| SIXTH GRADE |
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Plate Tectonics
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Standard
1.
Plate tectonics
explains important features of the Earth's surface and major geologic events.
As the basis for understanding this concept, students know:
a. The fit of the continents, location of earthquakes, volcanoes,
and midocean ridges, and the distribution of fossils, rock types, and ancient
climatic zones provide evidence for plate tectonics.
b. The solid Earth is layered with cold, brittle lithosphere; hot, convecting
mantle; and dense, metallic core.
c. Lithospheric plates that are the size of continents and oceans
move at rates of centimeters per year in response to movements in the mantle.
d. Earthquakes are sudden motions along breaks in the crust called
faults, and volcanoes/fissures are locations where magma reaches the surface.
e. Major geologic events, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions,
and mountain building result from plate motions.
f. How to explain major features of California geology in terms of
plate tectonics (including mountains, faults, volcanoes).
g. How to determine the epicenter of an earthquake and that the effects
of an earthquake vary with its size, distance from the epicenter, local
geology, and the type of construction involved.
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Shaping the Earthís Surface
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Standard
2.
Topography is reshaped
by weathering of rock and soil and by the transportation and deposition
of sediment. As the basis for understanding this concept, students know:
a. Water running downhill is the dominant
process in shaping the landscape, including Californiaís landscape.
b. Rivers and streams are dynamic systems that erode and transport sediment,
change course, and flood their banks in natural and recurring patterns.
c. Beaches are dynamic systems in which sand is supplied by rivers
and moved along the coast by wave action.
d. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, and floods change
human and wildlife habitats.
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Heat (Thermal Energy) (Physical
Science)
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Standard
3.
Heat moves
in a predictable flow from warmer objects to cooler objects until all objects
are at the same temperature. As a basis for understanding this concept,
students know:
a. Energy can be carried from one place
to another by heat flow, or by waves including water waves, light and sound,
or by moving objects.
b. When fuel is consumed, most of the energy released becomes heat
energy.
c. Heat flows in solids by conduction (which involves no flow of
matter) and in fluids by conduction and also by convection (which involves
flow of matter).
d. Heat energy is also transferred between objects by radiation;
radiation can travel through space.
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Energy in the Earth System
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Standard
4.
Many phenomena on
the Earthís surface are affected by the transfer of energy through radiation
and convection currents. As a basis for understanding this concept, students
know:
a. The sun is the major source of energy
for phenomena on the Earthís surface, powering winds, ocean currents, and
the water cycle.
b. Solar energy reaches Earth through radiation, mostly in the form
of visible light.
c. Heat from Earth's interior reaches the surface primarily through
convection.
d. Convection currents distribute heat in the atmosphere and oceans.
e. Differences in pressure, heat, air movement, and humidity result
in changes of weather.
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Ecology (Life Science)
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Standard
5.
Organisms in ecosystems
exchange energy and nutrients among themselves and with the environment.
As a basis for understanding this concept, students know:
a. Energy entering ecosystems as sunlight
is transferred by producers into chemical energy through photosynthesis,
and then from organism to organism in food webs.
b. Over time, matter is transferred from one organism to others in the
food web, and between organisms and the physical environment.
c. Populations of organisms can be categorized by the functions they
serve in an ecosystem.
d. Different kinds of organisms may play similar ecological roles
in similar biomes.
e. The number and types of organisms an ecosystem can support depends
on the resources available and abiotic factors, such as quantity of light
and water, range of temperatures, and soil composition.
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Resources
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Standard
6.
Sources of
energy and materials differ in amounts, distribution, usefulness, and the
time required for their formation. As a basis for understanding this concept,
students know:
a. The utility of energy sources is determined
by factors that are involved in converting these sources to useful forms
and the consequences of the conversion process.
b. Different natural energy and material resources, including
air, soil, rocks, minerals, petroleum, fresh water, wildlife, and forests,
and classify them as renewable or nonrenewable.
c. Natural origin of the materials used to make common objects.
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Investigation and Experimentation
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Standard
7.
Scientific
progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful
investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept, and to address
the content the other three strands, students should develop their own
questions and perform investigations. Students will:
a. Develop a hypothesis.
b. Select and use appropriate tools and technology (including calculators,
computers, balances, spring scales, microscopes, and binoculars) to perform
tests, collect data, and display data.
c. Construct appropriate graphs from data and develop qualitative
statements about the relationships between variables.
d. Communicate the steps and results from an investigation in written
reports and verbal presentations.
e. Recognize whether evidence is consistent with a proposed explanation.
f. Read a topographic map and a geologic map for evidence provided
on the maps, and construct and interpret a simple scale map.
g. Interpret events by sequence and time from natural phenomena (e.g.,
relative ages of rocks and intrusions).
h. Identify changes in natural phenomena over time without manipulating
the phenomena (e.g., a tree limb, a grove of trees, a stream, a hillslope).
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