Stage C - Science

Descriptors

11A - Students who meet the standard know and apply the concepts, principles, and processes of scientific inquiry.

1. Describe an observed (cause and effect) science experience or situation using the appropriate attributes, units and tools, classifying observations into characteristic, sequential or cause-and-effect categories, or describing phenomenon in terms of starting and ending conditions, types of changes.
2. Devise inquiry investigation brainstorming possible questions for investigation consideration, prioritizing questions for inquiry, wording questions into appropriate hypotheses, choosing the procedural steps, or creating data collection format to address selected hypothesis.
3. Collect data from inquiry investigations selecting and using the appropriate data-gathering instruments, or measurable unit, reading and recording data into student-created tables, charts, or journals.
4. Analyze results or data pattern noting similarities and differences, summarizing for cause or effect, constructing reasonable and accurate explanations of data, or identifying reasons why similar investigations may not always have the same results.
5. Communicate conclusions from individual and group results displaying appropriate data analysis tables and charts, describing patterns from personal and group data, proposing causes or effects from data comparisons, or suggesting additional questions from analyzed procedures, similarities, discrepancies, or conclusions.

11B - Students who meet the standard know and apply the concepts, principles, and processes of technological design.

1. Describe an observed cause and effect technological design dilemma generating critical and creative questions associated with design dilemma (e.g., how to test the effect of friction, or how light is reflected, or how toy cars accelerate), recording observations into sequential or cause and effect categories, or describing dilemma in terms of starting conditions, types of changes and ending conditions.
2. Begin design investigation of cause and effect dilemma describing design conditions of the phenomenon that can be influenced by change, brainstorming possible questions related to causes and effects of phenomenon, prioritizing design options for design investigation, generating success criteria, or choosing the procedural steps to address selected design plan.
3. Construct design prototype selecting the appropriate materials, designing necessary data tables for addressing success criteria, or using materials and tools provided.
4. Collect data from prototype testing recording multiple incremental data sets and procedural observations, or keeping accurate procedural journals and drawings.
5. Display and analyze results summarizing individual data patterns, constructing reasonable and accurate explanations of data, identifying reasons why different designs can accomplish the same effect differently.
6. Communicate design conclusions from individual and group results describing patterns from data tables, evaluating designs according to design success criteria, or generating design modifications from analyzed procedures, similarities, discrepancies, or conclusions.

12A - Students who meet the standard know and apply concepts that explain how living things function, adapt, and change.

1. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to explore past and present life forms and their adaptations classifying plant and animal groupings according to simple taxonomy guides or characteristics (e.g., locomotion, color, habitat, reproduction), categorizing body structures of living organisms to those from fossil studies, suggesting why changes over time for individuals and groupings of plants and animals happened, or matching the basic organs and functions of major human body systems.

12B - Students who meet the standard know and apply concepts that describe how living things interact with each other and with their environment.

1. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to explore past and current ecosystems matching fossils of extinct organisms to their probable past ecosystems, comparing extinct organisms and their past ecosystems to plants and animals that live in current comparable ecosystems.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to examine the interdependence of organisms in ecosystems, identifying adaptations that help animals survive in specific or multiple environments, describing the interaction between living and non-living factors in an ecosystem, or predicting what can happen to organisms if they lose different environmental resources or ecologically related groups of organisms.

12C - Students who meet the standard know and apply concepts that describe properties of matter and energy and the interactions between them.

1. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to examine the flow of energy, measuring variations of heat absorption or reflection in objects, comparing qualitative data about friction, contrasting the transmission of sound through different materials, describing how energy in different forms affects common objects in common events, experimenting with the reflection of light, or analyzing simple wave studies.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to analyze simple properties and changes matching examples of physical and chemical properties to common substances (e.g., mixtures, solutions, solids, liquids, gases), categorizing common changes according to physical and chemical groupings, or explaining common examples of changes in terms of their physical or chemical nature.

12D - Students who meet the standard know and apply concepts that describe force and motion and the principles that explain them.

1. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to explain the concepts of motion, dramatizing rate, time and distance factors for objects in constant motion, or accelerating in a straight line (on flat or inclined surfaces) and/or in circular paths.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to explain the characteristics of forces comparing examples of gravitational pull on earth, introducing the concepts associated with weightlessness (or more exactly, in continuous free fall) in space flight, diagramming the directions of forces affecting motion in common examples, or exploring how simple machines work.

12E - Students who meet the standard know and apply concepts that describe the features and processes of Earth and its resources.

1. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to analyze Earth's land, water and atmosphere as systems classifying samples of the major rock families, sorting soil types based on their formation and composition, illustrating nature's oxygen and water cycles, or identifying the major components of air.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to examine weather patterns observing local, state, regional or national weather patterns, identifying topographic features which affect weather patterns, comparing simple models of Earth tilt and revolution to major seasonal changes, or predicting future weather conditions.
3. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to compare natural resource availability creating tests for decomposition of paper, glass or plastic samples, mapping natural resources from around the world (Mideast oil, Illinois coal, US pine lumber, etc.), or evaluating impact of reducing, recycling or reusing projects at home and at school.

12F - Students who meet the standard know and apply concepts that explain the composition and structure of the universe and Earth's place in it.

1. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to compare the main bodies of the solar system, describing the surface conditions and composition of the planets, modeling the impact of meteorites on solar system bodies, introducing gravitational force of bodies, or researching how 21st century scientists study the solar system.
2. Apply scientific inquiries or technological designs to examine the Earth's motions in space, modeling the three-dimensional rotation and revolution of Earth in its orbit, including its axial tilt to introduce the explanation of seasons and solar/lunar eclipses, or addressing historical misconceptions of the Earth's place in the universe.

13A - Students who meet the standard know and apply accepted practices of science.

1. Apply the appropriate principles of safety identifying materials, equipment, and safety rules that apply in inquiry and design investigations, identifying proper storage locations for some dangerous chemicals that can be found at home or school, or following established procedures for simple investigations, including following appropriate equipment and clean-up requirements.
2. Apply scientific habits of mind comparing data sets from classroom observations and timed intervals, summarizing knowledge that was gained through careful observations, generating questions and strategies to test science concepts using critical and creative thinking, or defining and identifying hypotheses, predictions, laws and theories.

13B - Students who meet the standard know and apply concepts that describe the interaction between science, technology, and society.

1. Apply uses of scientific technologies in scientific investigations and innovations comparing tools for measuring, collecting and recording data for accuracy and precision, examining how to care for animals in these investigations, or researching how advances in technologies have altered how scientists measure, collect and record data.
2. Researching global examples of life, environmental, physical, earth and space scientific and technologic advances exploring historic and current discoveries and innovations, or investigating impact of different scientific discoveries, and/or technologic advances on world population and environmental conditions.
3. Explore the basic occupational categories for direct connections to science and technology identifying science processes, skills and concepts that apply in the career interest areas (e.g., agriculture and natural resources, business and administrative services, arts and communication, family and human services, industrial and scientific technology and health care), or researching past, present and projected future influences of science and technology in job skills, hobbies and home application.
4. Associate linkages between conservation and natural resource availabilities to historic and current technological changes identifying causes of pollution in various global and local cases, their effects on plant and animal life, or projecting ways to prevent or reduce pollution.

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