Science

Science Standard 1:

Demonstrates scientific ways of thinking and working (with wonder and curiosity).

Benchmark 1.1: Observes and compares observable phenomena (objects, materials, plants, animals, and events).

P-SCI 1.

Child observes and describes observable phenomena (objects, materials, organisms, and events).

P-SCI 3.

Child compares and categorizes observable phenomena.

Uses many senses to examine objects with attention to detail.

At the science center, Jessica sniffs the containers to try and guess the identity of objects from the smell.
Louise shakes sound boxes and listens for differences in sounds.
Diedra points to the stripes on a blue fish and on an orange fish swimming in the aquarium and makes the sign for “line" to communicate her observation to her teacher.
Sam reaches in the “feeling" box and signs “pencil".
Justin tastes the sugar cube and tells the teacher that it is sweet.

Describes properties.

Looking through the microscope, Manuel states, “This butterfly's wings have hair."
Micah tells Ms. Amber that Casey, the classroom rabbit, is soft.
Jackie and her teacher spend time looking at the trees on the playground. Jackie points to one and stretches out her arm so that her hand is above her head to indicate that one of the trees is very tall.
Melissa digs through a collection of acorns, rocks, and twigs. She holds up a pebble and reports, “Look! This one is pointy."
Clint says, “The green caterpillar has a black stripe. It has lots of legs. It's longer than my finger. It tickles."

Collects items with similar properties.

Ashanti collects insects from the playground and puts them each in a separate magnified bug box to observe during the day before returning them back to the playground.
After a class nature walk, Tim gathers all the stones he picked up and puts them together on the science table.
Camila carefully selects leaves of various sizes, colors and shapes and places each in her collection bag.

Observes similarities and differences.

Mateo looks at some clover under a microscope and then looks at some grass under a microscope. When asked, Mateo points to a color chart to indicate that both the clover and the grass are green.
After using the light table to examine brightly colored pictures of shapes, Jeff points and says, “This one is red. This one is blue. They are both round."
As Tracy sorts the collection of rocks, she holds up a sparkly rock next to the pile of other sparkly rocks, pauses to compare, and then places it in the sparkly pile.
Adam tells how two different insects are alike (wings, body shape, etc.) after using the computer to look at an insect website opened by the teacher.

Observes how objects, plants and animals are influenced by other objects or forces.

Angie tells Ms. Pat that, “The freezer made the water be ice."
“The sun makes the ice melt," adds Shelby.
Kianna tells the teacher, “Our guinea pig hid because he didn't like the thunder."
Noah tells his friend Allen, “We can't go outside to play. The rain made it all wet."
Gloria shows her teacher that the magnet can pick up the paper clips.

Benchmark 1.2: Uses a variety of tools to explore the environment.

Uses non-standard tools to explore the environment.

Evan uses blocks to measure his friend's height.
Tessa explores with a paper tube to magnify her voice.
At the water table, Magda experiments with an eggbeater to make bubbles.

Uses standard tools to explore the environment.

Omar uses tweezers to explore the sunflower and its seeds.
Caitlyn takes the magnet around the room to see what objects can be picked up.
Misty and Damon take turns using a magnifying glass to see details on a leaf.
Jamaria uses the talking balance scales to compare the weight of blocks of different sizes.
Trent takes the binoculars to the window to look at the birds.

Benchmark 1.3: Uses aspects of the scientific process to learn about the world.

P-SCI 2.

Child engages in scientific talk.

P-SCI 4.

Child asks a question, gathers information, and makes predictions.

P-SCI 5.

Child plans and conducts investigations and experiments.

P-SCI 6.

Child analyzes results, draws conclusions, and communicates results.

Asks simple scientific questions.

“What's that?" asks Devon pointing to the snail in the fish tank.
While looking at the webpage about bugs with his caregiver, Andrew asks, “Where's his mouth?'' as he points to a fly on the screen.
Blaise asks, “Why do leaves fall off trees?"
D'Shawn asks what will happen to the bulb when it is planted under dirt.
“How can we get it to go farther?" Lucas asks Sidney as they use a marble and some blocks in the block area to make the marble roll.

Makes predictions.

Sari squeals, “It's gonna fall!" as Ariel adds one more block to the top of the very tall tower.
When asked if the rice being poured from one container to another would fit, Isaac pushed the “No" switch on his wheelchair tray.
Looking at the various items in the tub, Sage picks up the large turkey baster and says, “I bet I can move the water with this!"
Before dropping the nail in the water, Luis says, “I think that it'll go all the way to the bottom."
Conner's teacher asks the class to vote on which substance they think will dissolve a candy heart. Conner thinks carefully about the options and puts his name next to the choice, “hand sanitizer".
“It needs to be taller. That'll make it work." Sidney predicts as she and Lucas wonder how to make the marble roll farther.

Conducts simple experiments.

When the interventionist asks Kyra what she thinks is inside the Mystery Box, Kyra reaches into the box, feels the object carefully and signs, “Pinecone. It's sticky."
David places several droplets of green liquid in the clear dish on the light table, adds several droplets of red liquid, then looks closely at the liquid as he mixes the two together.
Ahmand puts two scoops of sand in his cup, carefully covers his pumpkin seeds and says, “I think it'll grow in sand."
Simone waves the magnetic wand over an assortment of several objects and notices that the cotton ball and the seashell do not stick to the wand.
Lucas and Sidney stack two more blocks on top of the existing stack of blocks and replace the long board, creating a steeper slope. “Now let's see if the marble will go farther!" Lucas says as Sidney drops the marble at the top of their ramp.

Observes results from simple experiments.

After Kiyonna opens one of the lima beans she soaked in water, she uses a magnifying glass and carefully looks at the little leaves inside the opened bean.
While exploring with water and objects, Taneka states, “The penny sinks. The toothpick floats."
As the teacher carefully removes the container of water they placed in the freezer the day before, Gregory excitedly says, “I knew the water would turn to ice! It freezed!"
Lila exclaims, “It turned orange!" as she mixes a dropper full of red colored water and a dropper full of yellow colored water into the cup.
Lucas and Sidney watch the marble intently as it rolls down the ramp and across the floor of the block center. “Yes!" exclaims Lucas. “Look how far it went!" says Sidney.

Records and communicates observations through a variety of means.

Grace draws a picture of the bug in her bug box.
Shawn counts the “sinking" objects and tells his friend, “I have 3!".
Mario puts rocks and corks on a graphing mat to show what floats and what sinks.
Benjy uses the digital camera to photograph the turtles he sees on the field trip to the local pond.
After visiting the dairy farm, Amad drew a picture in his journal and used some letters of the alphabet to label the cow, udder, and milk.
Lucas excitedly reports to the teacher, “It worked! The marble went really far this time!" Sidney adds, “At first it only went here", pointing to a spot on the floor. “Now it went here!", pointing to the edge of the block shelf further away.

Draws conclusions based on observations.

After mixing paint, Mike says, “Yellow and blue makes it green."
While observing a horse drink from a bucket during a field trip, Maisha announces, “That horse gets thirsty and drinks water just like me."
After checking on a flower plant that he watered the day before and the one that did not get watered, Kareen draws a picture of the flower plant he watered in his journal, and using some letters, writes, “water."
After dropping several objects in a tub of water, Kara tells her friend, “The cork will float. It's not heavy."
Running toward a small mound of snow that stands in the place where she helped build a snowman the day before, Dora says, “The sun came out and the snowman melted."
When the teacher asks Lucas and Sidney why they think the marble rolled so far, Sidney states, “Because we made it taller!" pointing to the blocks they stacked to create a steeper slope.

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