This first grade model is tied together with a thread relating to light, which can be connected through the four bundles. The first bundle focuses on seeing objects, and includes the foundational and challenging idea that light is necessary for us to see. The need for light is true whether viewing objects on Earth or in the sky. Bundle 2 extends the study of light to include its interaction with various materials, and applies ideas about light and sound to solve a problem. Bundle 3 is tied to organisms and sunlight, as part of a study of the structure and function of the external parts of plants and animals. In bundle 4, while students study plants and animals with a focus on the traits of parents and their offspring and behaviors of parents and offspring, the study of light is brought back in by looking back over student observations of the amount of daylight over the past year.

Each bundle in this course also has a focus Crosscutting Concept (CCC), building on student understanding of the CCCs that are introduced the previous year, in Kindergarten. Bundles 1 and 4 focus on Patterns, Bundle 2 focuses on Cause and Effect, and Bundle 3 focuses on Structure and Function.

STANDARDS AND OBJECTIVES

Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions

• 1-PS4-2 - Make observations to construct an evidence-based account that objects in darkness can be seen only when illuminated.

Earth's Systems

• 1-ESS1-1 - Use observations of the sun, moon, and stars to describe patterns that can be predicted.
• 1-ESS1-2 - Make observations at different times of year to relate the amount of daylight to the time of year.

STANDARDS AND OBJECTIVES

Waves and their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer

• 1-PS4-1 - Plan and conduct investigations to provide evidence that vibrating materials can make sound and that sound can make materials vibrate.
• 1-PS4-3 - Plan and conduct investigations to determine the effect of placing objects made with different materials in the path of a beam of light.
• 1-PS4-4 - Use tools and materials to design and build a device that uses light or sound to solve the problem of communicating over a distance.

Earth's Place in the Universe

• 1-ESS1-2 - Make observations at different times of year to relate the amount of daylight to the time of year.

Engineering Design

• K-2-ETS1-1 - Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.

STANDARDS AND OBJECTIVES

From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes

• 1-LS1-1 - Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.

Earth's Place in the Universe

• 1-ESS1-2 - Make observations at different times of year to relate the amount of daylight to the time of year.

Engineering Design

• K-2-ETS1-2 - Develop a simple sketch, drawing, or physical model to illustrate how the shape of an object helps it function as needed to solve a given problem.
• K-2-ETS1-3 - Analyze data from tests of two objects designed to solve the same problem to compare the strengths and weaknesses of how each performs.

STANDARDS AND OBJECTIVES

From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes

• 1-LS1-2 - Read texts and use media to determine patterns in behavior of parents and offspring that help offspring survive.

Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits

• 1-LS3-1 - Make observations to construct an evidence-based account that young plants and animals are like, but not exactly like, their parents.

Earth's Place in the Universe

• 1-ESS1-2 - Make observations at different times of year to relate the amount of daylight to the time of year.