SCIENCE AS INQUIRY

Develop students’ abilities to do and understand scientific inquiry.

• Design and conduct scientific investigations.
  
• Use appropriate tools and techniques to gather, analyze, and interpret data.
  
• Develop descriptions, explanations, predictions, and models using evidence.
  
• Think critically and logically to make the connections between evidence and explanations.
  
• Communicate scientific procedures and explanations.
  
• Use mathematics in scientific inquiry.
  
• Understand that different kinds of questions suggest different kinds of scientific investigations; current knowledge guides scientific investigations; mathematics and technology are important scientific tools.
  
• Understand that scientific explanations emphasize evidence.

CONTENT: PHYSICAL SCIENCE

Develop students’ understanding of motions and forces.

• The motion of an object can be described by its position, direction of motion, and speed. Motion can be measured and represented on a graph.
• An object that is not being subjected to a (net) force will continue to move at a constant speed.
• If more than one force acts on an object along a straight line, then the forces will reinforce or cancel one another, depending on their direction and magnitude. Unbalanced forces will change the speed or direction of an object’s motion.

HISTORY AND NATURE OF SCIENCE

Develop students’ understanding of the nature of scientific inquiry and appreciation of the history of science.

• Scientists formulate and test their explanations of nature, using observation, experiments, and theoretical and mathematical models. Although all scientific ideas are tentative and subject to change and improvement in principle, for most major ideas in science, there is much experimental and observational confirmation. Those ideas are not likely to change greatly in the future.