National Science SOLs Directly Applicable to CERES S'COOL Project

The Standards listed below are those most directly related to the S'COOL Project. Standards related to a more in-depth study have also been identified. The complete national standards are also available on-line.

"Many different people in different cultures have made and continue to make contributions to science and technology." -- National Science Content Standard E (Grades 5-8), Understandings About Science and Technology, Item 2."

Grades K-4

Grades 5-8

Grades 9-12

Science Content Standards, Grades K-4

Science as Inquiry

Standard A Understandings about Scientific Inquiry

• Item 1 "Scientific investigations involve asking and answering a question and comparing the answer with what scientists already know about the world."
• Item 3 "Simple instruments, such as magnifiers, thermometers, and rulers, provide more information than scientists obtain using only their senses."

Earth and Space Science

Standard D Objects in the Sky

• Item 1 "The sun, moon, stars, clouds, birds, and airplanes all have properties, locations, and movements that can be observed and described."

Science and Technology

Standard E Understandings about Science and Technology

• Item 2 "People have always had problems and invented tools and techniques (ways of doing something) to solve problems. Trying to determine the effects of solutions helps people avoid some new problems."
• Item 4 "Women and men of all ages, backgrounds, and groups engage in a variety of scientific and technological work."
• Item 5 "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."

Science Content Standards, Grades 5-8

Science as Inquiry

Standard A Understandings about Scientific Inquiry

• Item 4 "Technology used to gather data enhances accuracy and allows scientists to analyze and quantify results of investigations."

Physical Science

Standard B Transfer of Energy

• Item 3 "Light interacts with matter by transmission (including refraction), absorption, or scattering (including reflection)..."

Earth and Space Science

Standard D Structure of the Earth System

• Item 9 "Clouds, formed by the condensation of water vapor, affect weather and climate."

Science and Technology

Standard E Understandings about Science and Technology

• Item 3 "Science and technology are reciprocal. Science helps drive technology, as it addresses questions that demand more sophisticated instruments and provides principles for better instrumentation and technique. Technology is essential to science, because it provides instruments and techniques that enable observations of objects and phenomena that are otherwise unobservable due to factors such as quantity, distance, location, size, and speed. Technology also provides tools for investigations, inquiry, and analysis."
• Item 5 "Technological designs have constraints. Some constraints are unavoidable, for example, properties of materials, or effects of weather and friction; other constraints limit choices in the design, for example, environmental protection, human safety, and aesthetics."

History and Nature of Science

Standard G Science as a Human Endeavor

• Item 1 "Women and men of various social and ethnic backgrounds--and with diverse interests, talents, qualities, and motivations--engage in the activities of science, engineering, and related fields such as the health professions. Some scientists work in teams, and some work alone, but all communicate extensively with others."

Standard G Nature of Science

• Item 1 "Scientists formulate and test their explanations of nature using observation, experiments, and theoretical and mathematical models. Although all scientific ideas are tentative and subject to change and improvement in principle, for most major ideas in science, there is much experimental and observational confirmation. Those ideas are not likely to change greatly in the future. Scientists do and have changed their ideas about nature when they encounter new experimental evidence that does not match their existing explanations."

Science Content Standards, Grades 9-12

Science as Inquiry

Standard A Understandings about Scientific Inquiry

• Item 2 "Scientists conduct investigations for a wide variety of reasons. For example, they may wish to discover new aspects of the natural world, explain recently observed phenomena, or test the conclusions of prior investigations or the predictions of current theories."
• Item 3 "Scientists rely on technology to enhance the gathering and manipulation of data. New techniques and tools provide new evidence to guide inquiry and new methods to gather data, thereby contributing to the advance of science. The accuracy and precision of the data, and therefore the quality of the exploration, depends on the technology used."

Physical Science

Standard B Conservation of energy and increase in disorder

• Item 1 "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. However, it can never be destroyed..."

Standard B Interactions of Energy and Matter

• Item 2 "... Electromagnetic waves include radio waves (the longest wavelength), microwaves, infrared radiation (radiant heat), visible light, ultraviolet radiation, x-rays, and gamma rays. The energy of electromagnetic waves is carried in packets whose magnitude is inversely proportional to the wavelength."

Earth and Space Science

Standard D Energy in the Earth System

• Item 1 "... The sun is the major external source of energy..."
• Item 3 "Heating of earth's surface and atmosphere by the sun drives convection within the atmosphere and oceans, producing winds and ocean currents."
• Item 4 "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."

History and Nature of Science

Standard G Science as a Human Endeavor

• Item 1 "Individuals and teams have contributed and will continue to contribute to the scientific enterprise. Doing science or engineering can be as simple as an individual conducting field studies or as complex as hundreds of people working on a major scientific question or technological problem. Pursuing science as a career or as a hobby can be both fascinating and intellectually rewarding."

S'COOL What to Observe Report Form Glossary