evaluate how the combination of multiple feedback loops alter global climate;

determine word meaning by using context;

investigate and analyze evidence for climate changes over Earth's history using paleoclimate data, historical records, and measured greenhouse gas levels;

use spelling, prefixes and suffixes, roots, and word origins to understand meanings;

explain how the transfer of thermal energy among the hydrosphere, lithosphere, and atmosphere influences weather; and

describe how changing surface-ocean conditions, including El Nio-Southern Oscillation, affect global weather and climate patterns.

use reference aids such as a glossary, dictionary, thesaurus, and available technology to determine meanings and pronunciations; and

Science concepts. The student understands how Earth's systems affect and are affected by human activities, including resource use and management. The student is expected to:

identify analogies, homonyms, synonyms/antonyms, and connotation/denotation.

evaluate the impact on humans of natural changes in Earth's systems such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions;

The student reads with fluency and understanding in increasingly demanding texts. The student is expected to:

analyze the impact on humans of naturally occurring extreme weather events such as flooding, hurricanes, tornadoes, and thunderstorms;

read silently for a variety of purposes with comprehension for sustained periods of time;

analyze the natural and anthropogenic factors that affect the severity and frequency of extreme weather events and the hazards associated with these events;

adjust reading rate based on purposes for reading; and

read orally at a rate that enables comprehension.

analyze recent global ocean temperature data to predict the consequences of changing ocean temperature on evaporation, sea level, algal growth, coral bleaching, and biodiversity;

The student comprehends selections using a variety of strategies. The student is expected to:

predict how human use of Texas's naturally occurring resources such as fossil fuels, minerals, soil, solar energy, and wind energy directly and indirectly changes the cycling of matter and energy through Earth's systems; and

use prior knowledge and experience to comprehend;

explain the cycling of carbon through different forms among Earth's systems and how biological processes have caused major changes to the carbon cycle in those systems over Earth's history.

Science concepts. The student explores global policies and careers related to the life cycles of Earth's resources. The student is expected to:

determine purpose for reading;

analyze the policies related to resources from discovery to disposal, including economics, health, technological advances, resource type, concentration and location, waste disposal and recycling, mitigation efforts, and environmental impacts; and

self-monitor reading and adjust when confusion occurs by rereading, using resources, and questioning;

explore global and Texas-based careers that involve the exploration, extraction, production, use, disposal, regulation, and protection of Earth's resources.

summarize texts by identifying main ideas and relevant details;

make inferences such as drawing conclusions and making generalizations or predictions, supporting them with prior experiences and textual evidence;

analyze and use both narrative and expository text structures: sequence, description, problem/solution, compare/contrast, and cause/effect;

make connections and find patterns, similarities, and differences across texts;

construct visual images based on text descriptions;

determine important ideas from texts and oral presentations;

Environmental Systems. In Environmental Systems, students conduct laboratory and field investigations, use scientific methods during investigations, and make informed decisions using critical thinking and scientific problem solving. Students study a variety of topics that include biotic and abiotic factors in habitats, ecosystems and biomes, interrelationships among resources and an environmental system, sources and flow of energy through an environmental system, relationship between carrying capacity and changes in populations and ecosystems, natural changes in the environment, and human activities that impact the natural environment.

manage text by using practices such as previewing, highlighting, making marginal notes, notetaking, outlining, and journaling; and

Nature of science. Science, as defined by the National Academy of Sciences, is the "use of evidence to construct testable explanations and predictions of natural phenomena, as well as the knowledge generated through this process." This vast body of changing and increasing knowledge is described by physical, mathematical, and conceptual models. Students should know that some questions are outside the realm of science because they deal with phenomena that are not currently scientifically testable.

use questioning to enhance comprehension before, during, and after reading.

Scientific hypotheses and theories. Students are expected to know that:

The student reads texts to find information on self-selected and assigned topics. The student is expected to:

generate relevant, interesting, and researchable questions;

Scientific inquiry. Scientific inquiry is the planned and deliberate investigation of the natural world using scientific and engineering practices. Scientific methods of investigation are descriptive, comparative, or experimental. The method chosen should be appropriate to the question being asked. Student learning for different types of investigations include descriptive investigations, which involve collecting data and recording observations without making comparisons; comparative investigations, which involve collecting data with variables that are manipulated to compare results; and experimental investigations, which involve processes similar to comparative investigations but in which a control is identified.

locate appropriate print and non-print information using text and technical resources;

organize and record new information in systematic ways to develop notes, charts, and graphic organizers;

communicate information gained from reading;

use compiled information and knowledge to raise additional unanswered questions; and

Science and social ethics. Scientific decision making is a way of answering questions about the natural world involving its own set of ethical standards about how the process of science should be carried out. Students should be able to distinguish between scientific decision-making methods (scientific methods) and ethical and social decisions that involve science (the application of scientific information).

Science consists of recurring themes and making connections between overarching concepts. Recurring themes include systems, models, and patterns. All systems have basic properties that can be described in space, time, energy, and matter. Change and constancy occur in systems as patterns and can be observed, measured, and modeled. These patterns help to make predictions that can be scientifically tested, while models allow for boundary specification and provide tools for understanding the ideas presented. Students should analyze a system in terms of its components and how these components relate to each other, to the whole, and to the external environment.

use text organizers such as overviews, headings, and graphic features to locate and categorize information.

Statements containing the word "including" reference content that must be mastered, while those containing the phrase "such as" are intended as possible illustrative examples.

The student reads for different purposes in varied sources, both narrative and expository. The student is expected to:

Scientific and engineering practices. The student, for at least 40% of instructional time, asks questions, identifies problems, and plans and safely conducts classroom, laboratory, and field investigations to explain phenomena or design solutions using appropriate tools and models. The student is expected to: