Knowledge and Skills Statement
Recurring themes and concepts. The student uses recurring themes and concepts to make connections across disciplines.
Further Explanation
The recurring themes and concepts are the lenses used to investigate phenomena and support students’ comprehension of scientific concepts within particular disciplines. Scientific concepts can often be viewed using multiple recurring themes. Recurring themes include structure and function, 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. Models have limitations but provide a tool for understanding the ideas presented. Scientists and engineers analyze a system in terms of its components and how they relate to each other, the whole, and the external environment.
Supporting Information
Research
National Research Council. 2021. A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas. Washington: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/13165.
Summary: A Framework for K-12 Science Education describes the crosscutting concepts (called recurring themes and concepts in Texas) that expand across multiple science disciplines. These themes help students understand the connections among the K-12 science concepts. These concepts are applied in science and engineering and provide students with a better conceptual understanding of both fields.
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: 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.