Grade 2 Science Curriculum Standards

Friday, 29 July 2011 06:44

Our new science curriculum is based on a multi-year review and analysis of the Curriculum Topic Study materials by our K-12 science curriculum team. The Benchmarks for Science Literacy form the basis for the benchmarks that are set for each grade level. The bold-faced standards are the MDIRSS essential standards and the standards in regular font are supporting standards. Click on the green bold-faced MDIRSS essential standards to see the unpacked version, list of resources, and corresponding performance rubric for that standard.

Scientific Process Skills:

Identify questions
Design and conduct investigations
Use appropriate tools and models
Collect, organize, and analyze data
Support explanations with evidence
Collaborate, network, and communicate
Make local and global connections
Understand implications of science and technology

The Nature of Science

A. The Scientific Worldview

1A.1. When a science investigation is done the way it was done before, we expect to get a very similar result.

1A.2. When a science investigation is done again in a different place, we expect to get a very similar result.

B. Scientific Inquiry

1B.2. Tools such as thermometers, magnifiers, rulers, or balances often give more information about things than can be obtained by just observing things unaided.

1B.3. Describing things as accurately as possible is important in science because it enables people to compare their observations with those of others.

The Nature of Technology

A. Technology and Science

3A.1. 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.

3A.2. When trying to build something or to get something to work better, it usually helps to follow directions if there are any or to ask someone who has done it before for suggestions.

B. Design and Systems

3B.1. People may not be able to actually make or do everything that they can design.

C. Issues in Technology

3C.2. When a group of people wants to build something or try something new, they should try to figure out ahead of time how it might affect other people.

The Physical Setting

A. The Universe

4A.1. Understand that there are more stars in the sky than anyone can easily count, but they are not scattered evenly, and they are not all the same in brightness or color.

4A.2. Observe that the sun can be seen only in the daytime, but the moon can be seen sometimes at night and sometimes during the day. The sun, moon, and stars all appear to move slowly across the sky.

4A.3. Observe that the moon looks a little different every day but looks the same again about every four weeks.

B. The Earth

4B.2. Demonstrate that water can be a liquid or a solid and can go back and forth from one form to the other. If water is turned into ice and then the ice is allowed to melt, the amount of water is the same as it was before freezing.

4B.3. Observe that water left in an open container disappears, but water in a closed container does not disappear.

C. Processes that Shape the Earth

4C.1. Distinguish that chunks of rocks come in many sizes and shapes, from boulders to grains of sand and even smaller.

4C.2. Understand that change is something that happens to many things.

4C.3. Animals and plants sometimes cause changes in their surroundings.

D. The Structure of Matter

4D.1. Describe some objects in terms of their properties. Some properties, such as hardness and flexibility, depend upon what material the object is made of, and some properties, such as size and shape, do not.

4D.2. Understand that things can be done to materials to change some of their properties, but not all materials respond the same way to what is done to them.

The Living Environment

D. Interdependence of Life

5D.1. Understand that animals eat plants or other animals for food and may also use plants (or even other animals) for shelter and nesting.

E. Flow of Matter and Energy

5E.2. Many materials can be recycled and used again, sometimes in different forms.

F. Evolution of Life

5F.2. Some kinds of organisms that once lived on Earth have completely disappeared, although they were something like others that are alive today.

The Human Organism

A. Human Identity

6A.2. People need water, food, air, waste removal, and a particular range of temperatures in their environment, just as other animals do.

D. Learning

6D.1. People use their senses to find out about their surroundings and themselves. Different senses give different information.

E. Physical Health

6E.2. Understand that some things people take into their bodies from the environment can hurt them.

6E.3. Understand that some diseases are caused by germs, some are not. Diseases caused by germs may be spread by people who have them. Washing one's hands with soap and water reduces the number of germs that can get into the body or that can be passed on to other people.

F. Mental Health

6F.3.Talking to someone may help people understand their feelings or problems and what to do about them.

Human Society

C. Social Change

7C.1. Understand that changes happen in everyone's life, sometimes suddenly, more often slowly. People cannot control some changes, but they can usually learn to cope with them.

D. Social Trade-Offs

7D.3. Choices have consequences, some more serious than others.

F. Social Conflict

7F.1b. Some ways of dealing with disagreements work better than others. People who are not involved in a dispute may be helpful in solving it.

The Designed World

B. Materials and Manufacturing

8B.1. Some kinds of materials are better than others for making any particular thing. Materials that are better in some ways, such as stronger or cheaper, may be worse in other ways, such as heavier or harder to cut.

8B.2. Several steps are usually involved in making things.

8B.3. Tools are used to help make things, and some things cannot be made at all without tools. Different tools have different uses.

8B.4. Some objects can be used over again.

C. Energy Sources and Use

8C.2. People burn fuels such as wood, oil, coal, or natural gas, or use electricity, to cook their food and warm their houses.

D. Communication

8D.1. Information can be sent and received in many different ways. Some allow answering back and some do not. Each way has advantages and disadvantages.

8D.2. Devices can be used to send and receive messages quickly and clearly.

8D.3. People have always tried to communicate with one another. Signed and spoken language was one of the first inventions.

8D.4. Early forms of recording messages used markings on materials such as wood or stone.

F. Health Technology

8F.1a. Vaccinations and other scientific treatments are used to protect people from getting certain diseases.

8F.1b. Medicines may help those who do become sick to recover.

8F.2. Tools such as thermometers and X-ray machines are used to help figure out whether a person is healthy.

Common Themes

C. Constancy and Change

11C.2. People can keep track of some things, seeing where they come from and where they go.

11C.3b. Small changes can sometimes be detected by comparing counts or measurements at different times.

11C.4. Recognize that some things change so slowly or so quickly that the changes are hard to notice while they are taking place.

Habits of Mind

C. Manipulation and Observation

12C.5. Weigh objects using a scale.

D. Communication Skills

12D.1. Describe and compare real-world objects in terms of number, shape, texture, size, weight, color, and motion.

12D.3. Interpret pictures, drawings, and videos of real-world objects and events.

12D.4. Interpret oral descriptions of real-world objects and event

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