This year's show covers the following standards from the National Science Education Standards:
Unifying Concepts and Processes Standard
Evidence, models, and explanation.
Change, constancy, and measurement
Science as Inquiry Standards
Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
--Ask a question about objects, organisms and events in the environment. (K-4)
--Plan and conduct a simple investigation. (K-4)
--Use data to construct a reasonable explanation. (K-4)
Understanding about scientific inquiry
--Scientific investigations involve asking and answering a question and comparing the answer with what scientists already know about the world. (K-4)
--Scientists develop explanations using observations (evidence) and what they already know about the world (scientific knowledge). Good explanations are based on evidence from investigations. (K-4)
--Different kinds of questions suggest different kinds of scientific investigations. Some investigations involve observing and describing objects, organisms, or events; some involve collecting specimens; some involve experiments; some involve seeking more information; some involve discovery of new objects and phenomena; and some involve making models. (5-8)
--Current scientific knowledge and understanding guide scientific investigations. (5-8)
--Scientific explanations emphasize evidence, have logically consistent arguments, and use scientific principles, models, and theories. The scientific community accepts and uses such explanations until displaced by better scientific ones. When such displacement occurs, science advances. (5-8)
Physical Science Standards
Position and motion of objects (K-4)
--The position and motion of objects can be changed by pushing or pulling. The size of the change is related to the strength of the push or pull.
--Sound is produced by vibrating objects. The pitch of the sound can be varied by changing the rate of vibration.
Motions and forces (5-8)
--The motion of an object can be described by its position, direction of motion, and speed. An object that is not being subjected to a force will continue to move at a constant speed and in a straight line.
--If more than one force acts on an object along a straight line then the forces will reinforce or cancel one another, depending on their direction and magnitude. Unbalanced forces will cause changes in the speed or direction of an object’s motion.
Motions and forces (9-12)
--Objects change their motion only when a net force is applied. Laws of motion are used to
calculate precisely the effects of forces on the motion of objects. The magnitude of the change in motion can be calculated using the relationship F = ma, which is independent of the nature of the force. Whenever one object exerts force on another, a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction is exerted on the first object.
Earth and Space Science Standards
Objects in the sky (K-4)
--The sun, moon, stars, clouds, birds, and airplanes all have properties, locations, and movements that can be observed and described.
Earth in the solar system (5-8)
--Gravity is the force that keeps planets in orbit around the sun and governs the rest of the motion in the solar system. Gravity alone holds us to the earth’s surface…
History and Nature of Science Standards
Science as a human endeavor (K-4)
--Science and technology have been practiced by people for a long time
--Men and women have made a variety of contributions throughout the history of science and technology.
--Many people choose science as a career and devote their entire lives to studying it. Many people derive great pleasure from doing science.
Science as a human endeavor (5-8)
--Science requires different abilities, depending on such factors as the field of study and type of inquiry. Science is very much a human endeavor, and the work of science relies on basic human qualities, such as reasoning, insight, energy, skill, and creativity—as well as on scientific habits of mind, such as intellectual honesty, tolerance of ambiguity, skepticism, and openness to new ideas.
Nature of science (5-8)
--Scientists formulate and test their explanations of nature using observation, experiments, and theoretical mathematical models. Although all scientific ideas are tentative and subject to change and improvement in principle, for most major ideas in science, there is much experimental and observational confirmation. Those ideas are not likely to change greatly in the future. Scientists do and have changed their ideas about nature when they encounter new experimental evidence that does not match their existing explanations.
History of science (5-8)
--Many individuals have contributed to the traditions of science. Studying some of these individuals provides further understanding of scientific inquiry, science as a human endeavor, the nature of science, and the relationships between science and society.
--Tracing the history of science can show how difficult it was for scientific innovators to break through the accepted ideas of their time to reach the conclusions that we currently take for granted.
