Standard 1 Science As Inquiry:
As a result of their activities in grades 9-12, all students will develop the abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry and understandings about scientific inquiry.
Benchmark 1
Students will demonstrate the fundamental abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry.
Indicator 1
The students will develop a rich understanding and curiosity of the natural material) world through experience.
Indicator 2
The students will develop questions and identify concepts that guide scientific investigations.
Indicator 3
The students will design and conduct scientific investigations.
Indicator 4
The students will use technology and mathematics to improve investigations and communications.
Indicator 5
The students will formulate and revise scientific explanations and models using logic and evidence.
Indicator 6
The students will recognize and analyze alternative explanations and models.
Indicator 7
The students will communicate and defend a scientific argument
Standard 2 Earth And Space Science:
As a result of their activities in grades 9-12, students will develop an understanding of energy in the earth system, geochemical cycles, the formation and organization of the earth system, and the organization and development of the universe.
Benchmark 1
Students should develop an understanding of the actions and the interactions of the earth's subsystems: the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere.
Indicator 1
The students will understand the composition and structure of earth's atmosphere.
Indicator 2
The students will understand severe storms and safety precautions.
Indicator 3
The students will understand basic weather forecasting, weather maps, fronts, and pressure systems.
Benchmark 2
Students should develop an understanding of the universe and its development.
Indicator 1
The students will understand the organization of the universe.
The sun is an ordinary star. It appears that many stars have planets orbiting them. Our galaxy (The Milky Way) contains about 100 billion stars. Galaxies are a level of organization of the universe. There are at least 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe. Galaxies are organized into large superclusters with large voids between them.
Indicator 2
The students will understand expansion of the universe from a hot dense early state.
By studying the light emitted from distant galaxies, it has been found that galaxies are moving apart from one another. Cosmological understanding including the Big Bang Theory is based on this expansion.
Indicator 3
The students will understand the organization and development of stars, solar systems, and planets.
Nebula from which stars and planets form, are mostly hydrogen and helium. Heavier elements were, and continue to be, made by the nuclear fusion reactions in stars. The sun is a second generation star, which along with itÆs planets was formed billions of years after the Big Bang.
Indicator 4
The student will understand general methods of the exploration of our solar system and space as well as the importance of such exploration.
Standard 3 Science In Personal And Environmental Perspectives:
As a result of their activities in grades 9-12, all students will develop an understanding of personal and community health, population growth, natural resources, environmental quality, natural and human-induced hazards, and science and technology in local, national, and global settings.
Benchmark 1
Students should develop an understanding of the relationship between science, technology, and society.
Indicator 1
The students will understand that science and technology are essential components of modern society. Science and technology indicate what can happen, not what should happen. The latter involves human decisions about the use of knowledge.
Benchmark 2
Students should develop an understanding of the relationship between science, technology, and society.
Indicator 2
The students will understand that understanding basic concepts and principles of science and technology should precede active debate about the economics, policies, politics, and ethics of various challenges related to science and technology.
Benchmark 3
Students should develop an understanding of the relationship between science, technology, and society.
Indicator 3
The students will understand that progress in science and technology can be affected by social issues and challenges.
Standard 4 History And Nature of Science:
As a result of activities in grades 9-12, all students will develop understanding of science as a human endeavor, the nature of scientific knowledge, and historical perspectives.
Benchmark 1
Students will develop an understanding of the nature of scientific knowledge.
Indicator 1
The students will demonstrate an understanding of the nature of scientific knowledge.
Scientific knowledge is generally empirically based, logical, skeptical, and consistent with observable reality. Scientific knowledge is subject to experimental or observational confirmation. Scientific knowledge is built on past understanding and can be refined and augmented.
Benchmark 2
Students will understand science from the historical perspective.
Indicator 1
The students will demonstrate an understanding of the history of science.
Modern science has been a successful enterprise that contributes to dramatic improvements in the human condition. Science progresses by incremental advances of scientists or teams of scientists. Some advances that are fundamental and long-lasting include: Copernican revolution, Newtonian physics, relativity, geological time scale, plate tectonics, atomic theory, nuclear physics, biological evolution, germ theory, industrial revolution, molecular biology, quantum theory, medical and health technology.
Standard 5 Physical Science & Chemistry:
Experiences in grades 9-12 will allow all students to develop an understanding of the structure of atoms, chemical reactions, and the interactions of energy and matter.
Benchmark 1
The student will understand the structure of the atom.
Indicator 1
The students will understand atoms are the fundamental organizational unit of matter.
Indicator 2
The students will understand atoms have smaller components that have measurable mass and charge.
Indicator 3
The students will understand the nucleus of an atom is composed of protons and neutrons, which determine the mass of the atom.
Indicator 4
The students will understand the dense nucleus of an atom is in the center of an electron cloud, and this electron cloud determines the size of the atom.
Indicator 5
The students will understand isotopes are atoms with the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons.
Benchmark 2
The students will understand the states and properties of matter.
Indicator 1
The students will understand elements are substances that contain only one kind of atom.
Indicator 2
The students will understand elements are arranged according to increasing atomic number on the periodic table.
Indicator 3
The students will understand the periodic table organizes elements according to similar physical and chemical properties by groups, periods, and categories.
Elements in the same group share similar chemistry. Periods indicate an energy level of the outermost electrons. Categories are regions such as metals, non-metals, and transition elements.
Indicator 4
The students will understand there are discrete energy levels for electrons in an atom.
Electrons changing from one energy level to another may result in the emission or absorption of various forms of electromagnetic radiation, including the range of colors which form visible light. Indeed, when there is color, there are electrons changing energy levels.
Indicator 5
The students will understand valence electrons (those farthest from the nucleus or highest energy electrons) determine the chemistry of the atom.
Indicator 6
The students will understand chemical bonds result when electrons are transferred or shared between atoms.
Indicator 7
The students will understand compounds result from chemical bonds between ions or atoms.
Ionic compounds result from an attraction between ions of opposite charge (ionic bond). Molecular compounds result from atoms sharing electrons (covalent bond .
Indicator 8
The students will understand the nature of interactions among ions or between molecular compounds determines their physical properties.
Molecules may exist as gases, liquids or solids. The hydrogen bond is an intermolecular attraction responsible for the properties of water and many biological molecules. Ionic compounds are generally solids.
Benchmark 3
The student will gain a basic concept of chemical reactions.
Indicator 1
The students will understand that chemical reactions may often be identified by two or more of the following: physical property change, effervescence, mass change, precipitation, light emission, and heat exchange.
Indicator 2
The students will explore chemical reactions that absorb energy from or release energy to the surroundings.
Indicator 3
The students will distinguish different types of chemical reactions such as synthesis, decomposition, combustion, displacement, acid/base, and oxidation/reduction.
Standard 6 Physical Science - Physics:
Benchmark 1
The students will understand the relationship between motion and forces.
Indicator 1
The students will understand the motion of an object can be described in terms of its displacement (position), velocity and acceleration.
Indicator 2
The students will understand objects change their motion only when a net force is applied.
When no net force acts, the object either doesn't move or moves with constant speed in a straight line. When a net force acts upon an object, the object will change its motion. The magnitude of the change in motion is given by the relationship Ä F=ma, regardless of the type of force.
Indicator 3
The students will understand whenever a system applies force to an object, that object applies a related force to the system that is equal in magnitude and opposite in direction.
The change in an object's motion (acceleration) is in the direction of the net applied force.
Indicator 4
The students will understand gravitation is a relatively weak, attractive force that acts upon and between any two masses.
Indicator 5
The students will understand that electric force is the attraction or repulsion that exists between two charged particles. Its magnitude is vastly greater than that due to gravity.
Indicator 6
The students will understand that electricity and magnetism are two aspects of a single electromagnetic force.
Moving electrical charges produce magnetic forces, and moving magnets produce electrical forces.
Benchmark 2
The students will understand the conservation of mass and energy, and that the overall disorder of the universe increases with time.
Indicator 1
The students will understand the energy of the universe is constant.
Physicists view matter as equivalent to energy.
Indicator 2
The students will understand energy may be classified as kinetic, potential, or energy within a field.
Kinetic energy deals with the motion of objects. Potential energy results from objectsÆ relative configuration. Electromagnetic radiation is an example of energy contained within a field. These energies are interchangeable: kinetic to potential, potential to kinetic, potential to field, etc.
Indicator 3
The students will understand heat is the transfer of energy from objects at higher temperature to objects at lower temperature.
The internal energy of substances consists in part of movement of atoms, molecules, and ions. Temperature is a measure of the average magnitude of this movement. Heat is an exchange of internal energy between systems.
Benchmark 3
The students will understand the basic interactions of matter and energy.
Indicator 1
The students will understand waves can transfer energy when they interact with matter.
Indicator 2
The students will understand electromagnetic waves result when a charged object is accelerated.
Electromagnetic waves include radio waves, microwaves, infrared radiation, visible light, ultraviolet radiation, x-rays, and gamma rays.
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