Science

• Analyze and interpret data from observations and measurements of the physical properties of matter to explain phase changes between a solid, liquid, or gas.
• Analyze and interpret data to show that the amount of matter is conserved even when it changes form, including transitions where matter seems to vanish.
• Design a process to measure how different variables (temperature, particle size, stirring) affect the rate of dissolving solids into liquids.
• Evaluate the results of an experiment to determine whether the mixing of two or more substances result in a change of properties.
• Test the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the speed and direction of motion of objects.
• Make observations and measurements of an object’s motion to provide evidence that a pattern can be used to predict future motion.
• Use evidence to support that the gravitational force exerted by Earth on objects is directed toward the Earth’s center.
• Explain the cause and effect relationship of two factors (mass and distance) that affect gravity.
• Explain how forces can create patterns within a system (moving in one direction, shifting back and forth, or moving in cycles), and describe conditions that affect how fast or slowly these patterns occur.

Physical Science

• Compare and contrast animal responses that are instinctual versus those that that are gathered through the senses, processed, and stored as memories to guide their actions.
• Distinguish between inherited characteristics and those characteristics that result from a direct interaction with the environment.
• Provide evidence and analyze data that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variations of these traits exist in a group of similar organisms.
• Analyze and interpret data from fossils to describe types of organisms and their environments that existed long ago. Compare similarities and differences of those to living organisms and their environments. Recognize that most kinds of animals (and plants) that once lived on Earth are now extinct.
• Use evidence to construct an explanation for how variations in characteristics among individuals within the same species may provide advantages to these individuals in their survival and reproduction.

Life Science

• Explain that differences in the apparent brightness of the sun compared to other stars is due to their relative distances from the Earth.
• Research and explain the position of the Earth and the solar system within the Milky Way galaxy, and compare the size and shape of the Milky Way to other galaxies in the universe.
• Use data to categorize different bodies in our solar system including moons, asteroids, comets, and meteoroids according to their physical properties and motion.
• Explain the cause and effect relationship between the positions of the sun, earth, and moon and resulting eclipses, position of constellations, and appearance of the moon.
• Relate the tilt of the Earth’s axis, as it revolves around the sun, to the varying intensities of sunlight at different latitudes. Evaluate how this causes changes in day-lengths and seasons.
• Use tools to describe how stars and constellations appear to move from the Earth’s perspective throughout the seasons.
• Use evidence from the presence and location of fossils to determine the order in which rock strata were formed.

The Milky Way: Crash Course Astronomy

Comets

Asteroids

Meteoroids

The Earth's Movement in Space

Eclipses

Eclipses: The Shadow of the Moon Ineractive

• No standards in this domain.

• Research, test, re-test, and communicate a design to solve a problem.
• Plan and carry out tests on one or more elements of a prototype in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify which elements need to be improved. Apply the results of tests to redesign the prototype.
• Describe how failure provides valuable information toward finding a solution.

• Use appropriate measuring tools, simple hand tools, and fasteners to construct a prototype of a new or improved technology.
• Describe how human beings have made tools and machines (X-ray cameras, microscopes, satellites, computers) to observe and do things that they could not otherwise sense or do at all, or as quickly or efficiently.
• Identify how scientific discoveries lead to new and improved technologies.

Technological Design Process

• Analyze the properties and compare sources of kinetic, elastic potential, gravitational potential, electric potential, chemical, and thermal energy.
• Construct a scientific explanation of the transformations between potential and kinetic energy.
• Analyze and interpret data to show the relationship between kinetic energy and the mass of an object in motion and its speed.
• Conduct an investigation to demonstrate the way that heat (thermal energy) moves among objects through radiation, conduction, or convection.

Types of Energy

• Evaluate and communicate the impact of environmental variables on population size.
• Determine the impact of competitive, symbiotic, and predatory interactions in an ecosystem.
• Draw conclusions about the transfer of energy through a food web and energy pyramid in an ecosystem.
• Using evidence from climate data, draw conclusions about the patterns of abiotic and biotic factors in different biomes, specifically the tundra, taiga, deciduous forest, desert, grasslands, rainforest, marine, and freshwater ecosystems.
• Analyze existing evidence about the effect of a specific invasive species on native populations in Tennessee and design a solution to mitigate its impact.
• Research the ways in which an ecosystem has changed over time in response to changes in physical conditions, population balances, human interactions, and natural catastrophes.
• Compare and contrast auditory and visual methods of communication among organisms in relation to survival strategies of a population
• Explain how changes in biodiversity would impact ecosystem stability and natural resources.
• Design a possible solution for maintaining biodiversity of ecosystems while still providing necessary human resources without disrupting environmental equilibrium.

Ecosystems

Ecosystems and Human Populations

• Gather evidence to justify that oceanic convection currents are caused by the sun’s transfer of heat energy and differences in salt concentration leading to global water movement.
• Diagram convection patterns that flow due to uneven heating of the earth.
• Construct an explanation for how atmospheric flow, geographic features, and ocean currents affect the climate of a region through heat transfer.
• Apply scientific principles to design a method to analyze and interpret the impact of humans and other organisms on the hydrologic cycle.
• Analyze and interpret data from weather conditions, weather maps, satellites, and radar to predict probable local weather patterns and conditions.
• Explain how relationships between the movement and interactions of air masses, high and low pressure systems, and frontal boundaries result in weather conditions and severe storms.

Ocean Currents and Climate

The Water Cycle

• Differentiate between renewable and nonrenewable resources by asking questions about their availability and sustainability.
• Investigate and compare existing and developing technologies that utilize renewable and alternative energy resources.
• Assess the impacts of human activities on the biosphere including conservation, habitat management, species endangerment, and extinction.

Earth's Energy Resources

• Evaluate design constraints on solutions for maintaining ecosystems and biodiversity.
• Design and test different solutions that impact energy transfer.

Why is Biodiversity so Important?

• No standards for this domain.