State Curriculum - Science

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Grade 4 Grade 5 Grade 6
Standard 6.0 Environmental Science: Students will use scientific skills and processes to explain the interactions of environmental factors (living and non-living) and analyze their impact from a local to a global perspective. Standard 6.0 Environmental Science: Students will use scientific skills and processes to explain the interactions of environmental factors (living and non-living) and analyze their impact from a local to a global perspective. Standard 6.0 Environmental Science: Students will use scientific skills and processes to explain the interactions of environmental factors (living and non-living) and analyze their impact from a local to a global perspective.
A. Natural Resources and Human Needs A. Natural Resources and Human Needs A. Natural Resources and Human Needs
1. Recognize and explain how renewable and nonrenewable natural resources are used by humans in Maryland to meet basic needs.
1. Recognize and compare how different parts of the world have varying amounts and types of natural resources and how the use of those resources impacts environmental quality.
  a. Identify and compare Maryland's renewable resources and nonrenewable resources.
a. Identify and describe natural resources as
  • Land
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Forests
  • Water
  • Wind
  • Minerals
  • Wildlife
  b. Describe how humans use renewable natural resources, such as plants, soil, water, animals.
b. Identify and describe the distribution of natural resources around the Earth
  c. Describe how humans use nonrenewable natural resources, such as oil, coal, natural gas, minerals, including metals
c. Identify and describe how the natural change processes may be affected by human activities.
  • Agriculture
  • Beach Preservation
  • Mining
  • Development/construction
  • Stream/river alteration
    d. Identify and describe problems associated with obtaining, using, and distributing natural resources.
    e. Identify possible solutions to problems associated with obtaining, using, and distributing natural resources.
B. Environmental Issues B. Environmental Issues B. Environmental Issues
1. Recognize and describe that people in Maryland depend on, change, and are affected by the environment.
1. Recognize and explain that decisions influencing the use of natural resources may have benefits, drawbacks, unexpected consequences, and tradeoffs.
1. Recognize and explain that human-caused changes have consequences for Maryland's environment as well as for other places and future times.
a. Identify and describe that human activities in a community or region are affected by environmental factors
a. Identify and describe personal and community behaviors that waste natural resources and/or cause environmental harm and those behaviors that maintain or improve the environment.
a. Identify and describe a range of local issues that have an impact on people in other places.
  b. Identify and describe that individuals and groups assess and manage risk to the environment differently.
b. Recognize and describe how environmental change in one part of the world can have consequences for other parts of the world.
    c. Identify and describe that ecosystems can be impacted by human activities.
  • Protection of the Chesapeake Bay watershed
  • Resource acquisition and use
  • Land use decisions (agriculture, mining, and development)
  • Recycling
  • Use and disposal of toxic substances
2. Recognize and describe that consequences may occur when Earth's natural resources are used.
  a. Explain how human activities may have positive consequences on the natural environment.
  • Recycling centers
  • Native plantings
  • Good farming practice
 
  b. Explain how human activities may have a negative consequence on the natural environment.
 
  c. Identify and describe that an environmental issue affects individual people and groups of people differently.
 
 

Note: Highlighting identifies assessment limits. All highlighted Indicators will be tested on the Grades 5 and 8 MSA. The highlighted Objectives under each highlighted Indicator identify the limit to which MSA items can be written. Although all content standards are tested on MSA, not all Indicators and Objectives are tested. Objectives that are not highlighted will not be tested on MSA, however are an integral part of Instruction.

 

MSDE has developed a toolkit for these standards which can be found online at: http://mdk12.org/instruction/curriculum/science/vsc_toolkit.html.

 

January 2008