Students Achieving Masters Grade Level Performace

Electrical circuits: Students explain how energy moves through a circuit and how it behaves differently in series circuits (one path) versus parallel circuits (multiple paths).

Forces and motion: Students investigate what happens when something changes—like strength, speed, or direction—and explain how those changes affect motion.

Earth’s surface changes: Students identify what causes slow changes (like erosion or weathering) and fast changes (like earthquakes or floods) to Earth’s surface.

Organism adaptations: Students explain how physical traits or behaviors help plants and animals survive in their environments.

Students achieving Meets Grade Level Performance 

Matter: Students learn the difference between a substance and a mixture by observing physical properties like color, texture, magnetism, and solubility.

Energy: Students explore different forms of energy and explain how energy is used in everyday life

Forces: Students investigate how pushes, pulls, and other forces affect the movement and shape of objects.

Earth’s surface: Students compare slow changes (such as erosion and weathering) with fast changes (such as earthquakes or floods).

Sun, Earth, and Moon: Students identify patterns like day and night, seasons, and moon phases caused by the interactions of the sun, Earth, and moon.

Living things: Students study inherited traits, learned behaviors, and body structures that help organisms survive and interact within ecosystems.

Ecosystems & energy: Students describe how energy from the sun moves through ecosystems, from plants to animals.

Students Achieving Approaches Grade Level Performance 

Matter: Students describe substances by observing physical properties such as color, texture, hardness, magnetism, and how they change when heated or cooled.

Light: Students identify how light behaves—such as reflecting, refracting, or forming shadows—and explain what we can observe because of those behaviors

Earth science: Students identify different landforms and explain how sedimentary rocks are formed through processes like erosion, deposition, and compaction.

Living things: Students recognize how different adaptations (body parts or behaviors) help organisms survive in their environments.

Students Achieving Does Not Meet Grade Level Performance 

States of matter: Students sort objects into solids, liquids, or gases based on how they look and behave.

Earth’s resources: Students identify renewable resources, such as sunlight, wind, and water, that can be reused and replaced naturally.

Sun, Earth, and Moon: Students learn basic characteristics of the sun, Earth, and moon, including size, movement, and how they relate to one another.

Food chains: Students identify the roles of organisms in a food chain, such as producers, consumers, and decomposers.