Science.4.5.G

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The student is expected to

explain how factors or conditions impact stability and change in objects, organisms, and systems.

1666 TEKS header image

Knowledge and Skills Statement

Recurring themes and concepts. The student understands that recurring themes and concepts provide a framework for making connections across disciplines.

Examples of factors or conditions that impact stability and change
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. 

Stability and change in science
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 range, it will die. 

Stability and change in engineering
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.

an individual form of life, such as a plant, animal, bacterium, protist, or fungus; a body made up of organs, organelles, or other parts that work together to carry on the various processes of life  

a set of ideas that provide a connective structure that facilitates students’ comprehension of the phenomena under study in a particular discipline and supports student sensemaking across larger themes in science

a condition in which some aspects of a system are unchanging, at least at the scale of observation

a regularly interacting or interdependent group of items forming a unified whole

Research

National Research Council. A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas. 2021. Washington: The National Academies Press  https://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.