Science literacy requires students to understand not only the fundamental concepts of science but also the ways in which scientific information is generated and refined and the historical development of key theories. They should understand the limits of scientific knowledge and grasp what distinguishes science from non-science. Students must go beyond the simple knowing of facts to the development of a level of conceptual understanding that enables them to use and apply what they have learned. Both aspects of understanding explaining are required to meet the standards. The relationship between evidence and explanation is key to how science works.
All traditions require evidence, logic, and good arguments, and involve hard work and imagination.
There is an array of investigative skills that are essential if one is to deepen conceptual understanding and appreciate how new knowledge is produced. These skills include observing, predicting, classifying, inferring, measuring, questioning, hypothesizing, experimenting, interpreting data, and constructing and explaining models. Working both as part of a team and individually, a student progresses to investigations that are increasingly systematic and quantified, and which culminate in oral and written reports that demonstrate the ability to communicate technical material in a clear, logical manner to a variety of audiences. By the time students are taking high school courses, they should demonstrate the ability to frame a question, design an approach, gather and analyze data, describe sources of error, write a technical report, and respond to critiques. By teaching for understanding, teachers build on what students learned in previous years, and avoid the need to re-teach everything each year.