The student knows how to use a variety of tools and methods to conduct science inquiry. Students examine information on the periodic table to recognize that elements are grouped into families. In addition, students demonstrate that exothermic and endothermic chemical reactions indicate that energy is lost or gained during a chemical reaction. Matter and energy are explored through the interactions in solar, weather, and ocean systems. Students identify the origin of waves and investigate their ability to travel through different media.
Science is a way of learning about the natural world.
Students should know how science has built a vast body of changing and increasing knowledge described by physical, mathematical, and conceptual models, and also should know that science may not answer all questions. A system is a collection of cycles, structures, and processes that interact. Students should understand a whole in terms of its components and how these components relate to each other and to the whole. All systems have basic properties that can be described in terms of space, time, energy, and matter. Change and constancy occur in systems and can be observed and measured as patterns.