Enduring Understandings in Science, Mathematics, and Language Arts
Science: What are the physical and chemical properties of water? How does water modify the environment? What is the role of water in the life?
Math: When is it appropriate to use inductive versus deductive logic?
English Language Arts: What is the role of persuasion in communications? What are the responsibilities of those using persuasive techniques to influence perception?
Instructional targets aligned to the California Standards Science Standards
Grade 4:
Earth Science
5. Waves, wind, water, and ice shape and reshape Earth’s land surface. As a basis for understanding this concept:
c. Students know moving water erodes landforms, reshaping the land by taking it away from some places and depositing it as pebbles, sand, silt, and mud in other places (weathering, transport, and deposition).
Grade 5: Physical Science
1. Elements and their combinations account for all the varied types of matter in the
world. As a basis for understanding this concept:
f. Students know differences in chemical and physical properties of substances are used to separate mixtures and identify compounds.
g. Students know properties of solid, liquid, and gaseous substances, such as sugar (C6H12O6), water (H2O), helium (He), oxygen (O2), nitrogen (N2), and carbon dioxide (CO2).
Grade 5: Earth Sciences
3. Water on Earth moves between the oceans and land through the processes of evaporation and condensation. As a basis for understanding this concept:
b. Students know when liquid water evaporates, it turns into water vapor in the air and can reappear as a liquid when cooled or as a solid if cooled below the freezing point of water.
c. Students know water vapor in the air moves from one place to another and can form fog or clouds, which are tiny droplets of water or ice, and can fall to Earth as rain, hail, sleet, or snow.
5. The solar system consists of planets and other bodies that orbit the Sun in predictable paths. As a basis for understanding this concept:
b. Students know the solar system includes the planet Earth, the Moon, the Sun, eight other planets and their satellites, and smaller objects, such as asteroids and comets.
Grade 6: Earth Sciences
2. Topography is reshaped by the weathering of rock and soil and by the transportation and deposition of sediment. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know water running downhill is the dominant process in shaping the landscape, including California's landscape.
4. Many phenomena on Earth's surface are affected by the transfer of energy through radiation and convection currents. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know the sun is the major source of energy for phenomena on Earth’s surface; it powers winds, ocean currents, and the water cycle.
e. Students know differences in pressure, heat, air movement, and humidity result in changes of weather.
Grade 8: Physical Science
3. Each of the more than 100 elements of matter has distinct properties and a distinct atomic structure. All forms of matter are composed of one or more of the elements. As a basis for understanding this concept:
b. Students know that compounds are formed by combining two or more different elements and that compounds have properties that are different from their constituent elements.
d. Students know the states of matter (solid, liquid, gas) depend on molecular motion.
5. Chemical reactions are processes in which atoms are rearranged into different combinations of molecules. As a basis for understanding this concept:
d. Students know physical processes include freezing and boiling, in which a material changes form with no chemical reaction.
6. Principles of chemistry underlie the functioning of biological systems. As a basis for understanding this concept:
b. Students know that living organisms are made of molecules consisting largely of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur.
High School Chemistry
2. Biological, chemical, and physical properties of matter result from the ability of atoms to form bonds from electrostatic forces between electrons and protons and between atoms and molecules. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know atoms combine to form molecules by sharing electrons to form covalent or metallic bonds or by exchanging electrons to form ionic bonds.
d. Students know the atoms and molecules in liquids move in a random pattern relative to one another because the intermolecular forces are too weak to hold the atoms or molecules in a solid form.
h.* Students know how to identify solids and liquids held together by van der Waals forces or hydrogen bonding and relate these forces to volatility and boiling/ melting point temperatures.
4. The kinetic molecular theory describes the motion of atoms and molecules and explains the properties of gases. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know the random motion of molecules and their collisions with a surface create the observable pressure on that surface.
b. Students know the random motion of molecules explains the diffusion of gases.
c. Students know how to apply the gas laws to relations between the pressure, temperature, and volume of any amount of an ideal gas or any mixture of ideal gases.
e. Students know how to convert between the Celsius and Kelvin temperature scales.
6. Solutions are homogenous mixtures of two or more substances. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know the definitions of solute and solvent.
f.* Students know how molecules in a solution are separated or purified by the methods of chromatography and distillation.
High School Earth Sciences
1. Astronomy and planetary exploration reveal the solar system's structure, scale, and change over time. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know how the differences and similarities among the sun, the terrestrial planets, and the gas planets may have been established during the formation of the solar system.
c. Students know the evidence from geological studies of Earth and other planets suggest that the early Earth was very different from Earth today.
4. Energy enters the Earth system primarily as solar radiation and eventually escapes as heat. As a basis for understanding this concept:
b. Students know the fate of incoming solar radiation in terms of reflection, absorption, and photosynthesis.
c. Students know the different atmospheric gases that absorb the Earth's thermal radiation and the mechanism and significance of the greenhouse effect.
d.* Students know the differing greenhouse conditions on Earth, Mars, and Venus; the origins of those conditions; and the climatic consequences of each.
6. Climate is the long-term average of a region's weather and depends on many factors. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know weather (in the short run) and climate (in the long run) involve the transfer of energy into and out of the atmosphere.
b. Students know the effects on climate of latitude, elevation, topography, and proximity to large bodies of water and cold or warm ocean currents.
7. Each element on Earth moves among reservoirs, which exist in the solid earth, in oceans, in the atmosphere, and within and among organisms as part of biogeochemical cycles. As a basis for understanding this concept:
c. Students know the movement of matter among reservoirs is driven by Earth's internal and external sources of energy.
8. Life has changed Earth's atmosphere, and changes in the atmosphere affect conditions for life. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know the thermal structure and chemical composition of the atmosphere.
b. Students know how the composition of Earth's atmosphere has evolved over geologic time and know the effect of outgassing, the variations of carbon dioxide concentration, and the origin of atmospheric oxygen.
High School Investigation and Experimentation
1. Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept and addressing the content in the other four strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:
a. Select and use appropriate tools and technology (such as computer-linked probes, spreadsheets, and graphing calculators) to perform tests, collect data, analyze relationships, and display data.
b. Identify and communicate sources of unavoidable experimental error.
c. Identify possible reasons for inconsistent results, such as sources of error or uncontrolled conditions.
d. Formulate explanations by using logic and evidence.
f. Distinguish between hypothesis and theory as scientific terms.
g. Recognize the usefulness and limitations of models and theories as scientific representations of reality.
i. Analyze the locations, sequences, or time intervals that are characteristic of natural phenomena (e.g., relative ages of rocks, locations of planets over time, and succession of species in an ecosystem).
l. Analyze situations and solve problems that require combining and applying concepts from more than one area of science.
Math: Algebra 1:
24.0 Students use and know simple aspects of a logical argument:
24.1Students explain the difference between inductive and deductive reasoning and identify and provide examples of each.
24.2 Students identify the hypothesis and conclusion in logical deduction.
24.3Students use counterexamples to show that an assertion is false and recognize that a single counterexample is sufficient to refute an assertion.
English Language Arts 2.4
Write persuasive compositions:
a. Structure ideas and arguments in a sustained and logical fashion.
b. Use specific rhetorical devices to support assertions (e.g., appeal to logic through reasoning; appeal to emotion or ethical belief; relate a personal anecdote, case study, or analogy).
c. Clarify and defend positions with precise and relevant evidence, including facts, expert opinions, quotations, and expressions of commonly accepted beliefs and logical reasoning.
d. Address readers' concerns, counterclaims, biases, and expectations.