4. The Physical Setting
A. The Universe
Grades 3 - 5: By the end of the 5th grade, students should know that:
- the Earth is one of several planets that orbit the Sun, and the Moon orbits around the earth.
Grades 6 - 8: By the end of the 8th grade, students should know that:
- Nine planets of very different size, composition, and surface features move around the Sun in nearly circular orbits. Some planets have a great variety of moons and even flat rings of rock and ice particles orbiting around them. Some of these planets and moons show evidence of geologic activity. The Earth is orbited by one moon, many artificial satellites and debris.
Grades 9 - 12: By the end of the 12th grade, students should know that:
- Increasingly sophisticated technology is used to learn about the universe. Visual, radio, and x-ray telescopes collect information from across the entire spectrum of electromagnetic waves; computers handle an avalanche of data and increasingly complicated computations to interpret them; space probes send back data and materials from the remote parts of the solar system.
E. Energy Transformations
Grades K - 2: By the end of the 2nd grade, students should know that:
- the Sun warms the land, air and water.
Note: The science Content Benchmarks in "The Physical Setting" (# 4) are listed above since they are more relevant to the NIAC Caves of Mars Project. Below, the other related Benchmarks are in numerical order.
1. The Nature of Science
A. The Scientific World View
Grades 6 - 8: By the end of the 8th grade, students should know that:
- Scientific knowledge is subject to modification as new information challenges prevailing theories and as a new theory leads to looking at old observations in a new way.
B. Scientific Inquiry
Grades K - 2: By the end of the 2nd grade, students should know that:
- People can often learn about things around them by just observing those things carefully, but sometimes they can learn more by doing something to the things and noting what happens.
- Tools such as thermometers, magnifiers, rulers, or balances often give more information about things than can be obtained by just observing things without their help.
Grades 3 - 5: By the end of the 5th grade, students should know that:
- Scientific investigations may take many different forms, including observing what things are like or what is happening somewhere, collecting specimens for analysis, and doing experiments. Investigations can focus on physical, biological and social questions.
- Results of scientific investigations are seldom exactly the same, but if the differences are large, it is important to try to figure out why. One reason for following directions carefully and for keeping records of one's work is to provide information on what might have caused the differences.
- Scientists' explanations about what happens in the world come partly from what they observe, partly from what they think. Sometimes scientists have different explanations for the same set of observations. That usually leads to their making more observations to resolve the differences.
Grades 6 - 8: By the end of the 8th grade, students should know that:
- New ideas in science sometimes spring from unexpected findings, and they usually lead to new investigations.
Grades 9 - 12: By the end of the 12th grade, students should know that:
- Investigations are conducted for different reasons, including to explore new phenomena, to check on previous results, to test how well a theory predicts, and to compare different theories.
- New ideas in science are limited by the context in which they are conceived; are often rejected by the scientific establishment; sometimes spring from unexpected findings; and usually grow slowly, through contributions from many investigators.
C. The Scientific Enterprise
Grades K - 2: By the end of the 2nd grade, students should know that:
- Everybody can do science and invent things and ideas.
- In doing science, it is often helpful to work with a team and to share findings with others. All team members should reach their own individual conclusions, however, about what the findings mean.
Grades 3 - 5: By the end of the 5th grade, students should know that:
- Science is an adventure that people everywhere can take part in, as they have for many centuries.
- Clear communication is an essential part of doing science. It enables scientists to inform others about their work, expose their ideas to criticism by other scientists, and stay informed about scientific discoveries around the world.
- Doing science involves many different kinds of work and engages men and women of all ages and backgrounds.
Grades 6 - 8: By the end of the 8th grade, students should know that:
- Important contributions to the advancement of science, mathematics, and technology have been made by different kinds of people, in different cultures, at different times.
- Until recently, women and racial minorities, because of restrictions on their education and employment opportunities, were essentially left out of much of the formal work of the science establishment; the remarkable few who overcame those obstacles were even then likely to have their work disregarded by the science establishment.
- No matter who does science and mathematics or invents things, or when or where they do it, the knowledge and technology that result can eventually become available to everyone in the world.
- Scientists are employed by colleges and universities, business and industry, hospitals, and many government agencies. Their places of work include offices, classrooms, laboratories, farms, factories, and natural field settings ranging from space to the ocean floor.
- Computers have become invaluable in science because they speed up and extend people's ability to collect, store, compile, and analyze data, prepare research reports, and share data and ideas with investigators all over the world.
- Accurate record-keeping, openness, and replication are essential for maintaining an investigator's credibility with other scientists and society.
Grades 9 - 12: By the end of the 12th grade, students should know that:
- Science disciplines differ from one another in what is studied, techniques used, and outcomes sought, but they share a common purpose and philosophy, and all are part of the same scientific enterprise.
- Funding influences the direction of science by virtue of the decisions that are made on which research to support. Research funding comes from various federal government agencies, industry, and private foundations.
2. The Nature of Mathematics
B. Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Grades 9 - 12: By the end of the 12th grade, students should know
- Mathematics and science as enterprises share many values and features: belief in order, ideals of honesty and openness, the importance of criticism by colleagues, and the essential role played by imagination.
3. The Nature of Technology
A. Technology and Science
Grades K - 2: By the end of the 2nd grade, students should know that:
- Tools are used to do things better or more easily and to do some things that could not otherwise be done at all. In technology, tools are used to observe, measure, and make things.
Grades 3 - 5: By the end of the 5th grade, students should know that:
- Technology enables scientists and others to observe things that are too small or too far away to be seen without them and to study the motion of objects that are moving very rapidly or are hardly moving at all.
- Measuring instruments can be used to gather accurate information for making scientific comparisons of objects and events and for designing and constructing things that will work properly.
- Technology extends the ability of people to change the world: to cut, shape, or put together materials; to move things from one place to another; and to reach farther with their hands, voices, senses, and minds. The changes may be for survival needs such as food, shelter, and defense, for communication and transportation, or to gain knowledge and express ideas.
Grades 6 - 8: By the end of the 8th grade, students should know:
- Technology is essential to science for such purposes as access to outer space and other remote locations, sample collection and treatment, measurement, data collection and storage, computation, and communication of information.
Grades 9 - 12: By the end of the 12th grade, students should know that:
- Technological problems often create a demand for new scientific knowledge, and new technologies make it possible for scientists to extend their research in new ways or to undertake entirely new lines of research. The very availability of new technology itself often sparks scientific advances.
- Technology usually affects society more directly than science because it solves practical problems and serves human needs (and may create new problems and needs). In contrast, science affects society mainly by stimulating and satisfying people's curiosity and occasionally by enlarging or challenging their views of what the world is like.
B. Design and Systems
Grades 3 - 5: By the end of the 5th grade, students should know that:
- There is no perfect design. Designs that are best in one respect (safety or ease of use, for example) may be inferior in other ways (cost or appearance). Usually some features must be sacrificed to get others. How such trade-offs are received depends upon which features are emphasized and which are down-played.
- Even a good design may fail. Sometimes steps can be taken ahead of time to reduce the likelihood of failure, but it cannot be entirely eliminated.
Grades 6 - 8: By the end of the 8th grade, students should know that:
- Design usually requires taking constraints into account. Some constraints, such as gravity or the properties of the materials to be used, are unavoidable. Other constraints, including economic, political, social, ethical, and aesthetic ones, limit choices.
Grades 9 - 12: By the end of the 12th grade, students should know that:
- To reduce the chance of system failure, performance testing is often conducted using small-scale models, computer simulations, analogous systems, or just the parts of the system thought to be least reliable.
C. Issues In Technology
Grades 6 - 8: By the end of the 8th grade, students should know that:
- the human ability to shape the future comes from a capacity for generating knowledge and developing new technologies--and for communicating ideas to others.
12. Habits of Mind
C. Manipulation and Observation
Grades K - 2: By the end of the 2nd grade, students should be able
- Make something out of paper, cardboard, wood, plastic, metal, or existing objects that can actually be used to perform a task.
Grades 3 - 5: By the end of the 5th grade, students should be able to:
- Choose appropriate common materials for making simple mechanical constructions and repairing things.
Grades 6 - 8: By the end of the 8th grade, students should be able to:
- Use computers for producing tables and graphs and for making spreadsheet calculations.
D. Communication Skills
Grades K - 2: By the end of the 2nd grade, students should be able to:
- Describe and compare things in terms of number, shape, texture, size, weight, color, and motion.
- Draw pictures that correctly portray at least some features of the thing being described.
Grades 6 - 8: By the end of the 8th grade, students should be able to:
- Read simple tables and graphs produced by others and describe in words what they show.
- Locate information in reference books, back issues of newspapers and magazines, compact disks, and computer databases.
- Find and describe locations on maps with rectangular and polar coordinates.
Grades 9 - 12: By the end of the 12th grade, students should be able to:
- Make and interpret scale drawings.
E. Critical-Response Skills
Grades 3 - 5: By the end of the 5th grade, students should:
- Buttress their statements with facts found in books, articles, and databases, and identify the sources used and expect others to do the same.
Grades 6 - 8: By the end of the 8th grade, students should:
- Be aware that there may be more than one good way to interpret a given set of findings.
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From Benchmarks for Science Literacy