Diocese of Sacramento

SCIENCE

ACADEMIC CONTENT

STANDARDS

 

 for grades 3 - 5

SCIENCE STANDARDS

Third Grade

 

Physical Science

1.0   God created energy and matter in their multiple forms.   They can be changed from one form to another.  As a basis for understanding this concept, students know:

1.1      energy comes from the sun to the earth in the form of light.

1.2      sources of stored energy take many forms:  such as food, fuel and batteries.

1.3      machines and living things convert stored energy to motion and heat.

1.4      energy can be carried from one place to another by waves, such as water waves and sound, by electric current and by moving objects.

1.5      matter has three forms:  solid, liquid, and gas.

1.6      evaporation and melting are changes that occur when the objects are heated.

1.7      when two or more substances are combined a new substance may be formed that can have properties that are different from those of the original materials.

1.8      all matter is made of small particles called atoms, too small to see with our eyes.

1.9      people once thought that earth, wind, fire, and water were the basic elements that made up all matter.  Science experiments show that there are over 100 atoms, which are displayed on the Periodic Table of the Elements.

           

2.0   Jesus is the light of the world.   Light has a source and travels in a direction.  As a basis for understanding this concept, students know:

2.1      sunlight can be blocked to create shadows.

2.2      light is reflected from mirrors and other surfaces.

2.3      the color of light striking an object affects how our eyes see it.

2.4      we see objects when light traveling from an object enters our eye.

           

Life Sciences

1.0   God created plants and animals to have adaptations in their physical structure or behavior to improve an organism’s chance for survival.  As a basis for this under-

        standing this concept, students know:

1.1      plants and animals have structures that serve different functions in growth, survival, and reproduction.

1.2      plants are either seed or non-seed.

1.3      plants make their own food.     

1.4      examples of diverse life forms in different environments, such as oceans, deserts, tundra, forests, grasslands, and wetlands.

1.5      living things cause changes in the environment where they live; some of these changes are detrimental to the organism or other organisms, whereas others are beneficial.

1.6      when the environment changes, some plants and animals survive and reproduce, and others die or move to new locations

1.7      some kinds of organisms that once lived on Earth have completely disappeared, although they resembled others that are alive today.

 

Earth Sciences

1.0   God created our universe with objects in the sky that move in regular and predictable patterns.  As a basis for understanding this concept, students know:

1.1      the patterns of stars stay the same, although they appear to move across the sky nightly, and different stars can be seen at different seasons.

1.2      how the moon’s appearance changes during the four-week lunar cycle.

1.3      telescopes magnify the appearance of some distant objects in the sky, including the moon and the planets.  The number of stars that can be seen through telescopes is dramatically greater than can be seen by the unaided eye.

1.4      the Earth is one of several planets that orbit the sun, and the moon orbits the Earth.

1.5      the position of the sun in the sky changes during the course of the day and from season to season.

 

Investigation And Experimentation

1.0   Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations.  As a basis for understanding this concept, and to address the content the other three strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations.  Students will:

1.1      repeat observations to improve accuracy, and know that the results of similar scientific investigations seldom turn out exactly the same because of differences in the things being investigated, methods being used, or uncertainty in the observation.

1.2      differentiate evidence from option, and know that scientists do not rely on claims or conclusions unless they are backed by observations that can be confirmed.

1.3      use numerical data in describing and comparing objects, events and measurements.

1.4      predict the outcome of a simple investigation, and compare the result to the prediction.

1.5      collect data in an investigation and analyze them to develop a logical conclusion.

 

SCIENCE STANDARDS

Fourth Grade

Physical Sciences

1.0   Electricity and magnetism are related effects that have many useful applications in everyday life. As a basis for understanding this concept, students know:

1.1      how to design and build simple series and parallel circuit components such as wires, batteries, and bulbs.

1.2      how to build a simple compass and use it to detect magnetic effects, including Earth’s magnetic field.

1.3      that all electric currents produce magnetic fields and how to build a simple electromagnet.

1.4      the role of electromagnets in the construction of electric motors, electric generators, and simple devices such as doorbells and earphones.

1.5      electrically charged objects attract or repel each other; electricity is a force.

1.6      magnets have two poles labeled north and south, and like poles repel each other while unlike poles attract each other; magnetism is a force.

1.7      electrical energy can be converted to heat, light, and motion.

1.8      know the basic elements of gravity and friction.

1.9      understand the characteristics and uses of the six simple machines—plane and wedge, screw, pulley, lever, wheel and axle; identify simple machines with complex machines, and be able to combine simple machines to make complex machines.

1.10    understand the characteristics of light and sound and sources of light.                  

1.11    know how reflection, absorption, and transmission of light affects an object’s appearance.                 

1.12    know how flat and curved mirrors affect light, and how objects refract light.

1.13    know how light waves are different from sound waves, and how light waves and sound waves travel.

Life Sciences

1.0   All organisms that God created need energy and matter to live and grow. As a basis for understanding this concept, students know:

 1.1     plants are the primary source of matter and energy entering most food chains.

 1.2     producers and consumers (herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, and decomposers) are related in food chains and food webs, and may compete with each other for resources in an ecosystem.

1.3      decomposers, including many fungi, insects, and micro-organisms recycle matter from dead plants and animals.

 

2.0   Living things depend on one another and their environment for survival. As a basis for understanding this concept, students know:

2.1      ecosystems can be characterized in terms of their living and nonliving components.

2.2      for any particular environment (ocean and land food chains), some kind of plants and animals survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.

2.3      many plants depend on animals for pollination and seed dispersal, while animals depend on plants for food and shelter.

2.4      most micro-organisms do not cause disease and many are beneficial.

2.5      be appreciative of the complexities and differences of all God’s living creations.

 

Earth Sciences

1.0   The properties of rocks and minerals reflect the processes that formed them. As a basis for understanding this concept, students know:

1.1      how to differentiate among igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks by their properties and methods of formation (the rock cycle).

1.2      how to identify common rock-forming minerals (including quartz, calcite, feldspar, mica, and hornblende) and ore minerals using a table of diagnostic properties.

1.3      understand the Earth’s surface and changes which affect it.

1.4      know the layers which form the Earth’s crust, and the characteristics of each layer.

1.5      be able to identify examples of various layers of the Earth’s crust, and how the various layers were formed.

1.6      know how wind, water, time, and geological shifts affect the Earth’s surface.

1.7      know how humans change the Earth’s surface, and their appreciation for the resources God has provided for us all.

 

2.0   Waves, wind, water, and ice shape and reshape the Earth’s land surface. As a basis for understanding this concept, students know:

2.1      some changes in the Earth are due to slow processes, such as erosion (weathering, transport, and deposition), and some changes are due to rapid processes, such as landslides, volcanic eruptions, and  earth-quakes.

2.2      natural processes including freezing/thawing and growth of roots, cause rocks to break down into smaller pieces.

2.3      moving water erodes landforms, reshaping the land by taking it way in places and depositing it as pebbles, sand, silt, and mud in other places.

 

Investigation And Experimentation

1.0   Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations.  As a basis for understanding this concept, and to address the content of the other three strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations.  Students will:

1.1      differentiate observation from interpretation, and know that scientists’ explanations come partly from what they observe and partly from how they interpret their observations.

1.2      measure and estimate weight, length, or volume of objects.

1.3      formulate predictions and justify predictions based on cause and effect relationships.

1.4      conduct multiple trials to test a prediction and draw conclusions about the relationships between results and predictions.

1.5      construct and interpret graphs from measurements.

1.6      follow a set of written instructions for a scientific investigation.

SCIENCE STANDARDS

Grade Five

 

Physical Sciences

1.0   God created the world and all its matter with an infinite sense of order.  Elements  and their combinations account for all the varied types of matter in the world.  As a basis for understanding this concept, students know:

 

1.1.     during chemical reactions, the atoms in the reactants rearrange to form products with different properties.

1.2      all matter is made of atoms which may combine to form molecules.

1.3      metals are a group of substances that have shared properties such as electrical and thermal conductivity.  Some metals, such as aluminum (Al), iron (Fe), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), silver (Ag), gold (Au), are pure elements while others, such as steel and brass, are composed of a combination of elemental metals.

1.4      each element is made of one kind of atom.  These elements are organized in the Periodic Table by their chemical properties.

1.5      scientists have developed instruments that can create images of atoms and molecules showing that they are discrete and often occur in well ordered arrays.

1.6      differences in chemicals and physical properties of substances are used to separate mixtures and identify compounds.

1.7      properties of solid, liquid, and gaseous substances such as sugar (C6H12O6), water (H2O), helium (He), oxygen (O2), nitrogen (N2), and carbon dioxide (CO2).

1.8      living organisms and most materials are composed of just a few elements.

1.9      common properties of salts, such as sodium chloride (NaCl).

Life Sciences

 

1.0   God made all life on Earth, creating plants and animals that have structures for respiration, digestion, waste disposal, and transport of materials.  As a basis for understanding this concept, students know:

1.1      many multi-cellular organisms have specialized structures to support the transport of materials.

1.2      how blood circulates through the heart chambers, lungs, and body, and how carbon dioxide (CO2) and oxygen (O2) are exchanged in the lungs and tissues.

1.3      the sequential steps of digestion, and how the teeth and mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, and colon are important in the function of the digestive system.

1.4      the role of the kidney in removing cellular wastes out of blood, which become urine stored in the bladder.

1.5      how sugar, water, and minerals are transported in a vascular plant.

1.6      plants use carbon dioxide (CO2) and energy from sunlight to build molecules of sugar and release oxygen.

1.7      plant and animal cells break down sugar to obtain energy, forming carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (respiration).

Earth Sciences

1.0   According to God’s design, water on Earth moves between the oceans and land through the processes of evaporation and condensation.  As a basis for understanding this concept, students know:

1.1      almost all of the Earth’s water is present as salt water in the oceans which cover most of the Earth’s surface.

1.2      when liquid water evaporates, it turns into water vapor (invisible) in the air and can reappear as a liquid when cooled, or as a solid if cooled below the freezing point of water.

1.3      water moves in the air from one place to another in the form of clouds or fog, which are tiny droplets of water or ice, and falls to the Earth as rain, hail, sleet, or snow.

1.4      the amount of fresh water, located in rivers, lakes, underground sources, and glaciers, is limited, and its availability can be extended through recycling and decreased use.

1.5      the origin of water used by their local communities.

 

2.0   Our Creator designed our world so that energy from the sun heats the Earth unevenly, causing air movements resulting in changing weather patterns.  As a basis for understanding this concept, students know:

2.1      uneven heating of the Earth causes air movements (convection currents).

2.2      how the angle of the sun affects weather, how latitude affects weather, the influence of the ocean on weather, and the role of the water cycle in weather.

2.3      causes and effects of different types of severe weather.

2.4      how to use weather maps and weather forecasts to predict local weather, and that prediction depends on many changing variables.

2.5      the Earth’s atmosphere exerts a pressure that decreases with distance above the Earth’s surface, and is the same in all directions.

 

3.0   The Creator’s ordered design extends from the smallest atom on Earth, through our solar system, and to the furthest reaches of the universe.  The solar system consists of planets and other bodies that orbit the sun in predictable paths.  As a basis for understanding this concept, students know:

3.1      the sun, an average star, is the central and largest body in the solar system and is composed primarily of hydrogen and helium.

3.2      the solar system includes the Earth, moon, sun, eight other planets and their satellites, and smaller objects such as asteroids and comets.

3.3      that the path of a planet around the sun is due to the gravitational attraction between the sun and the planet.

Investigation and Experimentation

1.0   Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations.  As a basis for understanding this concept, and to address the content of the other three strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations.  Students will:

1.1      classify objects (e.g., rocks, plants, leaves) based on appropriate criteria.

1.2      develop a testable question.

1.3      plan and conduct a simple investigation based on a student-developed question, and write instructions others can follow to carry out the procedure.

1.4.     identify the dependent and controlled variables in an investigation.

1.5      identify a single independent variable in a scientific investigation and explain what will be learned by collecting data on this variable.

1.6      select appropriate tools (e.g., thermometers, meter sticks, balances, and graduated cylinders) and make quantitative observations.

1.7      record data using appropriate graphic representation (including charts, graphs, and labeled diagrams), and make inferences based on that data.

1.8      draw conclusions based on scientific evidence and indicate whether further information is needed to support a specific conclusion.

1.9      write a report of an investigation that includes tests conducted, data collected or evidence examined, and conclusions drawn.

 Science Tracking Sheet – Third Grade

Science Tracking Sheet – Fourth Grade

Science Tracking Sheet – Fifth Grade

 

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