Grade 2: Sailing into Engineering

Performance Expectations: Analyze data obtained from testing different materials to determine which materials have the properties that are best suited for an intended purpose.

Construct an argument with evidence that some changes caused by heating or cooling can be reversed and some cannot.




Science & Engineering Practices
 Disciplinary Core Ideas
 Crosscutting Concepts
  • Planning and Carrying Out Investigations
  • Analyzing and Interpreting Data
  • Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions
  • Structure and Properties of Matter
    • Different kinds of matter exist and many of them can be either solid or liquid depending on temperature. Matter can be described and classified by its observable properties.

    • Different properties are suited to different purposes.
    • A great variety of objects can be built up from a small set of pieces.
  • Systems and System Models
    • A system can be described in terms of its components and their interactions.

  • Patterns
    • Patterns in the natural and human designed world can be observed.

  • Cause and Effect
    • Events have causes that generate observable patterns.

  • Structure and Function
    • The shape and stability of structures of natural and designed objects are related to their function(s).
 





Grade 3: Engineering a Super Insect


Performance Expectations: Construct an argument that some animals form groups that help members survive.

Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organizms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.



Science & Engineering Practices
 Disciplinary Core Ideas
 Crosscutting Concepts
  • Analyze and interpret data to make sense of phenomena using logical reasoning.
  • Construct an argument with evidence, data and/or a model.


  • Ecosystem Dynamics, Functioning, and Resilience

    • When the environment changes in ways that affect a place's physical characteristics, temperature, or availability of resources, some organisms survive and reproduce, others move to new locations, yet others move into the transformed environment, and some die.

  • Social Interactions and Group Behavior

    • Being part of a group helps animals obtain food, defend themselves, and cope with changes. Groups may serve different functions and vary dramatically in size.

  • Adaptation
    • For any paricular environment, some kinds of organisms survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.

  • Biodiversity and Humans

    • Populations live in a variety of habitats, and change in those habitats affects the organisms living there.

  • Cause and Effect
    • Cause and effect relationships are routinely identified, tested, and used to explain change.

  • Structure and Function
    • The shape and stability of structures of natural and designed objects are related to their function(s).

  • Scale, Proportion & Quantity
    • Natural objects and/or observable phenomena exist from the very small to the immensely large or from the very short to the very long time periods.

  • Systems and system models

    • A system can be described in terms of its components and their interactions.









Grade 4: Engineering the Lumber Industry in a Redwood Forest

Performance Expectations: Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior and reproduction.

Use a model to describe that animals receive different types of information through their senses, process the information in their brain, and respond to the information in different ways.

Understand the complex issues of clear cutting and selective cutting in terms of Business and Environmental Literacy and explain the impact on the environment, including the animals.



Science & Engineering Practices
 Disciplinary Core Ideas
 Crosscutting Concept
  • Developing and using models

  • Construct an argument with evidence, data and/or a model
  • Structure and Function

    • Plants and animals have both internal and external structures that serve various functions in growth, survival, behavior, and reproduction.


  • Information Processing

    • Different sense receptors are specialized for particular kinds of information, which may be then processed by the animal's brain.

  • Cause and Effect
    • Cause and effect relationships are routinely identified, tested, and used to explain change.

  • Patterns
    • Patterns in the natural and human designed world can be observed.

  • Systems and System Models
    • A system can be described in terms of its components and their interactions.

  • Scale,  Proportion and Quantity
    • Natural objects and/or observable phenomena exist from the very small to the immensely large or from the very short to the very long time periods.








Grade 5: Engineering a New Environment


Performance Expectations: Support an argument that plants get the materials they need for growth chiefly from air and water.

Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.




Science & Engineering Practices
 Disciplinary Core Ideas
 Crosscutting Concepts
  • Developing and using models
  • Engaging in Argument and Evidence

  • Science Models, Laws, Mechanisms and Theories Explain Natural Phenomena
  • Energy in Chemical Processes and Everyday Life

    • The energy released from food was once energy from the sun that was captured by plants in the chemcial process that forms plant matter (from air and water).

  • Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems
    • The food of almost any kind of animal can be traced back to plants. Organisms are related in food webs in which some animals eat plants for food and other anmals eat the animals that eat plants. Some organisms, such as fungi and bacteria, break down dead organisms (both plants or plant parts and animals) and therefore operate as decomposers. Decomposition eventually restores some materials back to the soil. Organisms can survive only in environments in which their particular needs are met. A healthy ecosystem is one in which multiple species of different types are each able to meet their needs in a relatively stable web of life. Newly introducted species can damage the balance of an ecosystem. 

  • Cycles of Matter and Energy Transfer in Ecosystems

    • Matter cycles between the air and soil and among plants, animals, and microbes as these organisms live and die. Organisms obtain gases, and water, from the environment, and release waste matter (gas, liquid or solid) back into the environment.
  • Cause and Effect
    • Cause and effect relationships are routinely identified, tested, and used to explain change.

  • Scale, Proportion and Quantity
    • Natural objects exist from the very small to the immensely large.

  • Systems and System Models
    • A system can be described in terms of its components and their interactions.

  • Stability and Change
    • Things may change rapidly or slowly.

  • Patterns
    • Patterns in the natural and human designed world can be observed.






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