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How to learn Grade 6: Science

Arkansas academic standards: Science, Grade 6

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1. Engineering, Technology, and Applications of Science

  1. Building an energy-converting device: Apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another
  2. Simple Design Problems: Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost
  3. Comparing Possible Solutions: Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints

2. Weather and Climate

  1. Climate Change Basics: Understand the basics of climate change: Earth’s atmosphere traps some of the Sun's heat (the greenhouse effect), burning fossil fuels adds extra greenhouse gases (especially CO₂), this is making Earth gradually warmer, and this warming changes weather patterns, melts ice, and raises sea levels
  2. Sun-Driven Weather Systems: Understand how the Sun drives weather: the Sun heats Earth's surface unevenly (land heats faster than water, equator gets more heat than poles), creating differences in air pressure that cause wind patterns, ocean currents, and large-scale weather systems
  3. Reading Weather Maps: Read and interpret weather maps, data tables, and graphs — identifying symbols for sun, rain, wind, and temperature; spotting trends and patterns in weather data over weeks, months, or seasons; and using data to make simple predictions

3. Human Impacts

  1. Human impact on environments: Use vocabulary for human impact on the environment — pollution, habitat destruction, deforestation, biodiversity, conservation, renewable energy, non-renewable energy, fossil fuel, carbon footprint, sustainability, endangered, extinct — and apply these when discussing environmental issues and human choices

4. Growth, Development, and Reproduction of Organisms

  1. Variation in Species: Explain variation within and between species, distinguishing between continuous variation (e.g. height) and discontinuous variation (e.g. blood group), and between genetic and environmental causes
  2. How animals adapt to environments: Identify how animals and plants are adapted to suit their environment and understand that adaptation may lead to evolution over time
  3. Evidence-Based Classification: Give reasons for classifying plants and animals based on specific characteristics, using evidence to justify classification decisions

5. Structure, Function, and Information Processing

  1. Senses, Brain & Responses: Use a model to describe that animals receive information through their senses, process it in their brain, and respond in different ways
  2. Cells to Organ Systems: Describe the hierarchical organisation of multicellular organisms: cells → tissues → organs → organ systems → organism
  3. Cells Under the Microscope: Understand that all living organisms are made of cells and use a light microscope to observe, interpret, and record cell structure

6. Energy

  1. Speed and energy: Use evidence to construct an explanation relating the speed of an object to the energy of that object
  2. Energy stores and transfers: Identify the main energy stores (kinetic, gravitational potential, elastic potential, thermal, chemical, nuclear, electromagnetic) and the pathways by which energy is transferred between stores (mechanically, electrically, by heating, by radiation)

7. Earth's Systems

  1. The Water Cycle: Describe the water cycle, tracing water through evaporation, condensation, precipitation, surface runoff, and transpiration in plants, explaining how the sun drives the cycle

8. Writing Standards for Literacy in Science

  1. Writing Science Reports: Communicate scientific findings in a structured report using appropriate scientific vocabulary, SI units, and standard notation; describe how peer review and replication contribute to the reliability of scientific knowledge

9. Reading Standards for Literacy in Science

  1. Accurate Measurement: Take measurements with increasing accuracy and precision using a range of scientific equipment, taking repeat readings when appropriate
  2. Repeated tests for reliability: Distinguish between precision (consistency of repeated readings) and accuracy (closeness to true value), use significant figures and standard form correctly, and choose and use appropriate measuring instruments to minimise uncertainty
  3. Drawing conclusions from evidence (age 12+): Identify patterns and trends in data, draw conclusions that directly address the hypothesis with quantitative reference to evidence, and evaluate the investigation by distinguishing between systematic and random errors and proposing targeted improvements
  4. Evidence Supporting Ideas: Identify scientific evidence that has been used to support or refute ideas or arguments, evaluating the strength of evidence

10. Behavior of Gases

  1. The Particle Model: Use the particle model to explain the properties of solids, liquids, and gases — including differences in arrangement, movement, and spacing — and apply the model to explain density, compressibility, and the anomalous expansion of water

11. Forces

  1. How Tectonic Plates Move: Understand that convection currents in the molten mantle drive the movement of rigid tectonic plates; distinguish between convergent (collision/subduction), divergent (spreading ridges), and transform (sliding) plate boundaries; explain why volcanoes, earthquakes, and mountain chains cluster at boundaries; introduce the Wilson cycle of supercontinent assembly and breakup
  2. Resultant Forces: Describe forces as vector quantities with both magnitude and direction, distinguish between balanced forces (zero resultant, no change in motion) and unbalanced forces (non-zero resultant, causes acceleration or deceleration)
  3. Magnetic Fields: Describe magnetic poles (north and south), explain attraction and repulsion between poles, describe magnetic field lines plotted using a compass, and explain the Earth's magnetic field and its practical uses
  4. Gravity & Falling Objects: Explain that unsupported objects fall towards the Earth because of the force of gravity acting between the Earth and the falling object
  5. Conservation of Mass: Measure and provide evidence that the total weight of matter is conserved regardless of the type of change (heating, cooling, or mixing)
  6. Newton's First & Second Laws: State and apply Newton's First Law (an object stays at rest or constant velocity unless acted on by a resultant force) and Second Law (force = mass × acceleration), including the relationship between mass, force, and acceleration

12. Waves

  1. Wave Properties & Types: Describe waves in terms of amplitude, wavelength, frequency, and wave speed; distinguish transverse waves (oscillation perpendicular to direction of travel) from longitudinal waves (oscillation parallel); and use the wave equation v = fλ
  2. Waves & Different Materials: Explain how waves can be absorbed, transmitted, or reflected by different materials, and apply these interactions to explain colour perception, sight, communication technologies, and the effects of different surfaces on wave behaviour

13. Energy Flow

  1. Natural Disaster Solutions: Generate and compare multiple solutions to reduce the impacts of natural Earth processes on humans, such as earthquakes, floods, or volcanic eruptions
  2. Reactions That Release or Absorb Heat: Distinguish between exothermic reactions (release energy, temperature rises) and endothermic reactions (absorb energy, temperature falls), with everyday and industrial examples

14. Nuclear Reactions

  1. Fossils as Evidence: Analyse and interpret data from fossils to provide evidence of organisms and environments that existed long ago
  2. Life Cycle of Stars: Understand the basics of a star’s life cycle: stars are born in clouds of gas and dust (nebulae), shine for millions or billions of years by fusing hydrogen, and eventually die — massive stars explode as supernovae while smaller stars fade into white dwarfs
  3. Atoms, Elements & Compounds: Explain the differences between atoms, elements, and compounds; describe the simple Bohr model of the atom (nucleus with protons and neutrons, electrons in shells); and write and interpret chemical symbols and simple formulae

15. Matter and Chemical Reactions

  1. Finding patterns in data: Analyse and interpret data from maps to describe patterns of Earth's features, recognising that many features result from processes that occur over long periods
  2. Types of Chemical Reaction: Identify and describe four types of chemical reaction: combustion (burning in oxygen), oxidation (gain of oxygen), thermal decomposition (breaking down by heat), and displacement (more reactive metal replaces less reactive one)
  3. The Periodic Table: Describe the organisation of the periodic table into periods and groups, explain the contribution of Mendeleev, and use the table to identify metals, non-metals, and predict patterns in reactivity

16. Evolution by Natural Selection

  1. Genetic Mutation: Explain genetic mutation as a random change in DNA sequence, describe causes of mutation (e.g. radiation, chemicals, copying errors), and explain that most mutations are neutral, some harmful, and a few beneficial
  2. How Natural Selection Works: Explain natural selection as the mechanism of evolution: heritable variation + competition for resources + differential survival and reproduction = change in allele frequency over generations
  3. Evolution vocabulary: Use technical vocabulary for evolution and natural selection — adaptation, evolution, natural selection, extinct, extinction, fossil record, species, common ancestor, mutation, variation — and explain the mechanism of natural selection using these terms in the correct sequence
  4. Extinction & Rapid Change: Explain how environmental change can outpace a species' ability to adapt through natural selection, leading to extinction, using historical and contemporary examples

17. Genetic Variations in Organisms

  1. Inherited characteristics: Analyse 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
  2. Chromosomes, Genes & DNA: Describe the relationship between chromosomes, genes, and DNA in heredity, including the double helix structure of DNA and the historical roles of Watson, Crick, Franklin, and Wilkins

18. Biodiversity and Population Dynamics

  1. Biodiversity: Understand that biodiversity — the variety of different species in an ecosystem — is essential for healthy ecosystems, and that keystone species (like wolves in Yellowstone, sea otters in kelp forests, or bees as pollinators) have an outsized impact on their ecosystem, so that losing one key species can cause a cascade of changes affecting many others
  2. Biodiversity & Resilience: Explain what biodiversity means, why high biodiversity makes ecosystems more resilient, and describe the ways human activity threatens biodiversity (habitat destruction, pollution, invasive species, climate change)

19. Structure and Function

  1. How the Body Stays in Balance: Explain homeostasis as the process of maintaining a stable internal environment; describe the main feedback loop systems (negative feedback) using blood glucose regulation (insulin/glucagon) and body temperature as concrete examples; and connect the endocrine system (hormone-secreting glands) to the nervous system as two complementary communication systems with different speeds and durations

20. Cycling of Matter and Energy

  1. Earth's atmosphere: Develop a model to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere interact as connected Earth systems
  2. Matter Cycling in Ecosystems: Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment in an ecosystem
  3. Aerobic Respiration: Explain aerobic respiration as the process by which organisms release energy from glucose using oxygen, producing carbon dioxide and water; write and interpret the word equation: glucose + oxygen → carbon dioxide + water
  4. Photosynthesis: Explain photosynthesis as the process by which plants use light energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into glucose and oxygen, and describe how mineral nutrients are absorbed through roots
  5. The Carbon Cycle: Describe the carbon cycle, tracing carbon through photosynthesis, respiration, feeding, decomposition, and combustion, and explain the role of each process