Texas Administrative Code › Title 19 - EDUCATION › Part 2 - TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY › Chapter 112 - TEXAS ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS FOR SCIENCE › Subchapter C - HIGH SCHOOL › Section 112.50 - Environmental Systems, Adopted 2021 (One Credit)

Current through Reg. 49, No. 28; July 12, 2024
(a) General requirements. Students shall be
				  awarded one credit for successful completion of this course. Prerequisite: one
				  unit of high school biology. Recommended prerequisite: Integrated Physics and
				  Chemistry, Chemistry, or concurrent enrollment in either course. This course is
				  recommended for students in Grade 10, 11, or 12.
(b) Introduction.
(1) Environmental Systems. In Environmental
				  Systems, students conduct laboratory and field investigations, use scientific
				  methods during investigations, and make informed decisions using critical
				  thinking and scientific problem solving. Students study a variety of topics
				  that include biotic and abiotic factors in habitats, ecosystems and biomes,
				  interrelationships among resources and an environmental system, sources and
				  flow of energy through an environmental system, relationship between carrying
				  capacity and changes in populations and ecosystems, natural changes in the
				  environment, and human activities that impact the natural
				  environment.
(2) Nature of science.
				  Science, as defined by the National Academy of Sciences, is the "use of
				  evidence to construct testable explanations and predictions of natural
				  phenomena, as well as the knowledge generated through this process." This vast
				  body of changing and increasing knowledge is described by physical,
				  mathematical, and conceptual models. Students should know that some questions
				  are outside the realm of science because they deal with phenomena that are not
				  currently scientifically testable.
(3) Scientific hypotheses and theories.
				  Students are expected to know that:
(A)
				  hypotheses are tentative and testable statements that must be capable of being
				  supported or not supported by observational evidence. Hypotheses of durable
				  explanatory power that have been tested over a wide variety of conditions are
				  incorporated into theories; and
(B)
				  scientific theories are based on natural and physical phenomena and are capable
				  of being tested by multiple independent researchers. Unlike hypotheses,
				  scientific theories are well established and highly reliable explanations, but
				  they may be subject to change as new areas of science and new technologies are
				  developed.
(4) Scientific
				  inquiry. Scientific inquiry is the planned and deliberate investigation of the
				  natural world using scientific and engineering practices. Scientific methods of
				  investigation are descriptive, comparative, or experimental. The method chosen
				  should be appropriate to the question being asked. Student learning for
				  different types of investigations include descriptive investigations, which
				  involve collecting data and recording observations without making comparisons;
				  comparative investigations, which involve collecting data with variables that
				  are manipulated to compare results; and experimental investigations, which
				  involve processes similar to comparative investigations but in which a control
				  is identified.
(A) Scientific practices.
				  Students should be able to ask questions, plan and conduct investigations to
				  answer questions, and explain phenomena using appropriate tools and
				  models.
(B) Engineering practices.
				  Students should be able to identify problems and design solutions using
				  appropriate tools and models.
(5) Science and social ethics. Scientific
				  decision making is a way of answering questions about the natural world
				  involving its own set of ethical standards about how the process of science
				  should be carried out. Students should be able to distinguish between
				  scientific decision-making methods (scientific methods) and ethical and social
				  decisions that involve science (the application of scientific
				  information).
(6) Science consists
				  of recurring themes and making connections between overarching concepts.
				  Recurring themes include systems, models, and patterns. All systems have basic
				  properties that can be described in space, time, energy, and matter. Change and
				  constancy occur in systems as patterns and can be observed, measured, and
				  modeled. These patterns help to make predictions that can be scientifically
				  tested, while models allow for boundary specification and provide tools for
				  understanding the ideas presented. Students should analyze a system in terms of
				  its components and how these components relate to each other, to the whole, and
				  to the external environment.
(7)
				  Statements containing the word "including" reference content that must be
				  mastered, while those containing the phrase "such as" are intended as possible
				  illustrative examples.