Arkansas state standards
Kindergarten
K-PS3-1 Make observations to determine the effect of sunlight on Earth’s surface.
[Clarification Statement: Examples of Earth’s surface could include sand, soil, rocks, and water.]
[Assessment Boundary: Assessment of temperature is limited to relative measures such as warmer/cooler.]
K-ESS2-1 Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time
[Clarification Statement: Examples of qualitative observations could include descriptions of the weather (such as sunny, cloudy, rainy, or warm); examples of quantitative observations could include numbers of sunny, windy, and rainy days in a month. Examples of patterns could include that it is usually cooler in the morning than in the afternoon or the number of sunny days versus cloudy days in different months.]
[Assessment Boundary: Assessment of quantitative observations is limited to whole numbers and relative measures such as warmer/cooler.]
K-LS1-1 Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive
[Clarification Statement: Examples of patterns could include that animals need to take in food but plants do not; the different kinds of food needed by different types of animals; the requirement of plants to have light; and that all living things need water.]
K-ESS2-2 Construct an argument supported by evidence for how plants and animals (including humans) can change the environment to meet their needs.
[Clarification Statement: Examples of plants and animals changing their environment could include squirrels digging in the ground to hide food and tree roots breaking
concrete.]
K-ESS3-1 Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants or animals (including humans) and the places they live.
[Clarification Statement: Examples of relationships could include that deer eat buds and leaves, therefore, they usually live in forested areas; and grasses need sunlight so they often grow in meadows. Plants, animals, and their surroundings make up a system.]
K-ESS3-3 Communicate solutions that will reduce the impact of humans on the land, water, air, and/or other living things in the local environment.*
[Clarification Statement: Examples of human impact on the land could include cutting trees to produce paper and using resources to produce bottles. Examples of solutions
could include reusing paper and recycling cans and bottles.]
1st Grade
1-LS1-1 Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.*
[Clarification Statement: Examples of human problems that can be solved by mimicking plant or animal solutions could include designing clothing or equipment to protect bicyclists by mimicking turtle shells, acorn shells, and animal scales; stabilizing structures by mimicking animal tails and roots on plants; keeping out intruders by
mimicking thorns on branches and animal quills; and detecting intruders by mimicking eyes or ears.]
1-LS3-1 Make observations to construct an evidence-based account that young plants and animals are like, but not exactly like, their parents.
[Clarification Statement: Examples of patterns could include features plants or animals share. Examples of observations could include leaves from the same kind of plant being the same shape but can differ in size; and, a particular breed of dog looks like its parents but is not exactly the same.]
[Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include inheritance, animals that undergo metamorphosis, or hybrids.]
1-ESS1-1 Use observations of the sun, moon, and stars to describe patterns that can be predicted.
[Clarification Statement: Examples of patterns could include that the sun and moon appear to rise in one part of the sky, move across the sky, and set; and stars, other than our sun, are visible at night but not during the day.]
[Assessment Boundary: Assessment of star patterns is limited to stars seen at night and not during the day.]
1-ESS1-2 Make observations at different times of year to relate the amount of daylight to the time of year.
[Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on relative comparisons of the amount of daylight in the winter to the amount in the spring or fall.]
[Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to relative amounts of daylight, not quantifying the hours or time of daylight.]
2nd Grade
2-LS2-1 Plan and conduct an investigation to determine if plants need sunlight and water to grow.
[Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to testing one variable at a time.]
2-LS2-2 Develop a simple model that mimics the function of an animal in dispersing seeds or pollinating plants.*
2-LS4-1 Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats.
[Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on the diversity of living things in a variety of habitats.]
[Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include specific animal and plant names in specific habitats.]
2-ESS2-1 Compare multiple solutions designed to slow or prevent wind or water from changing the shape of the land.*
[Clarification Statement: Examples of solutions could include different designs of dikes and windbreaks to hold back wind and water, and different designs for using shrubs,
grass, and trees to hold back the land.]
2-ESS2-2 Develop a model to represent the shapes and kinds of land and bodies of water in an area.
[Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include quantitative scaling in models.]
2-ESS2-3 Obtain information to identify where water is found on Earth and that it can be solid or liquid.
2-ETS1-1 Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.
3rd Grade
3-LS2-1 Construct an argument that some animals form groups that help members survive.
[AR Clarification Statement: Examples could include ant colonies, herds of bison, or hives of bees.]
3-LS4-1 Analyze and interpret data from fossils to provide evidence of the organisms and the environments in which they lived long ago
[Clarification Statement: Examples of data could include type, size, and distributions of fossilized organisms. Examples of fossils and environments could include marine fossils found on dry land, tropical plant fossils found in Arctic areas, and fossils of extinct organisms.]
[Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include identification of specific fossils or living plants and animals. Assessment is limited to major fossil types and relative ages.]
3-LS4-3 Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat, some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
[AR Clarification Statement: Examples of evidence could include the needs and characteristics of the organisms and habitats involved. The organisms and their habitat make up a system in which the parts depend on each other for survival.]
3-LS4-4 Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changes and the types of plants and animals that live there may change.*
[Clarification Statement: Examples of environmental changes could include changes in land characteristics, water distribution, temperature, food, and other organisms.
[Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to a single environmental change. Assessment does not include the greenhouse effect or climate change.]
3-LS3-1 Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of these traits exists in a group of similar organisms
[Clarification Statement: Patterns are the similarities and differences in traits shared between offspring and their parents, or among siblings. Emphasis is on organisms other than humans.]
[Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include genetic mechanisms of inheritance and prediction of traits. Assessment is limited to non-human examples.]
3-LS3-2 Use evidence to support the explanation that traits can be influenced by the environment.
[Clarification Statement: Examples of the environment affecting a trait could include insufficient water stunting normally tall plants; and, a pet dog becoming overweight that is given too much food and too little exercise.]
3-LS4-2 Use evidence to construct an explanation for how the variations in characteristics among individuals of the same species may provide advantages in surviving, finding mates, and reproducing.
[AR Clarification Statement: Examples of cause and effect relationships could be plants of the same species with larger thorns may be less likely to be eaten; and, animals of the same species with more effective camouflage or coloration may be more likely to survive and produce offspring.]
3-ESS2-1 Represent data in tables and graphical displays to describe typical weather conditions expected during a particular season.
[Clarification Statement: Examples of data could include average temperature, precipitation, and wind direction.]
[Assessment Boundary: Assessment of graphical displays is limited to pictographs and bar graphs. Assessment does not include climate change.]
3-ESS2-2 Obtain and combine information to describe climates in different regions of the world
3-ESS3-1 Make a claim about the merit of a design solution that reduces the impacts of a weather-related hazard.*
[Clarification Statement: Examples of design solutions to weather-related hazards could include barriers to prevent flooding, wind-resistant roofs, and lightning rods
4th Grade
4-LS1-1 Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
[AR Clarification Statement: Examples of structures for survival could include thorns and teeth. Examples of structures for growth could include stems and the skeleton. Examples of structures for behavior could include roots and the brain. Examples of reproduction could include pistils, stamens, and eggs.]
[Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to macroscopic structures within plant and animal systems.]
4-ESS1-1 Identify evidence from patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers to support an explanation for changes in a landscape over time.
[Clarification Statement: Examples of evidence from patterns could include rock layers with marine shell fossils above rock layers with plant fossils and no shells, indicating a change from land to water over time; and, a canyon with different rock layers in the walls and a river in the bottom, indicating that over time a river cut through the rock.]
[Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include specific knowledge of the mechanism of rock formation or memorization of specific rock formations and layers. Assessment is limited to relative time.]
4-ESS2-1 Make observations and/or measurements to provide evidence of the effects of weathering or the rate of erosion by water, ice, wind, or vegetation.
[Clarification Statement: Examples of variables to test could include angle of slope in the downhill movement of water, amount of vegetation, speed of wind, relative rate of deposition, cycles of freezing and thawing of water, cycles of heating and cooling, or volume of water flow.]
[Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to a single form of weathering or erosion.]
4-ESS2-2 Analyze and interpret data from maps to describe patterns of Earth’s features.
[Clarification Statement: Maps can include topographic maps of Earth’s land and ocean floor, as well as maps of the locations of mountains, continental boundaries, volcanoes, and earthquakes.]
4-ESS3-2 Generate and compare multiple solutions to reduce the impacts of natural Earth processes on humans.*
[Clarification Statement: Examples of solutions could include designing an earthquake-resistant building or improving monitoring of volcanic activity.]
[Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions.]
5th Grade
5-ESS2-2 Describe and graph the amounts of salt water and fresh water in various reservoirs to provide evidence about the distribution of water on Earth.
[Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to oceans, lakes, rivers, glaciers, groundwater, and polar ice caps, and does not include the atmosphere.]
5-ESS3-1 Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use scientific ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.
5-ESS1-2 Represent data in graphical displays to reveal patterns of daily changes in the length and direction of shadows, day and night, and the seasonal appearance of some stars in the night sky.
[Clarification Statement: Examples of patterns could include the position and motion of Earth with respect to the sun and select stars that are visible only in particular months.]
[Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include causes of seasons.]
5-PS3-1 Use models to describe that energy in animals’ food (used for body repair, growth, motion, and to maintain body warmth) was once energy from the sun
[Clarification Statement: Examples of models could include diagrams and flowcharts.]
5-LS1-1 Support an argument that plants get the materials they need for growth chiefly from air and water.
[Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on the idea that plant matter comes mostly from air and water, not from the soil.]
5-LS2-1 Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.
[Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on the idea that matter that is not food (air, water, decomposed materials in soil) is changed by plants into matter that is food. Examples of systems could include organisms, ecosystems, and the Earth.]
[Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include molecular explanations.]
6th Grade
6-ESS2-4 Develop a model to describe the cycling of water through Earth’s systems driven by energy from the sun and the force of gravity.
[Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on the ways water changes its state as it moves through the multiple pathways of the hydrologic cycle. Examples of models can be conceptual or physical.]
[Assessment Boundary: A quantitative understanding of the latent heat of vaporization and fusion is not assessed.]
6-ESS3-3 Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.*
[Clarification Statement: Examples of the design process could include examining human environmental impacts, assessing the kinds of solutions that are feasible, and designing and evaluating solutions that could reduce that impact. Examples of human impacts could include water usage (such as the withdrawal of water from streams and aquifers or the construction of dams and levees), land usage (such as urban development, agriculture, or the removal of wetlands), and pollution (such as of the air, water, or land).]
6-ESS3-5 Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
[Clarification Statement: Examples of factors include human activities (such as fossil fuel combustion, cement production, or agricultural activity) and natural processes (such as changes in incoming solar radiation or volcanic activity). Examples of evidence could include tables, graphs, and maps of global and regional temperatures, atmospheric levels of gases such as carbon dioxide or methane, and the rates of human activities. Emphasis is on the major role that human activities play in causing the rise in global temperatures.]
7th Grade
7-LS2-2 Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.
[Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on predicting consistent patterns of interactions in different ecosystems in terms of the relationships among and between organisms and abiotic components of ecosystems. Examples of types of interactions could include competitive, predatory, and mutually beneficial.]
7-LS1-6 Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for the role of photosynthesis in the cycling of matter and the flow of energy into and out of organisms.
[Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on tracing the movement of matter and flow of energy.]
[Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include the biochemical mechanisms of photosynthesis.]
8th Grade
8-LS4-2 Apply scientific ideas to construct an explanation for the anatomical similarities and differences among modern organisms and between modern and fossil organisms to infer evolutionary relationships.
[Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on explanations of the evolutionary relationships among organisms in terms of similarities or differences in the gross appearance of anatomical structures.]
8-LS4-4 Construct an explanation based on evidence that describes how genetic variations of traits in a population increase some individuals’ probability of surviving and reproducing in a specific environment.
8-LS4-6 Use mathematical representations to support explanations of how natural selection may lead to increases and decreases of specific traits in populations over time.
[Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on using mathematical models, probability statements, or proportional reasoning to support explanations of trends in changes to populations over time.]
[Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include Hardy Weinberg calculations.]