Board Approved – April 8, 2004

Science Grade 9 – Course Expectations

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE – "Energy in Ecosystems"

For best printing results, click here (pdf).

SYSTEMS (Content)

PROPERTIES – Physical Science

Energy Sources and Kinds

• Identify and describe the forms of energy within a common system.
• Describe the kinetic or potential energy of the parts of a system.
• Describe the thermal (heat) energy of a system, subsystems, or parts of a system.
• Describe the energy components of a system, subsystems, or parts of a system.

PROPERTIES – Earth/Space Science

Nature and Properties of Earth Materials

• Correlate the chemical composition of Earth materials with their physical properties that determine their use to humans.
• Identify or describe why the total amount of a specific element remains constant in Earth's system when given a situation in which one or more elements undergo a change of state (e.g. burning of wood).
• How and/or why resources are useful to humans when given these Earth resources (e.g. fossil fuel, metal, mineral, gems) with distinctive physical and chemical properties.

STRUCTURE

Systems Approach

• Describe the parts or components of a system and how they work together.
• Describe a subsystem within a system.
• Analyze the interconnections between the parts of a system.
• Describe the inputs and outputs of a system.
• Analyze the transfers and/or transformations within a system.

STRUCTURE – Physical Science

Energy Transfer and Transformation

• Describe or explain conditions like to transfer energy from one part of a system to another.
• Describe or explain conditions likely to increase or decrease the amount of thermal (heat) energy of the parts or subsystems of a system.
• Identify or describe how chemical or nuclear reactions give off energy in a system.
• Describe how transformations result in thermal energy and how thermal energy is transferred within and among systems.
• Examine and explain how energy is transferred within and among systems.
• Identify or describe what happens to the system's total energy as energy is transferred or transformed.
• Determine whether the system is an open or closed system.
• Explain and give examples of how changes in the atomic or molecular configuration can result in an input or a release of energy.
• Measure decreases and increases of energy during energy transfers in terms of energy conservation.

CHANGES- Physical Science

Physical/Chemical Changes

• Analyze how matter and energy are conserved in a system.
• Describe the effect of different factors upon a rate of change.
• Describe what changes take place at the molecular level during a phase change.
• Describe the effects of different factors (atmospheric pressure, temperature, nuclear stability) on physical change, chemical change, or nuclear change.
• Determine whether the change is a physical change, chemical change, or nuclear change.
• Identify or describe why the total mass and/or atomic weight remains in the system.
• Explain how chemical changes produce chemicals with different properties but identical mass.

CHANGES – Life Science

Life Processes and the Flow of Matter and Energy

• Identify or describe, at a conceptual level, the matter and energy inputs and outputs of photosynthesis and cellular respiration.
• Explain how organisms can sustain life by obtaining, transporting, transforming, releasing, and eliminating matter and energy.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE – "Global Warming"

SYSTEMS (Content)

PROPERTIES – Physical Science

Energy Sources and Kinds

• Identify and describe the forms of energy within a common system.
• Identify the forms of energy used by Earth systems.
• Identify the materials that store that energy.
• Identify the cycle of these materials from one sink to another.

PROPERTIES – Earth/Space Science

Nature and Properties of Earth Materials

• Identify or describe why the total element remains constant in Earth's system when given a situation in which one or more elements undergo a change of state.
• Identify how and why resources are useful to humans when given these Earth resources with distinctive physical and chemical properties.

STRUCTURE

Systems Approach

• Describe the parts or components of a system and how they work together.
• Describe a subsystem within a system.
• Analyze the interconnections between the parts of a system.
• Describe the inputs and outputs of a system.
• Analyze the transfers and/or transformations within a system.

STRUCTURE – Earth/Space Science

Components and Patterns of the Earth System

• Correlate Earth's surface features to observable weather patterns (e.g., rain shadow, deserts, rain forest).
• Describe the interactions among Earth's subsystems (e.g., between the atmosphere and hydrosphere, between the atmosphere and lithosphere).

CHANGES – Physical Science

Physical/Chemical Changes

• Describe how different molecules store and release energy to change temperature on the planet.
• Describe how different densities affect the change in temperature on the planet.

CHANGES – Earth/Space Science

Processes and Interactions in the Earth System

• Summarize the effects of plate tectonics on Earth's lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere.
• Identify the likely causes of a change in Earth's surface.
• Describe the likely outcome of a geologic event based on the location of the event.

Hydrosphere/Atmosphere

• Identify, describe, or explain how heat transfer between the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere affect climate or weather patterns.
• Identify, describe, or explain how gravity working on the density of the atmosphere and hydrosphere affect climate or weather patterns.
• Identify, describe, or explain how major changes in the Earth's surface affects climate or weather patterns.
• Identify and explain causes of changes in climate or weather patterns.

CHANGES – Life Science

Interdependence of Life

• Compare characteristics of biomes, ecosystems, communities, and populations.
• Compare the cycles of nutrients and flow of energy among living and non-living components of the biosphere.
• Illustrate how energy is transferred through trophic levels.
• Describe how changes in an ecosystem can impact organisms in that ecosystem.
• Describe how population changes cause changes in the cycle of matter and the flow of energy in ecosystems.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE – "Motion In and Around The Earth"

SYSTEMS (Content)

PROPERTIES – Physical Science

Motion of Objects

• Determine the average speed of an object during a given interval of time.
• Determine the direction of motion (speed, direction, and acceleration) for a specific interval of time.
• Determine the average acceleration of the object for a specific interval of time.
• Identify, describe, or determine the acceleration of an object during a given time interval moving in a straight line.

Wave Behavior

• Identify or describe the relationship between the wave properties of amplitude and frequency and the energy of a wave.
• Identify or describe the relationship between a wave's speed and the properties of the substance through which the waves travel.
• Identify or describe what happens to waves as frequency changes.
• Identify or describe what happens to the speed, frequency, or direction of wavelengths in different mediums.
• Identify or describe the relationship between speed, amplitude, and frequency of wavelengths and energy.

Energy Sources and Kinds

• Identify and describe the forms of energy within a common system.
• Describe the kinetic or potential energy of the parts of a system.
• Describe the thermal (heat) energy of a system, subsystem, or parts of a system.
• Describe the energy components of a system, subsystems, or parts of a system.

STRUCTURE – Physical Science

Energy Transfer and Transformation

• Describe or explain conditions like to transfer energy from one part of a system to another.
• Describe or explain conditions likely to increase or decrease the amount of thermal (heat) energy of the parts or subsystems of a system.
• Identify or describe how chemical or nuclear reactions give off energy in a system.
• Describe how transformations result in thermal energy and how thermal energy is transferred within and among systems.
• Examine and explain how energy is transferred within and among systems.
• Identify or describe what happens to the system's total energy as energy is transferred or transformed.
• Determine whether the system is an open or closed system.
• Explain and give examples of how changes in the atomic or molecular configuration can result in an input or a release of energy.
• Measure decreases and increases of energy during energy transfers in terms of energy conservation.
• Describe how electrical charge or energy moves through a system.
• Describe how a wave's energy (sound, light, etc.) moves through and between systems.

STRUCTURE – Earth/Space Science

Components of the Solar System and Beyond (Universe)

• Describe the role of gravity in interactions among parts of the solar system.
• Explain how gravity and inertia affects the solar system and the universe.
• Describe the location of our solar system in the Milky Way Galaxy.
• Describe the different types of galaxies.
• Know that stars differ from each other in size, temperature, and age, but they appear to be made up of the same materials.

CHANGES – Physical Science

Nature of Forces

• Identify or describe the forces acting on an object.
• Describe the sum of all forces acting on an object.
• Describe the effect of the direction and magnitude of force acting on an object.
• Identify, describe, or predict the forces acting on an object.
• Identify, describe, or predict the forces between magnetic poles.

Forces to Explain Motion

• Explain the laws of motion to interpret the effect of forces on the motion of an object.
• Determine the magnitude and direction of a force needed to speed up an object with a given mass in a given distance or time.
• Identify or describe the magnitude and direction of a force needed to stop an object with a given distance or time.
• Describe the forces acting on an object traveling a constant speed in a straight line.
• Describe the forces acting on an object traveling a constant speed in a circular path or orbit.
• Identify or describe the magnitude and direction of a force needed to turn an object given the mass of the object and the desired turning arc or orbit.
• Compare and contrast the effects of a force acting upon different masses or different forces acting upon the same mass.

CHANGES – Earth/Space Science

Interactions in the Solar System and Beyond (Universe)

• Identify or describe how gravity worked on celestial matter in a nebular cloud to form the solar system according to the “Big Bang” theory.
• Describe how the "Big Bang" theory explains that the universe continues to expand and evolve.
• Describe the formation of stars and planets.
• Explain how the Solar System formed.
• Explain the formation and life cycle of stars.