Unit 1 (Scientific Inquiry) Scientific explanations are built by combining evidence that can be observed with what people already know about the world. (1.1a) Learning about the historical development of scientific concepts or about individuals who have contributed to scientific knowledge provides a better understanding of scientific inquiry and the relationship between science and society. (1.1b) Science provides knowledge, but values are also essential to making effective and ethical decisions about the application of scientific knowledge. (1.1c)
Inquiry involves asking questions and locating, interpreting, and processing information from a variety of sources. (1.2a) Inquiry involves making judgments about the reliability of the source and relevance of information. (1.2b)
Scientific explanations are accepted when they are consistent with experimental and observational evidence and when they lead to accurate predictions. (1.3a) All scientific explanations are tentative and subject to change or improvement. Each new bit of evidence can more questions than it answers. This leads to increasingly better understanding of how things work in the living world. (1.3b)
Well-accepted theories are ones that are supported by different kinds of scientific investigations often involving the contributions of individuals from different disciplines. (1.4a)
One assumption of science is that other individuals could arrive at the same explanation if they had access to similar evidence. Scientists make the results of their investigations public; they should describe the investigations in ways that enable others to repeat the investigations. (3.5a) Scientists use peer review to evaluate the results of scientific investigations and the explanations proposed by other scientists. They analyze the experimental procedures, examine the evidence, identify faulty reasoning, point out statements that go beyond the evidence, and suggest alternative explanations for the same observations. (3.5b)
Unit 8 (Human Influences on the Environment) The Earth has finite resources; increasing human consumption of resources places stress on the natural processes that renew some resources and deplete those resources that cannot be renewed. (7.1a)
Natural ecosystems provide an array of basic processes that affect humans. Those processes include but are not limited to: maintenance of the quality of the atmosphere,generation of soils, control of the water cycle, removal of wastes, energy flow, and recycling of nutrients. Humans are changing many of these basic processes and the changes may be detrimental. (7.1b)
Human beings are part of the Earth’s ecosystems. Human activities can, deliberately or inadvertently,alter the equilibrium in ecosystems. Humans modify ecosystems as a result of population growth, consumption, and technology. Human destruction of habitats through direct harvesting, pollution, atmospheric changes, and other factors is threatening current global stability, and if not addressed, ecosystems may be irreversibly affected. (7.1c)
Societies must decide on proposals which involve the introduction of new technologies. Individuals need to make decisions which will assess risks, costs, benefits,and trade-offs. (7.3a)
The decisions of one generation both provide and limit the range of possibilities open to the next generation. (7.3b)
| NGSS: (in red) http://www.nextgenscience.org/sites/ngss/files/Appendix%20G%20-%20Crosscutting%20Concepts%20FINAL%20edited%204.10.13.pdf
Crosscutting Concepts 1. Patterns. Observed patterns of forms and events guide organization and classification, and they prompt questions about relationships and the factors that influence them. 2. Cause and effect: Mechanism and explanation. Events have causes, sometimes simple, sometimes multifaceted. A major activity of science is investigating and explaining causal relationships and the mechanisms by which they are mediated. Such mechanisms can then be tested across given contexts and used to predict and explain events in new contexts. 3. Scale, proportion, and quantity. In considering phenomena, it is critical to recognize what is relevant at different measures of size, time, and energy and to recognize how changes in scale, proportion, or quantity affect a system’s structure or performance. 4. Systems and system models. Defining the system under study—specifying its boundaries and making explicit a model of that system—provides tools for understanding and testing ideas that are applicable throughout science and engineering. 5. Energy and matter: Flows, cycles, and conservation. Tracking fluxes of energy and matter into, out of, and within systems helps one understand the systems’ possibilities and limitations. 6. Structure and function. The way in which an object or living thing is shaped and its substructure determine many of its properties and functions. 7. Stability and change. For natural and built systems alike, conditions of stability and determinants of rates of change or evolution of a system are critical elements of study
Science and Engineering Practices: 1. Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering) 2. Developing and using models 3. Planning and carrying out investigations 4. Analyzing and interpreting data 5. Using mathematics and computational thinking 6. Constructing explanations (for science) and designing solutions (for engineering) 7. Engaging in argument from evidence 8. Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information
Disciplinary Core Idea Engineering Design ET S1.A: Defining and Delimiting Engineering Problems ET S1.B: Developing Possible Solutions ET S1.C: Optimizing the Design Solution HS-ETS1-1. Analyze a major global challenge to specify qualitative and quantitative criteria and constraints for solutions that account for societal needs and wants. HS-ETS1-2. Design a solution to a complex real-world problem by breaking it down into smaller, more manageable problems that can be solved through engineering. HS-ETS1-3. Evaluate a solution to a complex real-world problem based on prioritized criteria and trade-offs that account for a range of constraints, including cost, safety, reliability, and aesthetics, as well as possible social, cultural, and environmental impacts. HS-ETS1-4. Use a computer simulation to model the impact of proposed solutions to a complex real-world problem within and between systems relevant to the problem.
Life Science HS-LS1-2. Develop and use a model to illustrate the hierarchical organization of interacting systems that provide specific functions within multicellular organisms HS-LS1-3. Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence that feedback mechanisms maintain homeostasis. HS-LS1-5. Use a model to illustrate how photosynthesis transforms light energy into stored chemical energy. |
MST: Standard 2 Information Systems
Key Idea 1: Information technology is used to retrieve, process, and communicate information as a tool to enhance learning.
Key Idea 2: Knowledge of the impacts and limitations of information systems is essential to its effective and ethical use.
Key Idea 3: Information technology can have positive and negative impacts on society, depending upon how it is used.
Standard 6: Interconnectedness: Common Themes
Key Idea 1: Through systems thinking, people can recognize the commonalities that exist among all systems and how parts of a system interrelate and combine to perform specific functions.
Key Idea 2: Models are simplified representations of objects, structures, or systems used in analysis, explanation, interpretation, or design.
Key Idea 3: The grouping of magnitudes of size, time, frequency, and pressures or other units of measurement into a series of relative order provides a useful way to deal with the immense range and the changes in scale that affect the behavior and design of systems.
Key Idea 5: Identifying patterns of change is necessary for making predictions about future behavior and conditions.
Key Idea 6: In order to arrive at the best solution that meets criteria within constraints, it is often necessary to make trade-offs.
Standard 7: Interdisciplinary Problem Solving
Key Idea 1: The knowledge and skills of mathematics, science, and technology are used together to make informed decisions and solve problems, especially those relating to issues of science/ technology/society,consumer decision making, design, and inquiry into phenomena. | Common Core State Standards Connections: http://www.corestandards.org/wp-content/uploads/ELA_Standards.pdf http://www.corestandards.org/wp-content/uploads/Math_Standards.pdf
ELA /Literacy RST .11-12.7 Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., quantitative data, video , multimedia) in order to address a question or solve a problem. RST .11-12.8 Evaluate the hypotheses, data, analysis, and conclusions in a science or technical text, verifying the data when possible and corroborating or challenging conclusions with other sources of information. RST .11-12.9 Synthesize information from a range of sources (e.g., texts, experiments, simulations) into a coherent understanding of a process, phenomenon, or concept, resolving conflicting information when possible. (HS-ETS1-1),(HS-ETS1-3)
WHST.9-10.2: Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events, scientific procedures/experiments, or technical processes. WHST.9-10.6: Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.
Mathematics – MP.2 Reason abstractly and quantitatively MP.4 Model with mathematics. |
