Search the California Content Standards

Title: K-ESS2 Earth’s Systems

Performance Expectation: Construct an argument supported by evidence for how plants and animals (including humans) can change the environment to meet their needs. [Clarification Statement: Examples of plants and animals changing their environment could include a squirrel digs in the ground to hide its food and tree roots can break concrete.]

Disciplinary Core Idea(s):
ESS2.E: Biogeology Plants and animals can change their environment. ESS3.C: Human Impacts on Earth Systems Things that people do to live comfortably can affect the world around them. But they can make choices that reduce their impacts on the land, water, air, and other living things. (secondary to K-ESS2-2)

Science & Engineering Practices: Engaging in Argument from Evidence Construct an argument with evidence to support a claim.

Crosscutting Concepts: Systems and System Models Systems in the natural and designed world have parts that work together.

California Environmental Principles and Concepts:
Principle I The continuation and health of individual human lives and of human communities and societies depend on the health of the natural systems that provide essential goods and ecosystem services. Principle II The long-term functioning and health of terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems are influenced by their relationships with human societies.

California Common Core State Standards Connections:
ELA/Literacy RI.K.1: With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text. W.K.1: Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose opinion pieces in which they tell a reader the topic or the name of the book they are writing about and state an opinion or preference about the topic or book. W.K.2: Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.

DCI Connections:
Connections to other DCIs in kindergarten: N/A Articulation across grade-levels: 4.ESS2.E; 5.ESS2.A

Title: 4-LS1 From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes

Performance Expectation: Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction. [Clarification Statement: Examples of structures could include thorns, stems, roots, colored petals, heart, stomach, lung, brain, and skin.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to macroscopic structures within plant and animal systems.]

Disciplinary Core Idea(s):
LS1.A: Structure and Function Plants and animals have both internal and external structures that serve various functions in growth, survival, behavior, and reproduction.

Science & Engineering Practices: Engaging in Argument from Evidence Construct an argument with evidence, data, and/or a model.

Crosscutting Concepts: Systems and System Models A system can be described in terms of its components and their interactions.

California Environmental Principles and Concepts:
Principle II The long-term functioning and health of terrestrial, freshwater, coastal, and marine ecosystems are influenced by their relationships with human societies.

California Common Core State Standards Connections:
ELA/Literacy W.4.1.a–d: Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information. Mathematics 4.G.3: Recognize a line of symmetry for a two-dimensional figure as a line across the figure such that the figure can be folded along the line into matching parts. Identify line-symmetric figures and draw lines of symmetry.

DCI Connections:
Connections to other DCIs in fourth grade: N/A Articulation across grade-levels: 1.LS1.A; 3.LS3.B; MS.LS1.A

Title: MS-ESS2 Earth’s Systems

Performance Expectation: Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth’s surface at varying time and spatial scales. [Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on how processes change Earth’s surface at time and spatial scales that can be large (such as slow plate motions or the uplift of large mountain ranges) or small (such as rapid landslides or microscopic geochemical reactions), and how many geoscience processes (such as earthquakes, volcanoes, and meteor impacts) usually behave gradually but are punctuated by catastrophic events. Examples of geoscience processes include surface weathering and deposition by the movements of water, ice, and wind. Emphasis is on geoscience processes that shape local geographic features, where appropriate.]

Disciplinary Core Idea(s):
ESS2.A: Earth Materials and Systems The planet’s systems interact over scales that range from microscopic to global in size, and they operate over fractions of a second to billions of years. These interactions have shaped Earth’s history and will determine its future. ESS2.C: The Roles of Water in Earth’s Surface Processes Water’s movements—both on the land and underground—cause weathering and erosion, which change the land’s surface features and create underground formations.

Science & Engineering Practices: Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions Construct a scientific explanation based on valid and reliable evidence obtained from sources (including the students’ own experiments) and the assumption that theories and laws that describe nature operate today as they did in the past and will continue to do so in the future.

Crosscutting Concepts: Scale Proportion and Quantity Time, space, and energy phenomena can be observed at various scales using models to study systems that are too large or too small.

California Environmental Principles and Concepts:
Principle III Natural systems proceed through cycles that humans depend upon, benefit from, and can alter.

California Common Core State Standards Connections:
ELA/Literacy RST.6-8.1: Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical texts. WHST.6-8.2.a-f: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content. SL.8.5: Integrate multimedia and visual displays into presentations to clarify information, strengthen claims and evidence, and add interest. Mathematics MP.2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively. 6.EE.6: Use variables to represent numbers and write expressions when solving a real-world or mathematical problem; understand that a variable can represent an unknown number, or, depending on the purpose at hand, any number in a specified set. 7.EE.4.a-b: Use variables to represent quantities in a real-world or mathematical problem, and construct simple equations and inequalities to solve problems by reasoning about the quantities.

DCI Connections:
Connections to other DCIs in this grade-band: MS.PS1.B; MS.LS2.B Articulation across grade-bands: 4.ESS1.C; 4.ESS2.A; 4.ESS2.E; 5.ESS2.A; HS.PS3.D; HS.LS2.B; HS.ESS1.C; HS.ESS2.A; HS.ESS2.B; HS.ESS2.C; HS.ESS2.D; HS.ESS2.E; HS.ESS3.D

Title: MS-LS1 From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes

Performance Expectation: Use argument supported by evidence for how the body is a system of interacting subsystems composed of groups of cells. [Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on the conceptual understanding that cells form tissues and tissues form organs specialized for particular body functions. Examples could include the interaction of subsystems within a system and the normal functioning of those systems.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include the mechanism of one body system independent of others. Assessment is limited to the circulatory, excretory, digestive, respiratory, muscular, and nervous systems.]

Disciplinary Core Idea(s):
LS1.A: Structure and Function In multicellular organisms, the body is a system of multiple interacting subsystems. These subsystems are groups of cells that work together to form tissues and organs that are specialized for particular body functions.

Science & Engineering Practices: Engaging in Argument from Evidence Use an oral and written argument supported by evidence to support or refute an explanation or a model for a phenomenon.

Crosscutting Concepts: Systems and System Models Systems may interact with other systems; they may have sub-systems and be a part of larger complex systems. Connections to Nature of Science: Science is a Human Endeavor Scientists and engineers are guided by habits of mind such as intellectual honesty, tolerance of ambiguity, skepticism, and openness to new ideas.

California Environmental Principles and Concepts:
Principle II The long-term functioning and health of terrestrial, freshwater, coastal, and marine ecosystems are influenced by their relationships with human societies. Principle IV The exchange of matter between natural systems and human societies affects the long-term functioning of both.

California Common Core State Standards Connections:
ELA/Literacy RST.6-8.1: Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical texts. RI.6.8: Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, distinguishing claims that are supported by reasons and evidence from claims that are not. WHST.6–8.1.a–e: Write arguments focused on discipline-specific content. Mathematics 6.EE.9: Use variables to represent two quantities in a real-world problem that change in relationship to one another; write an equation to express one quantity, thought of as the dependent variable, in terms of the other quantity, thought of as the independent variable. Analyze the relationship between the dependent and independent variables using graphs and tables, and relate these to the equation.

DCI Connections:
Connections to other DCIs in this grade-band: N/A Articulation across grade-bands: HS.LS1.A

Title: MS-PS2 Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions

Performance Expectation: Construct and present arguments using evidence to support the claim that gravitational interactions are attractive and depend on the masses of interacting objects. [Clarification Statement: Examples of evidence for arguments could include data generated from simulations or digital tools; and charts displaying mass, strength of interaction, distance from the Sun, and orbital periods of objects within the solar system.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include Newton’s Law of Gravitation or Kepler’s Laws.]

Disciplinary Core Idea(s):
PS2.B: Types of Interactions Gravitational forces are always attractive. There is a gravitational force between any two masses, but it is very small except when one or both of the objects have large mass—e.g., Earth and the sun.

Science & Engineering Practices: Engaging in Argument from Evidence Construct and present oral and written arguments supported by empirical evidence and scientific reasoning to support or refute an explanation or a model for a phenomenon or a solution to a problem. Connections to Nature of Science: Scientific Knowledge is Based on Empirical Evidence Science knowledge is based upon logical and conceptual connections between evidence and explanations.

Crosscutting Concepts: Systems and System Models Models can be used to represent systems and their interactions—such as inputs, processes and outputs—and energy and matter flows within systems.

California Environmental Principles and Concepts:
N/A

California Common Core State Standards Connections:
ELA/Literacy WHST.6–8.1.a–e: Write arguments focused on discipline-specific content.

DCI Connections:
Connections to other DCIs in this grade-band: MS.ESS1.A ; MS.ESS1.B ; MS.ESS2.C Articulation across grade-bands: 5.PS2.B ; HS.PS2.B ; HS.ESS1.B