Grade 8 Science CA Core Standards

Examining the forces that cause Celestial Objects to form and move and the ways they are examined from Earth.

Use data to understand and describe different characteristics to objects in space, including distances, size, surface features, structure and composition

Understand and describe the role of gravity, as an attractive force, in the formation of the solar system

Describe relationships and interactions between components of the solar and galaxy systems, including gravity, orbital motion and mass

Model apparent motion of celestial object (such as Earth, Moon, Sun) with accurate scale and distance relationships

Understand the Electromagnetic Spectrum and that stars release this type of energy

Explain the Lunar phases and how solar energy from the Sun reflects off the Moon to the Earth

Explain the change in seasons on Earth as a result of the orientation of the Earth relative to the Sun

Examine how DNA is passed through generations and how Natural Selections acts to change populations of organisms over time

Model the relevant components in a cell, including genes, chromosomes, proteins and traits of organism.

Understand gene and protein structure and how it leads to observable organism traits.

Model a gene mutation that leads to beneficial, neutral or harmful change in an organism.

Explain how genetic variations of traits affects the probability of surviving and reproducing in a specific environment.

Describe how individuals in a species have genetic variation that can be passed on to their offspring.

Explain the way humans influence the inherited traits in plants and animals, such as gene therapy, genetic modification, and selective breeding.

Explain changes and trends over time in the distribution of traits within a population.

Explain cause-and-effect relationships between environmental conditions and natural selection in a population.

Use and apply the science and engineering practices

How do forces cause motion and how is energy transferred between objects.

Non-contact forces, like electric and magnetic forces, can attract or repel, with strength depending on charge, current, field strength, and distance.

Identify different types of forces

Describe the difference between balanced and unbalanced forces

Understand the difference between speed and acceleration

Understand and apply Newton’s Laws of Motion to an object

Describe motion of an object using correct units and the frames of reference

Explain the interaction of forces between two colliding objects

Create and analyze models of energy flow in a system; Collisions, and relative changes in Potential Energy

Describe the relationships between kinetic energy (KE) and speed, and KE and mass

Use evidence from the geologic record to model and explain the theory of evolution

Understand and describe geologic processes in the formation of rock strata to determine relative age and type.

Construct and use a model of the geologic timescale for Earth’s 4.6 billion year history

Track major events in Earth’s History with evidence: fossil record, volcanic activity, atmospheric changes, asteroid impacts.

Investigate the diversity of prehistoric ecosystems with patterns and abundance of fossils and other markers.

Use anatomical similarities and differences (in fossils and embryos) to infer evolutionary relationships among modern organisms (whales) and between modern and fossil organisms (Dorudon)

Use the fossil record to identify patterns of increasing complexity of anatomical structures over time

Use and apply the science and engineering practices

Introducing Scientific thinking, Modeling and Investigation Practices.

Safely plan and carry out investigations

Explain a models limitations, misconceptions, and errors as applicable

Use and engage in scientific argument for a claim with evidence and scientific reasoning

Explain how phenomena can have more than one cause or explanation using science

Identify the independent and dependent variable within any experiment

Use scientific tools to measure accurately the quantity of any type of substance

Use and apply the science and engineering practices

Identify and describe the property of matter and light waves and how wave technology can be applied to solve problems.

Identify the characteristics of a wave, including amplitude, frequency and wavelength

Describe how waves characteristics corresponds to physical observations such as pitch and volume

Given data about a repeating physical phenomena (a wave), identify the amount of energy present and transmitted by the wave

Understand interactions of waves with a medium such as reflection, absorption, transmission, and the source of the wave

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

Argue with evidence that digital signals are a more reliable way to encode and transmit information than analog signals

Evaluate the Electromagnetic Spectrum wavelengths and the corresponding energy levels in real world situations

PRINCIPLE I: People Depend on Natural Systems The continuation and health of individual human lives and of human communities and societies depend on the health of the natural systems that provide essential goods and ecosystem services.

The goods produced by natural systems are essential to human life and to the functioning of our economies and cultures.

The ecosystem services provided by natural systems are essential to human life and to the functioning of our economies and cultures.

That the quality, quantity, and reliability of the goods and ecosystem services provided by natural systems are directly affected by the health of those systems.

PRINCIPLE II: People Influence Natural Systems The long‐term functioning and health of terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems are influenced by their relationships with human societies.

Direct and indirect changes to natural systems due to the growth of human populations and their consumption rates influence the geographic extent, composition, biological diversity, and viability of natural systems.

Methods used to extract, harvest, transport, and consume natural resources influence the geographic extent, composition, biological diversity, and viability of natural systems.

The expansion and operation of human communities influences the geographic extent, composition, biological diversity, and viability of natural systems.

The legal, economic, and political systems that govern the use and management of natural systems directly influence the geographic extent, composition, biological diversity, and viability of natural systems.

PRINCIPLE III: Natural Systems Change in Ways that People Benefit from and can Influence Natural systems proceed through cycles that humans depend upon, benefit from and can alter.

Natural systems proceed through cycles and processes that are required for their functioning.

Human practices depend upon and benefit from the cycles and processes that operate within natural systems.

Human practices can alter the cycles and processes that operate within natural systems.

PRINCIPLE IV: There are no Permanent or Impermeable Boundaries that Prevent Matter from Flowing Between Systems The exchange of matter between natural systems and human societies affects the long‐ term functioning of both.

The effects of human activities on natural systems are directly related to the quantities of resources consumed and to the quantity and characteristics of the resulting byproducts.

The byproducts of human activity are not readily prevented from entering natural systems and may be beneficial, neutral, or detrimental in their effect.

The capacity of natural systems to adjust to human-caused alterations depends on the nature of the system as well as the scope, scale, and duration of the activity and the nature of its byproducts

PRINCIPLE V: Decisions Affecting Resources and Natural Systems are Complex and Involve Many Factors Decisions affecting resources and natural systems are based on a wide range of considerations and decision‐making processes.

There is a spectrum of what is considered in making decisions about resources and natural systems and how those factors influence decisions.

The process of making decisions about resources and natural systems, and how the assessment of social, economic, political, and environmental factors has changed over time.

United States History and Geography: Growth and Conflict

Historical Interpretation

Research, Evidence, and Point of View

Chronological and Spatial Thinking

Historical and Social Sciences Analysis Skills

Students explain how major events are related to one another in time.

Students construct various time lines of key events, people, and periods of the historical era they are studying.

Students use a variety of maps and documents to identify physical and cultural features of neighborhoods, cities, states, and countries and to explain the historical migration of people, expansion and disintegration of empires, and the growth of economic systems.

Students explain the central issues and problems from the past, placing people and events in a matrix of time and place.

Students understand and distinguish cause, effect, sequence, and correlation in historical events, including the long-and short-term causal relations.

Students explain the sources of historical continuity and how the combination of ideas and events explains the emergence of new patterns.

Students recognize the role of chance, oversight, and error in history.

Students recognize that interpretations of history are subject to change as new information is uncovered.

Students interpret basic indicators of economic performance and conduct cost-benefit analyses of economic and political issues.

Students frame questions that can be answered by historical study and research.

Students distinguish fact from opinion in historical narratives and stories.

Students distinguish relevant from irrelevant information, essential from incidental information, and verifiable from unverifiable information in historical narratives and stories.

Students assess the credibility of primary and secondary sources and draw sound conclusions from them.

Students detect the different historical points of view on historical events and determine the context in which the historical statements were made (the questions asked, sources used, author's perspectives).

Students understand the major events preceding the founding of the nation and relate their significance to the development of American constitutional democracy.

Describe the relationship between the moral and political ideas of the Great Awakening and the development of revolutionary fervor.

Analyze the philosophy of government expressed in the Declaration of Independence, with an emphasis on government as a means of securing individual rights (e.g., key phrases such as "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights").

Analyze how the American Revolution affected other nations, espe­cially France.

Describe the nation's blend of civic republicanism, classical liberal principles, and English parliamentary traditions.

Students analyze the multiple causes, key events, and complex consequences of the Civil War.

Compare the conflicting interpretations of state and federal authority as emphasized in the speeches and writings of statesmen such as Daniel Webster and John C. Calhoun.

Trace the boundaries constituting the North and the South, the geographical differences between the two regions, and the differences between agrarians and industrialists.

Identify the constitutional issues posed by the doctrine of nullifica­tion and secession and the earliest origins of that doctrine.

Discuss Abraham Lincoln's presidency and his significant writings and speeches and their relationship to the Declaration of Indepen­dence, such as his "House Divided" speech (1858), Gettysburg Address (1863), Emancipation Proclamation (1863), and inaugural addresses (1861 and 1865).

Study the views and lives of leaders (e.g., Ulysses S. Grant, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee) and soldiers on both sides of the war, including those of black soldiers and regiments.

Describe critical developments and events in the war, including the major battles, geographical advantages and obstacles, technological advances, and General Lee's surrender at Appomattox.

Explain how the war affected combatants, civilians, the physical environment, and future warfare.

Students analyze the character and lasting consequences of Reconstruction.

List the original aims of Reconstruction and describe its effects on the political and social structures of different regions.

Identify the push-pull factors in the movement of former slaves to the cities in the North and to the West and their differing experiences in those regions (e.g., the experiences of Buffalo Soldiers).

Understand the effects of the Freedmen's Bureau and the restrictions placed on the rights and opportunities of freedmen, including racial segregation and "Jim Crow" laws.

Trace the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and describe the Klan's effects.

Understand the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution and analyze their connection to Reconstruction.

Students analyze the transformation of the American economy and the changing social and political conditions in the United States in response to the Indus-trial Revolution.

Trace patterns of agricultural and industrial development as they relate to climate, use of natural resources, markets, and trade and locate such development on a map.

Identify the reasons for the development of federal Indian policy and the wars with American Indians and their relationship to agricultural development and industrialization.

Explain how states and the federal government encouraged business expansion through tariffs, banking, land grants, and subsidies.

Discuss entrepreneurs, industrialists, and bankers in politics, com­merce, and industry (e.g., Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Leland Stanford).

Examine the location and effects of urbanization, renewed immigra­tion, and industrialization (e.g., the effects on social fabric of cities, wealth and economic opportunity, the conservation movement).

Discuss child labor, working conditions, and laissez-faire policies toward big business and examine the labor movement, including its leaders (e.g., Samuel Gompers), its demand for collective bargaining, and its strikes and protests over labor conditions.

Identify the new sources of large-scale immigration and the contribu­tions of immigrants to the building of cities and the economy; explain the ways in which new social and economic patterns encouraged assimilation of newcomers into the mainstream amidst growing cultural diversity; and discuss the new wave of nativism.

Identify the characteristics and impact of Grangerism and Populism.

Name the significant inventors and their inventions and identify how they improved the quality of life (e.g., Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Orville and Wilbur Wright).

Students analyze the political principles underlying the U.S. Constitution and compare the enumerated and implied powers of the federal government.

Discuss the significance of the Magna Carta, the English Bill of Rights, and the Mayflower Compact.

Analyze the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution and the success of each in implementing the ideals of the Declaration of Independence.

Evaluate the major debates that occurred during the development of the Constitution and their ultimate resolutions in such areas as shared power among institutions, divided state-federal power, slavery, the rights of individuals and states (later addressed by the addition of the Bill of Rights), and the status of American Indian nations under the commerce clause.

Describe the political philosophy underpinning the Constitution as specified in the Federalist Papers (authored by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay) and the role of such leaders as Madison, George Washington, Roger Sherman, Gouverneur Morris, and James Wilson in the writing and ratification of the Constitution.

Understand the significance of Jefferson's Statute for Religious Freedom as a forerunner of the First Amendment and the origins, purpose, and differing views of the founding fathers on the issue of the separation of church and state.

Enumerate the powers of government set forth in the Constitution and the fundamental liberties ensured by the Bill of Rights.

Describe the principles of federalism, dual sovereignty, separation of powers, checks and balances, the nature and purpose of majority rule, and the ways in which the American idea of constitutionalism preserves individual rights.

Students understand the foundation of the American political system and the ways in which citizens participate in it.

Analyze the principles and concepts codified in state constitutions between 1777 and 1781 that created the context out of which American political institutions and ideas developed.

Explain how the ordinances of 1785 and 1787 privatized national resources and transferred federally owned lands into private holdings, townships, and states.

Enumerate the advantages of a common market among the states as foreseen in and protected by the Constitution's clauses on interstate commerce, common coinage, and full-faith and credit.

Understand how the conflicts between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton resulted in the emergence of two political parties (e.g., view of foreign policy, Alien and Sedition Acts, economic policy, National Bank, funding and assumption of the revolutionary debt).

Know the significance of domestic resistance movements and ways in which the central government responded to such movements (e.g., Shays' Rebellion, the Whiskey Rebellion).

Describe the basic law-making process and how the Constitution provides numerous opportunities for citizens to participate in the political process and to monitor and influence government (e.g., function of elections, political parties, interest groups).

Understand the functions and responsibilities of a free press.

Students analyze the aspirations and ideals of the people of the new nation.

Describe the country's physical landscapes, political divisions, and territorial expansion during the terms of the first four presidents.

Explain the policy significance of famous speeches (e.g., Washing-ton's Farewell Address, Jefferson's 1801 Inaugural Address, John Q. Adams's Fourth of July 1821 Address).

Analyze the rise of capitalism and the economic problems and conflicts that accompanied it (e.g., Jackson's opposition to the National Bank; early decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court that reinforced the sanctity of contracts and a capitalist economic system of law).

Discuss daily life, including traditions in art, music, and literature, of early national America (e.g., through writings by Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper).

Students analyze U.S. foreign policy in the early Republic.

Understand the political and economic causes and consequences of the War of 1812 and know the major battles, leaders, and events that led to a final peace.

Know the changing boundaries of the United States and describe the relationships the country had with its neighbors (current Mexico and Canada) and Europe, including the influence of the Monroe Doc-trine, and how those relationships influenced westward expansion and the Mexican-American War.

Outline the major treaties with American Indian nations during the administrations of the first four presidents and the varying outcomes of those treaties.

Students analyze the divergent paths of the American people from 1800 to the mid-1800s and the challenges they faced, with emphasis on the Northeast.

Discuss the influence of industrialization and technological develop­ments on the region, including human modification of the landscape and how physical geography shaped human actions (e.g., growth of cities, deforestation, farming, mineral extraction).

Outline the physical obstacles to and the economic and political factors involved in building a network of roads, canals, and railroads (e.g., Henry Clay's American System).

List the reasons for the wave of immigration from Northern Europe to the United States and describe the growth in the number, size, and spatial arrangements of cities (e.g., Irish immigrants and the Great Irish Famine).

Study the lives of black Americans who gained freedom in the North and founded schools and churches to advance their rights and communities.

Trace the development of the American education system from its earliest roots, including the roles of religious and private schools and Horace Mann's campaign for free public education and its assimilat­ing role in American culture.

Examine the women's suffrage movement (e.g., biographies, writings, and speeches of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Margaret Fuller, Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony).

Identify common themes in American art as well as transcendentalism and individualism (e.g., writings about and by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Herman Melville, Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow).

Students analyze the divergent paths of the American people in the South from 1800 to the mid-1800s and the challenges they faced.

Describe the development of the agrarian economy in the South, identify the locations of the cotton-producing states, and discuss the significance of cotton and the cotton gin.

Trace the origins and development of slavery; its effects on black Americans and on the region's political, social, religious, economic, and cultural development; and identify the strategies that were tried to both overturn and preserve it (e.g., through the writings and historical documents on Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey).

Examine the characteristics of white Southern society and how the physical environment influenced events and conditions prior to the Civil War.

Compare the lives of and opportunities for free blacks in the North with those of free blacks in the South.

Students analyze the divergent paths of the American people in the West from 1800 to the mid-1800s and the challenges they faced.

Discuss the election of Andrew Jackson as president in 1828, the importance of Jacksonian democracy, and his actions as president (e.g., the spoils system, veto of the National Bank, policy of Indian removal, opposition to the Supreme Court).

Describe the purpose, challenges, and economic incentives associated with westward expansion, including the concept of Manifest Destiny (e.g., the Lewis and Clark expedition, accounts of the removal of Indians, the Cherokees' "Trail of Tears," settlement of the Great Plains) and the territorial acquisitions that spanned numerous decades.

Describe the role of pioneer women and the new status that western women achieved (e.g., Laura Ingalls Wilder, Annie Bidwell; slave women gaining freedom in the West; Wyoming granting suffrage to women in 1869).

Examine the importance of the great rivers and the struggle over water rights.

Discuss Mexican settlements and their locations, cultural traditions, attitudes toward slavery, land-grant system, and economies.

Describe the Texas War for Independence and the Mexican-Ameri­can War, including territorial settlements, the aftermath of the wars, and the effects the wars had on the lives of Americans, including Mexican Americans today.

Students analyze the early and steady attempts to abolish slavery and to realize the ideals of the Declaration of Independence.

Describe the leaders of the movement (e.g., John Quincy Adams and his proposed constitutional amendment, John Brown and the armed resistance, Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, Benjamin Franklin, Theodore Weld, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass).

Discuss the abolition of slavery in early state constitutions.

Describe the significance of the Northwest Ordinance in education and in the banning of slavery in new states north of the Ohio River.

Discuss the importance of the slavery issue as raised by the annexation of Texas and California's admission to the union as a free state under the Compromise of 1850.

Analyze the significance of the States' Rights Doctrine, the Missouri Compromise (1820), the Wilmot Proviso (1846), the Compromise of 1850, Henry Clay's role in the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision (1857), and the Lincoln-Douglas debates (1858).

Describe the lives of free blacks and the laws that limited their freedom and economic opportunities.

Who is considered an American?

How and why did the United States expand?

What did freedom mean to the nation’s founders, and how did it change over time?

The Development of American Constitutional Democracy

Why was there an American Revolution?

How did the American Revolution develop the concept of natural rights?

What were the legacies of the American Revolution?

Envisioning a New America

How much power should the federal government have, and what should the government do?

How did the government change during the Early Republic?

Was the Louisiana Purchase constitutional?

What was life like in the Early Republic?

The Divergent Paths of the American People: 1800–1850

How did individual regions of the United States become both more similar and more different?

What was family life like in each region?

How did work change between 1800 and 1850?

What was the impact of slavery on American politics, regional economies, family life, and culture?

What did the frontier mean to the nation in the first half of the nineteenth century?

The Causes, Course, and Consequences of the Civil War

Why was there a Civil War?

How was the United States transformed during the Civil War?

How was the Civil War conducted militarily, politically, economically, and culturally?

How was slavery abolished through the Civil War?

The Rise of Industrial America: 1877–1914

How did America’s economy, industries, and population grow after the Civil War?

Who came to the United States at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century? Why did they come? What was their experience like when they arrived?

How did the federal government affect the country’s growth in the years following the Civil War?

Earth's Place in the Universe

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.

Earth's Systems

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

Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth's surface at varying time 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 water through Earth's systems driven by energy from the sun and the force of gravity.

Collect data to provide evidence for how the motions and complex interactions of air masses results 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.

Earth and Human Activity

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.

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.

Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.

Engineering Design

Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions.

Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.

Analyze data from tests to determine similarities and differences among several design solutions to identify the best characteristics of each that can be combined into a new solution to better meet the criteria for success.

Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved.

From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes

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 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.

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 of organisms.

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 and/or release energy as this matter moves through an organism.

Gather and synthesize information that sensory receptors respond to stimuli by sending messages to the brain for immediate behavior or storage as memories.

Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics

Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.

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

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

Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.

Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits

Develop and use a model to describe why structural changes to genes (mutations) located on chromosomes 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.

Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity

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.

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

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

Matter and Its Interactions

Develop models to 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 and make sense of 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 and use 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.

Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions

Apply Newton's Third Law 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 that affect the strength of electric and magnetic forces.

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

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

Energy

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

Develop a model 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 either 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.

Waves and Their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer

Use mathematical representations to describe a simple model for waves that includes how the amplitude 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.

Integrate qualitative scientific and technical information to support the claim that digitized signals (sent as wave pulses) are a more reliable way to encode and transmit information.

Safety Law & Ethics

Social Interactions

Culture

Impacts of Computing

Program Development

Modularity

Control

Variables

Algorithms

Algorithms & Programming

Inference & Models

Collection Visualization & Transformation

Storage

Data & Analysis

Cybersecurity

Network Communication & Organization

Networks & the Internet

Troubleshooting

Hardware & Software

Devices

Computing Systems

Use flowcharts and/or pseudocode to design and illustrate algorithms that solve complex problems.

Create clearly named variables that store data, and perform operations on their contents.

Design and iteratively develop programs that combine control structures and use compound conditions.

Decompose problems and subproblems into parts to facilitate the design, implementation, and review of programs.

Create procedures with parameters to organize code and make it easier to reuse.

Seek and incorporate feedback from team members and users to refine a solution that meets user needs.

Incorporate existing code, media, and libraries into original programs, and give attribution.

Systematically test and refine programs using a range of test cases.

Distribute tasks and maintain a project timeline when collaboratively developing computational artifacts.

Document programs in order to make them easier to use, read, test, and debug.

Design modifications to computing devices in order to improve the ways users interact with the devices.

Design a project that combines hardware and software components to collect and exchange data.

Systematically apply troubleshooting strategies to identify and resolve hardware and software problems in computing systems.

Represent data in multiple ways.

Collect data using computational tools and transform the data to make it more useful.

Test and analyze the effects of changing variables while using computational models.

Compare tradeoffs associated with computing technologies that affect people’s everyday activities and career options.

Discuss issues of bias and accessibility in the design of existing technologies.

Collaborate with many contributors when creating a computational artifact.

Compare tradeoffs associated with licenses for computational artifacts to balance the protection of the creators’ rights and the ability for others to use and modify the artifacts.

Compare tradeoffs between allowing information to be public and keeping information private and secure.

Model the role of protocols in transmitting data across networks and the internet.

Explain potential security threats and security measures to mitigate threats.

Apply multiple methods of information protection to model the secure transmission of information.

Patterns – Observed patterns in nature guide organization and classification and prompt questions about relationships and causes underlying them.

Macroscopic patterns are related to the nature of microscopic and atomic-level structure.

Patterns in rates of change and other numerical relationships can provide information about natural and human designed systems.

Patterns can be used to identify cause and effect relationships.

Graphs, charts, and images can be used to identify patterns in data.

Cause and Effect: Mechanism and Prediction – Events have causes, sometimes simple, sometimes multifaceted. Deciphering causal relationships, and the mechanisms by which they are mediated, is a major activity of science and engineering.

Relationships can be classified as causal or correlational, and correlation does not necessarily imply causation.

Cause and effect relationships may be used to predict phenomena in natural or designed systems.

Phenomena may have more than one cause, and some cause and effect relationships in systems can only be described using probability.

Scale, Proportion, and Quantity – In considering phenomena, it is critical to recognize what is relevant at different size, time, and energy scales, and to recognize proportional relationships between different quantities as scales change.

Time, space, and energy phenomena can be observed at various scales using models to study systems that are too large or too small.

The observed function of natural and designed systems may change with scale.

Proportional relationships (e.g., speed as the ratio of distance traveled to time taken) among different types of quantities provide information about the magnitude of properties and processes.

Scientific relationships can be represented through the use of algebraic expressions and equations.

Phenomena that can be observed at one scale may not be observable at another scale

Systems and System Models – A system is an organized group of related objects or components; models can be used for understanding and predicting the behavior of systems.

Systems may interact with other systems; they may have sub-systems and be a part of larger complex systems.

Models can be used to represent systems and their interactions—such as inputs, processes and outputs—and energy, matter, and information flows within systems.

Models are limited in that they only represent certain aspects of the system under study

Energy and Matter: Flows, Cycles, and Conservation – Tracking energy and matter flows, into, out of, and within systems helps one understand their system’s behavior

Matter is conserved because atoms are conserved in physical and chemical processes.

Within a natural or designed system, the transfer of energy drives the motion and/or cycling of matter.

Energy may take different forms (e.g. energy in fields, thermal energy, energy of motion).

The transfer of energy can be tracked as energy flows through a designed or natural system.

Structure and Function – The way an object is shaped or structured determines many of its properties and functions

Complex and microscopic structures and systems can be visualized, modeled, and used to describe how their function depends on the shapes, composition, and relationships among its parts; therefore, complex natural and designed structures/systems can be analyzed to determine how they function.

Structures can be designed to serve particular functions by taking into account properties of different materials, and how materials can be shaped and used.

Stability and Change – For both designed and natural systems, conditions that affect stability and factors that control rates of change are critical elements to consider and understand.

Explanations of stability and change in natural or designed systems can be constructed by examining the changes over time and forces at different scales, including the atomic scale.

Small changes in one part of a system might cause large changes in another part.

Stability might be disturbed either by sudden events or gradual changes that accumulate over time.

Systems in dynamic equilibrium are stable due to a balance of feedback mechanisms.

Asking Questions and Defining Problems Asking questions and defining problems in 6–8 builds on K–5 experiences and progresses to specifying relationships between variables, and clarifying arguments and models

Ask questions * that arise from careful observation of phenomena, models, or unexpected results, to clarify and/or seek additional information. * to identify and/or clarify evidence and/or the premise(s) of an argument. * to determine relationships between independent and dependent variables and relationships in models.. * to clarify and/or refine a model, an explanation, or an engineering problem.

Ask questions that require sufficient and appropriate empirical evidence to answer. * Ask questions that can be investigated within the scope of the classroom, outdoor environment, and museums and other public facilities with available resources and, when appropriate, frame a hypothesis based on observations and scientific principles.

Ask questions that challenge the premise(s) of an argument or the interpretation of a data set.

Define a design problem that can be solved through the development of an object, tool, process or system and includes multiple criteria and constraints, including scientific knowledge that may limit possible solutions.

Developing and Using Models Modeling in 6–8 builds on K–5 experiences and progresses to developing, using, and revising models to describe, test, and predict more abstract phenomena and design systems.

Evaluate limitations of a model for a proposed object or tool.

Develop or modify a model—based on evidence – to match what happens if a variable or component of a system is changed.

Use and/or develop a model of simple systems with uncertain and less predictable factors.

Develop and/or revise a model to show the relationships among variables, including those that are not observable but predict observable phenomena.

Develop and/or use a model to predict and/or describe phenomena.

Develop a model to describe unobservable mechanisms.

Develop and/or use a model to generate data to test ideas about phenomena in natural or designed systems, including those representing inputs and outputs, and those at unobservable scales.

Planning and Carrying Out Investigations Planning and carrying out investigations in 6-8 builds on K-5 experiences and progresses to include investigations that use multiple variables and provide evidence to support explanations or solutions.

Plan an investigation individually and collaboratively, and in the design: identify independent and dependent variables and controls, what tools are needed to do the gathering, how measurements will be recorded, and how many data are needed to support a claim.

Conduct an investigation and/or evaluate and/or revise the experimental design to produce data to serve as the basis for evidence that meet the goals of the investigation.

Evaluate the accuracy of various methods for collecting data.

Collect data to produce data to serve as the basis for evidence to answer scientific questions or test design solutions under a range of conditions

Collect data about the performance of a proposed object, tool, process, or system under a range of conditions.

Analyzing and Interpreting Data Analyzing data in 6–8 builds on K–5 experiences and progresses to extending quantitative analysis to investigations, distinguishing between correlation and causation, and basic statistical techniques of data and error analysis.

Construct, analyze, and/or interpret graphical displays of data and/or large data sets to identify linear and nonlinear relationships.

Use graphical displays (e.g., maps, charts, graphs, and/or tables) of large data sets to identify temporal and spatial relationships.

Distinguish between causal and correlational relationships in data.

Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for phenomena.

Apply concepts of statistics and probability (including mean, median, mode, and variability) to analyze and characterize data, using digital tools when feasible.

Consider limitations of data analysis (e.g., measurement error), and/or seek to improve precision and accuracy of data with better technological tools and methods (e.g., multiple trials).

Analyze and interpret data to determine similarities and differences in findings.

Analyze data to define an optimal operational range for a proposed object, tool, process or system that best meets criteria for success.

Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking Mathematical and computational thinking in 6–8 builds on K–5 experiences and progresses to identifying patterns in large data sets and using mathematical concepts to support explanations and arguments.

Use digital tools (e.g., computers) to analyze very large data sets for patterns and trends.

Use mathematical representations to describe and/or support scientific conclusions and design solutions

Create algorithms (a series of ordered steps) to solve a problem.

Apply mathematical concepts and/or processes (such as ratio, rate, percent, basic operations, and simple algebra) to scientific and engineering questions and problems.

Use digital tools and/or mathematical concepts and arguments to test and compare proposed solutions to an engineering design problem.

Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions Constructing explanations and designing solutions in 6–8 builds on K– 5 experiences and progresses to include constructing explanations and designing solutions supported by multiple sources of evidence consistent with scientific ideas, principles, and theories.

Construct an explanation that includes qualitative or quantitative relationships between variables that predict(s) and/or describe(s) phenomena.

Construct an explanation using models or representations.

Construct a scientific explanation based on valid and reliable evidence obtained from sources (including the students’ own experiments) and the assumption that theories and laws that describe the natural world operate today as they did in the past and will continue to do so in the future.

Apply scientific ideas, principles, and/or evidence to construct, revise and/or use an explanation for realworld phenomena, examples, or events.

Apply scientific reasoning to show why the data or evidence is adequate for the explanation or conclusion.

Apply scientific ideas or principles to design, construct, and/or test a design of an object, tool, process or system.

Undertake a design project, engaging in the design cycle, to construct and/or implement a solution that meets specific design criteria and constraints.

Optimize performance of a design by prioritizing criteria, making tradeoffs, testing, revising, and retesting

Engaging in Argument from Evidence Engaging in argument from evidence in 6–8 builds on K–5 experiences and progresses to constructing a convincing argument that supports or refutes claims for either explanations or solutions about the natural and designed world(s).

Compare and critique two arguments on the same topic and analyze whether they emphasize similar or different evidence and/or interpretations of facts.

Respectfully provide and receive critiques about one’s explanations, procedures, models and questions by citing relevant evidence and posing and responding to questions that elicit pertinent elaboration and detail.

Construct, use, and/or present an oral and written argument supported by empirical evidence and scientific reasoning to support or refute an explanation or a model for a phenomenon or a solution to a problem.

Make an oral or written argument that supports or refutes the advertised performance of a device, process, or system, based on empirical evidence concerning whether or not the technology meets relevant criteria and constraints.

Evaluate competing design solutions based on jointly developed and agreed-upon design criteria.

Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information in 6–8 builds on K–5 experiences and progresses to evaluating the merit and validity of ideas and methods.

Critically read scientific texts adapted for classroom use to determine the central ideas and/or obtain scientific and/or technical information to describe patterns in and/or evidence about the natural and designed world(s).

Integrate qualitative and/or quantitative scientific and/or technical information in written text with that contained in media and visual displays to clarify claims and findings.

Gather, read, synthesize information from multiple appropriate sources and assess the credibility, accuracy, and possible bias of each publication and methods used, and describe how they are supported or not supported by evidence.

Evaluate data, hypotheses, and/or conclusions in scientific and technical texts in light of competing information or accounts.

Communicate scientific and/or technical information (e.g. about a proposed object, tool, process, system) in writing and/or through oral presentations