Standards & Benchmarks for Life Cycles

Legend: F = Focus in lesson O = Ongoing development E = Early exposure

NSE STANDARDS			LESSONS																											SRBS
			0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	S1	S2	S3
A, Science as Inquiry
	Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
		Ask a question about objects, organisms, and events in the environment.	F					O						O					O
		Plan and conduct a simple investigation.							F							F						F
		Employ simple equipment and tools to gather data and extend the senses.	O						O	O			O		O		O	O		O	O	O		O	O	O	O			O	O	F
		Use data to construct a reasonable explanation.	F										F			O							F						F
		Communicate investigations and explanations.	F						O						O		O	O		O	O	O	F	O	O	O			F
	Understandings about scientific inquiry
		Scientific investigations involve asking and answering a question and comparing the answer with what scientists already know about the world.	F								E																	O
		Scientists use different kinds of investigations depending on the questions they are trying to answer. Types of investigations include describing objects, events, and organisms; classifying them; and doing a fair test (experimenting)	O					O			E			O	O	F	O	O	O	F	O			O	O	O		O
		Simple instruments, such as magnifiers, thermometers, and rulers, provide more information than scientists obtain using only their senses.							O	O	E				O		O	O		O	O	O		O	O	O	O	O		O	O
		Scientists develop explanations using observations (evidence) and what they already know about the world (scientific knowledge). Good explanations are based on evidence from investigations.									E											O	F					O	F
		Scientists make the results of their investigations public; they describe the investigations in ways that enable others to repeat the investigations.									E																	O
		Scientists review and ask questions about the results of other scientists' work.									E																	O
B, Physical Science
	Properties of objects and materials
		Objects have many observable properties, including size, weight, shape, color, temperature, and the ability to react with other substances. Those properties can be measured using tools, such as rulers, balances, and thermometers.						F	F	O				F	F	F	O	O	F		F	F		O	O	F	O			F	F	F
C, Life Science
	The characteristics of organisms
		Organisms have basic needs. For example, animals need air, water, and food; plants require air, water, nutrients, and light. Organisms can survive only in environments in which their needs can be met. The world has many different environments, and distinct environments support the life of different types of organisms.										F	O		O	F	O	F				O	O						O
		Each plant or animal has different structures that serve different functions in growth, survival, and reproduction. For example, humans have distinct body structures for walking, holding, seeing, and talking.											E		O			F		O	F			O	O	F			O
		The behavior of individual organisms is influenced by internal cues (such as hunger) and by external cues (such as a change in the environment). Humans and other organisms have senses that help them detect internal and external cues.
	Life cycles of organisms
		Plants and animals have life cycles that include being born, developing into adults, reproducing, and eventually dying. The details of this life cycle are different for different organisms.		F	F	F	F						O		F	O	F	O	F	O	O	O	F	O	O	O			F
		Plants and animals closely resemble their parents.			F	O																		F	F
		Many characteristics of an organism are inherited from the parents of the organism, but other characteristics result from an individual's interactions with the environment. Inherited characteristics include the color of flowers and the number of limbs of an animal. Other features, such as the ability to ride a bicycle, are learned through interactions with the environment and cannot be passed on to the next generation.					E				E																	F
	Organisms and their environments
		All animals depend on plants. Some animals eat plants for food. Other animals eat animals that eat the plants.															O	F						F	F				O
		An organism's patterns of behavior are related to the nature of that organism's environment, including the kinds and numbers of other organisms present, the availability of food and resources, and the physical characteristics of the environment. When the environment changes, some plants and animals survive and reproduce, and others die or move to new locations.																						F	F
		Humans depend on their natural and constructed environments. Humans change environments in ways that can be either beneficial or detrimental for themselves and other organisms.					E						E
D, Earth and Space Science
	Properties of earth materials
		Soils have properties of color and texture, capacity to retain water, and ability to support the growth of many kinds of plants, including those in our food supply.														O
E, Science and Technology
	Abilities of technological design
		IDENTIFY A SIMPLE PROBLEM. In problem identification, children should develop the ability to explain a problem in their own words and identify a specific task and solution related to the problem.										F
		PROPOSE A SOLUTION. Students should make proposals to build something or get something to work better; they should be able to describe and communicate their ideas. Students should recognize that designing a solution might have constraints, such as cost, materials, time, space, or safety.										F
		COMMUNICATE A PROBLEM, DESIGN, AND SOLUTION. Student abilities should include oral, written, and pictorial communication of the design process and product. The communication might be show and tell, group discussions, short written reports, or pictures, depending on the students' abilities and the design project.										F
	Understanding about science and technology
		People have always had questions about their world. Science is one way of answering questions and explaining the natural world.	F
		People have always had problems and invented tools and techniques (ways of doing something) to solve problems. Trying to determine the effects of solutions helps people avoid some new problems.
		Scientists and engineers often work in teams with different individuals doing different things that contribute to the results. This understanding focuses primarily on teams working together and secondarily, on the combination of scientist and engineer teams.	O						E					O					O			O
		Women and men of all ages, backgrounds, and groups engage in a variety of scientific and technological work.
		Tools help scientists make better observations, measurements, and equipment for investigations. They help scientists see, measure, and do things that they could not otherwise see, measure, and do.							O	O	O				O						O					O	O
F, Science in Personal and Social Perspectives
	Personal Health
		Safety and security are basic needs of humans. Safety involves freedom from danger, risk, or injury. Security involves feelings of confidence and lack of anxiety and fear. Student understandings include following safety rules for home and school, preventing abuse and neglect, avoiding injury, knowing whom to ask for help, and when and how to say no.
	Changes in environments
		Environments are the space, conditions, and factors that affect an individual's and a population's ability to survive and their quality of life.														F
	Science and technology in local in local challenges
		People continue inventing new ways of doing things, solving problems, and getting work done. New ideas and inventions often affect other people; sometimes the effects are good and sometimes they are bad. It is helpful to try to determine in advance how ideas and inventions will affect other people.					E
		Science and technology have greatly improved food quality and quantity, transportation, health, sanitation, and communication. These benefits of science and technology are not available to all of the people in the world.					E
G, History and Nature of Science
	Science as a human endeavor
		Although men and women using scientific inquiry have learned much about the objects, events, and phenomena in nature, much remains to be understood. Science will never be finished.	E
		Many people choose science as a career and devote their entire lives to studying it. Many people derive great pleasure from doing science.	E

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BENCHMARKS

Lesson Legend: F = Focus in lesson O = Ongoing development E = Early exposure

AAAS BENCHMARKS			LESSONS																											SRBS
			0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	S1	S2	S3
1. The Nature of Science (K-2)
	A. The Scientific World View (Introduction)		F
	B. Scientific Inquiry (Introduction)		F
		People can often learn about things around them by just observing those things carefully, but sometimes they can learn more by doing something to the things and noting what happens.	F					F	F					F	F	F	O	O	F	F	F	F		F	F	F
		Tools such as thermometers, magnifiers, rulers, or balances often give more information about things than can be obtained by just observing things without their help.							F	O			O		O		O	O		O	O	F		O	O	O	O			O	O	F
		Describing things as accurately as possible is important in science because it enables people to compare their observations with those of others.	E					F	F		O			F	O	O	O	O	F	O	O	F	F	O	O	O			O		F
		When people give different descriptions of the same thing, it is usually a good idea to make some fresh observations instead of just arguing about who is right.																					O								E
	C. The Scientific Enterprise (Introduction)		F
		Everybody can do science and invent things and ideas.	F
		In doing science, it is often helpful to work with a team and to share findings with others. All team members should reach their own individual conclusions, however, about what the findings mean.	O					O	O					O	O				O			O
		A lot can be learned about plants and animals by observing them closely, but care must be taken to know the needs of living things and how to provide for them in the classroom.							O							O	F	F		F		O		F	F
2. The Nature of Mathematics (K-2)
	A. Patterns and Relationships
		Circles, squares, triangles, and other shapes can be found in things in nature and in things that people build.											O
		Things move, or can be made to move, along straight, curved, circular, back-and-forth, and jagged paths.															O	O
		Numbers can be used to count any collection of things.							O													O
	C. Mathematical Inquiry
		Numbers and shapes can be used to tell about things.															O	O		O										O
3. The Nature of Technology (K-2)
	A. Technology and Science
		Tools are used to do things better or more easily and to do some things that could not otherwise be done at all. In technology, tools are used to observe, measure, and make things.									O							O		O								O		O	O
	C. Issues in Technology
		People, alone or in groups, are always inventing new ways to solve problems and get work done. The tools and ways of doing things that people have invented affect all aspects of life.					E				E																	O
4. The Physical Setting (K-2)
	D. The Structure of Matter
		Objects can be described in terms of the materials they are made of (clay, cloth, paper, etc.) and their physical properties (color, size, shape, weight, texture, flexibility, etc.).						F						F	O		O	O	F	O	O			O	O	O					F
5. The Living Environment (K-2)
	A. Diversity of Life
		Some animals and plants are alike in the way they look and in the things they do, and others are very different from one another.																											F
		Plants and animals have features that help them live in different environments.																E						E	E
	B. Heredity (Introduction)																				O			O	O
		There is variation among individuals of one kind within a population.								O																		O
		Offspring are very much, but not exactly, like their parents and like one another.			F	O
	C. Cells
		Magnifiers help people see things they could not see without them.																O		O											O
		Most living things need water, food, and air.										F						O						O	O
	D. Interdependence of Life
		Animals eat plants or other animals for food and may also use plants (or even other animals) for shelter and nesting.																F						F	F
	E. Flow of Matter and Energy
		Plants and animals both need to take in water, and animals need to take in food. In addition, plants need light.										F			O	O	O	O				O	O	O	O
6. The Human Organism (K-2) (Introduction)					O
	A. Human Identity
		People need water, food, air, waste removal, and a particular range of temperatures in their environment, just as other animals do.										F
		People tend to live in families and communities in which individuals have different roles.					E
	B. Human Development					F	F
	C. Basic Functions
		The brain enables human beings to think and sends messages to other body parts to help them work properly.									F																	O
	D. Learning
		People use their senses to find out about their surroundings and themselves. Different senses give different information. Sometimes a person can get different information about the same thing by moving closer to it or further away from it.	O					F	O		F			F					F			O									F
		Some of the things people do, like playing soccer, reading, and writing, must be deliberately learned. Practicing helps people to improve. How well one learns sometimes depends on how one does it and how often and how hard one tries to learn.									E																	F
		People can learn from each other by telling and listening, showing and watching, and imitating what others do.	O				F																							O	O
7. Human Society (K-2)
	A. Cultural Effects on Behavior
		People are alike in many ways and different in many ways.					E
		Different families or classrooms have different rules and patterns of behavior. Some behaviors are not accepted in most families or schools.					E
	C. Social Change
		Changes happen in everyone's life, sometimes suddenly, more often slowly. People cannot control some changes, but they can usually learn to cope with them.					E
9. The Mathematical World (K-2)
	A. Numbers
		Numbers can be used to count things, place them in order, or name them.											O														O
		Sometimes in sharing or measuring there is a need to use numbers between whole numbers.															O	O		O
		It is possible (and often useful) to estimate quantities without knowing them exactly.																												O
	B. Symbolic Relationships
		Similar patterns may show up in many places in nature and in the things people make.											O
	D. Uncertainty
		Some things are more likely to happen than others. Some events can be predicted well and some cannot. Sometimes people aren't sure what will happen because they don't know everything that might be having an effect.	O							O						O					O					O
		Often a person can find out about a group of things by studying just a few of them.				O				O							O			O	O			O	O	O	O
	E. Reasoning
		People are more likely to believe your ideas if you have good reasons for them.	O
11. Common Themes (K-2)
	C. Constancy and Change
		Things change in some ways and stay the same in some ways.							O					O					O			O	O	F	F
		People can keep track of some things, seeing where they come from and where they go.							F									O
		Things can change in different ways, such as in size, weight, color, and movement. Some small changes can be detected by taking measurements.							F	F				F	O	O	O	O	F	O		F	F	O	O		F
		Some changes are so slow or so fast that they are hard to see.								F				F					F	F

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