Knowledge and Skills Statement
Recurring themes and concepts. The student uses recurring themes and concepts to make connections across disciplines.
Further Explanation
Adding heat might cause an object to melt, but small amounts of heat might not melt a crayon. Drought may cause animals to leave a location searching for water, but elephants are known to search for water by digging with their tusks instead of leaving. Weather systems can change based on the air pressure but may stay the same if the air pressure doesn't change.
Scientists investigate what range of conditions can lead to a system’s stable operation and what changes would destabilize it (and in what ways). Any system has a range of conditions under which it can operate in a stable fashion and conditions under which it cannot function. For example, a particular living organism can survive only within a specific range of temperatures; outside that span, it will die.
In designing systems for stable operation, the mechanisms of external controls and internal feedback loops are essential to design elements. Understanding the feedback mechanisms that regulate the system’s stability or that drive its instability provides insight into how the system may operate under various conditions. Evaluating these mechanisms is essential when comparing different design options that address a particular problem.
Supporting Information
Research
National Research Council. 2012. A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas. Washington: National Academies Press. doi.org/10.17226/13165.
Summary: Understanding how system changes happen or why they stay the same is fundamental for building a foundation in science and math. In early childhood, students should work on building the appropriate language to ask questions about changes. Students should also practice explaining why things change or stay stable. Examining questions about familiar scientific topics, such as changes in the weather, help build these skills.
Research
"National Science Teachers Association. Appendix G: Crosscutting Concepts in Next Generation Science Standards. (April 2013):1-17.
https://www.nextgenscience.org/sites/default/files/Appendix%20G%20-%20Crosscutting%20Concepts%20FINAL%20edited%204.10.13.pdf."
Summary: Students in early grades should understand that some things stay stable while others change and that things change at different paces. Stability and change help students explain how systems work. This article describes the concepts students should be taught in early childhood to help build a science and engineering foundation. These foundational concepts will allow students to build on their knowledge as they progress through their academic careers as these concepts increase in complexity throughout the upper-grade levels. It explains the importance of repetition when introducing these concepts.