Enduring Understandings - important ideas that students should carry with them years beyond the instruction received this year.

Scientific Process

• After a review of available and pertinent information, scientists formulate a hypothesis.
  A scientific investigation uses a repeatable procedure to explore one independent variable and proper constants or controls.

• Technology in a scientific investigation allows scientists to quantify observations for analysis.

• Scientists recognize and strive to limit sources of error or uncertainty. Scientific explanations and concepts change over time to reflect new evidence. Scientific results are supported by experimental evidence and explained using scientific concepts. Scientists share information to collaborate and extend knowledge. Scientists collaborate in order to identify alternative explanations and models for the results observed in an investigation. A scientific theory is a hypothesis that has been repeatedly tested and is generally accepted by most scientists.
  Safety is a primary concern with all laboratory techniques.

• Scientists use evidence gained through scientific processes to explain the natural world.

Science and Technology

• The implementation of any technology and the development of any resource has both benefits and consequences. Technology uses scientific principles to make things and to make things better. The two fields reinforce one another. Science and technology enhance the work we do.

• Recognizing bias and opinion is important when processing scientific information.
  Scientists communicate about and critique each others work.

• By analyzing data, systematic patterns and trends can be discovered. Many natural processes are cyclic.
  A system is composed of discrete parts that are interrelated. Natural cycles respond to internal and external influences. Some quantities in nature change continuously by a constant factor and can be described by exponential functions.

• A valid hypothesis or theory must accommodate new data or the hypothesis or theory must be changed.
  The interdependent fields of science are connected through a particular way of knowing.

Essential Questions - most important “big picture” questions students should be able to answer after completing learning activities.

Scientific Process

• Why do scientists generate hypotheses? What makes a science question testable?
  Why do scientists investigate one independent variable at a time? Why must a scientific procedure be repeatable? What kind of measurements are made in a scientific investigation? What tools can be used to make measurements? What constitutes scientific evidence? What makes data valid and reliable?
  Why is it important to continuously evaluate and revise scientific explanations and models?
  What makes a scientific conclusion valid and reliable? What is the importance of written communication in a scientific investigation? Why might there be alternative explanations and models? What is the importance of identifying alternative explanations and models? How do theories change over time? How does a scientific hypothesis drive an investigation?

• What are safe laboratory practices?

• What constitutes scientific evidence? What makes data valid and reliable? Scientists use models to help explain natural systems and to predict the behavior of systems under given circumstances.

Science and Technology

• Which drives which, science or technology?
  When will we run out of our natural resources? When is technology a 'good thing' and when is it a 'bad thing'?
  How are science and technology used in the (teenage) workplace?

Processes and Connections

• What constitutes scientific evidence? Why do scientists share their work?

• Why is it important to recognize patterns and trends in scientific data?

• How do cycles start and stop?

• How are systems kept in balance?

• Can the dynamics of natural cycles be predicted?

• How are models used to increase our understanding of the natural world?

• How are exponential functions useful in biological sciences?

• How do hypotheses and theories change over time?

Standards
 

Standard 1: Students apply the process of scientific investigation and design, conduct, communicate about, and evaluate such investigations.
Standard 1 Benchmarks:      Grades 9-12
1. ask questions and state hypotheses using prior scientific knowledge to help design and guide development and implementation of a scientific investigation
2. select and use appropriate technologies to gather, process, and analyze data and to report information related to an investigation
3. identify major sources of error or uncertainty within an investigation (for example: particular measuring devices and experimental procedures)
4. recognize and analyze alternative explanations and models
5. construct and revise scientific explanations and models, using evidence, logic, and experiments that include identifying and controlling variables
6. communicate and evaluate scientific thinking that leads to particular conclusions   

Standard 4: Earth and Space Science: Students know and understand the processes and interactions of Earth’s systems and the structure and dynamics of Earth and other objects in space. (Focus: Geology, Meteorology, Astronomy, Oceanography)
Standard 4 Benchmarks:     Grades 9-12
1.  the Earth’s interior has a composition and structure
2.  the theory of plate tectonics helps to explain relationships among earthquakes, volcanoes, mid-ocean ridges, and deep-sea trenches 
3.  the feasibility of predicting and controlling natural events can be evaluated (for example: earthquakes, floods, landslides)
4.  there are costs, benefits, and consequences of natural resource exploration, development, and consumption ( for example: geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and greenhouse gas
5.  there are consequences for the use of renewable and nonrenewable resources
6.  evidence is used (for example: fossils, rock layers, ice cores, radiometric dating) to investigate how Earth has changed or remained constant over short and long periods of time (for example: Mount St. Helen’s' eruption, Pangaea, and geologic time)
7.  the atmosphere has a current structure and composition and has evolved over geologic time (for example: effects of volcanic activity and the change of life forms)
8.  energy transferred within the atmosphere influences weather (for example: the role of conduction, radiation, convection, and heat of condensation in clouds, precipitation, winds, storms)
9.  weather is caused by differential heating, the spin of the Earth and changes in humidity (air pressure, wind patterns, coriolis effect) 
10.  there are interrelationships between the circulation of oceans and weather and climate 
11.  there are factors that may influence weather patterns and climate and their effects within ecosystems  (for example: elevation, proximity to oceans, prevailing winds, fossil fuel burning, volcanic eruptions)
12.  water and other Earth systems interact (for example: the biosphere, lithosphere, and atmosphere ) 
13.  continental water resources are replenished and purified through the hydrologic cycle 
14.  gravity governs the motions observed in the solar system and beyond
15.  there is electromagnetic radiation produced by the Sun and other stars (for example: X- ray, ultraviolet, visible light, infrared, radio)
16.  stars differ from each other in mass, color, temperature and age 
17.  the scales of size and separation of components of the solar system are complex  

Standard 5: Students understand that the nature of science involves a particular way of building knowledge and making meaning of the natural world.
Standard 5 Benchmarks:     Grades 9-12
1.  print and visual media can be evaluated for scientific evidence, bias, or opinion
2.  the scientific way of knowing uses a critique and consensus process (for example: peer review, openness to criticism, logical arguments, skepticism)
3.  graphs, equations or other models are used to analyze systems involving change and constancy (for example: comparing the geologic time scale to shorter time frame, exponential growth, a mathematical expression for gas behavior; constructing a closed ecosystem such as an aquarium)
4.  there are cause-effect relationships within systems (for example: the effect of temperature on gas volume, effect of carbon dioxide level on the greenhouse effect, effects of changing nutrients at the base of a food pyramid)
5.  scientific knowledge changes and accumulates over time; usually the changes that take place are small modifications of prior knowledge but major shifts in the scientific view of how the world works do occur
6.  interrelationships among science, technology and human activity lead to further discoveries that impact the world in positive and negative ways7.  there is a difference between a scientific theory and a scientific hypothesis