Kindergarten

Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions

Energy

From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes

Earth’s Systems

Earth and Human Activity

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 if a design solution works as intended to change the speed or direction of an object with a push or a pull.* 

Make observations to determine the effect of sunlight on Earth’s surface. 

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

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

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

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.

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

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

[Clarification Statement:] Examples of pushes or pulls could include a string attached to an object being pulled, a person pushing an object, a person stopping a rolling ball, and two objects colliding and pushing on each other.

[Assessment Boundary:] Assessment is limited to different relative strengths or different directions, but not both at the same time. Assessment does not include non-contact pushes or pulls such as those produced by magnets.

Examples of problems requiring a solution could include having a marble or other object move a certain distance, follow a particular path, and knock down other objects. Examples of solutions could include tools such as a ramp to increase the speed of the object and a structure that would cause an object such as a marble or ball to turn.

Assessment does not include friction as a mechanism for change in speed.

Examples of Earth’s surface could include sand, soil, rocks, and water.

Assessment of temperature is limited to relative measures such as warmer/cooler.

Examples of structures could include umbrellas, canopies, and tents that minimize the warming effect of the sun.

Examples of patterns could include that animals need to take in food but plants do not; the different kinds of food needed by different types of animals; the requirement of plants to have light; and, that all living things need water.

Examples of qualitative observations could include descriptions of the weather (such as sunny, cloudy, rainy, and warm); examples of quantitative observations could include numbers of sunny, windy, and rainy days in a month. Examples of patterns could include that it is usually cooler in the morning than in the afternoon and the number of sunny days versus cloudy days in different months.

Assessment of quantitative observations limited to whole numbers and relative measures such as warmer/cooler.

Examples of plants and animals changing their environment could include a squirrel digs in the ground to hide its food and tree roots can break concrete.

Examples of relationships could include that deer eat buds and leaves, therefore, they usually live in forested areas; and, grasses need sunlight so they often grow in meadows. Plants, animals, and their surroundings make up a system.

Emphasis is on local forms of severe weather.

Examples of human impact on the land could include cutting trees to produce paper and using resources to produce bottles. Examples of solutions could include reusing paper and recycling cans and bottles.