Grade 6 Science - In Revision to align with NGSS Science Standards

This course model arranges the Performance Expectations (PEs) outlined in the first year of the middle school conceptual progressions model from the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) into five different bundles of PEs using a phenomenon-based arrangement. The bundles in this model follow a conceptual flow throughout the year. The first bundle focuses on the relationship between resource availability and geoscience processes. The second bundle focus on energy flows and changes in Earth Surfaces, the third, fourth and fifth on matter, object interactions, and collisions.

STANDARDS AND OBJECTIVES

Life Science: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics

• MS-LS2-1 Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.
• MS-LS2-2 Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.

Earth Science: Earth and Human Activity

• MS-ESS3-1 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

STANDARDS AND OBJECTIVES

Earth Science: Earth’s Systems

• MS-ESS2-1 Develop a model to describe the cycling of Earth’s materials and the flow of energy that drives this process.
• MS-ESS2-2 Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth's surface at varying time and spatial scales.
• MS-ESS2-3 Analyze and interpret data on the distribution of fossils and rocks, continental shapes, and seafloor structures to provide evidence of the past plate motions.
• MS-ESS2-4 Develop a model to describe the cycling of water through Earth’s systems driven by energy from the sun and the force of gravity

STANDARDS AND OBJECTIVES

Physical Science: Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions

• MS-PS2-3 Ask questions about data to determine the factors that affect the strength of electric and magnetic forces.
• MS-PS2-4 Construct and present arguments using evidence to support the claim that gravitational interactions are attractive and depend on the masses of interacting objects.
• MS-PS2-5 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.

STANDARDS AND OBJECTIVES

Physical Science: Matter and its Interactions

• MS-PS1-1 Develop models to describe the atomic composition of simple molecules and extended structures.
• MS-PS1-2 Analyze and interpret data on the properties of substances before and after substances interact to determine if a chemical reaction has occurred.
• MS-PS1-3 Gather and make sense of information to describe that synthetic materials come from natural resources and impact society.
• MS-PS1-5 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.
• MS-PS1-6 Undertake a design project to construct, test, and modify a device that either releases or absorbs thermal energy by chemical processes.

STANDARDS AND OBJECTIVES

Physical Science: Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions

• MS-PS2-1 Apply Newton’s Third Law to design a solution to a problem involving the motion of two colliding objects.*
• MS-PS2-2 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.

Physical Science: Energy

• MS-PS3-1 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.
• MS-PS3-2 Develop and use 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.
• MS-PS3-5 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. (Focus should be on transfer of kinetic energy and how it changes)

Engineering Performance Expectations

• MS-ETS1-1 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.
• MS-ETS1-2 Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.