State Curriculum - Science

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Grade 6 Grade 7 Grade 8
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 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.
 		1. Recognize and explain the impact of a changing human population on the use of natural resources and on environmental quality.
a. Identify and describe natural resources as
  • Land
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Forests
  • Water
  • Wind
  • Minerals
  • Wildlife
 a. Based on data identify and describe the positive and negative impacts of an increasing human population on the use of natural resources
  
b. Identify and describe the distribution of natural resources around the Earth
 b. Recognize and describe the decreasing dependence on local resources due to the impact of available transportation.
  
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 explain that human-caused changes have consequences for Maryland's environment as well as for other places and future times.
 		1. Recognize and describe that environmental changes can have local, regional, and global consequences.
 		1. Recognize and explain how human activities can accelerate or magnify many naturally occurring changes.
a. Identify and describe a range of local issues that have an impact on people in other places.
 a. Identify and describe a local, regional, or global environmental issue.
 a. Based on data from research identify and describe how natural processes change the environment.
b. Recognize and describe how environmental change in one part of the world can have consequences for other parts of the world.
 b. Identify and describe that different individual people or groups of people are affected by an issue in different ways.
b. Identify and describe how human activities produce changes in natural processes:
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
    
 

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