Science Curriculum: Essential Questions

The following are from the TUSD Science Curriculum Map for Sustainability. Please note: While in sustainability we will cover many, if not all, the topics listed below, it will not be in that order.

• What is the nature of Science?

• What criteria do we use to determine if something is scientific?

• Why is a mindset of inquiry and curiosity essential to gaining scientific knowledge?

• Why is technology important for scientific investigations and discovery? What are some of the major technological advances that have increased our scientific understanding of the world?

• How is engineering different from science and what is the process and mindset needed?

• How will I use math to solve problems through the engineering process?

• What is sustainable development and why is the concept of sustainability important?

• What are the essential needs for human life and needs beyond those for physical survival?

• What are renewable resources?

• How much water on earth is usable by humans to meet survival needs?

• How many people do not have access to clean water?

• How much water do I use? What can I do to conserve water?

• What is our personal impact on our planet and what are options to lessen impact?

• What is global climate change and what role do humans play?

• What technologies have been developed resulting in less human consumption of fossil fuels?

• Can individual action alone have a positive impact on reducing global climate change?

• What personal actions affect the community, environment, the globe?

• Are there ways to use technology to obtain or create more water in places where water is needed most?

• If enough food is produced to feed everyone, why is there hunger?

• Is current food production sustainable?

• How do objects interact with one another?

• What is energy and how does it change its form?

• How is energy stored in objects? How can energy be transferred at different rates?

• Is there an impartial scientific way to analyze the costs, benefits, and risks of various ways of dealing with the following needs or problems: various forms of alternative energy, storage of nuclear waste, abandoned mines, greenhouse gases, hazardous wastes?

• What are different ways to describe motion?

• What is the difference between speed and velocity?

• What changes when an object accelerates?

• What is momentum?