How to learn Grade 6: Science

North Dakota academic standards: Science, Grade 6

0 of 39 concepts ready to learn · Markdown, for your AI

1. Physical 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
4. 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
5. Waves & How They Move: Develop a model of waves to describe patterns in terms of amplitude and wavelength, and understand that waves can cause objects to move
6. Speed and energy: Use evidence to construct an explanation relating the speed of an object to the energy of that object
7. 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)
8. 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
9. Universal Gravitation: Describe gravity as a universal attractive force between all masses, explain that orbital motion arises because gravity provides the centripetal force keeping objects in orbit, and compare gravitational field strengths on different planets
10. Electromagnets: Describe the magnetic effect of an electric current (a current-carrying wire produces a magnetic field), and investigate how the strength of an electromagnet depends on current, number of coil turns, and core material
11. 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. Newton's Third Law: State and apply Newton's Third Law: every force has an equal and opposite reaction force acting on a different object, distinguishing action-reaction pairs from balanced forces
13. 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)
14. How Materials Change State: Explain melting, freezing, boiling, condensing, and sublimation using the particle model, interpreting heating and cooling curves to identify melting and boiling points
15. Natural resources: Obtain and combine information to describe that energy and fuels are derived from natural resources and that their uses affect the environment
16. 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
17. Physical vs Chemical Changes: Distinguish between physical changes (reversible, no new substances formed) and chemical changes (new substances formed, often irreversible), using conservation of mass to understand both types

2. Life Science

1. 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
2. Fossils as Evidence: Analyse and interpret data from fossils to provide evidence of organisms and environments that existed long ago
3. Life Changed Over Time: Recognise that living things have changed over time and that fossils provide information about organisms that inhabited the Earth millions of years ago
4. Variation & Survival Advantage: Use evidence to explain how variations in characteristics among individuals of the same species may provide advantages in surviving, finding mates, and reproducing
5. Evidence-Based Classification: Give reasons for classifying plants and animals based on specific characteristics, using evidence to justify classification decisions
6. 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
7. 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
8. Matter Cycling in Ecosystems: Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment in an ecosystem
9. Food Webs & Interdependence: Construct and interpret food webs showing the interdependence of organisms in an ecosystem, explaining how a change in one population affects others
10. 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
11. 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
12. 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
13. 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

3. Earth and Space Science

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. Communities Protecting Resources: Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth's resources and environment
3. Hazard Assessment & Evacuation: Explain probabilistic hazard assessment using eruption recurrence intervals and fault slip rates; describe how volcano observatories monitor ground deformation, gas emissions, and seismicity to issue alert levels; explore why communities remain near active hazards (fertile volcanic soil, poverty, cultural ties); discuss the ethics and politics of evacuation decisions and the social justice dimensions of disaster risk
4. 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
5. Earth's Atmosphere & CO2: Describe the composition of Earth's atmosphere (mainly nitrogen and oxygen, with small amounts of CO₂ and other gases), explain how human activity increases CO₂, and describe the impact on global climate
6. 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
7. How fossils form: Identify evidence from patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers to support an explanation for changes in a landscape over time
8. Scale of the Solar System: Use scale models, diagrams, or calculations to represent the relative sizes and distances of objects in the solar system, understanding that the distances between planets are enormously larger than the planets themselves
9. Phases of the Moon: Explain the phases of the Moon as the changing angle of sunlight on the lunar surface as seen from Earth, and describe how solar and lunar eclipses occur