Standards & Benchmarks for Weather

Legend: F=Focus in Lesson O=Ongoing Development E=Early Development

NSE STANDARDS			LESSONS																														SRB
			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	27	28	29	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
		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	O	O	O	O		O	O	O	O		F	O	O
		Use data to construct a reasonable explanation.	F					O																		O
		Communicate investigations and explanations.	F					O	O					O					O			O	O	O					O	O	O	O
	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
		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
		Simple instruments, such as magnifiers, thermometers, and rulers, provide more information than scientists obtain using only their senses.																															O	O	F
B. Physical Science
	Properties of objects and materials
		Materials can exist in different states--solid, liquid, and gas. Some common materials, such as water, can be changed from one state to another by heating or cooling.	F					O				F	F		F	F		F		F	F
D. Earth and Space Science
	Properties of earth materials
		Earth materials are solid rocks and soils, water, and the gases of the atmosphere. The varied materials have different physical and chemical properties, which make them useful in different ways, for example, as building materials, as sources of fuel, or for growing the plants we use as food. Earth materials provide many of the resources that humans use.	F					O			F														F
	Objects in the sky
		The sun, moon, stars, clouds, birds, and airplanes all have properties, locations, and movements that can be observed and described.	F					O			F
		The sun provides the light and heat necessary to maintain the temperature of the earth.	F					F
	Changes in the earth and sky
		Weather changes from day to day and over the seasons. Weather can be described by measurable quantities, such as temperature, wind direction and speed, and precipitation.	F	F	F				F	F				F					F			F	F	F		F			F	F	F	F
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.																									O
		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.																									O
		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.																									O
	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
		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.																F									F	F					O	O	F
		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
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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Legend: F=Focus in Lesson O=Ongoing Development E=Early Development

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	27	28	29	S1	S2	S3
1. The Nature of Science
	A. The Scientific World View (Introduction)		F
		When a science investigation is done the way it was done before, we expect to get a very similar result.
	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			O		O		O		O	O		O	O	O	O		O					F	O		O
		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.			O	F	F	O		F		O	F	F					F			F	F	F					F	F	F	F	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		O			O	F					O					O			O	O	O				O	O	O	O	O
	C. The Scientific Enterprise (Introduction)		F
		Everybody can do science and invent things and ideas.	F		O
		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	O					O	O	O	O
2. The Nature of Mathematics
	A. Patterns and Relationships
		Circles, squares, triangles, and other shapes can be found in things in nature and in things that people build.																			O						O
3. The Nature of Technology
	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	O	O	O			O	O			O	O	O		O	O	F	O	O	O		O	O	F
		When trying to build something or to get something to work better, it usually helps to follow directions if there are any or to ask someone who has done it before for suggestions.																O									O
	B. Technology and Science
		People may not be able to actually make or do everything that they can design.
4. The Physical Setting
	A. The Universe
		The sun can be seen only in daytime…. The sun, moon, and stars all appear to move slowly across the sky.
	B. The Earth (K-2)
		Some events in nature have a repeating pattern. The weather changes from day to day, but things such as temperature and rain (or snow) tend to be high, low, or medium in the same months every year.			O					O											O
		Water can be a liquid or a solid and can go back and forth from one form to another. If water is turned into ice and then ice is allowed to melt, the amount of water is the same as it was before freezing.								F	F							F	F
		Water left in an open container disappears, but water in a closed container does not disappear.													F
	B. The Earth (3-5)
		When liquid water disappears, it turns into a gas (vapor) in the air and can reappear as a liquid when cooled, or as a solid if cooled below the freezing point of water. Clouds and fog are made of tiny droplets of water.									O				F	F	F	F		F
		Air is a substance that surrounds us, takes up space, and whose movement we feel as wind.																								O	O	O
	E. Energy Transformation
		The sun warms the land, air, and water.						F
6. The Human Organism
	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
		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.
		People can learn from each other by telling and listening, showing and watching, and imitating what others do.	O
9. The Mathematical World
	A. Numbers
		Simple graphs can help to tell about observations							F					F					F			F	F	F					F	F	F	F
	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
		Often a person can find out about a group of things by studying just a few of them.
	E. Reasoning
		People are more likely to believe your ideas if you have good reasons for them.	O
11. Common Themes
	B. Models
		A model of something is different from the real thing but can be used to learn something about the real thing.									O
12. Habits of Mind
	A. Values and Attitudes (Introduction)		F
		Raise questions about the world around them and be willing to seek answers to some of them by making careful observations and trying things out.	F
	C. Manipulation and Observation
		Make something out of paper, cardboard, wood, plastic, metal, or existing objects that can actually be used to perform a task.																F											F