GENERAL SCIENCE

Textbook: Conceptual Physical Science Grade Level: 9
ISBN# 321035402 Length of Course: Year
Publisher: Prentice-Hall Credit: 1
Prerequisite: None

COURSE DESCRIPTION

General Science is designed to bridge the gap between junior high and high school science programs.  It directly addresses Alaska Content Standards A-1 to A-8, A-15, and A-16.  These state standards describe the understanding of scientific facts, concepts, principles, and theories.  In addition, this course provides an opportunity to observe our unique local environment.

 

General Science should be investigative and involve students in the scientific process. 

·        Students should develop their own questions and perform investigations

·        Select and use appropriate tools and technology (such as computer-linked probes, spreadsheets, and graphing calculators) to perform tests, collect data, analyze relationships, and display data

·        Identify and communicate sources of unavoidable experimental error

·        Formulate explanations by using logic and evidence

·        Distinguish between hypothesis and theory as scientific terms

·        Read and interpret topographic and geological maps

·        Analyze the locations, sequences, or time intervals that are characteristic of natural phenomena (e.g., relative ages of rocks, locations of planets over time)

·        Recognize the issues of statistical variability and the need for controlled tests

·        Recognize the cumulative nature of scientific evidence

·        Know that when an observation does not agree with an accepted scientific theory, the observation is sometimes mistaken or fraudulent and the theory is sometimes wrong.

·        Employ strict adherence to safety procedure in conducting scientific investigations

 

                                                                                   

Alaska Content Standards

 

Standard A.  A student should understand scientific facts, concepts, 

                        principles, and theories.

Standard B.  A student should possess and understand the skills of

                        scientific inquiry.

Standard C.  A student should understand the nature and history of

                        science.

Standard D.  A student should be apply scientific knowledge and skills

                        to make reasoned decisions about the use of science and

                        scientific innovations.

 

 

 

Alaska Science Performance Standards

 

A 1.  Students develop, create and use models to demonstrate their understanding of the nature of particles and interactions on the molecular, atomic, and subatomic levels, and how these explain the physical and chemical properties of matter.

A 2.  Students describe and explain a common chemical reaction including atomic chemical bonding, and reaction rates.

A 3.  Students use secondary research to develop models that explain the origin and continued development of the solar system, galaxy, and the universe.

A 4.  Students explain tides, weather, seasons, and phases of the moon including the appropriate concepts of gravity, the Coriolus effect, role of the atmosphere, and Earth’s rotation and revolution.

A 5.  Students explain how gravity and electromagnetic forces operate according to simple principles and how they can be used in applications such as mineral resource prospecting, satellites, space travel and affect natural phenomena such as the aurora.

A 6.  Students explain common examples of linear and rotational motion using Newton’s Laws of Motion.

A 7.  Students explain short-term and long-term transformations of the earth’s surface, including those caused by living things and human intervention.

A 8a.  Students explain how the absorption or emission of energy is related to physical, chemical, and nuclear reactions and explains how these reactions can be quantitatively accounted for in terms of changes in arrangements of neutrons, protons, electrons, atoms or molecules.

A 8b.  Students measure energy transfers that take place around them and use the data to examine The Law of Conservation of Energy.

A 15.  Students recommend a management strategy to solve a local environmental problem related to resource utilization such as fish and game, building permits, mineral rights, and land use policies.

A 16.  Students describe how studying radioactive decay, nuclear fission, and fusion can provide evidence confirming the Law of Conservation of Matter and Energy.

B 1.  Students collect, analyze, and interpret qualitative and quantitative data, develop models, and suggest further experimentation to investigate and explain everyday phenomena in their world.

B 2.  Students conduct primary scientific research and use sophisticated instrumentation technology to design, modify, and conduct a series of experiments related to a multifaceted problem in the natural or designed world.

B 3.  Students conduct research and media searches that highlight multiple forms of inquiry and multiple solutions to complex problems.

B 4.  Students work in collaborative groups to collect and analyze their experimental results.  They conduct media searches and use the information to support their experimental design.

B 5.  Students discuss the validity of assertions made in primary and secondary scientific sources by analyzing and critiquing the data used as evidence to support those assertions.

B 6.  Students examine laboratory and community safety procedures, identify how an individual affects the safety of the group, and practice safe behavior in the classroom and laboratory.

C 1.  Students can differentiate between facts, observations, concepts, principles, laws, and theories, as used in science publications.

C 2.  Students evaluate the validity of experimental findings.

C 3.  Students describe how human society, culture, history, and environment have influenced the development of scientific thinking.

C 4.  Students investigate societal (non-scientific) beliefs of multiple communities cultures regarding a phenomenon.

C 5.  Students use personal and group experiences as well as media searches to synthesize data derived from multiple perspectives to study a multifaceted problem related to state, regional, or global concerns and post their results for review.

C 6.  Students describe how current research is changing accepted scientific theories.

C 7.  Students identify the research, contributions, discoveries, and collaborative efforts currently underway to solve a scientific, industrial, mechanical, agricultural, or medical problem.

C 8.  Students analyze the evidence used to support current or historic scientific understanding of an issue as well as the evidence used to support ideas contrary to current scientific understanding.

D 1.  Students investigate a regional or global issue; identify and evaluate the current solutions.

D 2.  Students research a current problem and conduct a cost and benefit analysis associated with both the problem and potential solutions.

D 3.  Students conduct independent research investigations about a community issue and propose a solution based on their original data.

D 4.  Students evaluate scientific and societal impacts of developing technologies.

D 5.  Students propose a scientifically or technologically based change to public policy at the local, state, or national level and share their proposal with the audience of those affected by the issue as well as those involved in policy-making decisions.

D 6.  Students work collaboratively to design a solution to a problem, develop an evaluation tool to measure the effectiveness of their solution, and make revisions to the original solution based on the information collected.

 

 

COURSE CONTENT

 

Chemistry Component

                        Structure, Changes, and Interactions of Matter (A-1, A-2, A-8)

                        Subatomic Particles, Atoms and Molecules

·        Explain what a molecule is

·        Explain how molecules move in each of the three states of matter

                        Chemical/Physical/Nuclear Changes

·        Describe a chemical change

·        Describe some characteristics of compounds

·        Describe a physical change

                        Chemical/Physical/Nuclear Reactions

·        Explain what a reaction is

·        Explain the difference between solutions, solutes, and solvents

·        Explain how chemical equations describe a chemical reaction

·        Balance chemical equations

                        Laws of Conservation of Mass and Conservation of Energy

·        Relate energy to work

·        Explain the difference between kinetic and potential energy

            Physics Component

                        Forces, Motion, and Relativity (A-5, A-6, A-16)

                        Forces

·        Explain how balanced and unbalanced forces are related to motion

·        State Newton’s first law of motion and define inertia

Gravity

·        Explain what gravity is

·        State the law of universal gravitation

·        Explain how air resistance and gravity affect acceleration

·        Relate the influence of the sun and the moon’s orbit to the gravitational effects produced on Earth

                        Electromagnetic Radiation

·        Identify the three forms of heat transfer

·        Define and calculate the specific heat of a substance

·        Describe the movement of heat and how insulators and conductors affect heat transfer

                                    Newton’s Law of Motion

·        Apply Newton’s Laws of Motion to the way the world works (e.g., inertia, acceleration, gravitation, action/reaction, investigate electricity and magnetism as universal forces, basic properties, and technological applications)

                        Theory of Relativity

           

Earth Science Component

                        Processes and Natural Events on Earth and Universe (A-3, A-4, A-7)

                        Models of our universe, galaxy, and solar system

·        Determine the factors involved in changing the Earth’s surface (e.g., gravity, heat transfer, erosion, weathering, deposition)

·        Describe and relate the formation of stars, galaxies, and clusters to the visible mass in the universe

·        Compare the contributions of space explorations to the understanding of the universe

                        Tides Seasons and Motions of the Earth

·        Describe the movement of Earth around the sun

·        Explain how Earth’s revolution and the tilt of its axis causes seasons

                        Rocks and Minerals

·        Explain what a mineral is

·        Name some common minerals

·        Identify four properties of minerals

·        Measure specific gravity, hardness, streak, luster and cleavage of various minerals

·        Identify dominant life-forms in Precambrian time and the Paleozoic Era

·        Use physical properties and chemical composition to classify major types of rocks and minerals

·        Categorize samples of rocks (e.g., sedimentary, metamorphic, igneous)

·        Describe the rock cycle

                        Plate Tectonics

·        Identify the Earth’s layers

·        Explain continental drift and plate tectonics

·        Explain how plate tectonic influences changes in species

·        Explain how changes caused by plate tectonics affected the evolution of life during the Mesozoic Era

                        Earth Quakes/Volcanoes/Glaciers

·        Explain how volcanoes form

·        Describe three types of volcanoes

·        Identify types of movement along faults

·        Explain what causes earthquakes

·        Describe the motion of earthquake waves

·        Identify what a seismograph does                           

Erosion and Deposition

·        Explain how rivers erode the land

·        Describe deposition by rivers

·        Explain how waves change the shoreline

                        Weather

·        Know weather (in the short term) and climate (in the long term) involve the transfer of energy into and out of the atmosphere

·        Describe weather and climate patterns on global levels

·        Describe how temperature is measured

·        Define air pressure and humidity

·        Describe how and where air masses form

·        Tell how wind speed, wind direction, and precipitation are measured

·        Compare and contrast the three major climate zones

·        Investigate the dynamic processes that influence global climate (e.g., cloud cover, Earth’s rotation, features such as mountain ranges, and oceans)

·        Know how Earth’s climate has changed over time, corresponding to changes in Earth’s geography, atmospheric composition, and other factors, such as solar radiation and plate movement

                        Oceanography

·        Identify the physical properties and chemical composition of ocean water

·        Explain the major patterns of oceanic circulation

·        Measure tidal activity at a local beach

·        Determine the rate of erosion at local beach or bluff

·        Relate ocean up-welling to nutrients and growth of organisms

·        Create a subsurface map of an ocean floor

·        Evaluate man’s influence on the marine environment

·        Investigate resources found in oceans (e.g., aquaculture, mineral deposits, food, petroleum)

·        Investigate Internet sites

World to Work

·        List related careers

·        Research education requirements of related careers

·        Discuss required job skills

·        Interview workers in related careers