Students also use computers and information technology tools to support scientific investigations. Students investigate the rock cycle and identify sources of water in a watershed. In addition, students identify changes in objects including position, direction, and speed when acted upon by a force. Students classify substances by their chemical properties and identify the water cycle and decay of biomass as examples of the interactions between matter and energy. They identify life processes and the relationships between structure and function of organisms.
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.