) to predict local weather and climate.

Incorporate weather data to describe major climates (e.g., polar, temperate, tropical) in different regions of the world.

Evaluate existing solutions that reduce the impact of natural hazards (e.g., fires, landslides, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, severe weather) on the environment.

Design a solution to a real-world problem that includes specified criteria and constraints.

Apply evidence or research to support a design solution.

Use graphical representations to compare how species including humans and other organisms have unique and diverse life cycles.

Analyze the internal and external structures that aquatic and land organisms have to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

Obtain information to compare various ways that groups organize (e.g., specialized roles for members vs same roles for members) to explain the benefits of animal group behavior.

Use evidence to explain the cause and effect relationship between a naturally changing habitat and how well an organism survives.

Use evidence to determine the changes between an environment's biodiversity and human resources.

Develop a model of solids, liquids, and gasses to describe that each state of matter is made of particles too small to be seen.

Construct an explanation about the effects of heating and cooling a substance differentiating between changes that can be reversed (i.e., freezing & melting) and those that cannot (e.g., baking a cake or burning fuel).

Construct an argument based on evidence that materials have both fixed and changing properties, some of which are useful for identification of a material.

Explain cause and effect relationships of forces that cannot be seen including interactions between two objects not in contact with each other (i.e., static electricity, magnetism and gravity).

Make observations of sound, light, heat, and motion to collect evidence that energy is present in a system.

Develop a model to show that energy can be transferred from place to place by electric currents in a system (e.g., open, closed, simple, parallel, series circuits).

Evaluate how magnets cause changes in the motion and position of objects, even when the objects are not touching the magnet.

Generate and support a claim with evidence that over long periods of time, erosion (i.e., weathering and transportation) and deposition have changed landscapes and created new landforms.

Use evidence from the presence and location of fossils to determine the order in which rock strata were formed.

Collect and analyze data from observations to provide evidence that rocks, soils, and sediments are broken into smaller pieces through mechanical weathering (e.g., frost wedging, abrasion, tree root wedging) and are transported by water, ice, wind, gravity, and vegetation.

Explain how data from maps and other reliable sources can be used to determine patterns for the locations of mountain ranges, deep ocean trenches, volcanoes, and earthquakes.

Provide examples to support the claim that organisms affect the physical characteristics of their regions (e.g., plants’ roots hold soil in place, beaver shelters alter the flow of water, paved surfaces affect runoff, leaves from trees can obstruct waterways).

Obtain and combine information to describe that energy, fuels, and materials are derived from natural resources and that some resources are renewable (e.g., sunlight, wind, water) and some are not (e.g., fossil fuels and minerals).

Engage in an argument, using evidence from research, that human activity (e.g., farming, mining, building) can affect the land and ocean in positive and/or negative ways.

Categorize the effectiveness of design solutions by testing and comparing them to specified criteria and constraints.

Explain how existing technologies have been designed or improved to increase their benefits, to decrease known risks, and to meet societal demands (e.g., artificial limbs, seatbelts, cell phones).

Develop and use models to illustrate the flow of matter through a food web/food chain beginning with sunlight and including producers, consumers, and decomposers.

Using information about the roles of organisms (producers, consumers, decomposers) in an ecosystem, evaluate how those roles are interconnected in a food web, and communicate how the organisms are continuously able to meet their needs in a stable food web.

Develop and use models to determine the effects of introducing a species to, or removing a species from, an ecosystem and how either one can damage the balance of an ecosystem.

Analyze and interpret data about changes in the environment to explain how some organisms may survive and reproduce, some may not survive, others move to new locations, yet others move into the transformed environment.

Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about what a fossil is and ways a fossil can provide information about the past, such as a) the nature of environments and b) animals that existed long ago but no longer exist.

Use evidence to explain the cause and effect relationship between the speed of an object and the energy of an object.

Carry out an investigation to show how faster speeds during a collision can cause a bigger change in the shape of the colliding objects.

Describe how stored energy can be converted into another form for practical use in a system.

Use a model of a simple wave to describe amplitude, wavelength, and explain how waves can add or cancel each other as they cross.

Construct an explanation for how the colors of available light sources and the bending of light waves determine what we see.

Investigate how lenses enhance human senses and digital devices (e.g., computers and cell phones) use waves to receive and decode information over distances.

Explain that differences in the apparent brightness of the sun compared to other stars is due to their relative distances from the Earth.

Research and explain the position of the Earth and the solar system within the Milky Way galaxy, and compare the size and shape of the Milky Way to other galaxies in the universe.

Use a model to explain how the orbit of the Earth and sun cause observable patterns: a. day and night; b. changes in length and direction of shadows over a day.

Explain the cause and effect relationship between the positions of the sun, earth, and moon and resulting eclipses, tides, and appearance of the moon.

Relate the tilt of the Earth’s axis, as it revolves around the sun, to the varying intensities of sunlight at different latitudes. Evaluate how this causes changes in day-lengths and seasons.

Use tools to describe the position of constellations and how they appear to move from the Earth’s perspective throughout the seasons.

Plan and carry out tests on one or more elements of a prototype in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify which elements need to be improved. Apply the results of tests to redesign the prototype.

Use appropriate tools to make measurements and answer testable questions.

Compare and contrast animal responses that are instinctual versus those that are learned by gathering information through the senses, which is then processed in the brain and stored as memories to guide their actions.

Distinguish between inherited characteristics and those characteristics that result from a direct interaction with the environment. Apply this concept by giving examples of characteristics of living organisms that are influenced by both inheritance and the environment.

Provide evidence and analyze data that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variations of these traits exist in a group of similar organisms.

Use evidence to construct an explanation for how variations in characteristics among individuals within the same species may provide advantages to these individuals in their survival and reproduction.

Analyze and interpret data from observations and measurements of the physical properties of matter to explain phase changes between a solid, liquid, or gas.

Analyze and interpret data to show that the amount of matter is conserved even when it changes form, including transitions where matter seems to vanish.

Construct an argument using the physical properties of matter that combining substances may or may not result in a new substance.

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

Make observations and measurements of an object’s motion to provide evidence that a pattern can be used to predict future motion.

Use evidence to support that the gravitational force exerted by Earth on objects is directed toward the Earth’s center.

Explain how forces can create patterns within a system (moving in one direction, shifting back and forth, or moving in cycles), and describe conditions that affect how fast or slowly these patterns occur.

Use data to explain the consumption and sustainability of natural resources (non-renewable and renewable) and the resulting impact on Earth’s system.

Investigate and compare existing and developing technologies that utilize renewable and alternative energy resources.

Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about the impacts of human activities on the biosphere including conservation, habitat management, species endangerment, and extinction.

Design, evaluate, and improve a possible solution for maintaining biodiversity of ecosystems.

Design, construct, and test a device that either minimizes or maximizes thermal energy transfer by combining solutions or parts of solutions to solve a problem that can be communicated and explained to others.

Use data to evaluate and communicate the impact of environmental variables, both living and nonliving (e.g., food, water, oxygen, and other resources), on population size within a system.

Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of competitive, symbiotic, and predatory interactions among organisms across ecosystems.

Use a model to construct an explanation about the transfer of energy through a food web and energy pyramid in an ecosystem.

Construct an explanation that uses abiotic (e.g., precipitation, temperature, soil) and biotic (e.g., biodiversity, number of organisms) patterns in earth’s terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems (e.g., tundra, taiga, deciduous forest, desert, grasslands, rainforest, marine, and freshwater) as measures of ecosystem health.

Analyze existing evidence about the effect of a specific invasive species on native populations in Tennessee and design a solution to mitigate its impact.

Diagram oceanic and atmospheric convection patterns in a system that flow due to uneven heating of the earth.

Gather evidence to justify that oceanic convection currents in a system are caused by the sun's transfer of thermal energy and differences in salinity leading to global water movement.

Construct an explanation for how atmospheric flow, geographic features, and ocean currents affect the climate of a region through heat transfer.

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

Analyze and interpret data to determine the impact of humans and other organisms on the water cycle, landforms (e.g., rain shadow effect) and atmospheric systems.

Develop a model to explain the role of greenhouse gases in regulating the Earth’s average surface temperature and keeping it habitable.

Collect data to provide evidence for how the interactions of air masses result in changes in local weather conditions and how that data can be used to predict probable local weather patterns.

Analyze the sources of energy in a system to gather evidence supporting that energy is conserved during transfers of kinetic, potential (elastic, gravitational, and chemical), and/or thermal energy.

Use a model to gather evidence to support changes to a system can be caused by transfers of sound or thermal energy (i.e., conduction, convection, or radiation).