Action Research suggestions for NFSI participants

EER <eroettge@condor.depaul.edu>, January 2000

A few links on action research:

• Queen's University - assorted papers, including results of action research and links to other sites about action research.
• Trinity College's master list of action research sites.
• Southern Cross University's action research resources, including on-line journal and course.
• Action Research Collaborative of Greater St. Louis, including Frequently Asked Questions.
• University of Colorado at Denver - with links to several definintions, including Pathways.

Top choice subjects:

• The light & heat (or energy) for weather, life, etc. comes from sunlight.
• Cause of day & night.
• Moon Phases & art instruction (a different page).

Background:

Most of you have seen "A Private Universe" and learned (a) the ideas students have already may prevent them from constructing valid new models, and (b) it's easy to overestimate how much of the "learning" students internalize into their long-term ideas. The topics in the video were lunar phases and seasons. Other studies have shown that learners do better with 3-D models in their hands, for both of these topics, and that the "misconceptions" about lunar phases (in contrast to the preexisting ideas about seasons) are not always firmly held - and so these may be easier to change.

However, most of the research has been done with college students; some has been done with high school students and with adults such as teachers. Relatively little research in astronomy topics has been done with grade-school students. In particular, there's little age-relevant research on the topics in the various Science Standards. Also, most of the research has been in topics relating to physics, chemistry, etc. rather than astronomy or even general science.

I think the NFSI action research programs are an opportunity to get some initial information that will inform future rigorous studies. I'd like to define some potential topics and recommend some high priorities, summarize what research I've found, and maybe help coordinate and summarize projects for those of you interested in these topics.

Research Approaches:

There are a number of approaches; see Benchmarks Chapter 13 for a discussion. For subjects where there's a likelihood of alternative models ("preconceptions" or "misconceptions" or whatever), a good approach follows.

Misconceptions approach

This describes the overall procedure(s); an action research project might involve one or more of the steps, but probably wouldn't encompass the whole list.

• Select a concept area; narrow it down somewhat.
• Interview a few students to find the general range of ideas; narrow the topic further to areas where there are potential problems and/or particularly useful initial models.
• Use an interview protocol to interview a wider range of students and determine the most common ideas.

From here, there are several possibilities:

• Design short instruction, tutorials, or other intervention to help students learn the concept.
• Use the interviews to design short-answer tests; administer the tests to a wider range of students. Use the most common answers as distractors on multiple-choice tests; administer these tests to a broad range of students to get statistical information.
• Use the instruments (tests or interviews or activities) and research to check if the same alternative models are held by a different group of people (different ages or grades, before/after instruction, different settings).
• Use the research or intervention plan designed by someone else; test it on a different group of students (different grade level, especially).
• Use previous and current research to find a sequence or ranking of commonly-held ideas. (Example: the "What are your ideas of Earth?" section of LHS/GEMS "Earth, Moon, and Stars" - also found in The Universe at Your Fingertips.)

I'd generalize this to asking:

1. What do students already think or know (about a topic)?
   • What ideas do they naturally call to mind?
   • What is their understanding of the concepts an expert might use?
2. How solid (firmly held, trusted) are these ideas?
3. Are the common ideas consistent among learners?
   • Do they incorporate other concepts (prerequisite ideas)?
   • Do they fall along a sequence or progression? (Such as "ideas about Earth".)
4. What ideas or parts of ideas are useful, and what parts block learning?
   • Of the ideas that block learning, what instructional approaches are useful? (These typically include challenges to produce cognitive dissonance.)

Topics:

I think we should take some of the more important science standards and examine how much students *really* know at different age levels - particularly ages where they are expected to know the previous concepts. In other words, we should test knowledge at all age levels of some of the early standards. I'm picking one main topic and one sub-topic, and looking at the various related standards. I hope to expand this later.

My high-priority topic concerns energy (or light & heat) from the Sun; the specific topic is the cause of day and night. This topic is fundamental but can be taken to quite sophisticated levels. It has repercussions in most of the standards (see samples, below). However, I think it's best to take a geocentric view, as it does not seem clear just when students are usually capable of a heliocentric viewpoint. Even those who can imagine Earth or our Solar System from a distance need to be able to describe things in terms of an Earth-centered viewpoint, as this is how we actually perceive.

Day:

• It's day when the sun is above the horizon, night when the sun is below the horizon.
• Sunrise & set occur when the sun crosses the horizon. (Some adjustment for mountains or other high horizons in higher grades.)
• The position of the sun in the sky is closely related to the time of day; noon is approx. when the sun is highest. (For later grades, solar noon is when the sun crosses the meridian; a.m. = ante (before) meridian or east of the meridian, and p.m. = post meridian or west of the meridian. The meridian runs N-S, so anyone due north or south will read the same time of day.)
• We get more light (it's brighter) and heat when the sun is higher in the sky - midday compared to dawn. (Later: the light is spread out more when the sun is lower - this applies to any parallel rays hitting a surface head-on or at an angle. Avoid the word "indirect" unless you've read the dictionary definition.)

Year:

• The noon sun is higher in summer (late June for us) than in winter - significantly so! The sun doesn't get very high in winter (about 1/3 of the way up from the horizon), and doesn't reach overhead even in summer. This causes more heating in summer and less in winter.
• The height of the sun also affects outdoor shadows - generally, you get short shadows when the sun is high and long shadows when the sun is low. ("Generally" means when the light is from sunlight on a sunny day and the shadow is cast onto a horizontal surface.) (Older students might add compass directions: Shadows point opposite the compass direction of the sun - you can find the direction of the sun by tracing a line from the tip of the shadow to the tip of the shadow-caster. The noon sun is to the south of overhead. This becomes apparent when comparing northern- and southern-facing windows. At night, Earth is blocking the sunlight - technically, we're in Earth's shadow, but that may be confusing because we're standing actually on the shadow-caster.)
• The days are longer in summer, just about 12 hours long on the equinoxes, and shorter in winter. This adds to the hot/cold cycle (more time to heat means more heat total). The length of the day changes fastest around the equinoxes. (This is exaggerated a little in our perceptions because we also go on & off Daylight time.)
• The sun rises exactly east and sets exactly west only on two days per year. In the summer, it rises and sets farther north; in winter, farther south. (I'm not sure how important this is to the Earth-centered description. It does become quite important when changing to a distant viewpoint.) Many cultures use(d) this to figure out the time of year, especially to prevent being fooled by unseasonable weather.
• Older students: most of these vary with latitude because latitude changes the direction of "down" compared to the direction of sunlight. Moving east or west is equivalent to moving toward dawn or sunset; moving north or south doesn't change the time, but it does change the height of the sun and the variation of sun height with season. Understanding this probably involves being able to visualize the half-lit Earth as seen from space.

Research to date.

From research as summarized in Benchmarks, chapter 13:

• "The ideas ' the sun is a star' and 'the earth orbits the sun' appear counter-intuitive to elementary-school students." "Explanations of the day-night cycle, the phases of the moon, and the seasons are very challenging for students" and a full understanding depends on the ideas of a spherical earth and gravity. Understanding of heat & temperature and of energy also contain some challenges - students "rarely think energy is measurable and quantifiable." "The majority of elementary students and some middle-school students [...] tend to identify light with its source (e.g., light is in the bulb) or its effects (e.g., patch of light). They do not have a notion of light as something that travels from one place to another. As a result, these students have difficulties explaining the direction and formation of shadows, and the reflection of light by objects.
• "Students of all ages often interpret graphs of situations as literal pictures rather than as symbolic representations of the situation [...] students read graphs point-by-point and ignore their global features."
• "Studies of student thinking show that, at all ages, they tend to interpret phenomena by noting the qualities of separate objects rather than by seeing the interactions between the parts of a system." "When students explain changes, they tend to postulate a cause that produces a chain of effects one after another." "Students often do not seem to appreciate that the idea of energy conservation may help explain phenomena. Studies reporting students' difficulties with energy conservation suggest students should have opportunities to describe systems both as sequences of changes over time and as energy inputs and outputs."
• "Middle-school and high-school students typically think of models as physical copies of reality, not as conceptual representations." "They lack the notion that the usefulness of a model can be tested by comparing its implications to actual observations."
• Lower elementary: "When an object's appearance changes in several dimensions, they focus on only one. They cannont imagine a reversed or restored condition and focus mostly on the object's present appearance." "Fourth-graders' representations of changes over time are 'data-driven' in the sense that the particular data in the problem are the most important. This contrasts with 'system-driven' representations in which the emphasis is on overall pattern."
• "Upper elementary- and middle-school students who can use measuring instruments and procedures when asked to do so often do not use this ability while performing an investigation. Typically a student [...] will make a qualitative comparison [even when the student can do quantitative work]."
• "'Fairness' develops as an intuitive principle as early as 7 to 8 years of age and provides a sound basis for understanding experimental design. [related to controlling variables] [...] Middle-school students tend to invoke personal experiences as evidence to justify a particular hypothesis. They seem to think of evidence as selected from what is already known or from personal experience or second-hand sources, not as information produced by experiment. [...]When asked to use evidence to judge a theory, students of all ages may make only theory-based responses with no reference made to the presented evidence. Sometimes this appears to be because the available evidence conflicts with the students' beliefs."

Some ideas seem to have prerequisite concepts. For example:

• Earth orbits the Sun in a year + understanding cause of day & night are needed before understanding that earth spins in a day, or that the Sun is never overhead at most locations.
• (In a public survey, 21% missed that Earth goes around the Sun; of the ones who got it right, only 45% knew it takes a year.)
• In studies with high school students,
• 21% could not adequately answer questions about concepts of day and night.
• 41% did not relate the sun's energy to higher order concepts, such as sunlight being the major source of energy powering earth's phenomena.
• Oh, and 47% of 17-year-olds could not convert 9/10 into a percentage.

Standards:

For time's sake, for the moment, I'm picking one main topic and one sub-topic, and looking at the various related standards. I hope to expand this later. The topic concerns energy (or light & heat) from the Sun; the specific topic is the cause of day and night.

A. Science as Inquiry

I'm copying the Inquiry specifics mostly for K-4; students in later grades should already have these, and I feel they're highly relevant.

A-1 (K-4) Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry

• ASK A QUESTION ABOUT OBJECTS, ORGANISMS, AND EVENTS IN THE ENVIRONMENT. This aspect of the standard emphasizes students asking questions that they can answer with scientific knowledge, combined with their own observations. Students should answer their questions by seeking information from reliable sources of scientific information and from their own observations and investigations.
• PLAN AND CONDUCT A SIMPLE INVESTIGATION. In the earliest years, investigations are largely based on systematic observations. As students develop, they may design and conduct simple experiments to answer questions. The idea of a fair test is possible for many students to consider by fourth grade.
• EMPLOY SIMPLE EQUIPMENT AND TOOLS TO GATHER DATA AND EXTEND
• THE SENSES. In early years, students develop simple skills, such as how to observe, measure, cut, connect, switch, turn on and off, pour, hold, tie, and hook. Beginning with simple instruments, students can use rulers to measure the length, height, and depth of objects and materials; thermometers to measure temperature; watches to measure time; beam balances and spring scales to measure weight and force; magnifiers to observe objects and organisms; and microscopes to observe the finer details of plants, animals, rocks, and other materials. Children also develop skills in the use of computers and calculators for conducting investigations.
• USE DATA TO CONSTRUCT A REASONABLE EXPLANATION. This aspect of the standard emphasizes the students' thinking as they use data to formulate explanations. Even at the earliest grade levels, students should learn what constitutes evidence and judge the merits or strength of the data and information that will be used to make explanations. After students propose an explanation, they will appeal to the knowledge and evidence they obtained to support their explanations. Students should check their explanations against scientific knowledge, experiences, and observations of others.
• COMMUNICATE INVESTIGATIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. Students should begin developing the abilities to communicate, critique, and analyze their work and the work of other students. This communication might be spoken or drawn as well as written.

A-2 (K-4) Understanding about scientific inquiry

• Scientific investigations involve asking and answering a question and comparing the answer with what scientists already know about the world.[See Content Standard G (grades K-4)]
• Scientists use different kinds of investigations depending on the questions they are trying to answer. Types of investigations include describing objects, events, and organisms; classifying them; and doing a fair test (experimenting).
• Simple instruments, such as magnifiers, thermometers, and rulers, provide more information than scientists obtain using only their senses.[See Program Standard C]
• Scientists develop explanations using observations (evidence) and what they already know about the world (scientific knowledge). Good explanations are based on evidence from investigations.
• Scientists make the results of their investigations public; they describe the investigations in ways that enable others to repeat the investigations.
• Scientists review and ask questions about the results of other scientists' work.

B. Physical Science

B-1 (K-4) Properties of objects and materials

• (K-4) Objects have many observable properties, including size, weight, shape, color, temperature, and the ability to react with other substances. Those properties can be measured using tools, such as rulers, balances, and thermometers.
• (K-4) Materials can exist in different states--solid, liquid, and gas. Some common materials, such as water, can be changed from one state to another by heating or cooling.
• (9-12) The total energy of the universe is constant. Energy can be transferred by collisions in chemical and nuclear reactions, by light waves and other radiations, and in many other ways. [Etc. - other detailed standards.]

B-2 Position and motion of objects

• (K-4) The position of an object can be described by locating it relative to another object or the background.
• (K-4) An object's motion can be described by tracing and measuring its position over time.
• (5-8) The motion of an object can be described by its position, direction of motion, and speed. That motion can be measured and represented on a graph.

B-3 Light, heat, electricity, and magnetism

• (K-4) Light travels in a straight line until it strikes an object. Light can be [...] absorbed by the object.
• (K-4) Heat can be produced in many ways[...].
• (5-8) Energy is a property of many substances and is associated with heat, light, [...]. Energy is transferred in many ways.
• (5-8) Light interacts with matter by transmission (including refraction), absorption, or scattering (including reflection). [...].
• (5-8) The sun is a major source of energy for changes on the earth's surface. The sun loses energy by emitting light. A tiny fraction of that light reaches the earth, transferring energy from the sun to the earth. The sun's energy arrives as light with a range of wavelengths, consisting of visible light, infrared, and ultraviolet radiation.

C. Life Science

C-1 The characteristics of organisms

• (K-4) Organisms have basic needs. [...] plants require air, water, nutrients, and light. [...] The world has many different environments, and distinct environments support the life of different types of organisms.
• (K-4) The behavior of individual organisms is influenced by [...] external cues (such as a change in the environment).
• (5-8) Cells [..] grow and divide[...] This requires that they take in nutrients, which they use to provide energy for the work that cells do and to make the materials that a cell or an organism needs.
• (9-12) Plant cells contain chloroplasts, the site of photosynthesis. [...] This process of photosynthesis provides a vital connection between the sun and the energy needs of living systems.

C-3 Organisms and environments

• (K-4) All animals depend on plants. [...]
• (K-4) An organism's patterns of behavior are related to the nature of that organism's environment, including [...] the physical characteristics of the environment. When the environment changes,[...]
• (5-8) All organisms must be able to obtain and use resources, grow, reproduce, and maintain stable internal conditions while living in a constantly changing external environment. [etc.]
• (5-8) For ecosystems, the major source of energy is sunlight. Energy entering ecosystems as sunlight is transferred by producers into chemical energy through photosynthesis. [...]
• (9-12) The energy for life primarily derives from the sun. Plants capture energy by absorbing light and using it [...]

D. Earth and Space Science

D-2 (K-4) Objects in the sky

• (K-4) The sun, [and other things] all have properties, locations, and movements that can be observed and described.
• (K-4) The sun provides the light and heat necessary to maintain the temperature of the earth.

D-3 Changes in earth and sky

• (K-4) Weather changes from day to day and over the seasons. Weather can be described by measurable quantities, such as temperature, [...].
• (K-4) Objects in the sky have patterns of movement. The sun, for example, appears to move across the sky in the same way every day, but its path changes slowly over the seasons. [...]
• (5-8) Water, which covers the majority of the earth's surface, circulates through the crust, oceans, and atmosphere in what is known as the "water cycle." [...]
• (5-8) Global patterns of atmospheric movement influence local weather. Oceans have a major effect on climate, because water in the oceans holds a large amount of heat.
• (5-8) The earth is the third planet from the sun in a system that includes the moon, the sun, eight other planets and their moons, and smaller objects, such as asteroids and comets. The sun, an average star, is the central and largest body in the solar system.[See Unifying Concepts and Processes]
• (5-8) Most objects in the solar system are in regular and predictable motion. Those motions explain such phenomena as the day, the year, [...].
• (5-8) The sun is the major source of energy for phenomena on the earth's surface, such as growth of plants, winds, ocean currents, and the water cycle. Seasons result from variations in the amount of the sun's energy hitting the surface, due to the tilt of the earth's rotation on its axis and the length of the day.
• (9-12) Earth systems have internal and external sources of energy, both of which create heat. The sun is the major external source of energy. [...]
• (9-12) Heating of earth's surface and atmosphere by the sun drives convection within the atmosphere and oceans, producing winds and ocean currents.
• (9-12) Global climate is determined by energy transfer from the sun at and near the earth's surface. This energy transfer is influenced by dynamic processes such as cloud cover and the earth's rotation, and static conditions such as the position of mountain ranges and oceans.

E. Science and Technology

E-1 (K-4) ABILITIES OF TECHNOLOGICAL DESIGN

• IDENTIFY A SIMPLE PROBLEM. In problem identification, children should develop the ability to explain a problem in their own words and identify a specific task and solution related to the problem.[See Content Standard A (grades K-4)]
• PROPOSE A SOLUTION. Students should make proposals to build something or get something to work better; they should be able to describe and communicate their ideas. Students should recognize that designing a solution might have constraints, such as cost, materials, time, space, or safety.
• IMPLEMENTING PROPOSED SOLUTIONS. Children should develop abilities to work individually and collaboratively and to use suitable tools, techniques, and quantitative measurements when appropriate. Students should demonstrate the ability to balance simple constraints in problem solving.
• EVALUATE A PRODUCT OR DESIGN. Students should evaluate their own results or solutions to problems, as well as those of other children, by considering how well a product or design met the challenge to solve a problem. When possible, students should use measurements and include constraints and other criteria in their evaluations. They should modify designs based on the results of evaluations.
• COMMUNICATE A PROBLEM, DESIGN, AND SOLUTION. Student abilities should include oral, written, and pictorial communication of the design process and product. The communication might be show and tell, group discussions, short written reports, or pictures, depending on the students' abilities and the design project.

E-2 (K-4) UNDERSTANDING ABOUT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

• People have always had questions about their world. Science is one way of answering questions and explaining the natural world.
• People have always had problems and invented tools and techniques (ways of doing something) to solve problems. [...]
• Scientists and engineers often work in teams with different individuals doing different things that contribute to the results. This understanding focuses primarily on teams working together and secondarily, on the combination of scientist and engineer teams.
• Women and men of all ages, backgrounds, and groups engage in a variety of scientific and technological work.
• Tools help scientists make better observations, measurements, and equipment for investigations. They help scientists see, measure, and do things that they could not otherwise see, measure, and do.

E-3 (K-4) ABILITIES TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN NATURAL OBJECTS AND OBJECTS MADE BY HUMANS

• Some objects occur in nature; others have been designed and made by people to solve human problems and enhance the quality of life.
• Objects can be categorized into two groups, natural and designed.

F. Science in Personal and Social Perspectives

F-3 (K-4) Types of resources

• Resources are things that we get from the living and nonliving environment to meet the needs and wants of a population.
• Some resources are basic materials, such as air, water, and soil; some are produced from basic resources, such as food, fuel, [...]

F-4 Changes in environments

• (K-4) Environments are the space, conditions, and factors that affect an individual's and a population's ability to survive and their quality of life.[
• (K-4) Changes in environments can be natural [...].
• (K-4) Some environmental changes occur slowly, and others occur rapidly. Students should understand the different consequences of changing environments in small increments over long periods as compared with changing environments in large increments over short periods.
• (9-12) Normal adjustments of earth may be hazardous for humans. Humans live at the interface between the atmosphere driven by solar energy and [...] vulnerability to natural processes of change has increased.

G. History and Nature of Science

G-1Science as a human endeavor

• (K-4) Science and technology have been practiced by people for a long time.
• (K-4) Men and women have made a variety of contributions throughout the history of science and technology.
• (K-4) Although men and women using scientific inquiry have learned much about the objects, events, and phenomena in nature, much more remains to be understood. Science will never be finished.
• (9-12) Occasionally, there are advances in science and technology that have important and long-lasting effects on science and society. Examples of such advances include the following:
• Copernican revolution [...]
•  [...]

Illinois standards:

English Language Arts

1. C. - (1="Read with understanding and fluency", C= "Comprehend a broad range of reading materials") - a Use information to form, refine, explain, and support questions and predictions; use questions and predictions to guide reading.

- f Interpret tables, maps, graphs, and charts related to text.

5. ("Use the language arts to acquire, assess and communicate information") - includes gathering, evaluating and applying appropriate information to answer questions, solve problems and communicate ideas.

Mathematics

7. ("Estimate, make and use measurements of objects, quantities and relationships and determine acceptable levels of accuracy.")

- A "Measure and compare quantities using appropriate units, instruments and methods." - includes length, perimeter, area, volume, weight, mass, density, time, temperature, and angles.

- C "Select and use appropriate technology, instruments and formulas to solve problems, interpret results and communicate findings." - includes scale drawings, graphic models, indirect measurements and units as a check of answers.

8 A. 5. (late high school) "Solve mathematical problems involving recursive patterns and use models that employ such relationships."

9.A.4b "Make ... scale drawings, with and without the use of technology."

9.B.3 "Identify, describe, classify and compare two- and three-dimensional geometric figures and models according to their properties."

9.D "Use trigonometric ratios and circular functions to solve problems." - such as size:distance ratios.

10.B "Formulate questions, design data collection methods, gather and analyze data and communicate findings."

Science

Making Connections - includes "Science has many disciplines, all interrelated. ... Science, at its best, provided knowledge and skills that improve the understanding of virtually all subjects."

12. Understand the fundamental concepts, principles and interconnections of the life, physical and earth/space sciences.

- C "Know and apply concepts that describe properties of matter and energy and the interactions between them." - starts with the sun in early elementary; solids, liquids and gases; conservation of mass and energy; chemical and physical characteristics of matter; kinetic theory, wave theory, quantum theory, and the laws of thermodynamics; atomic and nuclear structure of matter; reactions.

- E "Know and apply concepts that describe the features and processes of the Earth and its resources." - includes patterns of weather & seasonal change (early elementary), natural cycles of weather, interactions of Earth's components (late elementary); large-scale processes for land, water, atmosphere, interactions and ongoing changes (middle/junior high school); external & internal energy sources driving earth processes, age & changes in Earth (early high school); processes in short and long-term Earth events (late high school).

- F. Know and apply concepts that explain the composition and structure of the universe and Earth's place in it." - includes sun, Earth, daily, seasonal, and annual patterns (early elementary); natural cycles and patterns in the solar system, apparent motion of sun and stars (late elementary);.

Social Science

15. A. includes relationship of productivity and wages (see above, science skills in various occupations), causes of unemployment "e.g., seasonal fluctuations in demand...".

16 ("Understand events, trends, individuals and movements shaping the history of Illinois, the United States and other nations.")

- A "Apply the skills of historical analysis and interpretation." - includes place in time, myths/stories, different cultural views, inferences using historical documents, fact vs. interpretation.

- E "Understand Illinois, United States and world environmental history." - includes depictions of the natural environment from myths, legends, folklore and traditions; scientific & technological developments on human comfort, productivity, and on the environment.

17 ("Understand world geography and the effects of geography on society, with an emphasis on the United States.")

- A includes physical characteristics and maps/graphs/charts/models.

- B "Analyze and explain characteristics and interactions of the Earth's physical systems."

Physical Development and Health

22C - "Explain how the environment can affect health." - includes sun & skin cancer.

Fine Arts

25 ("Know the language of the arts")

- A - includes senses, force & motion, space & perspective, sound, light & color, "principles of tension, rhythm, pattern, unity, balance, repetition and idea"

Foreign Languages

30 "Use the target language to make connections and reinforce knowledge and skills across academic, vocational and technical disciplines."

Chicago Academic Standards (CAS) and Curriculum Framework Statements (CFS):

Mostly re-state the State goals.

State goal 12,

CAS E. Analyze natural cycles, interactions, and patterns in the earth's land, water, and atmospheric systems. (Version from Grade 4.)

CFS

2nd, 3rd: Identify ways that earth's surface is influenced by weather.

4th: Describe short- to long-term changes in the earth's climate, suggesting causative factors [...]

6th: Describe the relationship of solar energy from the sun to phenomena on earth's surface.

7th: Explain how earth's atmospheric circulation is driven by solar heating.

7th: Distinguish between weather and climate.

8th: Describe the relationships between the sun and the earth's climate, seasons, weather and time.

H.S.: Describe the flow of energy in different Earth subsystems (e.g., [...] weather and climate) [...].

CAS F. Name and describe the main bodies of the solar system and their relationships.

CFS

K,1st,2nd: Describe how shadows change throughout the day and year in relation to the position of the earth and sun.

1st: Describe motions of Earth in relation to the sun.

2nd: Describe motions of earth in relation to the sun in determining day, night, year, and the seasons.

2nd: Describe the dependence of the earth upon the sun for heat and light energy.

(In grade 3, these start being applied to other worlds. In 4th,5th, etc. we look at energy & life.)

7th: Explain how the relative motions and positions of the sun, earth, and moon influence eclipses, moon phases, and tides. (This presupposes an understanding of day & night.)

H.S.: Analyze interrelationships among the Earth's systems [...] and among celestial objects [...].

CAS B.

4th: Compare and contrast the moisture, temperature, and seasonal changes of various biomes.

CAS C.

3rd: Describe and compare how energy in different forms affects common objects [...]

4th,5th: Demonstrate that light travels in a straight line and can be reflected, refracted, or absorbed.

4th: Demonstrate that heat can be produced in a variety of ways [...]

5th.: [...] daylength impact on breeding [...]

7th: Describe properties of thermal energy.

7th: Describe the interactions of energy with matter.

HS: Relate the conservation of matter and energy to earth and celestial proceses (e.g., production and uses of solar energy).

CAS D.

5th: Distinguish among uniform, variable, and periodic motion.

H.S.: Relate the tilt of the earth's axis to the rate of the earth's rotation to determine why the length of day varies.

11B

8th: Use conceptual, mathematical, and/or physical models to predict change (e.g., computer simulation solar system model, [...]).

-End - for now - EER