Each lesson in Units 1 and 2 is cross-referenced with the standards it supports. Browse by standard, by lesson, or read the summary of every standard referenced in the lesson plans.
Next Generation Science Standards: Disciplinary Core Ideas
Earth Science
Life Science
Next Generation Science Standards: Science and Engineering Practices
The eight practices of science and engineering that the Framework identifies as essential for all students to learn and describes in detail are listed below.
Next Generation Science Standards: Crosscutting Concepts
. Observed patterns of forms and events guide organization and classification, and they prompt questions about relationships and the factors that influence them.
Lesson 1 Animals Around Us Lesson 2 Plants Around Us Lesson 3 Habitats and Communities Lesson 4 How Habitats Change: Mechanism and explanation. Events have causes, sometimes simple, sometimes multifaceted. A major activity of science is investigating and explaining causal relationships and the mechanisms by which they are mediated. Such mechanisms can then be tested across given contexts and used to predict and explain events in new contexts.
Lesson 1 Animals Around Us Lesson 2 Plants Around Us Lesson 3 Habitats and Communities Lesson 4 How Habitats Change. In considering phenomena, it is critical to recognize what is relevant at different measures of size, time, and energy and to recognize how changes in scale, proportion, or quantity affect a system’s structure or performance.
Lesson 1 Animals Around Us Lesson 2 Plants Around Us Lesson 3 Habitats and Communities Lesson 4 How Habitats Change. Defining the system under study—specifying its boundaries and making explicit a model of that system—provides tools for understanding and testing ideas that are applicable throughout science and engineering.
Lesson 1 Animals Around Us Lesson 2 Plants Around Us Lesson 3 Habitats and Communities Lesson 4 How Habitats Change: Flows, cycles, and conservation. Tracking fluxes of energy and matter into, out of, and within systems helps one understand the systems’ possibilities and limitations.
Lesson 3 Habitats and Communities Lesson 4 How Habitats Change. The way in which an object or living thing is shaped and its substructure determine many of its properties and functions.
. For natural and built systems alike, conditions of stability and determinants of rates of change or evolution of a system are critical elements of study.
Lesson 4 How Habitats ChangeCommon Core State Standards Connections
CCSS: English Language Arts/ Literacy: Reading
CCSS: ELA/Literacy: Writing
CCSS: ELA/Literacy: Speaking and Listening
CCSS: Mathematics: Mathematical Practice
CCSS: Mathematics: Measurement & Data
National Geography Standards
1. How to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information
Lesson 1 Animals Around Us Lesson 2 Plants Around Us Lesson 3 Habitats and Communities Lesson 4 How Habitats Change2. How to use mental maps to organize information about people, places, and environment
Lesson 1 Animals Around Us Lesson 2 Plants Around Us Lesson 3 Habitats and Communities Lesson 4 How Habitats Change4. The physical and human characteristics of places
Lesson 1 Animals Around Us Lesson 2 Plants Around Us Lesson 3 Habitats and Communities Lesson 4 How Habitats Change5. That people create regions to interpret Earth’s complexity
Lesson 3 Habitats and Communities Lesson 4 How Habitats Change8. The characteristics and spatial distribution of ecosystems and biomes on Earth’s surface
Lesson 1 Animals Around Us Lesson 2 Plants Around Us Lesson 3 Habitats and Communities Lesson 4 How Habitats ChangeNext Generation Science Standards: Disciplinary Core Ideas
Earth Science
Life Science
Next Generation Science Standards: Science and Engineering Practices
The eight practices of science and engineering that the Framework identifies as essential for all students to learn and describes in detail are listed below:
Next Generation Science Standards: Crosscutting Concepts
. Observed patterns of forms and events guide organization and classification, and they prompt questions about relationships and the factors that influence them.
Lesson 1 Animal Classification Lesson 2 Life Cycles Lesson 3 Structures & Adaptations Lesson 4 Interactions: Mechanism and explanation. Events have causes, sometimes simple, sometimes multifaceted. A major activity of science is investigating and explaining causal relationships and the mechanisms by which they are mediated. Such mechanisms can then be tested across given contexts and used to predict and explain events in new contexts.
Lesson 2 Life Cycles Lesson 3 Structures & Adaptations Lesson 4 Interactions. In considering phenomena, it is critical to recognize what is relevant at different measures of size, time, and energy and to recognize how changes in scale, proportion, or quantity affect a system’s structure or performance.
Lesson 2 Life Cycles Lesson 3 Structures & Adaptations Lesson 4 Interactions. Defining the system under study—specifying its boundaries and making explicit a model of that system—provides tools for understanding and testing ideas that are applicable throughout science and engineering.
Lesson 1 Animal Classification Lesson 2 Life Cycles Lesson 3 Structures & Adaptations Lesson 4 Interactions: Flows, cycles, and conservation. Tracking fluxes of energy and matter into, out of, and within systems helps one understand the systems’ possibilities and limitations.
Lesson 2 Life Cycles Lesson 4 Interactions. The way in which an object or living thing is shaped and its substructure determine many of its properties and functions.
Lesson 1 Animal Classification Lesson 2 Life Cycles Lesson 3 Structures & Adaptations Lesson 4 Interactions. For natural and built systems alike, conditions of stability and determinants of rates of change or evolution of a system are critical elements of study.
Lesson 2 Life Cycles Lesson 3 Structures & Adaptations Lesson 4 InteractionsCommon Core State Standards Connections
English Language Arts/ Literacy: Reading
CCSS: ELA/Literacy: Writing
CCSS: ELA/Literacy: Speaking and Listening
CCSS: Mathematics: Mathematical Practice
CCSS: Mathematics: Measurement & Data
CCSS: NBT: Number & Operations in Base Ten
National Geography Standards
1. How to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information
Lesson 2 Life Cycles Lesson 3 Structures & Adaptations2. How to use mental maps to organize information about people, places, and environments
Lesson 1 Animal Classification Lesson 2 Life Cycles Lesson 4 Interactions4. The physical and human characteristics of places
Lesson 2 Life Cycles Lesson 4 Interactions8. The characteristics and spatial distribution of ecosystems and biomes on Earth’s surface
Lesson 2 Life Cycles Lesson 4 InteractionsNGSS: Disciplinary Core Ideas
NGSS: Science and Engineering Practices
NGSS: Crosscutting Concepts
CCSS: ELA/Literacy: Reading
CCSS: ELA/Literacy: Writing
CCSS: ELA/Literacy: Speaking and Listening
CCSS: Mathematics: Mathematical Practice
CCSS: Mathematics: Measurement & Data
National Geography Standards
NGSS: Disciplinary Core Ideas
Science and Engineering Practices
Crosscutting Concepts
CCSS: ELA/Literacy: Reading
CCSS: ELA/Literacy: Writing
CCSS: ELA/Literacy: Speaking and Listening
CCSS: Mathematics: Mathematical Practice
CCSS: Mathematics: Measurement & Data
National Geography Standards
NGSS: Disciplinary Core Ideas
Science and Engineering Practices
Crosscutting Concepts
CCSS: ELA/Literacy: Reading
CCSS: ELA/Literacy: Writing
CCSS: ELA/Literacy: Speaking and Listening
CCSS: Mathematics: Mathematical Practice
National Geography Standards
NGSS: Disciplinary Core Ideas
Science and Engineering Practices
Crosscutting Concepts
CCSS: ELA/Literacy: Reading
CCSS: ELA/Literacy: Writing
CCSS: ELA/Literacy: Speaking and Listening
CCSS: Mathematics: Mathematical Practice
National Geography Standards
NGSS: Disciplinary Core Ideas
NGSS: Science and Engineering Practices
NGSS: Crosscutting Concepts
CSSC: ELA/Literacy: Reading
CCSS: ELA/Literacy: Writing
CCSS: ELA/Literacy: Speaking and Listening
CCSS: Mathematics: Mathematical Practice
National Geography Standards
NGSS: Disciplinary Core Ideas
Science and Engineering Practices
Crosscutting Concepts
CCSS: ELA/Literacy: Reading
CCSS: ELA/Literacy: Writing
CCSS: ELA/Literacy: Speaking and Listening
CCSS: Mathematics: Mathematical Practice
CCSS: Mathematics: Measurement & Data
National Geography Standards
NGSS: Disciplinary Core Ideas
Science and Engineering Practices
Crosscutting Concepts
CCSS: ELA/Literacy: Reading
CCSS: ELA/Literacy: Writing
CCSS: ELA/Literacy: Speaking and Listening
CCSS: Mathematics: Mathematical Practice
CCSS: Mathematics: Measurement & Data
CCSS: NBT: Number & Operations in Base Ten
National Geography Standards
NGSS: Disciplinary Core Ideas
Science and Engineering Practices
Crosscutting Concepts
CCSS: ELA/Literacy: Reading
CCSS: ELA/Literacy: Writing
CCSS: ELA/Literacy: Speaking and Listening
CCSS: Mathematics: Mathematical Practice
CCSS: Number and Operations in Bases Ten
National Geography Standards
Next Generation Science Standards
Disciplinary Core Ideas
Earth Science
Life Science
growth, warmth, and motion. Plants acquire material for growth chiefly from air, water, and process matter and obtain energy from sunlight, which is used to maintain conditions necessary for survival.
in food webs in which some animals eat plants for food and other animals eat the animals that eat plants, while decomposers restore some materials back to the soil. Organisms can survive only in environments in which their particular needs are met. A healthy ecosystem is one in which multiple species of different types are each able to meet their needs in a relatively stable web of life. Newly introduced species can damage the balance of an ecosystem. (5-LS2-1)
both with other living things and with nonliving factors, any of which can limit their growth. Competitive, predatory, and mutually beneficial interactions vary across ecosystems but the patterns are shared.
Science and Engineering Practices
The eight practices of science and engineering that the Framework identifies as essential for all students to learn and describes in detail are listed below.
Crosscutting Concepts
Observed patterns of forms and events guide organization and classification, and they prompt questions about relationships and the factors that influence them.
Mechanism and explanation. Events have causes, sometimes simple, sometimes multifaceted. A major activity of science is investigating and explaining causal relationships and the mechanisms by which they are mediated. Such mechanisms can then be tested across given contexts and used to predict and explain events in new contexts.
In considering phenomena, it is critical to recognize what is relevant at different measures of size, time, and energy and to recognize how changes in scale, proportion, or quantity affect a system’s structure or performance.
Defining the system under study—specifying its boundaries and making explicit a model of that system—provides tools for understanding and testing ideas that are applicable throughout science and engineering.
and conservation. Tracking fluxes of energy and matter into, out of, and within systems helps one understand the systems’ possibilities and limitations.
The way in which an object or living thing is shaped and its substructure determine many of its properties and functions.
Common Core State Standards Connections
English Language Arts/Literacy: Reading
RI.3.1 Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time,
Interpret information presented visually, orally, or quantitatively (e.g., in charts, graphs, diagrams, time lines, animations, or interactive elements on Web pages) and explain how
English Language Arts/Literacy: Writing
SL.3.4 Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace.
English Language Arts/Literacy: Speaking and Listening
SL.3.4 Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace.
Mathematics: Mathematical Practice
Mathematics: Measurement & Data
and fourths of an inch. Show the data by making a line plot, where the horizontal scale is marked off in appropriate units—whole numbers, halves, or quarters.
National Geography Standards
How to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information
Next Generation Science Standards
Disciplinary Core Ideas
Earth Science
K-2 Living things need water, air, and resources from the land, and they live in places that have the things they need. Humans use natural resources for everything they do.
3-5 Societal activities have had major effects on the land, ocean, atmosphere, and even outer space. Societal activities can also help protect Earth’s resources and environments
Life Science
3-5 Organism have both internal and external macroscopic structures that allow for growth, survival, behavior, and reproduction.
3-5 Food provides animals with the materials and energy they need for body repair, growth, warmth, and motion. Plants acquire material for growth chiefly from air, water, and process matter and obtain energy from sunlight, which is used to maintain conditions necessary for survival.
3-5 Different sense receptors are specialized for particular kinds of information; Animals use their perceptions and memories to guide their actions.
3-5 The food of almost any animal can be traced back to plants. Organisms are related in food webs in which some animals eat plants for food and other animals eat the animals that eat plants, while decomposers restore some materials back to the soil. Organisms can survive only in environments in which their particular needs are met. A healthy ecosystem is one in which multiple species of different types are each able to meet their needs in a relatively stable web of life. Newly introduced species can damage the balance of an ecosystem. (5-LS2-1)
6-8 Organisms and populations are dependent on their environmental interactions both with other living things and with nonliving factors, any of which can limit their growth. Competitive, predatory, and mutually beneficial interactions vary across ecosystems but the patterns are shared.
3-5 When the environment changes some organisms survive and reproduce, some move to new locations, some move into the transformed environment, and some die.
K-2 Young organisms are very much, but not exactly, like their parents and also resemble other organisms of the same kind.
3-5 Different organisms vary in how they look and function because they have different inherited information; the environment also affects the traits that an organism develops. (3-LS3-1 and 3-LS3-2)
3-5 Differences in characteristics between individuals of the same species provide advantages in surviving, finding mates, and reproducing. (3-LS4-2)
3-5 Populations of organisms live in a variety of habitats. Change in those habitats affects the organisms living there. (3-LS4-4)
Science and Engineering Practices
The eight practices of science and engineering that the Framework identifies as essential for all students to learn and describes in detail are listed below:
Crosscutting Concepts
. Observed patterns of forms and events guide organization and classification, and they prompt questions about relationships and the factors that influence them.
: Mechanism and explanation. Events have causes, sometimes simple, sometimes multifaceted. A major activity of science is investigating and explaining causal relationships and the mechanisms by which they are mediated. Such mechanisms can then be tested across given contexts and used to predict and explain events in new contexts. 3.
. In considering phenomena, it is critical to recognize what is relevant at different measures of size, time, and energy and to recognize how changes in scale, proportion, or quantity affect a system’s structure or performance.
. Defining the system under study—specifying its boundaries and making explicit a model of that system—provides tools for understanding and testing ideas that are applicable throughout science and engineering.
: Flows, cycles, and conservation. Tracking fluxes of energy and matter into, out of, and within systems helps one understand the systems’ possibilities and limitations.
. The way in which an object or living thing is shaped and its substructure determine many of its properties and functions.
. For natural and built systems alike, conditions of stability and determinants of rates of change or evolution of a system are critical elements of study.
Common Core State Standards Connections
English Language Arts/Literacy
RI.3.1 Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
RI.3.7 Use information gained from illustrations (e.g. maps, photographs) and the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text (e.g., where, when, why, and how key events occur).
RI.4.7 Interpret information presented visually, orally, or quantitatively (e.g., in charts, graphs, diagrams, time lines, animations, or interactive elements on Web pages) and explain how the information contributes to an understanding of the text in which it appears.
RI.5.7 Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or to solves a problem efficiently.
English Language Arts/Literacy: Writing
W3.8 Recall information from experiences or gather information from print and digital sources; take brief notes on sources and sort evidence into provided categories.
W.4.8 Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information from print and digital sources; take notes and categorize information, and provide a list of sources.
W.5.7 Conduct short research projects that use several sources to build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic.
W.5.8 Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information from print and digital sources; summarize or paraphrase information in notes and finished work, and provide a list of sources.
English Language Arts/Literacy: Speaking and Listening
SL.3.4 Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace. the development of main ideas or themes.
Mathematics: Mathematical Practice
3.NBT Number and Operations in Base Ten
Mathematics: Measurement & Data
3.MD.B.3 Draw a scaled picture graph and a scaled bar graph to represent a data set with several categories. Solve one- and two-step “how many more” and “how many less” problems using information presented in scaled bar graphs.
3.MD.B.4 Generate measurement data by measuring lengths using rulers marked with halves and fourths of an inch. Show the data by making a line plot, where the horizontal scale is marked off in appropriate units- whole numbers, halves, or quarters.
5.MD.A.1 Convert among different-sized standard measurement units within a given measurement system (e.g., convert 5 cm to 0.05 m), and use these conversions in solving multi-step, real world problems.
National Geography Standards
1 How to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information