Students develop vocabulary through their experiences investigating properties of common objects, earth materials, and organisms. Scientific investigation and reasoning involves practicing safe procedures, asking questions about the natural world, and seeking answers to those questions through simple observations and descriptive investigations.
(A) Within the physical environment, in Grade 2, students expand their understanding of the properties of objects such as shape, mass, temperature, and flexibility then use those properties to compare, classify, and then combine the objects to do something that they could not do before. In Grade 3, students recognize that patterns, relationships, and cycles exist in matter. They explore mixtures and investigate light, sound, and heat/thermal energy in everyday life. In Grade 4, the student knows that matter has measurable physical properties and those properties determine how matter is classified, changed, and used and that energy exists in many forms and can be observed in cycles, patterns, and systems. In Grade 5, students learn about magnetism, physical states of matter, relative density, solubility in water, and the ability to conduct or insulate electrical and heat energy. Students explore the uses of light, thermal, electrical, and sound energies.
(B) Within the natural environment, students will observe the properties of earth materials as well as predictable patterns that occur on Earth and in the sky. In Grade 2, the students understand that those patterns are used to make choices in clothing, activities, and transportation. In Grade 3, Students investigate how the surface of Earth changes and provides resources that humans use. In Grade 4, the students learn that the natural world consists of resources, including renewable and nonrenewable, and their responsibility to conserve our natural resources for future generations.
(C) Within the living environment, students explore patterns, systems, and cycles by investigating characteristics of organisms, life cycles, and interactions among all the components within their habitat. In Grade 2, students examine how living organisms depend on each other and on their environment. In Grade 3, students examine how the environment plays a key role in survival. Students know that when changes in the environment occur organisms may thrive, become ill, or perish. In Grade 4, the students will recognize that plants and animals have basic needs, and they are met through a flow of energy known as food webs. In Grade 5, students learn to differentiate between inherited traits and learned behaviors. Students learn that life cycles occur in animals and plants and that the carbon dioxide-oxygen cycle occurs naturally to support the living environment.
