Classroom Resource

Scientific Theory & Evidence StudyJam

Subject Area

Science

Grade(s)

K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Overview

A scientific theory is a proposed description, explanation, or model of something occurring in nature. These theories have to be testable so that scientists can use the scientific method to see if they work.

The classroom resource provides a video that will introduce students to the scientific method, developing hypotheses, and collecting evidence. There is a karaoke song that students can learn to help them remember the steps in the scientific method. Students can use the information presented in this video to follow the scientific method as they plan their own investigations. There is also a short test that can be used to assess students' understanding. 

Science (2015) Grade(s): KG

SC15.K.1

Investigate the resulting motion of objects when forces of different strengths and directions act upon them (e.g., object being pushed, object being pulled, two objects colliding).

Unpacked Content

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Vocabulary

  • Push
  • Pull
  • Collide
  • Investigate
  • Result
  • Motion
  • Objects
  • Forces
  • Strengths
  • Directions
  • Refute

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Pushes and pulls can have different strengths and directions.
  • Pushing or pulling on an object can change the speed or direction of its motion and can start or stop it.
  • When objects touch or collide, they push on one another and can change motion.
  • A bigger push or pull makes things speed up or slow down more quickly.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Investigate forces and interactions.
  • Describe objects and their motions.
  • Describe relative strengths and directions of the push or pull applied to an object.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Simple tests can be designed to gather evidence to support or refute ideas about effects on the motion of the object caused by changes in the strength or direction of the pushes and pulls.

Scientific and Engineering Practices

Planning and Carrying out Investigations

Crosscutting Concepts

Cause and Effect
Science (2015) Grade(s): 1

SC15.1.3

Investigate materials to determine which types allow light to pass through (e.g., transparent materials such as clear plastic wrap), allow only partial light to pass through (e.g., translucent materials such as wax paper), block light (e.g., opaque materials such as construction paper), or reflect light (e.g., shiny materials such as aluminum foil).

Unpacked Content

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Vocabulary

  • transparent
  • translucent
  • opaque
  • reflect
  • investigate
  • observe
  • light
  • partial
  • block
  • material
  • record
  • data
  • shiny

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Some materials allow all light to pass through.
  • Some materials allow partial light to pass through.
  • Some materials block all the light from passing through.
  • Some materials reflect light, which changes its direction.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Investigate to determine the effect of placing objects made of different materials in a beam of light.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Simple tests can gather evidence to determine that placing different materials in a beam of light will cause light to either: pass through, partially pass through, block, or reflect.

Scientific and Engineering Practices

Planning and Carrying out Investigations

Crosscutting Concepts

Cause and Effect
Science (2015) Grade(s): 2

SC15.2.5

Plan and carry out an investigation, using one variable at a time (e.g., water, light, soil, air), to determine the growth needs of plants.

Unpacked Content

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Vocabulary

  • Investigation
  • Variable
  • Water
  • Light
  • Soil
  • Air
  • Nutrients
  • Causes
  • Effects
  • Isolate

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Basic growth needs of plants include water, nutrients, light, and air.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Conduct an investigation to produce data used as evidence.
  • Determine the growth needs of plants.
  • Collaboratively develop an investigation plan that describes key features of the investigation and isolates variables as needed.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • There are observable patterns present in the growth of plants that can be used to determine the needs of plants.

Scientific and Engineering Practices

Planning and Carrying out Investigations

Crosscutting Concepts

Cause and Effect
Science (2015) Grade(s): 3

SC15.3.2

Investigate, measure, and communicate in a graphical format how an observed pattern of motion (e.g., a child swinging in a swing, a ball rolling back and forth in a bowl, two children teetering on a see-saw, a model vehicle rolling down a ramp of varying heights, a pendulum swinging) can be used to predict the future motion of an object.

Unpacked Content

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Vocabulary

  • Investigate
  • Measure
  • Communicate
  • Graphical format
  • Motion
  • Pattern
  • Predict
  • Phenomenon
  • Data

Knowledge

Students know:
  • The patterns of an object's motion in various situations can be observed and measured.
  • When past motion exhibits a regular pattern, future motion can be predicted from it.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Investigate the motion of an object.
  • Identify patterns in the motion of an object.
  • Measure the motion of an object.
  • Communicate graphically the pattern of motion of an object.
  • Use patterns of motion of an object to predict future motion of that object.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • The pattern in the motion of the object can be used to predict future motion.

Scientific and Engineering Practices

Planning and Carrying out Investigations

Crosscutting Concepts

Patterns
Science (2015) Grade(s): 4

SC15.4.2

Plan and carry out investigations that explain transference of energy from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents.

Unpacked Content

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Vocabulary

  • Construct
  • Transfer
  • Energy
  • Potential energy
  • Kinetic energy
  • Friction
  • Conduction
  • Absorb
  • Reflect
  • Circuit
  • Open circuit
  • Close circuit
  • Heat
  • Radiation
  • Convection
  • Collision
  • Motion
  • Electrical energy
  • Stored energy

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Energy is present whenever there are moving objects, sound, light, or heat.
  • The transfer of energy, including the following:
    • Collisions between objects.
    • Light traveling from one place to another.
    • Electric currents producing motion, sound, heat, or light.
    • Sound traveling from one place to another.
    • Heat passing from one object to another.
    • Motion, sound, heat, and light causing a different type of energy to be observed after an interaction.
  • Heat is produced in many ways.
  • Heat can move via conduction.
  • The properties of different objects cause them to be able to absorb, reflect, and/or conduct energy.
  • Electric currents pass through a circuit.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Collaboratively plan and carry out an investigation that converts energy one form to another.
    • Identify the phenomenon.
    • Identify the evidence to address the purpose of the investigation.
    • Collect the data.
  • Construct an explanation using evidence about heat production.
  • Develop a model demonstrating that different objects can absorb, reflect, and/or conduct energy.
  • Develop a model demonstrating electric circuits.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Energy can be transferred in various ways and between objects.
  • Heat energy can be produced in many ways.
  • The properties of objects, e.g. ability to absorb, reflect, or conduct energy, relate to their function.
  • Electric energy can be transferred through circuits.

Scientific and Engineering Practices

Planning and Carrying out Investigations; Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions; Developing and Using Models

Crosscutting Concepts

Energy and Matter
Science (2015) Grade(s): 5

SC15.5.2

Investigate matter to provide mathematical evidence, including graphs, to show that regardless of the type of reaction (e.g., new substance forming due to dissolving or mixing) or change (e.g., phase change) that occurs when heating, cooling, or mixing substances, the total weight of the matter is conserved.

Unpacked Content

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Vocabulary

  • Quantitative measurements (mass, weight, standard unit)
  • Physical quantities (weight, time, temperature, volume)
  • Property changes
  • Matter
  • Reaction
  • Heating
  • Cooling
  • Mixing
  • Physical properties
  • Conservation of matter
  • Graphing

Knowledge

Students know:
  • The amount (weight) of matter is conserved when it changes form, even in transitions in which it seems to vanish.
  • No matter what reaction or change in properties occurs, the total weight of the substances does not change. (Boundary: Mass and weight are not distinguished at this grade level.)

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Measure and graph the given quantities using standard units, including: the weight of substances before they are heated, cooled, or mixed and the weight of substances, including any new substances produced by a reaction, after they are heated, cooled, or mixed.
  • Measure and/or calculate the difference between the total weight of the substances (using standard units) before and after they are heated, cooled, and/or mixed.
  • Describe the changes in properties they observe during and/or after heating, cooling, or mixing substances.
  • Use their measurements and calculations to describe that the total weights of the substances did not change, regardless of the reaction or changes in properties that were observed.
  • Use measurements and descriptions of weight, as well as the assumption of consistent patterns in natural systems, to describe evidence to address scientific questions about the conservation of the amount of matter, including the idea that the total weight of matter is conserved after heating, cooling, or mixing substances.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Standard units are used to measure and describe physical quantities such as weight and can be used to demonstrate the conservation of the total weight of matter.

Scientific and Engineering Practices

Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking

Crosscutting Concepts

Scale, Proportion, and Quantity
Science (2015) Grade(s): 6

SC15.6.8

Plan and carry out investigations that demonstrate the chemical and physical processes that form rocks and cycle Earth’s materials (e.g., processes of crystallization, heating and cooling, weathering, deformation, and sedimentation).

Unpacked Content

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Vocabulary

  • Rock
  • Melting
  • Sedimentation
  • Crystallization
  • Chemical change
  • Physical change
  • Deformation
  • Interior energy
  • Cycling
  • Weathering
  • Erosion
  • Solar energy
  • Sedimentary rock
  • Igneous rock
  • Metamorphic rock

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Rocks are the solid mineral materials forming part of the surface of the Earth and other similar planets.
  • Different Earth processes (melting, sedimentation, crystallization) drive matter cycling (from one type of Earth material to another) through observable chemical and physical changes.
  • Chemical changes are changes that result in the formation of new chemical substances.
  • Physical changes involve changes into new forms or shapes in which the chemical identity of the substance is not changed.
  • Melting is a physical change in which a solid changes to a liquid as a result of exposure to heat.
  • Sedimentation is a process in which material (like rock or sand) is carried to the bottom of a body of water and forms a solid layer. Sedimentary rock consists of cemented sediment.
  • Crystallization is the process of the formation of crystals from a liquid. Igneous rocks are the result of crystallizing magma.
  • Deformation is a physical change in a rock's shape or size. Rocks become deformed when the Earth's crust is stretched, compressed, or heated.
  • Metamorphic rock was once one form of rock but changed to another under the influence of heat or pressure.
  • Energy from Earth's interior and the sun drive Earth processes that together cause matter cycling through different forms of Earth materials.
  • The movement of energy that originates from the Earth's hot interior causes the cycling of matter through the Earth processes of melting, crystallization, and deformation.
  • Energy from the sun causes matter to cycle via processes that produce weathering, erosion, and sedimentation (e.g., wind, rain).
  • Weathering is the chemical or physical breaking down or dissolving of rocks and minerals on Earth's surface.
  • Erosion is the act in which Earth is worn away, often by wind, water, or ice.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Identify the phenomena under investigation, which includes the chemical and physical processes of Earth.
  • Identify the purpose of the investigation, which includes demonstrating the chemical and physical processes that form rocks and cycle Earth materials.
  • Develop a plan for the investigation individually or collaboratively.
  • Describe factors used in the investigation including appropriate units (if necessary), independent and dependent variables, controls and number of trials for each experimental condition.
  • Perform the investigation as prescribed by the plan.
  • Use data from the investigation to provide an causal account of the relationship between chemical and physical processes and the formation of rocks and the cycling of Earth materials.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • All Earth processes are the result of energy flowing and matter cycling within and among the planet's systems. This energy is derived from the sun and Earth's hot interior. The energy that flows and matter that cycles produce chemical and physical changes in Earth's materials.

Scientific and Engineering Practices

Planning and Carrying out Investigations

Crosscutting Concepts

Energy and Matter
Link to Resource
https://studyjams.scholastic.com/studyjams/jams/science/scientific-inquiry/scie…

CR Resource Type

Audio/Video

Resource Provider

http://studyjams.scholastic.com/
Accessibility

Accessibility

Audio resources: includes a transcript or subtitles
License

License Type

Custom

Custom License Type (URL)

http://www.scholastic.com/terms.htm

Comments or Notes

The test may be completed as a whole group or independently on student devices.

There are printable lyrics available for the karaoke song.

Approved Date

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