[Additional outcomes from the Diocesan Health Curriculum Guidelines may also be included.]

The student can (in words and/or pictures):

1.      Identify things as living or nonliving

2.      Discuss the differences between living and nonliving things

3.      Identify different kinds of living things (such as humans, mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, insects, plants) & group like things together

4.      State the basic survival needs of plants: such as water, soil, sunlight

5.      Name the basic survival needs of animals: food, water, shelter

6.      Observe and describe how plants grow and change, especially over seasons

7.      Observe and describe how animals grow and change

8.      Name and illustrate the 4 seasons

9.      Examine & sort objects with similar and/or different properties, such as by their size, color, shape, weight, texture.

10.  Sort objects or materials according to their state of matter (liquid, solid, gas).

11.  Discuss the different ways objects can move: in a straight line, back and forth, in a circular motion, up and down, fast or slow.

12.  Demonstrate how the motion of an object can be changed by applying a force such as push or pull, for example, giving a ball a gentle push versus a hard push

[Additional outcomes from the Diocesan Health Curriculum Guidelines may also be included.]

The student can (in words and/or in pictures):

1.      Describe the sun as a source of heat and light and as necessary for living things

2.      Demonstrate/illustrate that light can pass through some objects and is blocked by others causing a shadow

3.      Describe the effects of the sun’s light on objects such as warming, color change/fading, melting

4.      Describe the weather (including temperature, wind and precipitation.)  

5.      Describe/illustrate how the weather changes from day to day and from one season to the next.

6.      Describe the earth’s surface as including rocks, soil, water and living things.

7.      Recognize the repeating patterns of day/night, the seasons and the 4 major phases of the moon.

8.      Describe/illustrate all living things as growing, reproducing and needing food, air and water.

9.      List ways that an organism’s habitat meets its basic needs.

10.  Describe/illustrate changes in a living thing during its life cycle.

11.  Identify the characteristics that living things grouped together share (for example, fur-mammals, birds-feathers, scales-fish)

12.  Compare how many living things closely resemble their parents

13.  Identify things that help plants and animals live in their environment such as using their senses and/or having special characteristics.

14.  Describe some of the changes plants and animals go through as the seasons change

15.  Recognize fossils as the remains of living things that can tell us about the earth in the past

16.  Predict how an object’s motion will change if a force is applied

17.  Distinguish between the 3 states of matter and describe a solid as having a definite shape, and liquids and gases as taking the shape of their containers

18.  Use basic tools including a ruler, thermometer, magnifier and balance (commercial or self-made)

[Additional outcomes from the Diocesan Health Curriculum Guidelines will also be included unless they are addressed in other courses.]

1.      Sort into the major groups, based on their physical characteristics: plants  (flowering vs. non-flowering) and animals (mammal / bird / fish / reptile / insect )

2.      Use a key to sort organisms into their major group.

3.      Identify the basic structures of plants (roots, stem, leaves,) the major functions of each, and how plants grow.

4.      Recognize that all living things have a predictable life cycle that may or may not include dramatic changes in form.

5.      Give examples of inherited characteristics

6.      Describe how the needs of an organism must be met by its environment in order for it to survive.

7.      Describe how plants and animals respond to changes in their environment.

8.      Give examples of how organisms can change their environments and/or impact their ecosystems.

9.      Distinguish between learned and instinctive behaviors

10.  Describe how the sun’s energy is used by plants [to produce sugars (via photosynthesis) and is transferred within a food chain.]

11.  Recognize that matter has many observable properties, such as weight, shape, color, temperature; and that these properties can be measured and/or used to sort things.

12.  Compare and contrast the basic properties of solids, liquids and gases [definite shape or not, takes up certain amount of space or not.]

13.  Describe how water can change from one state to another

14.  Identify the basic forms of energy (light, sound, heat, electrical, magnetic)

15.  Give examples of how one form of energy can be changed to another form

16.  Construct an electrical circuit using a battery with a light bulb or bell and explain the requirements for a working circuit.

17.  Test materials and determine if they are conductors or insulators

18.  Construct and use an electromagnet

19.  Recognize that magnets have poles that attract or repel each other.

20.  Test materials and formulate conclusions about what type(s) of materials are magnetic

21.  Recognize that sound is produced by vibrating objects and requires a medium through which to travel.  Relate the rate of vibration to the pitch of the sound.

22.  Recognize that light travels in a straight line until it strikes an object or travels from one medium to another, and that light can be reflected, refracted, or absorbed.

23.  Categorize minerals based on their physical properties

24.  Distinguish between the 3 categories of rocks (igneous, metamorphic & sedimentary.)

25.  Explain what soil is and how it is formed.

26.  Describe the weather in terms of measurable quantities such as air temperature, wind speed and direction, and precipitation.

27.  Describe how global patterns such as the jet stream and water currents influence local weather.

28.  Differentiate between weather and climate.

29.  Describe/illustrate the water cycle.

30.  Give examples of how the surface of the earth changes by such processes as erosion and weathering; landslides, volcanoes and earthquakes.

continued

31.  Describe the solar system in the most basic terms.

32.  Describe the movements of the earth and relate its rotation to day/night and the apparent movement of objects in the sky.

33.  Describe the changes in the observable shape of the moon over the course of a month.

34.  Use basic tools with increasing accuracy & precision (including a ruler, thermometer and balance) to make metric measurements.