Science
At Concord Road, the Elementary Science Program provides opportunities for students to develop understandings and skills necessary to function productively as problem-solvers in a scientific and technological world.
Science Information By Grade
Kindergarten Science
Kindergarten scientists use their senses to gain information which helps them to understand the world around them. We focus on touching, hearing, smelling, tasting, and seeing. We then use our brains to process the information we receive and think about what it all means!
The performance expectations in kindergarten help students formulate answers to questions such as:
- What happens if you push or pull an object harder?
- Where do animals live and why do they live there?
- What is the weather like today and how is it different from yesterday?
When your child’s journal arrives home at the end of a unit, look through its pages with your child and realize that there is more to their work than meets the eye. Good science is learned through active participation, and engagement in inquiry-based, hands-on activities. If their memories serve them well, your child will be able to explain the activity, which supported each and every page of their journal. Use this information to extend our curriculum into your home lives.
1st Grade Science
First grade scientists learn how to organize. They learn to organize themselves as individuals, as small groups and as scientists. They are learning what is expected of them as they work in the science room. We have been busy learning how to observe the world around us from many different perspectives.
The performance expectations in first grade help students formulate answers to questions such as:
- What happens when materials vibrate?
- What happens when there is no light?
- What are some ways plants and animals meet their needs so that they can survive and grow?
- How are parents and their children similar and different?
- What objects are in the sky and how do they seem to move?
When your child’s journal arrives home at the end of a unit, look through its pages with your child and realize that there is more to their work than meets the eye. Good science is learned through active participation, and engagement in inquiry-based, hands-on activities. If their memories serve them well, your child will be able to explain the activity, which supported each and every page of their journal. Use this information to extend our curriculum into your home lives.
2nd Grade Science
Second grade scientists learn how to observe, record, and interpret information like scientists. They learn to identify tools in the science classroom and how they make work easier. They also learn to understand that scientists use the metric system as a universal language. The children will apply the skills they learn as they work in cooperative groups, delegating jobs and sharing the tasks.
The performance expectations in first grade help students formulate answers to questions such as:
- How does land change and what are some things that cause it to change?
- What are the different kinds of land and bodies of water?
- How are materials similar and different from one another, and how do the properties of the materials relate to their use?
- What do plants need to grow?
- How many types of living things live in a place?
When your child’s journal arrives home at the end of a unit, look through its pages with your child and realize that there is more to their work than meets the eye. Good science is learned through active participation, and engagement in inquiry-based, hands-on activities. If their memories serve them well, your child will be able to explain the activity, which supported each and every page of their journal. Use this information to extend our curriculum into your home lives.
3rd Grade Science
The performance expectations in third grade help students formulate answers to questions such as: “What is typical weather in different parts of the world and during different times of the year? How can the impact of weather-related hazards be reduced? How do organisms vary in their traits? How are plants, animals, and environments of the past similar or different from current plants, animals, and environments? What happens to organisms when their environment changes? How do equal and unequal forces on an object affect the object? How can magnets be used?” Third grade performance expectations include PS2, LS1, LS2, LS3, LS4, ESS2, and ESS3 Disciplinary Core Ideas from the NRC Framework. Students are able to organize and use data to describe typical weather conditions expected during a particular season. By applying their understanding of weather-related hazards, students are able to make a claim about the merit of a design solution that reduces the impacts of such hazards. Students are expected to develop an understanding of the similarities and differences of organisms’ life cycles. An understanding that organisms have different inherited traits, and that the environment can also affect the traits that an organism develops, is acquired by students at this level. In addition, students are able to construct an explanation using evidence for how the variations in characteristics among individuals of the same species may provide advantages in surviving, finding mates, and reproducing. Students are expected to develop an understanding of types of organisms that lived long ago and also about the nature of their environments. Third graders are expected to develop an understanding of the idea that when the environment changes some organisms survive and reproduce, some move to new locations, some move into the transformed environment, and some die. Students are able to determine the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object and the cause and effect relationships of electric or magnetic interactions between two objects not in contact with each other. They are then able to apply their understanding of magnetic interactions to define a simple design problem that can be solved with magnets. The crosscutting concepts of patterns; cause and effect; scale, proportion, and quantity; systems and system models; interdependence of science, engineering, and technology; and influence of engineering, technology, and science on society and the natural world are called out as organizing concepts for these disciplinary core ideas. In the third grade performance expectations, students are expected to demonstrate grade-appropriate proficiency in asking questions and defining problems; developing and using models, planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, constructing explanations and designing solutions, engaging in argument from evidence, and obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information. Students are expected to use these practices to demonstrate understanding of the core ideas
4th Grade Science
The performance expectations in fourth grade help students formulate answers to questions such as: “What are waves and what are some things they can do? How can water, ice, wind and vegetation change the land? What patterns of Earth’s features can be determined with the use of maps? How do internal and external structures support the survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction of plants and animals? What is energy and how is it related to motion? How is energy transferred? How can energy be used to solve a problem?” Fourth grade performance expectations include PS3, PS4, LS1, ESS1, ESS2, ESS3, and ETS1 Disciplinary Core Ideas from the NRC Framework. Students are able to use a model of waves to describe patterns of waves in terms of amplitude and wavelength, and that waves can cause objects to move. Students are expected to develop understanding of the effects of weathering or the rate of erosion by water, ice, wind, or vegetation. They apply their knowledge of natural Earth processes to generate and compare multiple solutions to reduce the impacts of such processes on humans. In order to describe patterns of Earth’s features, students analyze and interpret data from maps. Fourth graders are expected to develop an understanding that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction. By developing a model, they describe that an object can be seen when light reflected from its surface enters the eye. Students are able to use evidence to construct an explanation of the relationship between the speed of an object and the energy of that object. Students are expected to develop an understanding that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents or from object to object through collisions. They apply their understanding of energy to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another. The crosscutting concepts of patterns; cause and effect; energy and matter; systems and system models; interdependence of science, engineering, and technology; and influence of engineering, technology, and science on society and the natural world are called out as organizing concepts for these disciplinary core ideas. In the fourth grade performance expectations, students are expected to demonstrate grade-appropriate proficiency in asking questions, developing and using models, planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, constructing explanations and designing solutions, engaging in argument from evidence, and obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information. Students are expected to use these practices to demonstrate understanding of the core ideas.