National Science Education Standards
addressed in
Student Activities for the Map of the
Truckee-Carson-Walker River Systems
Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Educational Series E-29
National Science Education Standards addressed:
- Teaching Standard D:
- Teachers create a setting for student work that is flexible and supportive of science inquiry.
- Make the available science tools, materials, media, and technological resources accessible to students.
- Identify and use resources outside the school.
- Teaching Standard E:
- Display and demand respect for the diverse ideas, skills, and experiences of all students.
- Nurture collaboration among students.
- Assessment Standard B:
- Achievement data collected focus on the science content that is most important for students to learn.
- Assessment Standard D:
- Assessment tasks must be set in a variety of contexts, be engaging to students with different interests and experiences, and must not assume the perspective or experience of a particular gender or ethnic group.
- Content Standards: K-4
- Science as Inquiry
- Employ simple equipment and tools to gather data and extend the senses.
- Use data to construct a reasonable explanation.
- Physical Science
- Materials can exist in different states—solid, liquid, and gas.
- Earth and Space Science
- The surface of the earth changes. Some changes are due to slow processes, such as erosion and weathering.
- Science in Personal and Social Perspective
- Types of resources
- Resources are things that we get from the living and nonliving environment to meet the needs and wants of a population.
- Some resources are basic materials, such as air, water, and soil.
- The supply of many resources is limited. If used, resources can be extended through recycling and decreased use.
- Changes in Environments
- Environments are the space, conditions, and factors that affect an individual's and a population's ability to survive and their quality of life.
- Changes in environments can be natural or influenced by humans. Some changes are good, some are bad, and some are neither good nor bad. Pollution is a change in the environment that can influence the health, survival, or activities of organisms, including humans.
- Some environmental changes occur slowly.
- Science and Technology in Local Challenges
- Science and technology have greatly improved food quality and quantity, transportation, health, sanitation, and communication.
- Content Standards: 5 - 8
- Science as Inquiry
- Identify questions that can be answered through scientific investigations.
- Use appropriate tools and techniques to gather, analyze, and interpret data.
- Develop descriptions, explanations, predictions, and models using evidence.
- Recognize and analyze alternative explanations and predictions.
- Physical Science
- A substance has characteristic properties, such as density, a boiling point, and solubility, all of which are independent of the amount of the sample. A mixture of substances can often be separated into the original substances using one or more of the characteristic properties.
- Substances react chemically in characteristic ways with other substances.
- Earth and Space Science
- Landforms are the result of a combination of constructive and destructive forces.
- 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." Water evaporates from the earth's surface, rises and cools as it moves to higher elevations, condenses as rain or snow, and falls to the surface where it collects in lakes, oceans, soil, and in rocks underground.
- Water is a solvent. As it passes through the water cycle, it dissolves minerals and gases and carries them to the oceans.
- The atmosphere is a mixture of nitrogen, oxygen, and trace gases that include water vapor. The atmosphere has different properties at different elevations.
- Clouds, formed by the condensation of water vapor, affect weather and climate.
- Living organisms have played many roles in the earth system, including affecting the composition of the atmosphere, producing some types of rocks, and contributing to the weathering of rocks.
- Science in Personal and Social Perspectives
- Populations, resources, and environments
- When an area becomes overpopulated, the environment will become degraded due to the increased use of resources.
- Natural Hazards
- Internal and external processes of the earth system cause natural hazards, events that change or destroy human and wildlife habitats, damage property, and harm or kill humans. Natural hazards include earthquakes, landslides, wildfires, volcanic eruptions, floods, storms, and even possible impacts of asteroids.
- Human activities can also induce hazards through resource acquisition, urban growth, land-use decisions, and waste disposal. Such activities can accelerate many natural changes.
- Content Standards: 9 - 12
- Physical Science
- Structure and Properties of Matter
- The physical properties of compounds reflect the nature of the interactions among its molecules. These interactions are determined by the structure of the molecule including the constituent atoms and the distances and angles between them.
- Chemical Reactions
- Chemical reactions occur all around us.
- Earth and Space Science
- Interactions among the solid earth, the oceans, the atmosphere, and organisms have resulted in the ongoing evolution of the earth system.
- Science in Personal and Social Perspectives
- Natural ecosystems provide an array of basic processes that affect humans. Those processes include maintenance of the quality of the atmosphere, generation of soils, control of the hydrologic cycle, disposal of wastes, and recycling of nutrients.
- Natural and human-induced hazards present the need for humans to assess potential danger and risk. Many changes in the environment designed by humans bring benefits to society, as well as cause risks.
The National Science Education Standards were prepared by the National Research Council and published by National Academy Press, Washington, D.C. in 1996. The standards are available on line at http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/enter2.cgi?ED.html.