I: Students will understand the nature of changes in matter.

I.1: Describe the chemical and physical properties of various substances.

I.1.a: Differentiate between chemical and physical properties.

Mineral Identification

I.1.b: Classify substances based on their chemical and physical properties (e.g., reacts with water, does not react with water, flammable or nonflammable, hard or soft, flexible or nonflexible, evaporates or melts at room temperature).

Mineral Identification

I.2: Observe and evaluate evidence of chemical and physical change.

I.2.a: Identify observable evidence of a physical change (e.g., change in shape, size, phase).

Phase Changes

I.2.b: Identify observable evidence of a chemical change (e.g., color change, heat or light given off, change in odor, gas given off).

Chemical Changes

I.2.c: Observe and describe chemical reactions involving atmospheric oxygen (e.g., rust, fire, respiration, photosynthesis).

Cell Energy Cycle
Photosynthesis Lab

I.3: Investigate and measure the effects of increasing or decreasing the amount of energy in a physical or chemical change, and relate the kind of energy added to the motion of the particles.

I.3.a: Identify the kinds of energy (e.g., heat, light, sound) given off or taken in when a substance undergoes a chemical or physical change.

Energy Conversion in a System

I.3.e: Plan and conduct an experiment, and report the effect of adding or removing energy on the chemical and physical changes.

Chemical Changes

I.4: Identify the observable features of chemical reactions.

I.4.b: Cite examples of common significant chemical reactions (e.g., photosynthesis, respiration, combustion, rusting) in daily life.

Cell Energy Cycle
Photosynthesis Lab

I.4.c: Demonstrate that mass is conserved in a chemical reaction (e.g., mix two solutions that result in a color change or formation of a precipitate and weigh the solutions before and after mixing).

Chemical Changes
Chemical Equations

II: Students will understand that energy from sunlight is changed to chemical energy in plants, transfers between living organisms, and that changing the environment may alter the amount of energy provided to living organisms.

II.1: Compare ways that plants and animals obtain and use energy.

II.1.a: Recognize the importance of photosynthesis in using light energy as part of the chemical process that builds plant materials.

Cell Energy Cycle
Photosynthesis Lab

II.1.c: Trace the path of energy from the sun to mechanical energy in an organism (e.g., sunlight - light energy to plants by photosynthesis to sugars - stored chemical energy to respiration in muscle cell - usable chemical energy to muscle contraction- mechanical energy).

Cell Energy Cycle

II.2: Generalize the dependent relationships between organisms.

II.2.a: Categorize the relationships between organisms (i.e., producer/consumer, predator/prey, mutualism, parasitism) and provide examples of each.

Food Chain
Forest Ecosystem
Prairie Ecosystem

II.2.b: Use models to trace the flow of energy in food chains and food webs.

Food Chain
Forest Ecosystem

II.2.c: Formulate and test a hypothesis on the effects of air, temperature, water, or light on plants (e.g., seed germination, growth rates, seasonal adaptations).

Effect of Temperature on Gender
Germination
Seed Germination

II.3: Analyze human influence on the capacity of an environment to sustain living things.

II.3.a: Describe specific examples of how humans have changed the capacity of an environment to support specific life forms (e.g., people create wetlands and nesting boxes that increase the number and range of wood ducks, acid rain damages amphibian eggs and reduces population of frogs, clear cutting forests affects squirrel populations, suburban sprawl reduces mule deer winter range thus decreasing numbers of deer).

Coral Reefs 1 - Abiotic Factors
Coral Reefs 2 - Biotic Factors
Pond Ecosystem
Rabbit Population by Season
Water Pollution

III: Students will understand the processes of rock and fossil formation.

III.1: Compare rocks and minerals and describe how they are related.

III.1.c: Categorize rock samples as sedimentary, metamorphic, or igneous.

Rock Classification

III.2: Describe the nature of the changes that rocks undergo over long periods of time.

III.2.b: Describe the role of energy in the processes that change rock materials over time.

Rock Cycle

III.4: Compare rapid and gradual changes to Earth's surface.

III.4.e: Model how small changes over time add up to major changes to Earth’s surface.

Rock Cycle

IV: Students will understand the relationships among energy, force, and motion.

IV.1: Investigate the transfer of energy through various materials.

IV.1.b: Compare the transfer of energy (i.e., sound, light, earthquake waves, heat) through various mediums.

Earthquakes 1 - Recording Station
Heat Absorption
Longitudinal Waves
Radiation

IV.1.d: Compare the transfer of heat by conduction, convection, and radiation and provide examples of each.

Conduction and Convection
Heat Transfer by Conduction
Radiation

IV.1.e: Demonstrate how white light can be separated into the visible color spectrum.

Additive Colors
Basic Prism

IV.2: Examine the force exerted on objects by gravity.

IV.2.b: Cite examples of how Earth’s gravitational force on an object depends upon the mass of the object.

Gravitational Force

IV.2.c: Describe how Earth’s gravitational force on an object depends upon the distance of the object from Earth.

Free Fall Tower
Free-Fall Laboratory
Gravitational Force

IV.3: Investigate the application of forces that act on objects, and the resulting motion.

IV.3.a: Calculate the mechanical advantage created by a lever.

Levers

IV.3.b: Engineer a device that uses levers or inclined planes to create a mechanical advantage.

Levers

IV.4: Analyze various forms of energy and how living organisms sense and respond to energy.

IV.4.a: Analyze the cyclic nature of potential and kinetic energy (e.g., a bouncing ball, a pendulum).

Energy of a Pendulum
Roller Coaster Physics

IV.4.b: Trace the conversion of energy from one form of energy to another (e.g., light to chemical to mechanical).

Energy Conversion in a System
Inclined Plane - Sliding Objects