Download Grade 7 Science and Health Standards and Expectations

Regis Middle School
7 Grade Science Standards and Expectations
Archdiocesan - Revised 2010
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#1 – Earth and Space – Students can understand concepts and relationships in Earth/space
sciences.
Can Understand changes in and around Earth:
1. Knows that the Sun is the principle energy source for phenomena on the Earth’s
surface, e.g., winds, ocean currents, the water cycle, and plant growth
Understands Earth’s composition and structure:
2. Knows that the composition and texture of the soil and its fertility and resistance to
erosion are greatly influenced by plant roots and debris, bacteria, fungi, worms,
rodents, and other animals as they break up the soil and add organic material to it
# 2 – Life Science – Students can understand concepts and relationships in life science.
Understands the principles of heredity and related concepts:
1. Understands and demonstrates knowledge of how different organisms pass on traits.
2. Knows that reproduction is a characteristic of all living things and is essential to the
continuation of a species
3. Knows that hereditary information is contained in genes; explains how characteristics
are inherited from parents
4. Knows that for sexually reproducing organisms, a species compromises all organisms
that can mate with one another to produce fertile offspring
5. Knows that characteristics of an organism can be described in terms of a combination
of traits; some traits are inherited and others result from interactions with the
environment
6. Explains how species can change through natural selection
Understands the structure and function of cells and organisms:
7. Understands and demonstrates knowledge of the basic components and functions of
cells, tissues, organs, and organ systems
8. Knows that cells convert energy obtained from food to carry on the many functions
needed to sustain life
9. Understands and demonstrates knowledge of the complementary nature of structure
and function and the commonalities among diverse organisms
10. Can understand structures of living things
11. Knows that plants and animals have life cycles and are different for different
organisms
12. Understands and demonstrates knowledge of the functions and interconnections of the
major human body systems including the breakdown in structure or function that
disease causes
13. Knows that all organisms are composed of cells, which are the fundamental units of
life; most organisms are single cells, but other organisms (including humans) are
multi-cellular
14. Knows the levels of organization in living systems, including cells, tissues, organs,
organ systems, whole organisms, and ecosystems, and the complementary nature of
structure and function at each level
Understands relationships among organisms and their physical environment:
15. Understands and demonstrates knowledge of the interdependency of organisms,
changes in environmental conditions, and survival of individuals and species
16. Knows how an organism’s ability to regulate its internal environment enables the
organism to obtain and use resources, grow, reproduce, and maintain stable internal
conditions while living in a constantly changing external environment
17. Can understand environmental interaction and adaptation
18. Knows that factors affect the number and types of organisms an ecosystem can
support
19. Understands and demonstrates knowledge of the cycling of matter and energy
through ecosystems
20. Understands and demonstrates knowledge of the social and personal implications of
environmental issues
21. Knows that all individuals of a species that exist together at a given place and time
make up a population, and all populations living together and the physical factors
with which they interact compose an ecosystem
22. Knows ways in which organisms interact and depend on one another through food
chains and food webs in an ecosystem, e.g., producer/consumer, predator/prey,
parasite/host
Understands biological evolution and diversity of life:
23. Knows evidence that supports the idea that there is unity among organisms despite
the fact that some species look very different, e.g., similarity of internal structures in
different organisms, evidence of common ancestry
24. Knows ways in which living organisms can be classified
25. Understands the functions, organs, and relationship to health of the digestive,
reproductive, circulatory, respiration, excretory, nervous, endocrine, and skeletal
system
26. Knows how matter is recycled within ecosystems
#3 – Physical Science – Students can understand concepts and relationships in physical
science
Understands the sources and properties of energy:
1. Understands and demonstrates knowledge of physical and chemical changes and their
relationship to the conversion of matter and energy
2. Understands and demonstrates knowledge of forms of energy and energy transfer
3. Describes the different forms of energy, e.g., electrical, heat, light, and magnetism
4. Understands the law of conservation of energy
Understands forces and motion:
5. Knows that just as electric currents can produce magnetic forces, magnets can cause
electric currents
#4 – Nature of Science – Students can understand and apply skills used in scientific inquiry:
Understands the nature of scientific knowledge:
1. Knows that an experiment must be repeated many times to yield consistent results
before the results are accepted as correct
Understands the nature of scientific inquiry:
2. Knows that scientific inquiry includes evaluating results of scientific investigations,
experiments, observations, theoretical and mathematical models and explanations
proposed by other scientists
3. Uses scientific methods (asks questions, observes, records and interprets results)
4. Generates questions that can be answered through scientific investigations
5. Designs and conducts different kinds of scientific investigations
6. Selects and uses appropriate tools and techniques to gather, analyze, and interpret
data
7. Incorporates mathematics into scientific inquiry
8. Uses evidence to develop descriptions, explanations, predictions, and models
9. Thinks critically and logically to make the relationships between evidence and
explanations
10. Draws conclusions, identifies patterns, generalities and trends, and makes inferences
11. Communicates and defends procedures and explanations
12. Uses appropriate safety procedures when conducting investigations
13. Understands ethics associated with scientific study
Understands the scientific enterprise:
14. Knows ways in which science and technology influence one another
15. Knows that people of all backgrounds and with diverse interests, talents, qualities,
and motivations engage fields of science and engineering; some of these people work
in teams and others work alone, but all communicate extensively with others
16. Knows that throughout history, many scientific innovators have had difficulty
breaking through accepted ideas that are now considered to be common knowledge
#6 – Health (Primarily covered during Wellness and Guidance Classes-Included in Science
if time allows during mini-units)
1. Understands essential concepts about nutrition and diet
2. Understands how eating properly can help to reduce health risks
3. Knows how to maintain and promote personal health
4. Knows essential concepts about the prevention and control of disease
5. Knows communicable, chronic, and degenerative disease processes and the
differences between them
6. Understands the fundamental concepts of growth and development
7. Knows the similarities and differences between male and female sexuality
Regis Middle School
7 Grade Science Standards and Expectations
Based on National Science Education Standards
Revised 2010
th
# 1 – Earth and Space
Structure of the Earth System:
1. The solid earth is layered with a lithosphere; hot, convecting mantle; and dense,
metallic core.
2. Water, which covers the majority of the earth’s surface, circulates through the
crust, oceans, and atmosphere in what is known as the water cycle.
Earth in the Solar System:
3. Gravity governs the motion in the solar system. Gravity explains the phenomenon
of the tides.
4. The sun is the major source of energy for phenomena on the earth’s surface, such
as growth of plants, winds, ocean currents, and the water cycle.
#2 – Life Science
Develop students’ understanding of life science:
1. Living systems at all levels of organization demonstrate the complementary
nature of structure and function. Important levels include cells, tissues, organs,
organ systems, and whole organisms.
2. All organisms are composed of cells-the fundamental units of life. Most
organisms are single cells; other organisms are multicellular.
3. Cells carry on the many functions needed to sustain life.
4. Specialized cells perform specialized functions in multicellular organisms.
5. All organisms must be able to obtain and use resources, grow, reproduce, and
maintain stable internal conditions while living in a constantly changing
environment. Behavior is one kind of response an organism can make to an
internal or environmental stimulus.
6. Millions of species of animals, plants, and microorganisms are alive today.
Develop students’ understanding of populations and ecosystems:
7. A population consists of all individuals of a species that occur together at a given
place and time. All populations living together and the physical factors with
which they interact compose an ecosystem.
8. Populations of organisms can be categorized by the function the serve in an
ecosystem. Plants and some microorganisms are producers—they make their own
food. All animals, including humans, are consumers which obtain food by eating
other organisms. Decomposers, primarily bacteria and fungi, are consumers that
use waste materials and dead organisms for food. Food webs identify the
relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers in an ecosystem.
9. For ecosystems, the major source of energy is sunlight. Producers use
photosynthesis to transform energy entering ecosystems as sunlight into chemical
energy. That energy then passes from organism to organism in food webs.
10. The number of organisms an ecosystem can support depends on the resources
available and abiotic factors, such as quantity of light and water, range of
temperatures, and soil composition. Given adequate biotic and abiotic resources
and no disease or predators, populations (including humans) increase at rapid
rates. Lack of resources and other factors, such as predation and climate, limit the
growth of populations in specific niches in the ecosystems.
Develop students understanding of reproduction and heredity:
11. Reproduction is a characteristic of all systems; because no individual organism
lives forever, reproduction is essential to the continuation of every species. Some
organisms reproduce asexually. Other organisms reproduce sexually.
12. Every organism needs a set of instructions for specifying its traits. Heredity is the
passage of these instructions from one generation to another.
13. Hereditary information is contained in genes, located in the chromosomes of each
cell. Each gene carries a single unit of information. An inherited trait of an
individual can be determined by one or by many genes, and a single gene can
influence more than one trait.
14. The characteristics of an organism can be described in terms of a combination of
traits. Some traits are inherited, and others result from interactions with the
environment.
Develop students’ understanding of diversity and adaptations of organisms:
15. Biological evolution accounts for the diversity of a species developed through
gradual processes over many generations. Species acquire many of their unique
characteristics through biological adaptations, which involve the selection of
naturally occurring variation in populations. Biological adaptations include
changes in structure, behaviors, and physiology that enhance survival and
reproductive success in a particular environment.
#3 - Physical Science
Motions and Forces:
1. The motion of an object can be described by its position, direction of motion, and
speed.
2. An object not subjected to a force will continue to move at a constant speed in a
straight line.
3. Applying one or more forces to a moving object will cause changes in speed or
direction of the object’s motion.
Transfer of Energy:
4. Energy is a property of many substances and is associated with heat, light,
electricity, mechanical motion, sound, nuclei, and the nature of a chemical.
5. Energy is transferred in many ways.
6. Heat moves in predictable ways, flowing from warmer objects to cooler ones,
until both reach the same temperature.
7. Light interacts with matter by transmission (including refraction), absorption, or
scattering (including reflection).
8. Electrical circuits provide a means of transferring electrical energy.
9. In most chemical and nuclear reactions, energy is transferred into or out of a
system. Heat, light, mechanical motion, or electricity might all be involved in
such transfers.
10. The sun is the major source of energy for changes on the earth’s surface. The sun
loses energy by emitting light. A tiny fraction of that light reaches earth,
transferring energy from the sun to the earth. The sun’s energy arrives as light
with a range of wavelengths.
#4 – Science As Inquiry
Develop students’ abilities to do and understand scientific inquiry:
1. Identify questions that can be answered through scientific investigations.
2. Design and conduct scientific investigations.
3. Use appropriate tools and techniques to gather, analyze, and interpret data.
4. Develop descriptions, explanations, predictions, and models using evidence.
5. Think critically and logically to make the connections between evidence and
explanations.
6. Recognize and analyze alternative explanations and predictions.
7. Communicate scientific procedures and explanations.
8. Use mathematics in scientific inquiry.
9. Understand that different kinds of questions suggest different kinds of scientific
investigations; current knowledge guides scientific investigations; and
mathematics and technology are important scientific tools.
10. Understand that scientific explanations emphasize evidence.
#5 – Science and Technology
Develop students’ understandings of science and technology:
1. Technology influences society through its products and processes.
2. Technological solutions are temporary and have side effects. Technologies cost,
carry risks, and have benefits.
3. Many different people in different cultures have made and continue to make
contributions to science and technology.
4. Science and technology are reciprocal. Science helps drive technology, as it asks
questions that demand more sophisticated instruments and provides principles for
better instrumentation and technique. Technology is essential to science because it
provides instruments and techniques that enable observations of objects and
phenomena that are otherwise unobservable due to quantity, distance, location,
size, and/or speed.
5. Perfectly designed solutions do not exist. All technological solutions have tradeoffs, such as safety, cost, efficiency, and appearance. Risk is part of living in a
highly technological world. Reducing risk often results in new technology.
6. Technological designs have constraints. Some constraints are unavoidable, such
as properties of materials, or effects of weather and friction. Other constraints
limit choices in design, such as environmental protection, human safety, and
aesthetics.
#6 – History and Nature of Science
Develop an understanding of science as a human endeavor that has taken place over time:
1. Scientists formulate and test their explanations of nature, using observations,
experiments, and models. Although all scientific ideas are tentative and subject to
change and improvement in principle, for most major ideas in science, there is
much experimental and observational confirmation.
2. It is normal for scientists to differ with one another about the interpretation of new
evidence. It is part of scientific inquiry to evaluate the results and explanations of
other scientists. As scientific knowledge evolves, major disagreements are
eventually resolved through such interactions between scientists.
#7 – Science in Social Perspectives
Develop students’ understanding of changes in environments:
1. Environments are the space, conditions, and factors that affect an individual’s and
a population’s ability to survive and quality of life.
2. Changes in environments can be natural or influenced by humans. Some changes
are good, some are bad, and some are neither good nor bad.
Natural Hazards:
3. Natural environments may contain substances that are harmful to human beings.
Maintaining environmental health involves establishing or monitoring quality
standards related to use of soil, water, and air.
4. Human activities can induce hazards through resource acquisition, urban growth,
land-use decisions, and waste disposal.
Develop an understanding of science and technology in society:
5. Technology influences society through its products and processes. Technological
changes are often accompanied by social, political, and economic changes that
can be beneficial or detrimental to individuals and to society. Social needs,
attitudes, and values influence the direction of technological development.
6. Science cannot answer all questions and technology cannot solve all human
problems or meet all human needs. Students should appreciate what science and
technology can reasonably contribute to society and what they cannot do. For
example, new technologies often will decrease some risks and increase others.