Grade 6 Science Alabama Standards

Manipulate models to demonstrate the patterns of motion of the sun, Earth, and moon.

Construct an evidence-based explanation of how the relative positions of the sun and Earth result in observable phenomena, including day and night cycles, length of year, and seasons.

Construct an evidence-based explanation of how the relative positions of the sun, moon, and Earth result in observable phenomena, including lunar cycles, eclipses, and tidal cycles.

Use observations and data from investigations to demonstrate how the sun, air, land, and water affect Earth’s climate.

Develop models demonstrating how unequal heating and the rotation of the Earth cause local and global wind systems and oceanic currents.

Construct explanations of how the tilt and curvature of the Earth cause unequal heating of its surface, resulting in regional climates based on patterns of latitude.

Construct an explanation of how altitude, geothermal activity, and oceanic distribution of heat produce typical regional climate patterns.

Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information concerning the relationships between human activities and natural processes and how those relationships affect Earth’s systems, including human population growth and its impact on the global environment over time.

Define problems and design solutions to monitor and mitigate human impact on the environment.

Evaluate information to compare and contrast past and current views about the structure of the universe and show how these views have changed over time.

Construct an evidence-based explanation of the role of gravity on the movement of natural and manmade objects within galaxies and the solar system.

Analyze and use data to determine scale properties and characteristics of objects in the solar system including sizes, distances, orbital periods, basic composition, and ability to support life.

Obtain, evaluate, and communicate evidence that explains how constructive and destructive processes shape Earth’s surface.

Develop and use models to demonstrate the processes that form rocks and cycle Earth’s materials.

Construct an evidence-based explanation of how rocks are classified as metamorphic, igneous, or sedimentary based on their characteristics and the process of the rock cycle.

Develop and use models to demonstrate types of weathering, effects of agents of erosion and transportation, and the formation of environments of deposition.

Use research-based evidence to propose a scientific explanation of how the distribution of Earth’s resources, including minerals, fossil fuels, and groundwater, results from ongoing geoscience processes.

Construct an evidence-based explanation of how tectonic plate movement impacts Earth’s surface over geological time.

Construct an evidence-based explanation of how Earth's internal energy flows between its surface and its interior.

Construct a scientific explanation of how the movement of lithospheric plates can cause major geologic events and form Earth’s surface features, including convergent, divergent, and transform boundaries; earthquakes; and volcanoes.

Provide evidence of past plate movements, using data regarding the distribution of fossils, rocks, continental shapes, and seafloor structures.

Analyze data from rock strata and the fossil record to construct a chronology of occurrences in Earth’s history.

Construct an evidence-based explanation of how the sun’s energy drives the motion and cycling of water through the hydrosphere.

Plan and carry out an investigation to determine the differences in rates of energy transfer from the sun to air, to land, and to water via conduction, convection, and radiation.

Develop and use a model that illustrates how differences in heat and pressure affect density and the relationship between density and convection.

Use data analysis to monitor and predict weather changes and the impact of weather events, including severe weather.

Obtain, evaluate, and communicate data that describes characteristics of air masses, including temperature, pressure, and humidity.

Construct an explanation of how air pressure, weather fronts, and air masses are related to weather events.

Design solutions to mitigate the impact of severe weather.

Patterns

Energy Transfer

Earth and Human Activity

Earth’s Place in the Universe

Earth and Human Activity

Earth’s Place in the Universe

Human Impact

Systems and System Models

The Solar System and the Universe

The Solar System and the Universe

Weather

Earth’s Systems: Energy and Weather

Cause and Effect

Energy and Matter

Earth’s Processes

Systems and System Models

Plate Tectonics

Earth’s Systems: Materials and Processes

Patterns

Earth’s Systems: Energy and Weather

Cause and Effect

The Solar System and the Universe

Sun, Earth, and Moon

Earth’s Systems: Materials and Processes

Cause and Effect

Stability and Change

Patterns

Climate

Sun, Earth, and Moon

Scale, Proportion, and Quantity

Identify human activities (e.g., the use of fossil fuels) and natural processes (e.g., volcanic activity) that affect the Earth.

Explain how human behaviors impact the environment (e.g., recycling, conservation, pollution).

Recognize that Earth moves around the sun and/or the moon moves around Earth (e.g., seasons, length of year, day/night) using a model.

Use a model to demonstrate how the tilt and curvature of the Earth cause unequal heating.

Recognize the role of gravity on the movement of natural and humanmade objects in Earth’s solar system.

Use a model to compare the relative sizes, and distances of objects in the solar system (e.g., sun, Earth, moon).

Recognize that changes in Earth’s features are brought on by constructive and deconstructive processes including slow processes such as mountain building and fast processes such as volcanic eruptions.

Identify how rocks are classified as metamorphic, igneous, or sedimentary based on their characteristics.

Identify how tectonic plate movement changed Earth’s surface over time (location of continents, formation of canyons, formation of mountains).

Recognize that the distribution of specific fossils and rocks as well as the shapes of the continents, provide evidence of tectonic plate movement.

Use a model to explain the water cycle, including evaporation, condensation, and precipitation, and how the sun provides the energy that drives the cycle.

Recognize weather trends and changes in weather patterns including severe weather (e.g., temperature, tornadoes, hurricanes, fronts, floods, and droughts).

Identify appropriate action plans for various severe weather situations (e.g., storm shelter or safest area of a building, avoid flood areas).

Patterns: Macroscopic patterns are related to the nature of microscopic and atomic-level structure. Patterns in rates of change and other numerical relationships can provide information about natural and human-designed systems. Patterns can be used to identify cause and effect relationships. Graphs, charts, and images can be used to identify patterns in data.

Cause and Effect: Mechanism and Prediction: Relationships can be classified as causal or correlational, and correlation does not necessarily imply causation. Cause and effect relationships may be used to predict phenomena in natural or designed systems. Phenomena may have more than one cause, and some cause and effect relationships in systems can be described only by using probability.

Scale, Proportion, and Quantity: Time, space, and energy phenomena can be observed at various scales using models to study systems that are too large or too small. The observed function of natural and designed systems may change with scale. Proportional relationships among different types of quantities (e.g., speed as the ratio of distance traveled to time taken) provide information about the magnitude of properties and processes. Scientific relationships can be represented through the use of algebraic expressions and equations. Phenomena that can be observed at one scale may not be observable at another scale.

Systems and System Models: Systems may interact with other systems; they may have sub-systems and may be part of larger complex systems. Models can be used to represent systems and their interactions (such as inputs, processes and outputs) and energy, matter, and information flow within systems. Models are limited in that they represent only certain aspects of the system under study.

Energy and Matter: Flows, Cycles, and Conservation: Matter is conserved because atoms are conserved in physical and chemical processes. Within a natural or designed system, the transfer of energy drives the motion and/or cycling of matter. Energy may take different forms (e.g., energy in fields, thermal energy, energy of motion). The transfer of energy can be tracked as energy flows through a designed or natural system.

Structure and Function: Complex and microscopic structures and systems can be visualized, modeled, and used to describe how their function depends on the shapes, composition, and relationships among its parts; therefore, complex natural and designed structures and systems can be analyzed to determine how they function. Structures can be designed to serve particular functions by taking into account the properties of different materials and how materials can be shaped and used.

Stability and Change: Explanations of stability and change in natural or designed systems can be constructed by examining the changes over time and processes at different scales, including the atomic scale. Small changes in one part of a system might cause large changes in another part. Stability might be disturbed either by sudden events or gradual changes that accumulate over time. Systems in a dynamic equilibrium are stable due to a balance of feedback mechanisms.

Asking Questions and Defining Problems: Specifying relationships between variables, clarifying arguments, and models

Developing and Using Models: Developing, utilizing, and revising models to describe, test, and predict more abstract phenomena and to design systems.

Planning and Carrying Out Investigations: Designing and conducting investigations that use multiple variables and provide evidence to support explanations or solutions.

Analyzing and Interpreting Data: Extending quantitative analysis to investigations, distinguishing between correlation and causation, and employing basic statistical techniques of data and error analysis.

Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking: Identifying patterns in large data sets and using mathematical concepts to support explanations and arguments.

Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions: Constructing explanations and designing solutions supported by multiple sources of evidence consistent with scientific ideas, principles, and theories.

Engaging in Argument from Evidence: Constructing a convincing argument that supports or refutes claims for either explanations or solutions about the natural and designed world(s).

Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information: Evaluating the merit and validity of ideas and methods.

Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs)

Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs)