How to learn Grade 6: Science

Florida academic standards: Science, Grade 6

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1. Diversity and Evolution of Living Organisms

1. 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
2. Classifying Organisms: Describe how living things are classified into broad groups (micro-organisms, plants, animals) according to common observable characteristics, similarities, and differences

2. Organization and Development of Living Organisms

1. The Immune System: Know that the body has an immune system that protects against illness: the skin acts as a barrier, white blood cells identify and destroy germs (bacteria and viruses), and vaccines train the immune system to recognise specific diseases before they cause illness
2. The Digestive System: Describe the simple functions of the basic parts of the human digestive system: mouth, oesophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine
3. Cells to Organ Systems: Describe the hierarchical organisation of multicellular organisms: cells → tissues → organs → organ systems → organism
4. Energy from Food & the Sun: Use models to describe that energy in animals' food was once energy from the sun, transferred through plants or other organisms
5. 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. Parts of Plant and Animal Cells: Describe the functions of the main components of plant and animal cells: cell wall, cell membrane, cytoplasm, nucleus, vacuole, mitochondria, ribosomes, and chloroplasts
7. The Circulatory System: Identify and name the main parts of the human circulatory system and describe the functions of the heart, blood vessels, and blood

3. Forces and Changes in Motion

1. Relative Motion: Explain relative motion — how the apparent speed and direction of an object depends on the observer's own motion — using everyday examples such as trains and cars passing
2. 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
3. Force & Motion Vocabulary: Use technical vocabulary for force and motion — balanced forces, unbalanced forces, resultant force, acceleration, deceleration, speed, moment, lever, fulcrum, mechanical advantage — and apply these when explaining and predicting how forces affect the motion and position of objects

4. Energy Transfer and Transformations

1. 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)

5. Earth Systems and Patterns

1. 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
2. The Atmosphere: Know that Earth is surrounded by a layer of air called the atmosphere, that air has weight and exerts pressure, that the atmosphere protects us from harmful radiation and keeps the planet warm enough for life, and that weather happens in the lowest layer (troposphere)
3. 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
4. Weather-Resistant Engineering: Understand that engineers design buildings, flood defences, and warning systems to protect communities from extreme weather — hurricane-resistant roofs, flood barriers, tornado shelters, and early-warning alert systems — and evaluate the merits of these solutions
5. 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
6. Earth's atmosphere: Develop a model to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere interact as connected Earth systems
7. 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. Conduction, convection, and radiation: Describe and compare the three mechanisms of heat transfer — conduction (particle vibration through solids), convection (fluid movement in liquids/gases), and radiation (infrared waves) — and explain that the rate of transfer depends on temperature difference

6. Earth Structures

1. Erosion and weathering: Make observations and measurements to provide evidence of the effects of weathering or the rate of erosion by water, ice, wind, or vegetation

7. The Role of Theories, Laws, Hypotheses, and Models

1. Drawing conclusions from evidence (age 9+): Report and present findings including conclusions, causal relationships, explanations, and a degree of trust in results using oral and written forms
2. Evidence Supporting Ideas: Identify scientific evidence that has been used to support or refute ideas or arguments, evaluating the strength of evidence

8. The Characteristics of Scientific Knowledge

1. Science Can Be Revised: Scientific knowledge is provisional — it is the best current explanation based on available evidence, and it can and should be revised when better evidence arrives

9. The Practice of Science

1. 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