National Science
Education Standards

GRADES K–4:

Science as Inquiry
(Content Standard A)

• Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
• Understanding about scientific inquiry

Life Science (Content Standard C)

• The characteristics of organisms
• Organisms and environments

Science and Technology (Content Standard E)

• Understanding about science and technology
• Abilities to distinguish between natural objects and objects made by humans

Science in personal and social perspectives (Content Standard F)

• Personal health
• Types of resources
• Changes in environments
• Science and technology in local challenges

History and Nature of Science (Content Standard G)

• Science as a human endeavor

GRADES 5–8:

Science as Inquiry(Content Standard A)

• Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
• Understanding about scientific inquiry

Life Science (Content Standard C)

• Structure and function in living systems
• Regulation and behavior
• Populations and ecosystems
• Diversity and adaptations or organisms

Science and Technology (Content Standard E)

• Understandings about Science and Technology

Science in personal and social perspectives (Content Standard F)

• Personal health
• Populations, resources, and environments
• Natural hazards
• Science and technology in society

History and Nature of Science (Content Standard G)

• Science as a human endeavor
• Nature of science
• History of science

Grades 9-12:

Science as Inquiry (Content Standard A)

• Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
• Understanding about scientific inquiry

Life Science (Content Standard C)

• Biological evolution
• Interdependence of organisms
• The behavior of organisms

Science and Technology (Content Standard E)

• Understandings about science and technology

Science in personal and social perspectives (Content Standard F)

• Personal and community health
• Natural resources
• Environmental quality
• Science and technology in local, national, and global challenges

History and Nature of Science

• Science as a human endeavor
• Nature of scientific knowledge

California State Board of Education
SCIENCE CONTENT STANDARDS
FOR CALIFORNIA PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Grade 4
Life Sciences

2. All organisms need energy and matter to live and grow. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know plants are the primary source of matter and energy entering most food chains.

b. Students know producers and consumers (herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, and decomposers) are related in food chains and food webs and may compete with each other for resources in an ecosystem.

c. Students know decomposers, including many fungi, insects, and microorganisms, recycle matter from dead plants and animals.

3. Living organisms depend on one another and on their environment for survival. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know ecosystems can be characterized by their living and nonliving components.

b. Students know that in any particular environment, some kinds of plants and animals survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.

c. Students know many plants depend on animals for pollination and seed dispersal, and animals depend on plants for food and shelter.

d. Students know that most microorganisms do not cause disease and that many are beneficial.

Investigation and Experimentation

6. Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept and addressing the content in the other three strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:

a. Differentiate observation from inference (interpretation) and know scientists’ explanations come partly from what they observe and partly from how they interpret their observations.

b. Measure and estimate the weight, length, or volume of objects.

c. Formulate and justify predictions based on cause-and-effect relationships.

d. Conduct multiple trials to test a prediction and draw conclusions about the relationships between predictions and results.

e. Construct and interpret graphs from measurements.

f. Follow a set of written instructions for a scientific investigation.

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Grade 5
Life Sciences

2. Plants and animals have structures for respiration, digestion, waste disposal, and transport of materials. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know many multicellular organisms have specialized structures to support the transport of materials.

b. Students know how blood circulates through the heart chambers, lungs, and body and how carbon dioxide (CO2) and oxygen (O2) are exchanged in the lungs and tissues.

c. Students know the sequential steps of digestion and the roles of teeth and the mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, and colon in the function of the digestive system.

d. Students know the role of the kidney in removing cellular waste from blood and converting it into urine, which is stored in the bladder.

e. Students know how sugar, water, and minerals are transported in a vascular plant.

f. Students know plants use carbon dioxide (CO2) and energy from sunlight to build molecules of sugar and release oxygen.

g. Students know plant and animal cells break down sugar to obtain energy, a process resulting in carbon dioxide (CO ) and water (respiration).

Investigation and Experimentation

6. Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept and addressing the content in the other three strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:

a. Classify objects (e.g., rocks, plants, leaves) in accordance with appropriate criteria.

b. Develop a testable question.

c. Plan and conduct a simple investigation based on a student-developed question and write instructions others can follow to carry out the procedure.

d. Identify the dependent and controlled variables in an investigation.

e. Identify a single independent variable in a scientific investigation and explain how this variable can be used to collect information to answer a question about the results of the experiment.

f. Select appropriate tools (e.g., thermometers, meter sticks, balances, and graduated cylinders) and make quantitative observations.

g. Record data by using appropriate graphic representations (including charts, graphs, and labeled diagrams) and make inferences based on those data.

h. Draw conclusions from scientific evidence and indicate whether further information is needed to support a specific conclusion.

i. Write a report of an investigation that includes conducting tests, collecting data or examining evidence, and drawing conclusions.

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Grade 6
Ecology (Life Sciences)

5. Organisms in ecosystems exchange energy and nutrients among themselves and with the environment. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know energy entering ecosystems as sunlight is transferred by producers into chemical energy through photosynthesis and then from organism to organism through food webs.

b. Students know matter is transferred over time from one organism to others in the food web and between organisms and the physical environment.

c. Students know populations of organisms can be categorized by the functions they serve in an ecosystem.

d. Students know different kinds of organisms may play similar ecological roles in similar biomes.

e. Students know the number and types of organisms an ecosystem can support depends on the resources available and on abiotic factors, such as quantities of light and water, a range of temperatures, and soil composition.

Resources

6. Sources of energy and materials differ in amounts, distribution, usefulness, and the time required for their formation. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know the utility of energy sources is determined by factors that are involved in converting these sources to useful forms and the consequences of the conversion process.

b. Students know different natural energy and material resources, including air, soil, rocks, minerals, petroleum, fresh water, wildlife, and forests, and know how to classify them as renewable or nonrenewable.

c. Students know the natural origin of the materials used to make common objects.

Investigation and Experimentation

7. Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept and addressing the content in the other three strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:

a. Develop a hypothesis.

b. Select and use appropriate tools and technology (including calculators, computers, balances, spring scales, microscopes, and binoculars) to perform tests, collect data, and display data.

c. Construct appropriate graphs from data and develop qualitative statements about the relationships between variables.

d. Communicate the steps and results from an investigation in written reports and oral presentations.

e. Recognize whether evidence is consistent with a proposed explanation.

f. Read a topographic map and a geologic map for evidence provided on the maps and construct and interpret a simple scale map.

g. Interpret events by sequence and time from natural phenomena (e.g., the relative ages of rocks and intrusions).

h. Identify changes in natural phenomena over time without manipulating the phenomena (e.g., a tree limb, a grove of trees, a stream, a hillslope).

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Grade 7
Genetics

2. A typical cell of any organism contains genetic instructions that specify its traits. Those traits may be modified by environmental influences. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know the differences between the life cycles and reproduction methods of sexual and asexual organisms.

b. Students know sexual reproduction produces offspring that inherit half their genes from each parent.

c. Students know an inherited trait can be determined by one or more genes.

d. Students know plant and animal cells contain many thousands of different genes and typically have two copies of every gene. The two copies (or alleles) of the gene may or may not be identical, and one may be dominant in determining the phenotype while the other is recessive.

e. Students know DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is the genetic material of living organisms and is located in the chromosomes of each cell.

Evolution

3. Biological evolution accounts for the diversity of species developed through gradual processes over many generations. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know both genetic variation and environmental factors are causes of evolution and diversity of organisms.

b. Students know the reasoning used by Charles Darwin in reaching his conclusion that natural selection is the mechanism of evolution.

c. Students know how independent lines of evidence from geology, fossils, and comparative anatomy provide the bases for the theory of evolution.

d. Students know how to construct a simple branching diagram to classify living groups of organisms by shared derived characteristics and how to expand the diagram to include fossil organisms.

e. Students know that extinction of a species occurs when the environment changes and the adaptive characteristics of a species are insufficient for its survival.

Structure and Function in Living Systems

5. The anatomy and physiology of plants and animals illustrate the complementary nature of structure and function. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know plants and animals have levels of organization for structure and function, including cells, tissues, organs, organ systems, and the whole organism.

b. Students know organ systems function because of the contributions of individual organs, tissues, and cells. The failure of any part can affect the entire system.

c. Students know how bones and muscles work together to provide a structural framework for movement.

d. Students know how the reproductive organs of the human female and male generate eggs and sperm and how sexual activity may lead to fertilization and pregnancy.

e. Students know the function of the umbilicus and placenta during pregnancy.

f. Students know the structures and processes by which flowering plants generate pollen, ovules, seeds, and fruit.

g. Students know how to relate the structures of the eye and ear to their functions.

Investigation and Experimentation

7. Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept and addressing the content in the other three strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:

a. Select and use appropriate tools and technology (including calculators, computers, balances, spring scales, microscopes, and binoculars) to perform tests, collect data, and display data.

b. Use a variety of print and electronic resources (including the World Wide Web) to collect information and evidence as part of a research project.

c. Communicate the logical connection among hypotheses, science concepts, tests conducted, data collected, and conclusions drawn from the scientific evidence.

d. Construct scale models, maps, and appropriately labeled diagrams to communicate scientific knowledge (e.g., motion of Earth’s plates and cell structure).

e. Communicate the steps and results from an investigation in written reports and oral presentations.

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Grade 8
Density and Buoyancy

8. All objects experience a buoyant force when immersed in a fluid. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know density is mass per unit volume.

b. Students know how to calculate the density of substances (regular and irregular solids and liquids) from measurements of mass and volume.

c. Students know the buoyant force on an object in a fluid is an upward force equal to the weight of the fluid the object has displaced.

d. Students know how to predict whether an object will float or sink.

Investigation and Experimentation

9. Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept and addressing the content in the other three strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:

a. Plan and conduct a scientific investigation to test a hypothesis.

b. Evaluate the accuracy and reproducibility of data.

c. Distinguish between variable and controlled parameters in a test.

d. Recognize the slope of the linear graph as the constant in the relationship y.=. kx and apply this principle in interpreting graphs constructed from data.

e. Construct appropriate graphs from data and develop quantitative statements about the relationships between variables.

f. Apply simple mathematic relationships to determine a missing quantity in a mathematic expression, given the two remaining terms (including speed = distance/ time, density = mass/volume, force = pressure ×area, volume = area × height).

g. Distinguish between linear and nonlinear relationships on a graph of data.

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1. The fundamental life processes of plants and animals depend on a variety of chemical reactions that occur in specialized areas of the organism’s cells. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know cells are enclosed within semipermeable membranes that regulate their interaction with their surroundings.

b. Students know enzymes are proteins that catalyze biochemical reactions without altering the reaction equilibrium and the activities of enzymes depend on the temperature, ionic conditions, and the pH of the surroundings.

c. Students know how prokaryotic cells, eukaryotic cells (including those from plants and animals), and viruses differ in complexity and general structure.

d. Students know the central dogma of molecular biology outlines the flow of information from transcription of ribonucleic acid (RNA) in the nucleus to translation of proteins on ribosomes in the cytoplasm.

e. Students know the role of the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi apparatus in the secretion of proteins.

f. Students know usable energy is captured from sunlight by chloroplasts and is stored through the synthesis of sugar from carbon dioxide.

g. Students know the role of the mitochondria in making stored chemical-bond energy available to cells by completing the breakdown of glucose to carbon dioxide.

h. Students know most macromolecules (polysaccharides, nucleic acids, proteins, lipids) in cells and organisms are synthesized from a small collection of simple precursors.

i.*Students know how chemiosmotic gradients in the mitochondria and chloroplast store energy for ATP production.

j*Students know how eukaryotic cells are given shape and internal organization by a cytoskeleton or cell wall or both.

Genetics

2. Mutation and sexual reproduction lead to genetic variation in a population. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know meiosis is an early step in sexual reproduction in which the pairs of chromosomes separate and segregate randomly during cell division to produce gametes containing one chromosome of each type.

b. Students know only certain cells in a multicellular organism undergo meiosis.

c. Students know how random chromosome segregation explains the probability that a particular allele will be in a gamete.

d. Students know new combinations of alleles may be generated in a zygote through the fusion of male and female gametes (fertilization).

e. Students know why approximately half of an individual’s DNA sequence comes from each parent.

f. Students know the role of chromosomes in determining an individual’s sex.

g. Students know how to predict possible combinations of alleles in a zygote from the genetic makeup of the parents.

3. A multicellular organism develops from a single zygote, and its phenotype depends on its genotype, which is established at fertilization. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know how to predict the probable outcome of phenotypes in a genetic cross from the genotypes of the parents and mode of inheritance (autosomal or X-linked, dominant or recessive).

b. Students know the genetic basis for Mendel’s laws of segregation and independent assortment.

c.*Students know how to predict the probable mode of inheritance from a pedigree diagram showing phenotypes.

d.*Students know how to use data on frequency of recombination at meiosis to estimate genetic distances between loci and to interpret genetic maps of chromosomes.

4. Genes are a set of instructions encoded in the DNA sequence of each organism that specify the sequence of amino acids in proteins characteristic of that organism. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know the general pathway by which ribosomes synthesize proteins, using tRNAs to translate genetic information in mRNA.

b. Students know how to apply the genetic coding rules to predict the sequence of amino acids from a sequence of codons in RNA.

c. Students know how mutations in the DNA sequence of a gene may or may not affect the expression of the gene or the sequence of amino acids in an encoded protein.

d. Students know specialization of cells in multicellular organisms is usually due to different patterns of gene expression rather than to differences of the genes themselves.

e. Students know proteins can differ from one another in the number and sequence of amino acids.

f.*Students know why proteins having different amino acid sequences typically have different shapes and chemical properties.

Ecology

6. Stability in an ecosystem is a balance between competing effects. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know biodiversity is the sum total of different kinds of organisms and is affected by alterations of habitats.

b. Students know how to analyze changes in an ecosystem resulting from changes in climate, human activity, introduction of nonnative species, or changes in population size.

c. Students know how fluctuations in population size in an ecosystem are determined by the relative rates of birth, immigration, emigration, and death.

d. Students know how water, carbon, and nitrogen cycle between abiotic resources and organic matter in the ecosystem and how oxygen cycles through photosynthesis and respiration.

e. Students know a vital part of an ecosystem is the stability of its producers and decomposers.

f. Students know at each link in a food web some energy is stored in newly made structures but much energy is dissipated into the environment as heat. This dissipation may be represented in an energy pyramid.

g.* Students know how to distinguish between the accommodation of an individual organism to its environment and the gradual adaptation of a lineage of organisms through genetic change.

Evolution

7. The frequency of an allele in a gene pool of a population depends on many factors and may be stable or unstable over time. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know why natural selection acts on the phenotype rather than the genotype of an organism.

b. Students know why alleles that are lethal in a homozygous individual may be carried in a heterozygote and thus maintained in a gene pool.

c. Students know new mutations are constantly being generated in a gene pool.

d. Students know variation within a species increases the likelihood that at least some members of a species will survive under changed environmental conditions.

e.*Students know the conditions for Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in a population and why these conditions are not likely to appear in nature.

f.*Students know how to solve the Hardy-Weinberg equation to predict the frequency of genotypes in a population, given the frequency of phenotypes.

8. Evolution is the result of genetic changes that occur in constantly changing environments. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know how natural selection determines the differential survival of groups of organisms.

b. Students know a great diversity of species increases the chance that at least some organisms survive major changes in the environment.

c. Students know the effects of genetic drift on the diversity of organisms in a population.

d. Students know reproductive or geographic isolation affects speciation.

e. Students know how to analyze fossil evidence with regard to biological diversity, episodic speciation, and mass extinction.

f.*Students know how to use comparative embryology, DNA or protein sequence comparisons, and other independent sources of data to create a branching diagram (cladogram) that shows probable evolutionary relationships.

g.*Students know how several independent molecular clocks, calibrated against each other and combined with evidence from the fossil record, can help to estimate how long ago various groups of organisms diverged evolutionarily from one another.

Physiology

9. As a result of the coordinated structures and functions of organ systems, the internal environment of the human body remains relatively stable (homeostatic) despite changes in the outside environment. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know how the complementary activity of major body systems provides cells with oxygen and nutrients and removes toxic waste products such as carbon dioxide.

b. Students know how the nervous system mediates communication between different parts of the body and the body’s interactions with the environment.

c. Students know how feedback loops in the nervous and endocrine systems regulate conditions in the body.

d. Students know the functions of the nervous system and the role of neurons in transmitting electrochemical impulses.

e. Students know the roles of sensory neurons, interneurons, and motor neurons in sensation, thought, and response.

f.*Students know the individual functions and sites of secretion of digestive enzymes (amylases, proteases, nucleases, lipases), stomach acid, and bile salts. g.* Students know the homeostatic role of the kidneys in the removal of nitrogenous wastes and the role of the liver in blood detoxification and glucose balance.

h.*Students know the cellular and molecular basis of muscle contraction, including the roles of actin, myosin, Ca+2, and ATP.

i.*Students know how hormones (including digestive, reproductive, osmoregulatory) provide internal feedback mechanisms for homeostasis at the cellular level and in whole organisms.

10. Organisms have a variety of mechanisms to combat disease. As a basis for understanding the human immune response:

a. Students know the role of the skin in providing nonspecific defenses against infection.

b. Students know the role of antibodies in the body’s response to infection.

c. Students know how vaccination protects an individual from infectious diseases.

d. Students know there are important differences between bacteria and viruses with respect to their requirements for growth and replication, the body’s primary defenses against bacterial and viral infections, and effective treatments of these infections.

e. Students know why an individual with a compromised immune system (for example, a person with AIDS) may be unable to fight off and survive infections by microorganisms that are usually benign.

f.*Students know the roles of phagocytes, B-lymphocytes, and T-lymphocytes in the immune system.

Investigation and Experimentation

1. Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept and addressing the content in the other four strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:

a. Select and use appropriate tools and technology (such as computer-linked probes, spreadsheets, and graphing calculators) to perform tests, collect data, analyze relationships, and display data.

b. Identify and communicate sources of unavoidable experimental error.

c. Identify possible reasons for inconsistent results, such as sources of error or uncontrolled conditions.

d. Formulate explanations by using logic and evidence.

e. Solve scientific problems by using quadratic equations and simple trigonometric, exponential, and logarithmic functions.

f. Distinguish between hypothesis and theory as scientific terms.

g. Recognize the usefulness and limitations of models and theories as scientific representations of reality.

h. Read and interpret topographic and geologic maps.

i. Analyze the locations, sequences, or time intervals that are characteristic of natural phenomena (e.g., relative ages of rocks, locations of planets over time, and succession of species in an ecosystem).

j. Recognize the issues of statistical variability and the need for controlled tests.

k. Recognize the cumulative nature of scientific evidence.

l. Analyze situations and solve problems that require combining and applying concepts from more than one area of science.

m. Investigate a science-based societal issue by researching the literature, analyzing data, and communicating the findings. Examples of issues include irradiation of food, cloning of animals by somatic cell nuclear transfer, choice of energy sources, and land and water use decisions in California.

n. Know that when an observation does not agree with an accepted scientific theory, the observation is sometimes mistaken or fraudulent (e.g., the Piltdown Man fossil or unidentified flying objects) and that the theory is sometimes wrong (e.g., the Ptolemaic model of the movement of the Sun, Moon, and planets).

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