Science Cumulative Progress Indicators (CPIs) for the end of the designated grade span

Place a "+" for an expectation that represents a strength & a "-" for a weakness

+ or -

A.     Habits of Mind

Building upon knowledge and skills gained in preceding grades, by the end of Grade 8, students will:

 1.         Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of data, claims, and arguments.

 2.         Communicate experimental findings to others.

 3.         Recognize that the results of scientific investigations are seldom exactly the same and that replication is often necessary.

 4.         Recognize that curiosity, skepticism, open-mindedness, and honesty are attributes of scientists.

B.     Inquiry and Problem Solving

 1.         Identify questions and make predictions that can be addressed by conducting investigations.

 2.         Design and conduct investigations incorporating the use of a control.

 3.         Collect, organize, and interpret the data that result from experiments.

C.     Safety

 1.         Know when and how to use appropriate safety equipment with all classroom materials.

 2.         Understand and practice safety procedures for conducting science investigations.

+ or -

STANDARD 5.2    (SCIENCE AND SOCIETY)    ALL STUDENTS WILL DEVELOP AN UNDERSTANDING OF HOW PEOPLE OF VARIOUS CULTURES HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, AND HOW MAJOR DISCOVERIES AND EVENTS HAVE ADVANCED SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY.

A.     Cultural Contributions

Building upon knowledge and skills gained in preceding grades, by the end of Grade 8, students will:

 1.         Recognize that scientific theories:

·        develop over time,

·        depend on the contributions of many people, and

·        reflect the social and political climate of their time.

 2.         Know that scientists are men and women of many cultures who often work together to solve scientific and technological problems.

 3.         Describe how different people in different cultures have made and continue to make contributions to science and technology. 

B.     Historical Perspectives

 1.         Describe the impact of major events and people in the history of science and technology, in conjunction with other world events.

 2.         Describe the development and exponential growth of scientific knowledge and technological innovations.

+ or -

STANDARD 5.3    (MATHEMATICAL APPLICATIONS)    ALL STUDENTS WILL INTEGRATE MATHEMATICS AS A TOOL FOR PROBLEM-SOLVING IN SCIENCE, AND AS A MEANS OF EXPRESSING AND/OR MODELING SCIENTIFIC THEORIES.

A.     Numerical Operations

Building upon knowledge and skills gained in preceding grades, by the end of Grade 8, students will:

 1.         Express quantities using appropriate number formats, such as:

·        decimals.

·        percents.

·        scientific notation.

B.     Geometry and Measurement

Building upon knowledge and skills gained in preceding grades, by the end of Grade 8, students will:

 1.         Perform mathematical computations using labeled quantities and express answers in correctly derived units.

C.     Patterns and Algebra

 1.         Express physical relationships in terms of mathematical equations derived from collected data.

D.    Data Analysis and Probability

 1.         Represent and describe mathematical relationships among variables using:

·        graphs.

·        tables.

 2.         Analyze experimental data sets using measures of central tendency:

·        mean.

·        mode.

·        median

 3.         Construct and use a graph of experimental data to draw a line of best fit and identify a linear relationship between variables.

4.         Use computer spreadsheets, graphing and database applications to assist in quantitative analysis of data.

+ or -

STANDARD 5.4     (NATURE AND PROCESS OF TECHNOLOGY)     ALL STUDENTS WILL UNDERSTAND THE INTERRELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOP A CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE NATURE AND PROCESS OF TECHNOLOGY.

A.     Science and Technology

Building upon knowledge and skills gained in preceding grades, by the end of Grade 8, students will:

 1.         Compare and contrast science with technology, illustrating similarities and differences between these two human endeavors.

B.     Nature of Technology

 1.         Analyze a product or system to determine the problem it was designed to solve, the design constraints, trade-offs and risks involved in using the product or system, how the product or system might fail, and how the product or system might be improved.

C.     Technological Design

 1.         Recognize how feedback loops are used to control systems.

+ or -

STANDARD 5.5    (CHARACTERISTICS OF LIFE)   ALL STUDENTS WILL GAIN AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE STRUCTURE, CHARACTERISTICS, AND BASIC NEEDS OF ORGANISMS AND WILL INVESTIGATE THE DIVERSITY OF LIFE.

A.     Matter, Energy and Organization in Living Systems

Building upon knowledge and skills gained in preceding grades, by the end of Grade 8, students will:

 1.         Explain how the products respiration and photosynthesis are recycled.

2.         Recognize that complex multicellular organisms, including humans, are composed of and defined by interactions of the following:

·        cells

·        tissues

·        organs

·        systems

B.     Diversity and Biological Evolution

Building upon knowledge and skills gained in preceding grades, by the end of Grade 8, students will:

1.         Compare and contrast kinds of organisms using their internal and external characteristics.

 2.         Discuss how changing environmental conditions can result in evolution or extinction of a species.

 3.         Recognize that individual organisms with certain traits are more likely to survive and have offspring.

C.     Reproduction and Heredity

Building upon knowledge and skills gained in preceding grades, by the end of Grade 8, students will:

 1.         Describe how the sorting and recombining of genetic material results in the potential for variation among offspring of humans and other species.

+ or -

STANDARD 5.6 (CHEMISTRY) ALL STUDENTS WILL GAIN AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE STRUCTURE AND BEHAVIOR OF MATTER.

A.     Structure and Properties of Matter

Building upon knowledge and skills gained in preceding grades, by the end of Grade 8, students will:

 1.         Know that all matter is composed of atoms that may join together to form molecules.

 2.         Recognize that the phase of matter is determined by the arrangement and motion of atoms and molecules and that the motion of these particles is related to the energy of the system.

 3.         Know that there are groups of elements that have similar properties, including highly reactive metals, less reactive metals, highly reactive non-metals, and some almost completely non-reactive gases.

 4.         Recognize that a mixture often can be separated into the original substances using one of more of their characteristic physical properties

B.     Chemical Reactions

Building upon knowledge and skills gained in preceding grades, by the end of Grade 8, students will:

1.         Show how substances can chemically react with each other to form new substances having properties different from those of the original substances.

2.         Show that in most chemical reactions energy is transferred into or out of a system.

 3.         Demonstrate that regardless how substances within a simple closed system interact, the total mass of the system remains the same.

 4.         Illustrate how atoms are rearranged when substances react, but that the total number of atoms and the total mass of the products remain the same as the original substances.

+ or -

STANDARD 5.7    (PHYSICS) ALL STUDENTS WILL GAIN AN UNDERSTANDING OF NATURAL LAWS AS THEY APPLY TO MOTION, FORCES, AND ENERGY TRANSFORMATIONS.

A.     Motion and Forces

Building upon knowledge and skills gained in preceding grades, by the end of Grade 8, students will:

 1.         Use quantitative data to show that when more than one force acts on an object at the same time, the forces can reinforce or cancel each other producing a net (unbalanced) force that will change speed and/or direction of the object.

 2.         Recognize that every object exerts a gravitational force on every other object, and that the force depends on how much mass the objects have and how far apart they are.

B.     Energy Transformations

Building upon knowledge and skills gained in preceding grades, by the end of Grade 8, students will:

 1.         Recognize that the sun is a major source of the Earth's energy and that solar energy includes visible, infrared and, ultraviolet radiation.

 2.         Describe the nature of various forms of energy, including heat, light, sound, chemical, mechanical, and electrical and trace energy transformations from one form to another.

 3.         Describe how heat can be conducted through materials or transferred across space by radiation and know that if the material is a fluid, convection currents may aid the transfer of heat.

 4.         Show that light is reflected, refracted, or absorbed when it interacts with matter and that colors may appear as a result of this interaction.

+ or -

STANDARD 5.8    (EARTH SCIENCE)  ALL STUDENTS WILL GAIN AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE STRUCTURE, DYNAMICS, AND GEOPHYSICAL SYSTEMS OF THE EARTH.

A.     Earth’s Properties and Materials

Building upon knowledge and skills gained in preceding grades, by the end of Grade 8, students will:

Reinforce indicators from previous grade level.

B.     Atmosphere and Water

Building upon knowledge and skills gained in preceding grades, by the end of Grade 8, students will:

 1.         Describe conditions in the atmosphere that lead to weather systems and how these systems are represented on weather maps.

C.     Processes that Shape the Earth

Building upon knowledge and skills gained in preceding grades, by the end of Grade 8, students will:

 1.         Explain how Earth’s landforms and materials are created through constructive and destructive processes.

 2.         Show how successive layers of sedimentary rock and the fossils contained in them can be used to confirm the age, history, changing life forms, and geology of Earth.

D.    How We Study the Earth

Building upon knowledge and skills gained in preceding grades, by the end of Grade 8, students will:

 1.        Utilize data gathered from emerging technologies (e.g., geographic information systems (GIS) and global positioning systems (GPS)) to create representations and describe processes of change on the Earth’s surface.

2.         Explain how technology designed to investigate features of the Earth’s surface impacts how scientists study the Earth.

STANDARD 5.9    (ASTRONOMY and SPACE SCIENCE)  ALL STUDENTS WILL GAIN AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE ORIGIN, EVOLUTION, AND STRUCTURE OF THE UNIVERSE

A.     Earth, Moon, Sun System

Building upon knowledge and skills gained in preceding grades, by the end of Grade 8, students will:

 1.         Investigate the Earth, moon, and sun as a system and explain how the motion of these bodies results in the phases of the moon and eclipses.

 2.         Explain how the regular and predictable motions of the Earth and moon produce tides.

3.         Explain how the tilt, rotation, and orbital pattern of the Earth relative to the sun produce seasons and weather patterns.

B.     Solar System

Building upon knowledge and skills gained in preceding grades, by the end of Grade 8, students will:

 1.         Describe the physical characteristics of the planets and other objects within the solar system and compare Earth to the rest of the planets.

C.     Stars

 1.         Understand that the sun is a star and that it shares characteristics with other stars.

D.    Galaxies and Universe

 1.         Know that the universe consists of many billions of galaxies, each including billions of stars.

+ or -

STANDARD 5.10 (ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES) ALL STUDENTS WILL DEVELOP AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE ENVIRONMENT AS A SYSTEM OF INTERDEPENDENT COMPONENTS AFFECTED BY HUMAN ACTIVITY AND NATURAL PHENOMENA.

A.     Natural Systems and Interactions

Building upon knowledge and skills gained in preceding grades, by the end of Grade 8, students will:

1.         Investigate the impact of catastrophic events such as forest fires, floods, and hurricanes on the environment of New Jersey.

B.     Human Interactions and Impact

1.         Compare and contrast practices that affect the use and management of natural resources.