Connecticut State Department of Education
8607136849
Memo
To. Teachers, Science Department Chairs, District Science Coordinators, and Assistant Superintendents
From Liz Buttner, K8 Science Consultant, Bureau of Curriculum & Instruction
CC:
Date: 4/11/2007
Re: NEW SCIENCE FRAMEWORK COMPANION DOCUMENT: "K5 SCIENCE GRADE LEVEL EXPECTATIONS"
The State Department of Education, in collaboration with science education specialists from Connecticut RESCs, have written K5 Science GradeLevel Expectations ("GLE5"). GLEs bring the content standards in the 2004 Core Science Curriculum Framework to the next level of specificity, clarifying for local educators what ALL students should be learning in their science classes. Development of GLEs for Grades 6 to 8 will begin shortly.
You have been nominated to serve as a reviewer of the enclosed DRAFT GLEs for Grades K5. Your feedback is a valuable part of the development process. Enclosed you will find a copy of the DRAFT K5 GLEs, along with a brief questionnaire to complete. The questionnaire includes an overview that explains the GLE document in greater detail.
You are welcome to discuss the DRAFT GLE document with colleagues and collectively respond to the feedback questions. IT IS IMPORTANT, HOWEVER, NOT TO DISTRIBUTE copies at this time. It is inevitable that changes will be made in response to feedback from school districts and university scientists. Once the finalized GLE document is available, which we anticipate will be very soon, obsolete copies of the Draft GLEs can cause confusion for teachers in your school.
Please read the GLEs and return ONE completed questionnaire to me by APRIL 27. A postage prepaid return envelope has been provided for your convenience.
Thank you for participating in this important project.
Elizabeth Buttner
Core Science Curriculum Framework
K5 SCIENCE GRADELEVEL LEARNING EXPECTATIONS
INTRODUCTION
K5 Science GradeLevel Expectations is a tool for developing science curriculum using the 2004 Core Science Curriculum Framework. The GradeLevel Expectations ("GLEs") elaborate the Science Framework by "unwrapping" the big idea described in each Content Standard to describe its underlying knowledge. They help teachers to interpret the framework Content Standards by providing guidelines for what content to teach and to what depth. Mastering the foundational knowledge expressed in the GLEs will gradually lead students toward understanding the broader idea expressed in each Framework Content Standard.
The GLEs are not a curriculum, although they do describe a suggested learning progression from which a curriculum can be designed. A science curriculum is developed by using the GLEs to select learning experiences, teaching strategies, instructional materials and assessments that are linked to each GLE and have potential to promote learning. In short, the role of the GLEs is to express what concepts and skills students should learn. The role of the school district curriculum is to describe how students will learn them and what evidence will be used to measure their learning progress
GLEs are more than a checklist of facts. They express concepts that's should be addressed in a coherent curriculum that is rich in intriguing handson experiences for students. In order to make sense of science ideas, and retain knowledge on which they can build, students need numerous opportunities to explore the concept described in each GLE and to find the relationships among the GLEs for each grade and across all the grades. Some of these concepts will be assessed on the Connecticut Mastery Tests ("CMT") in science; these are described in the column titled CMT Expected Performances
The essential knowledge statements listed in the GLEs are based on current research about how students learn science, as well as on national standards documents such as the 2009 NAEP Science Framework, National Science Education Standards, and AAAS Benchmarks for Science Literacy. In some instances, when concept appeared in the 2009 NAEP Science Framework but was not explicit in the Connecticut science framework, the decision was made to include the concept in the GLEs. In this way, students will be prepared for future NAEP science assessments as well as the Connecticut Elementary Science CMT.
The Science GLEs were developed by a Writing Committee that included Liz Buttner (CSDE K8 Science Consultant, Terry Contant (LEARN Science Specialist), Susan Palma (Education Connection Science Specialist) and Mary Lou Smith (EASTCONN Science Specialist). The work was reviewed and revised by a panel of classroom teachers, district curriculum leaders, science coordinators, university scientists and science educators.
CONCEPTUAL THEME: Properties of MatterHow does the structure of matter affect the properties and uses of materials?
CONTENT STANDARD: K.1 Objects have properties that can be observed and used to describe similarities and differences.
GRADELEVEL CONCEPT:
• Some properties can be observed with the senses, and others can be discovered by using simple tools or tests.
ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE:
1. Observing is using the senses to get information.
2. Objects have observable physical properties (attributes), including size, shape, color, texture, pattern and weight. Note: words such as big/small, short/tall are appropriate only when comparing objects to each other.
3. Physical properties do not include the object's name, use or materials of which it is made.
4. The same object can be made of different materials (for example, a cup can be made of paper, glass, china or Styrofoam). Objects can have properties that are different than the properties of the materials of which they are made.
5. Objects can be sorted (for example, a group of green pencils) or ordered (for example, pencils arranged from shortest to longest) based on their properties.
6. Some physical properties can be observed directly (for example, color or shape), while others are revealed through simple tests (doing something to the object, such as shaking, bending, bouncing, rolling, stretching, holding it near a magnet or putting it in water.)
7. We can learn about objects by observing and comparing them to see how they are alike and how they are different (for example, my plant is taller than your plant.)
8. Measurement (using standard and nonstandard units) makes observations more specific (for example, my plant is two thumbs tall, or my milk container is heavier than yours on the balance.)
9. Simple tools can enhance our observations. For example, hand lenses allow us to see things that cannot be seen with eyes alone; balances allow us to compare the weights of objects.
CONCEPTUAL THEME: Heredity and Evolution What processes are responsible for life's unity and diversity?
CONTENT STANDARD: K.2 Many different kinds of living things inhabit the Earth.
GRADELEVEL CONCEPT:
• Living things have certain characteristics that distinguish them from nonliving things, including growth, movement, reproduction and response to stimuli.
ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE:
1. Some things in our environment are alive, some were once alive and others have never been alive.
2. By observing a variety of living and nonliving things, attributes common to all living things can be identified. For example, living things reproduce, grow and respond to their environment.
3. Some animals are alike in the way they look and in the things they do; others are very different from one another. For example, fish resemble other fish, frogs resemble other frogs; yet fish are quite different than frogs.
4. Reproduction is a characteristic common to living things. Living things are diverse in the ways they reproduce (for example, some living things lay eggs, while others produce seeds or give birth.)
5. Offspring are similar to their parents in some ways, and different from their parents in other ways.
6 Growth is a characteristic common to living things Growth is a biological process that is different than the physical process of expansion (or just getting bigger.) For example, a balloon expands as air is blown into it, or a slinky gets bigger as it is stretched; but neither is growing in a biological sense.
7. Many living things move, but movement alone is not evidence of life.
8. Living things react to their environment. For example, plants grow toward sunlight; rabbits run away from a loud noise, people move their hands away from a hot stove.
CONCEPTUAL THEME: Energy in the Earth's Systems How do external and internal sources of energy affect the Earth's systems?
CONTENT STANDARD: K.3 weather conditions vary daily and seasonally.
GRADELEVEL CONCEPT:
• Daily and seasonal weather conditions affect what we do, what we wear and how we feel.
ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE:
1. Weather is the atmospheric conditions outside at any given time. Weather includes the temperature, precipitation, cloud types, amount of cloud cover, and wind.
2. Weather conditions change throughout the day/night, from day to day, and over longer periods of time (seasons).
3. Daily and seasonal weather observations can be organ and compared. Patterns can sometimes be used to predict weather.
4. Weather influences how we dress, how we feel, and what we do outside.
5. When the temperature is cold enough, water outside freezes to ice; when the temperature is warm enough, ice and snow melt.
6. Clouds have different shapes, sizes and colors. Some clouds are associated with precipitation.
7. Precipitation can be in various forms (i.e., liquid rain, snow, sleet, hail). Whether it rains or snows depends on the air temperature.
8. Wind is moving air. Sometimes air moves fast and sometimes it hardly moves at all.
9. Wind can make other things move, such as flags, leaves, or trash.
CONCEPTUAL THEME: Science and Technology in Society How do science and technology affect the quality of our lives?
CONTENT STANDARD: K.4 Some objects are natural, while others have been designed and
made by people to improve the quality of life.
GRADELEVEL CONCEPT:
• Humans select both natural and manmade materials to build shelters based on local climate conditions, properties of the materials and their availability in the environment.
ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE
1. People need shelters to keep warm/cool, dry and safe
2. Although they may look quite different, most shelters have walls, roofs and an entrance/exit; some shelters have doors, windows and floors.
3. People in different regions of the world build different' kinds of shelters, depending on the local
climate, natural resources and customs.
a. People who live in cold climates build shelters using materials to hold in heat; people who live in hot climates build shelters using materials to keep heat out.
4.Traditionally, people have built shelters using materials that are easily available to them. Due to modem transportation, people today build houses from materials that may come from far away.
a. People who live in forested regions have traditionally built shelters using wood and/or leaves from nearby trees.
b. People who live in regions with clay soils have traditionally built shelters using bricks or adobemade from clay.
c. People who live in snowy regions have traditionally built shelters using snow and ice.
d. People who live in regions with large animals have traditionally built shelters using animal skins.
5. Some materials used to build shelters come directly from nature (for example, lumber, stones, animal skins, ice blocks, etc.). Some materials used to build shelters are manufactured using materials from nature (for example, glass, concrete, plastic, steel, etc.)
6. Walls, roofs and windows require materials that have specific properties. For example, walls require materials that are rigid, windows require materials that are transparent, roofs require materials that are waterresistant.
CONCEPTUAL THEME: Forces and Motion What makes objects move the way they do?
CONTENT STANDARD: 1.1 The sun appears to move across the sky in the same way every day, but its path changes gradually over the seasons.
GRADELEVEL CONCEPT #1:
• An object's position can be described by locating it relative to another object or the background.
ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE:
1. An object's position can be described by comparing it to a stationary object's position. One object can be in front of, behind, above or below another object. For example, the sun's position can be described as being "just above the treetops" or "directly overhead."
2. When an observer changes position, different words may be needed to describe an object's position. For example, when I am sitting on the bench the sun is "behind" me; when I move to the slide, the sun is "in front" of me.
3. The description of an object's position from one observer's viewpoint may be different from that reported from a different observer's viewpoint. For example, a box of crayons is positioned between two students. Susan says the crayons are to her left and John says the crayons are to his right.
4. The same object when viewed from close up appears larger than it does when viewed from far away (although the actual size of the object does not change.) For example, a beach ball held in one's arms appears larger than it does when viewed from across the playground.
5. Descriptions of an object's position can be qualitative (for example, close to the edge of the table) or quantitative (for example, 6 centimeters from the edge of the table.)
GRADELEVEL CONCEPT #2:
• An object's motion can be described by tracing and measuring its position over time.
ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE:
1. An object is in motion when its position is changing.
2. Motion is caused or changed (i.e., speed up, slow down or go in a different direction) by a push or a pull.
3. Pushes or pulls can come from direct contact, moving air, magnets or gravity (dropping an object or rolling/sliding it down a ramp.)
4. You can tell that an object has moved by observing changes in its position over time compared to a nonmoving object.
5. The description of an object's motion from one observer's view may be different from that reported from a different observer's point of view. For example, the ball is rolling toward me but away from you.
Understanding motion and position can help us make inferences about the sun's apparent daily and seasonal motion. CAUTION: IT IS UNSAFE TO LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN.
6 The sun appears to move across the sky in a daily pattern, rising in the eastern sky and setting in the western sky.
7. Shadows occur when light is blocked by an object.
a. Shadows provide evidence of the sun's position in the sky.
b. Changes in shadows provide evidence of the sun's apparent motion across the sky.
Shadow lengths depend on the sun's position in the sky.