New Hampshire State Standards for Science: Grade 9

NH.SPS1. Science Process Skills: Scientific Inquiry and Critical Thinking Skills

S:SPS1:11:1.1. Making Observations and Asking Questions: Students will apply skills from previous grades and ask questions about relationships among variables that can be observed directly as well as those that cannot.

S:SPS1:11:1.2. Making Observations and Asking Questions: Students will apply skills from previous grades and use complex classification criteria and keys to identify items/organisms.

S:SPS1:11:1.3. Making Observations and Asking Questions: Students will apply skills from previous grades and evaluate complex methods of classification for a specific purpose.

S:SPS1:11:1.4. Making Observations and Asking Questions: Students will apply skills from previous grades and identify limitations of a given classification system and identify alternative ways of classifying to accommodate anomalies.

S:SPS1:11:2.1. Designing Scientific Investigations: Students will apply skills from previous grades and apply scientific theories and laws to new situations to generate hypotheses.

S:SPS1:11:2.2. Designing Scientific Investigations: Students will apply skills from previous grades and state a hypothesis and prediction based on available evidence and background information.

S:SPS1:11:3.1. Conducting Scientific Investigations: Students will apply skills from previous grades and select and use apparatus and material safely.

S:SPS1:11:3.2. Conducting Scientific Investigations: Students will apply skills from previous grades and use instruments effectively and accurately for collecting data.

S:SPS1:11:3.3. Conducting Scientific Investigations: Students will apply skills from previous grades and compile and organize data, using appropriate units.

S:SPS1:11:4.1. Representing and Understanding Results of Investigations: Students will apply skills from previous grades and compile and display data, evidence and information by hand and computer, in a variety of formats, including diagrams, flow charts, tables, graphs and scatter plots.

S:SPS1:11:5.1. Evaluating Scientific Explanations: Students will apply skills from previous grades and explain how data support or refute the hypothesis or prediction.

S:SPS1:11:5.2. Evaluating Scientific Explanations: Students will apply skills from previous grades and provide a statement that addresses and answers the question investigated in light of the evidence generated in the investigation.

NH.SPS2. Science Process Skills: Unifying Concepts of Science

S:SPS2:11:1.1. Nature of Science: Students will apply skills from previous grades and explore new phenomena through investigations conducted for different reasons, or to check on previous results.

S:SPS2:11:1.2. Nature of Science: Students will apply skills from previous grades and test how well a theory predicts a phenomena.

S:SPS2:11:1.3. Nature of Science: Students will apply skills from previous grades and recognize that sometimes scientists can control conditions in order to focus on the effect of a single variable; when that is not possible for practical or ethical reasons, they try to observe as wide a range of natural occurrences as possible to be able to discern patterns.

S:SPS2:11:1.4. Nature of Science: Students will apply skills from previous grades and show how hypotheses are widely used in science for choosing what data to pay attention to and what additional data to seek, and for guiding the interpretation of the data (both new and previously available).

S:SPS2:11:1.5. Nature of Science: Students will apply skills from previous grades and understand that in the long run, theories are judged by how they fit with other theories, the range of observations they explain, how well they explain observations, and how effective they are in predicting new findings.

S:SPS2:11:1.6. Nature of Science: Students will apply skills from previous grades and show how the usefulness of a model can be tested by comparing its predictions to actual observations in the real world; but a close match does not mean that the model is the only 'true' model or the one that would work.

S:SPS2:11:1.7. Nature of Science: Students will apply skills from previous grades and realize that in science, the testing, revising, and occasional discarding of theories, new and old, never ends; this ongoing process leads to an increasingly better understanding of how things work in the world but not to absolute truth.

S:SPS2:11:2.1. Systems and Energy: Students will apply skills from previous grades and realize that systems may be so closely related that there is no way to draw boundaries that separate all parts of one from all parts of the others.

S:SPS2:11:2.2. Systems and Energy: Students will apply skills from previous grades and give examples to show that a system usually has some properties that are different from those of its parts, but appear because of the interaction of those parts.

S:SPS2:11:2.3. Systems and Energy: Students will apply skills from previous grades and demonstrate that even in some very simple systems, it may not always be possible to predict accurately the result of changing some part or connection.

S:SPS2:11:3.1. Models and Scale: Students will apply skills from previous grades and understand that the basic idea of mathematical modeling is to find a mathematical relationship that behaves in the same way as the objects or processes under investigation; a mathematical model may give insight about how something really works or may fit observations very well without any intuitive meaning.

S:SPS2:11:4.1. Patterns of Change: Students will apply skills from previous grades and recognize that things can change in detail, but remain the same in general (e.g., the players change but the team remains, the cells are replaced but the organism remains); sometimes counterbalancing changes are necessary for a thing to retain its essential constancy in the presence of changing conditions.

S:SPS2:11:4.2. Patterns of Change: Students will apply skills from previous grades and describe how graphs and equations are useful (and often equivalent) ways for depicting and analyzing patterns of change.

S:SPS2:11:4.3. Patterns of Change: Students will apply skills from previous grades and give examples of how a system in equilibrium may return to the same state of equilibrium if the disturbances it experiences are small; but large disturbances may cause it to escape that equilibrium and eventually settle into some other state of equilibrium.

S:SPS2:11:4.4. Patterns of Change: Students will apply skills from previous grades and describe how in evolutionary change, the present arises from the materials and forms of the past, more or less gradually, and in ways that can be explained.

S:SPS2:11:5.1. Form and Function: Students will apply skills from previous grades and explore how the movement of ocean floor plates under continental plates or two continental plates moving against each other can deform the earth's surface.

S:SPS2:11:5.2. Form and Function: Students will apply skills from previous grades and provide data and evidence on how folding in crustal plates can cause mountain ranges.

S:SPS2:11:5.3. Form and Function: Students will apply skills from previous grades and understand that an atom's electron configuration determines how the atom can interact with other atoms.

S:SPS2:11:5.4. Form and Function: Students will apply skills from previous grades and provide examples of how configuration of atoms in a molecule determines a molecule's properties.

S:SPS2:11:5.5. Form and Function: Students will apply skills from previous grades and discover how the shape of large molecules affects the interaction with other molecules.

S:SPS2:11:5.6. Form and Function: Students will apply skills from previous grades and demonstrate that a variety of biological, chemical and physical phenomena can be explained by changes in the arrangement and motion of atoms and molecules.

NH.SPS3. Science Process Skills: Personal, Social, and Technological Perspectives

S:SPS3:11:1.1. Collaboration in Scientific Endeavors: Students will apply skills from previous grades and collaborate with existing research efforts.

S:SPS3:11:1.2. Collaboration in Scientific Endeavors: Students will apply skills from previous grades and identify global researchers in a field of interest.

S:SPS3:11:2.1. Common Environmental Issues, Natural Resources Management and Conservation: Students will apply skills from previous grades and develop, modify, clarify and explain questions that guide environmental investigations of various types.

S:SPS3:11:2.2. Common Environmental Issues, Natural Resources Management and Conservation: Students will apply skills from previous grades and design investigations to answer particular questions about the environment.

S:SPS3:11:2.3. Common Environmental Issues, Natural Resources Management and Conservation: Students will apply skills from previous grades and locate and collect reliable information for environmental investigations of many types.

S:SPS3:11:2.4. Common Environmental Issues, Natural Resources Management and Conservation: Students will apply skills from previous grades and apply basic logic and reasoning skills to evaluate completeness and reliability in a variety of information sources.

S:SPS3:11:2.5. Common Environmental Issues, Natural Resources Management and Conservation: Students will apply skills from previous grades and organize and display information in ways appropriate to different types of environmental investigations and purposes.

S:SPS3:11:2.6. Common Environmental Issues, Natural Resources Management and Conservation: Students will apply skills from previous grades and create, use and evaluate models to understand environmental phenomena.

S:SPS3:11:2.7. Common Environmental Issues, Natural Resources Management and Conservation: Students will apply skills from previous grades and use to evidence and logic in developing proposed explanations that address their initial questions and hypotheses.

S:SPS3:11:2.8. Common Environmental Issues, Natural Resources Management and Conservation: Students will apply skills from previous grades and analyze global, social, cultural, political, economic and environmental linkages.

S:SPS3:11:2.9. Common Environmental Issues, Natural Resources Management and Conservation: Students will apply skills from previous grades and evaluate presentations of environmental issues for accuracy.

S:SPS3:11:3.1. Science and Technology, Technological Design and Application: Students will apply skills from previous grades and analyze environmental issues such as water quality, air quality, hazardous waste, and depletion of natural resources.

S:SPS3:11:3.2. Science and Technology, Technological Design and Application: Students will apply skills from previous grades and evaluate status of a local community system (transportation, water, communication, food resources or electrical) in partnership with local officials.

S:SPS3:11:3.3. Science and Technology, Technological Design and Application: Students will apply skills from previous grades and analyze technical writing, graphs, charts, and diagrams.

NH.SPS4. Science Process Skills: Science Skills for Information, Communication and Media Literacy

S:SPS4:11:1.1. Information and Media Literacy: Students will apply skills from previous grades and select and analyze information from various sources (including electronic resources, print resources, community resources) and personally collected data to answer questions being investigated.

S:SPS4:11:1.2. Information and Media Literacy: Students will apply skills from previous grades and collect and use qualitative and quantitative data and information, seek evidence and sources of information to identify flaws such as errors and bias, and explain how the evidence supports or refutes an initial hypothesis.

S:SPS4:11:1.3. Information and Media Literacy: Students will apply skills from previous grades and analyze data and information gathered to clarify problems or issues identifying costs and benefits from a social, cultural, and/or environmental perspective; predict the consequences of action or inaction; and propose possible solutions.

S:SPS4:11:2.1. Communication Skills: Students will apply skills from previous grades and Select and use appropriate scientific vocabulary to orally share and communicate scientific ideas, plans, results, and conclusions resulting from investigations.

S:SPS4:11:2.2. Communication Skills: Students will apply skills from previous grades and create written reports and journals to share and communicate scientific ideas, plans, results, and conclusions resulting from observations and investigations.

S:SPS4:11:2.3. Communication Skills: Students will apply skills from previous grades and create a multimedia presentation incorporating numeric symbolic and/or graphic modes of representation to share scientific ideas, plans, results, and conclusions.

S:SPS4:11:3.1. Critical Thinking and Systems Thinking: Students will apply skills from previous grades and pursue scientific inquiry such as observation, measurement, hypothesis formation and analysis, and value 'habits of mind' such as persistence, accuracy, and collaboration.

S:SPS4:11:3.2. Critical Thinking and Systems Thinking: Students will apply skills from previous grades and generate solutions to scientific questions and challenges through developing, modeling and revising investigations.

S:SPS4:11:3.3. Critical Thinking and Systems Thinking: Students will apply skills from previous grades and apply scientific knowledge and skills to make reasoned decisions about the use of science and scientific innovations.

S:SPS4:11:4.1. Problem Identification, Formulation, and Solution: Students will apply skills from previous grades and formulate scientific questions about an issue and define experimental procedures for finding answers.

S:SPS4:11:4.2. Problem Identification, Formulation, and Solution: Students will apply skills from previous grades and plan and conduct practical tests to solve problems or answer a question, collect and analyze data using appropriate instruments and techniques safely and accurately.

S:SPS4:11:4.3. Problem Identification, Formulation, and Solution: Students will apply skills from previous grades and develop models and explanations to fit evidence obtained through investigations.

S:SPS4:11:5.1. Creativity and Intellectual Curiosity: Students will apply skills from previous grades and prepare multimedia presentations to share results of investigations, demonstrating a clear sense of audience and purpose.

S:SPS4:11:5.2. Creativity and Intellectual Curiosity: Students will apply skills from previous grades and use electronic networks to share information.

S:SPS4:11:5.3. Creativity and Intellectual Curiosity: Students will apply skills from previous grades and model solutions to a range of problems in science and technology using computer simulation software.

S:SPS4:11:6.1. Interpersonal and Collaborative Skills: Students will apply skills from previous grades and create a culminating team project that demonstrates content knowledge and conceptual understanding and shows connections between science content and real-world settings.

S:SPS4:11:6.2. Interpersonal and Collaborative Skills: Students will apply skills from previous grades and collect, synthesize, and report information from a variety of points of view.

S:SPS4:11:7.1. Self Direction: Students will apply skills from previous grades and use key ideas of science to document and explain through an investigation the relationship between science and concepts.

S:SPS4:11:7.2. Self Direction: Students will apply skills from previous grades and self-assess progress toward a predetermined outcome and decide what needs to be done to meet the goal.

S:SPS4:11:8.1. Accountability and Adaptability: Students will apply skills from previous grades and identify the reputable and appropriate communities of learners to whom research findings should be reported, compare data, and adapt as needed.

S:SPS4:11:8.2. Accountability and Adaptability: Students will apply skills from previous grades and use science learned to create a personal action plan on a community issue.

S:SPS4:11:9.1. Social Responsibility: Students will apply skills from previous grades and collaborate with interested learners using appropriate web resources and publication media such as journals (print and electronic).

NH.ESS1. Earth Space Science: The Earth and Earth materials, as we know them today, have developed over long periods of time, through constant change processes.

S:ESS1:11:1.1. Atmosphere, Climate, and Weather: Students will explain how winds and ocean currents are created on the Earth's surface.

S:ESS1:11:1.2. Atmosphere, Climate, and Weather: Students will explain how heat and energy transfer in and out of the atmosphere; and provide examples of how it is related to weather and climate.

S:ESS1:11:1.3. Atmosphere, Climate, and Weather: Students will describe how Earth's atmospheric composition has changed from the formation of the Earth through current time.

S:ESS1:11:1.4. Atmosphere, Climate, and Weather: Students will explain how Earth's features can affect wind and weather patterns by causing air to rise and increasing precipitation.

S:ESS1:11:2.1. Composition and Features: Students will recognize that elements exist in fixed amounts and describe how they move through the solid Earth, oceans, atmosphere, and living things as part of geochemical cycles, such as the water, carbon and nitrogen cycles.

S:ESS1:11:2.2. Composition and Features: Students will describe the conditions that enable the Earth to support life, such as the availability of water, the gravitational force, the electromagnetic field and the intensity of radiation from the Sun.

S:ESS1:11:2.3. Composition and Features: Students will explain the theory of plate tectonics.

S:ESS1:11:2.4. Composition and Features: Students will describe the movement of crustal plates and explain how the effects have altered the Earth's features.

S:ESS1:11:3.1. Fossils and Geologic Time: Students will identify and describe the methods used to measure geologic time, such as fossil identification, radioactive dating, and rock sequences.

S:ESS1:11:3.2. Fossils and Geologic Time: Students will relate how geologic time is determined using various dating methods (e.g., radioactive decay, rock sequences, fossil records).

S:ESS1:11:4.1. Observation of the Earth from Space: Provided with geologic data (including movement of plates) on a given locale, students will predict the likelihood for an earth event (e.g. volcanoes mountain ranges, islands, earthquakes, tides, tsunamis).

S:ESS1:11:5.1. Processes and Rates of Change: Students will explain that the Earth is composed of interactive layers, which have distinct compositions, physical properties and processes.

S:ESS1:11:5.2. Processes and Rates of Change: Students will relate plate movement to earthquakes and volcanic activity, and explain how it results in tectonic uplift and mountain building.

S:ESS1:11:5.3. Processes and Rates of Change: Students will identify and describe the major external and internal sources of energy on Earth.

S:ESS1:11:5.4. Processes and Rates of Change: Students will provide supporting geologic/geographic evidence that supports the validity of the theory of plate tectonics.

S:ESS1:11:5.5. Processes and Rates of Change: Students will trace the development of the theory of plate tectonics.

S:ESS1:11:5.6. Processes and Rates of Change: Students will explain how internal and external sources of heat (energy) fuel geologic processes (e.g., rock cycle, plate tectonics, sea floor spreading).

S:ESS1:11:6.1. Rock Cycles: Students will explain that throughout the rock cycle, the total amount of the material remains the same.

S:ESS1:11:7.1. Water: Students will explain that water quality can be affected positively or negatively by outside sources

NH.ESS2. Earth Space Science: The Earth is part of a solar system, made up of distinct parts, which have temporal and spatial interrelationships.

S:ESS2:11:1.1. Earth, Sun, and Moon: Students will explain how the Earth, Moon and Sun were formed.

S:ESS2:11:2.1. Energy: Students will identify the Earth's major external source of energy as solar energy.

S:ESS2:11:2.2. Energy: Students will explain how the inclination of incoming solar radiation can impact the amount of energy Earth receives on any given surface area.

S:ESS2:11:2.3. Energy: Students will explain how internal and external sources of heat (energy) fuel geologic processes (e.g., rock cycle, plate tectonics, sea floor spreading).

S:ESS2:11:3.1. Solar System: Students will explain how gravitational force influenced the formations of the planets and their moons; and describe how these objects move in patterns under its continued influence.

S:ESS2:11.3.2. Solar System: Students will explain how the Solar System formed from a giant cloud of gas and debris about 5 billion years ago.

NH.ESS3. Earth Space Science: The origin and evolution of galaxies and the universe demonstrate fundamental principles of physical science across vast distances and time.

S:ESS3:11:1.1. Size and Scale: Students will recognize electromagnetic waves can be used to locate objects in the universe, and track their movement.

S:ESS3:11:1.2. Size and Scale: Students will define a light year.

S:ESS3:11:2.1. Stars and Galaxies: Students will identify and describe the characteristics common to most stars in the universe.

S:ESS3:11:2.2. Stars and Galaxies: Students will describe the ongoing processes involved in star formation, their life cycles and their destruction.

S:ESS3:11:2.3. Stars and Galaxies: Students will explain the relationships between or among the energy produced from nuclear reactions, the origin of elements, and the life cycles of stars.

S:ESS3:11:3.1. Universe: Students will explain that current scientific evidence supports the Big Bang Theory as a probable explanation of the origin of the universe, and describe the theory.

S:ESS3:11:3.2. Universe: Students will explain the evidence that suggests the universe is expanding.

S:ESS3:11:3.3. Universe: Students will provide scientific evidence that supports or refutes the 'Big Bang' theory of how the universe was formed.

S:ESS3:11:3.4. Universe: Based on the nature of electromagnetic waves, students will explain the movement and location of objects in the universe or their composition (e.g., red shift, blue shift, line spectra).

S:ESS3:11:3.5. Universe: Students will explain how scientific theories about the structure of the universe have been advanced through the use of sophisticated technology (e.g., space probes and visual, radio and x-ray telescopes).

NH.ESS4. Earth Space Science: The growth of scientific knowledge in Earth Space Science has been advanced through the development of technology and is used (alone or in combination with other sciences) to identify, understand and solve local and global issues.

S:ESS4:11:1.1. Design Technology: Students will describe ways in which technology has increased our understanding of the universe.

S:ESS4:11:1.2. Design Technology: Students understand that technology is designed with a particular function in mind; and principles of Earth Space science are useful in creating technology for the Earth space sciences.

S:ESS4:11:2.1. Tools: Students will describe the use and benefits of land-based light telescopes, radio telescopes, spectrophotometers, satellites, manned exploration, probes, and robots to the study of Earth Space Science.

S:ESS4:11:2.2. Tools: Students will explain how scientists study the Earth using computer-generated models and observations from both land-based sites and satellites; and describe the value of using these tools in unison.

S:ESS4:11:3.1. Local and Global Environmental Issues: Students will differentiate between and provide examples of renewable and nonrenewable sources of energy; and explain the advantages and limitations of each.

S:ESS4:11:3.2. Local and Global Environmental Issues: Students will describe the means for transforming a natural material, such as iron ore, into useful products during different historical periods, such as the Stone Age, Iron Age, Renaissance, the Industrial Period and the current Age of Information.

S:ESS4:11.3.3. Local and Global Environmental Issues: Students will explain how the use of technologies at a local level, such as burning of fossil fuels for transportation or power generation, may contribute to global environmental problems.

S:ESS4:11:4.1. Career Technical Education Connections: Students will explain the kinds of applications of knowledge and skills necessary for jobs/careers specific to Earth or space sciences.

NH.LS1. Life Science: All living organisms have identifiable structures and characteristics that allow for survival (organisms, populations, and species).

S:LS1:11:1.1. Classification: Students will describe how organisms are classified into a hierarchy of groups and subgroups, which are based on similarities that reflect their evolutionary relationships.

S:LS1:11:1.2. Classification: Students will explain that organisms that possess similar DNA code are more closely related than those in which DNA varies greatly.

S:LS1:11:1.3. Classification: Students will identify plants and animals according to binomial nomenclature.

S:LS1:11:1.4. Classification: Students will differentiate between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells according to general structure and degrees of complexity.

S:LS1:11:2.1. Living Things and Organization: Students will identify the structures of different types of cell parts/organelles and explain the functions they perform.

S:LS1:11:2.2. Living Things and Organization: Students will recognize how cell functions are regulated through changes in the activity of the functions performed by proteins, and through the selective expression of individual genes; and explain how this regulation allows cells to respond to their environment and to control and coordinate cell growth and division.

S:LS1:11:2.3. Living Things and Organization: Students will recognize how an organism's organization and complexity accommodate its need for obtaining, transforming, transporting, releasing, and eliminating the matter and energy used to sustain it.

S:LS1:11:2.4. Living Things and Organization: Students will explain how the processes of photosynthesis and cellular respiration are interrelated and contribute to biogeochemical cycles.

S:LS1:11:2.5. Living Things and Organization: Students will describe the structures of proteins and their role in cell function.

S:LS1:11:2.6. Living Things and Organization: Students will describe the chemical reactions involved in cell functions using examples from the nervous, immune and endocrine systems in multicellular animals.

S:LS1:11:2.7. Living Things and Organization: Students will recognize that because all matter tends toward more disorganized states, living systems need a continuous input of energy to maintain their chemical and physical organizations.

S:LS1:11:2.8. Living Things and Organization: Students will use data and observation to make connections between, to explain, or to justify how specific cell organelles produce/regulate what the cell needs or what a unicellular or multi-cellular organism needs for survival (e.g., protein synthesis, DNA transport, nerve cells).

S:LS1:11:3.1. Reproduction: Students will describe the chemical and structural properties of DNA and explain its role in identifying the characteristics of an organism.

S:LS1:11:3.2. Reproduction: Students will recognize that new heritable characteristics can only result from new combinations of existing genes or from mutations of genes in an organism's sex cells; and explain why other changes in an organism cannot be passed on.

S:LS1:11:3.3. Reproduction: Students will describe the alternation of generations, life cycles with haploid and diploid phases in living organisms, such as bacteria, plants and animals.

S:LS1:11:3.4. Reproduction: Students will explain or justify with evidence how the alteration of the DNA sequence may produce new gene combinations that make little difference, enhance capabilities, or can be harmful to the organism (e.g., selective breeding, genetic engineering, mutations).

NH.LS2. Life Science: Energy flows and matter recycles through an ecosystem.

S:LS2:11:1.1. Environment: Students will explain how the amount of life an environment can sustain is restricted by the availability of matter and energy, and the ability of the ecosystem to recycle materials.

S:LS2:11:1.2. Environment: Students will describe how the interrelationships and interdependencies among organisms generate stable ecosystems that fluctuate around a state of rough equilibrium for hundreds or thousands of years.

S:LS2:11:1.3. Environment: Students will identify the factors in an ecosystem that can affect its carrying capacity.

S:LS2:11:1.4. Environment: Students will analyze and describe how environmental disturbances, such as climate changes, natural events, human activity and the introduction of invasive species, can affect the flow of energy or matter in an ecosystem.

S:LS2:11:1.5. Environment: Using data from a specific ecosystem, students will explain relationships or make predictions about how environmental disturbance (human impact or natural events) affects the flow of energy or cycling of matter in an ecosystem.

S:LS2:11:1.6. Environment: Students will explain or evaluate potential bias in how evidence is interpreted in reports concerning a particular environmental factor that impacts the biology of humans.

S:LS2:11:2.1. Flow of Energy: Students will use examples from local ecosystems to describe the relationships among organisms at the different trophic levels.

S:LS2:11:3.1. Recycling of Materials: Students will explain that as matter and energy flow through different levels of organization in living systems and between living systems and the environment, elements, such as carbon and nitrogen, are recombined in different ways.

S:LS2:11:3.2. Recycling of Materials: Students will trace the cycling of matter (e.g., carbon cycle) and the flow of energy in a living system from its source through its transformation in cellular, biochemical processes (e.g., photosynthesis, cellular respiration, fermentation).

NH.LS3. Life Science: Groups of organisms show evidence of change over time (e.g. evolution, natural selection, structures, behaviors, and biochemistry).

S:LS3:11:1.1. Change: Students will identify ways humans can impact and alter the stability of ecosystems, such as habitat destruction, pollution, and consumption of resources; and describe the potentially irreversible effects these changes can cause.

S:LS3:11:1.2. Change: Students will identify ways of detecting, and limiting or reversing environmental damage.

S:LS3:11:1.3. Change: Students will analyze the aspects of environmental protection, such as ecosystem protection, habitat management, species conservation and environmental agencies and regulations; and evaluate and justify the need for public policy in guiding the use and management of the environment.

S:LS3:11:2.1. Evolution: Students will explain the currently accepted theory for the development of life on Earth, including the history of its origin and the evolutionary process.

S:LS3:11:2.2. Evolution: Students will recognize that the abilities and behaviors an organism has, and likelihood of its survival strongly depend on its heritable characteristics, which can be biochemical and anatomical.

S:LS3:11:2.3. Evolution: Students will explain the contributions of Darwin, Malthus, Wallace and Russell to the advancement of life science.

S:LS3:11:2.4. Evolution: Students will explain evolution in terms of how the Earth's present-day life forms evolved from earlier, distinctly different species as a consequence of the interactions of (1) the potential for a species to increase its numbers, (2) the genetic variability of offspring due to mutation and recombination of genes, (3) a finite supply of the resources required for life, and (4) the ensuing selection.

S:LS3:11:2.5. Evolution: Students will explain how evidence from technological advances supports or refutes the genetic relationships among groups of organisms (e.g., DNA analysis, protein analysis).

S:LS3:11:2.6. Evolution: Given information about living or extinct organisms, students will cite evidence to explain the frequency of inherited characteristics of organisms in a population; or explain the evolution of varied structures (with defined functions) that affected the organisms' survival in a specific environment (e.g., giraffe, wind pollination of flowers).

S:LS3:11:3.1. Natural Selection: Students will explain the concept of natural selection.

S:LS3:11:3.2. Natural Selection: Students will explain the diversity and unity of past and present life forms on Earth using currently accepted theories.

S:LS3:11:3.3. Natural Selection: Students will recognize how a species' chance of survival increases with each variation of an organism within the species; and explain how, in the event of a major global change, the greater the diversity of species on Earth, the greater the chance for survival of life.

S:LS3:11:3.4. Natural Selection: Students will analyze present day data and research in areas, including antibiotic resistance in bacteria, changes in viral genomes, such as bird flu, and DNA sequencing; and relate it to the concepts of natural selection.

S:LS3:11:3.5. Natural Selection: Students will identify and describe ways genes may be changed and combined to create genetic variation within a species.

S:LS3:11:3.6. Natural Selection: Students will explain that gene mutations and new combinations may have a variety of effects on the organism, including positive and negative ones, or none at all.

S:LS3:11:3.7. Natural Selection: Students will explain the concepts of Mendelian genetics.

S:LS3:11:3.8. Natural Selection: Students will use pedigree charts and Punnet Squares to determine patterns of inheritance.

S:LS3:11:3.9. Natural Selection: Given a scenario, students will provide evidence that demonstrates how sexual reproduction results in a great variety of possible gene combinations and contributes to natural selection (e.g., Darwin's finches, isolation of a species, Tay Sach's disease).

NH.LS4. Life Science: Humans are similar to other species in many ways, and yet are unique among Earth's life forms.

S:LS4:11:1.1. Behavior: Students will recognize that the immune system, endocrine system, and nervous system can affect the homeostasis of an organism.

S:LS4:11:1.2. Behavior: Students will describe how the functions of all the human body systems are interrelated at a chemical level and how they maintain homeostasis.

S:LS4:11:2.1. Disease: Students will explain that disease in organisms can be caused by intrinsic failures of the system or infection by other organisms, and describe as well as provide examples of how some diseases are caused by: the breakdown in cellular function, congenital conditions, genetic disorders, malnutrition, and emotional health, including stress.

S:LS4:11:2.2. Disease: Students will explain that vaccines were developed to reduce or eliminate diseases; and provide examples of how these medical advances have proven to be successful.

S:LS4:11:2.3. Disease: Students will describe and provide examples of how new medical techniques, efficient health care delivery systems, improved sanitation, and a more complete understanding of the nature of disease provides today's humans a better chance of staying healthier than their forebears.

S:LS4:11:2.4. Disease: Students will describe how some drugs mimic or block the molecules involved in transmitting nerve or hormone signals and explain how this disturbs the normal operations of the brain and body.

S:LS4:11:2.5. Disease: Students will explain that gene mutation in a cell can result in uncontrolled division, which is called cancer; and describe how exposure of cells to certain chemicals and radiation increase mutation, and thus the chance for cancer.

S:LS4:11:2.6. Disease: Students will use evidence to make and support conclusions about the ways that humans or other organisms are affected by environmental factors or heredity (e.g., pathogens, diseases, medical advances, pollution, mutations).

S:LS4:11:3.1. Human Identity: Students will describe how the length and quality of human life are influenced by many factors, including sanitation, diet, medical care, gender, genes, and environmental conditions and personal health behaviors.

S:LS4:11:3.2. Human Identity: Students will explain how the immune system functions to prevent and fight disease.

S:LS4:11:3.3. Human Identity: Students will explain how the immune system, endocrine system, or nervous system works and draw conclusions about how systems interact to maintain homeostasis in the human body.

NH.LS5. Life Science: The growth of scientific knowledge in Life Science has been advanced through the development of technology and is used (alone or in combination with other sciences) to identify, understand and solve local and global issues.

S:LS5:11:1.1. Design Technology: Students will describe ways in which technology has increased our understanding of the life sciences.

S:LS5:11:1.2. Design Technology: Students will understand that technology is designed with a particular function in mind, and principles of life science are useful in creating technology for the life sciences.

S:LS5:11:2.1. Tools: Students will describe the use and benefits of equipment such as light microscopes, transmission electron microscopes, scanning electron microscopes, spectrophotometers, probes, and robotics to the study of the life sciences.

S:LS5:11:3.1. Social Issues (Local And Global): Medical Technology and Biotechnology: Students will describe ways technology can support and improve our understanding of environmental issues.

S:LS5:11:3.2. Social Issues (Local And Global): Medical Technology and Biotechnology: Students will describe aspects of the medical system available to help people in New Hampshire, including: prevention programs, vaccines and pharmaceuticals, hospitals and rehabilitation facilities.

S:LS5:11:3.3. Social Issues (Local And Global): Medical Technology and Biotechnology: Students will recognize that biotechnology is used in many areas, such as agriculture, pharmaceuticals, the environment, and genetic engineering; and understand that it requires extensive knowledge of the systems being changed.

S:LS5:11:3.4. Social Issues (Local And Global): Medical Technology and Biotechnology: Students will explain how advances in agriculture made using biotechnology have directly affected the food production over the past 100 years; and that this change has profoundly affected societies all over the globe, making larger populations and urban centers a possibility.

S:LS5:11:4.1. Career Technical Education Connections: Students will explain the kinds of applications of knowledge and skills necessary for jobs/careers specific to the life sciences.

NH.PS1. Physical Science: All living and nonliving things are composed of matter having characteristic properties that distinguish one substance from another (independent of size/amount of substance).

S:PS1:11:1.1. Composition: Students will recognize and describe the structure of an atom and explain how the major components interact with one another.

S:PS1:11:1.2. Composition: Students will recognize how elements are arranged in the periodic table; and explain how this arrangement illustrates the repeating patterns among elements with similar properties, such as the relationship between atomic number and atomic mass.

S:PS1:11:1.3. Composition: Students will explain that neutrons and protons are made up of even smaller constituents.

S:PS1:11:1.4. Composition: Students will define isotopes; recognize that most elements have two or more isotopes; and explain that although the number of neutrons has little affect on how the atom interacts with others, they do affect the mass and stability of the nucleus.

S:PS1:11:1.5. Composition: Scientific thought about atoms has changed over time. Using information (narratives or models of atoms) provided, students will cite evidence that changed our understanding of the atom and the development of atomic theory.

S:PS1:11:1.6. Composition: Students will model and explain the structure of an atom or explain how an atom's electron configuration, particularly the outermost electron(s), determines how that atom can interact with other atoms.

S:PS1:11:2.1. Properties: Students will explain that the physical properties of a compound are determined by its molecular structure and the interactions among the molecules.

S:PS1:11:2.2. Properties: Students will determine whether an atom is either electrically neutral or an ion by referring to its number of electrons.

S:PS1:11:2.3. Properties: Students will explain how the chemical properties of an element are governed by the electron configuration of atoms, and describe how atoms interact with one another by transferring or sharing the outermost electrons.

S:PS1:11:2.4. Properties: Students will explain that radioactive materials are unstable and undergo spontaneous nuclear reactions, which emit particles and/or wavelike radiation.

S:PS1:11:2.5. Properties: Students will explain that states of matter rely on the arrangement and motion of molecules; and differentiate between the structures of solids, liquids, and gases.

S:PS1:11:2.6. Properties: Students will use physical and chemical properties as determined through an investigation to identify a substance.

S:PS1:11:2.7. Properties: Students will explain how properties of elements and the location of elements on the periodic table are related.

NH.PS2. Physical Science: Energy is necessary for change to occur in matter. Energy can be stored, transferred and transformed, but cannot be destroyed.

S:PS2:11:1.1. Change: Students will recognize and explain that atoms may be bonded together into molecules or formula units (crystalline solids).

S:PS2:11:1.2. Change: Students will recognize that atoms interact with one another by transferring or sharing electrons that are furthest from the nucleus; and explain that the outer electrons govern the chemical properties of an element.

S:PS2:11:1.3. Change: Students will explain that compounds are formed through both ionic and covalent bonding.

S:PS2:11:1.4. Change: Students will recognize that the rates of chemical reactions can vary greatly; and identify the factors that influence these reaction rates, such as how often the reacting atoms and molecules encounter one another, the temperature, and the properties of the reacting species, including shape.

S:PS2:11:1.5. Change: Students will explain relationships between and among electric charges, magnetic fields, electromagnetic forces, and atomic particles.

S:PS2:11:2.1. Conservation: Students will explain that chemical reactions either release or consume energy.

S:PS2:11:2.2. Conservation: Students will explain that chemical reactions can be accelerated by catalysts, such as enzymes.

S:PS2:11:2.3. Conservation: Students will recognize that a large number of important reactions involve the transfer of either electrons or hydrogen ions between reacting ions, molecules, or atoms.

S:PS2:11:2.4. Conservation: Students will identify the variety of structures that may be formed from the bonding of carbon atoms, and describe their roles in various chemical reactions, including those required for life processes.

S:PS2:11:2.5. Conservation: Students will demonstrate how transformations of energy produce some energy in the form of heat and therefore the efficiency of the system is reduced (chemical, biological, and physical systems).

S:PS2:11:3.1. Energy: Students will explain that all energy can be considered to be either kinetic energy, potential energy, or energy contained by a field.

S:PS2:11:3.2. Energy: Students will provide examples of how kinetic and potential energy can be transformed from one to the other.

S:PS2:11:3.3. Energy: Students will describe how the energy associated with individual atoms and molecules can be used to identify the substances they comprise; and explain that each kind of atom or molecule can gain or lose energy only in particular discrete amounts, absorbing and emitting light only at wavelengths corresponding to these amounts.

S:PS2:11:3.4. Energy: Students will explain the range of the electromagnetic spectrum as it relates to both wavelength and energy; and provide examples of practical applications of the different wavelengths in the spectrum.

S:PS2:11:3.5. Energy: Students will recognize that the human eye can only see a narrow range of wavelengths within the electromagnetic spectrum; and explain how the variations of wavelength within that range of visible light are perceived as differences in color.

S:PS2:11:3.6. Energy: Students will describe the relationship between heat and temperature, explaining that heat energy consists of the random motion and vibrations of atoms, molecules, and ions; and that the higher the temperature, the greater the atomic or molecular motion.

S:PS2:11:3.7. Energy: Students will explain that waves, such as light, seismic, sound waves, have energy and can transfer energy when they interact with matter.

S:PS2:11:3.8. Energy: Students will explain that nuclear reactions convert a fraction of the mass of interacting particles into energy and release much greater amounts of energy than atomic interactions.

S:PS2:11:3.9. Energy: Students will describe how electrons flow easily in some materials, such as metals, whereas in insulating materials, such as glass, they can hardly flow at all.

S:PS2:11:3.10. Energy: Students will using information provided about chemical changes, draw conclusions about the energy flow in a given chemical reaction (e.g., exothermic reactions, endothermic reactions).

NH.PS3. Physical Science: The motion of an object is affected by force.

S:PS3:11:1.1. Forces: Students will explain that magnetic forces are related to the action of electrons and can be thought of as different aspects of a single electromagnetic force; and describe how the interplay of these forces is the basis for electric motors, generators, radio, television, and many other modern technologies.

S:PS3:11:1.2. Forces: Students will recognize that the strength of the electric force between two charged objects is proportional to the charges and, as with gravitation, is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

S:PS3:11:1.3. Forces: Students will recognize that the strength of the gravitational force between two masses is proportional to the masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

S:PS3:11:1.4. Forces: Students will compare the strength of nuclear, electromagnetic and gravitational forces; and explain that the strength of nuclear forces account for the great amounts of energy released from the nuclear reactions in atomic or hydrogen bombs, and in the Sun and other stars.

S:PS3:11:1.5. Forces: Students will recognize that electromagnetic forces exist within and between atoms.

S:PS3:11:1.6. Forces: Students will recognize that different kinds of materials respond to electric forces in various ways; and differentiate between insulators, semiconductors, conductors and superconductors.

S:PS3:11:1.7. Forces: Students will describe the difference between materials that contain equal proportions of positive and negative charges and those that have a very small excess or deficit of negative charges.

S:PS3:11:1.8. Forces: Given information (e.g., graphs, data, diagrams), students will use the relationships between or among force, mass, velocity, momentum, and acceleration to predict and explain the motion of objects.

S:PS3:11:2.1. Motion: Students will interpret and apply the laws of motion to determine the effects of forces on the motion of objects.

S:PS3:11:2.2. Motion: Students will recognize that apparent changes in wavelength can provide information about changes in motion; explain that the observed wavelength of a wave depends upon the relative motion of the source and the observer; and relate these to the differences between shorter and longer wavelengths.

S:PS3:11:2.3. Motion: Students will apply the concepts of inertia, motion, and momentum to predict and explain situations involving forces and motion, including stationary objects and collisions.

S:PS3:11:2.4. Motion: Students will explain the effects on wavelength and frequency as electromagnetic waves interact with matter (e.g., light diffraction, blue sky).

NH.PS4. Physical Science: The growth of scientific knowledge in Physical Science has been advanced through the development of technology and is used (alone or in combination with other sciences) to identify, understand and solve local and global issues.

S:PS4:11:1.1. Design Technology: Students will recognize that the basic principles of energy, work and power are related to design technology.

S:PS4:11:2.1. Tools: Students will identify tools, such as thermostats and thermal sensors, and explain their use in environmental control systems.

S:PS4:11:3.1. Social Issues (Local and Global): Energy, Power, and Transportation Manufacturing: Students will explain that power systems have a source of energy, a process, loads, and some have a feedback system.

S:PS4:11:3.2. Social Issues (Local and Global): Energy, Power, and Transportation Manufacturing: Students will demonstrate and explain how an engine converts chemical energy in the form of fuel, into mechanical energy in the form of motion.

S:PS4:11:3.3. Social Issues (Local and Global): Energy, Power, and Transportation Manufacturing: Students will calculate the efficiency of an engine, and explain why a perfectly efficient engine is impossible.

S:PS4:11:3.4. Social Issues (Local and Global): Energy, Power, and Transportation Manufacturing: Students will explain the relationship between energy and power.

S:PS4:11:3.5. Social Issues (Local and Global): Energy, Power, and Transportation Manufacturing: Students will explain the benefits of standardization of parts.

S:PS4:11:4.1. Career Technical Education Connections: Students will explain the kinds of applications of knowledge and skills necessary for jobs/careers specific to the physical sciences.