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New Colorado P-12 Academic Standards

Current Display Filter: Science - Preschool

Content Area: Science
Grade Level Expectations: Preschool
Standard: 1. Physical Science

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

Concepts and skills students master:

1. Objects have properties and characteristics
Evidence Outcomes 21st Century Skill and Readiness Competencies

Students Can:

  1. Use senses to gather information about objects (DOK 1-2)
  2. Make simple observations, predictions, explanations, and generalizations based on real-life experiences (DOK 1-2)
  3. Collect, describe, and record information through discussion, drawings, and charts (DOK 1-2)

Inquiry Questions:

  1. How are various objects similar and different?

Relevance & Application:

  1. Use scientific tools such as magnets, magnifying glasses, scales, and rulers in investigations and play.

Nature Of:

  1. Be open to and curious about new tasks and challenges. (DOK 1-3)
  2. Explore and experiment. (DOK 1-3)
  3. Show capacity for invention and imagination. (DOK 1-3)
  4. Ask questions based on discoveries made while playing. (DOK 2)

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

Concepts and skills students master:

2. There are cause-and-effect relationships in everyday experiences
Evidence Outcomes 21st Century Skill and Readiness Competencies

Students Can:

  1. Recognize and investigate cause-and-effect relationships in everyday experiences - pushing, pulling, kicking, rolling, or blowing objects (DOK 1-2)

Inquiry Questions:

  1. How do various objects react differently to the same cause?

Relevance & Application:

  1. Use scientific tools such as magnets, magnifying glasses, scales, and rulers in investigations and play.

Nature Of:

  1. Be open to and curious about new tasks and challenges. (DOK 2-3)
  2. Explore and experiment. (DOK 1-3)
  3. Reflect on and interpret cause-and-effect relationships. (DOK 2)

Content Area: Science
Grade Level Expectations: Preschool
Standard: 2. Life Science

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

Concepts and skills students master:

1. Living things have characteristics and basic needs
Evidence Outcomes 21st Century Skill and Readiness Competencies

Students Can:

  1. Use senses to gather information about living things (DOK 1-2)
  2. Observe and explore the natural processes of growing, changing, and adapting to the environment (DOK 1-2)
  3. Ask and pursue questions through simple investigations and observations of living things (DOK 2-3)
  4. Collect, describe, and record information about living things through discussion, drawings, and charts (DOK 1-2)

Inquiry Questions:

  1. What do living things need to survive?

Relevance & Application:

  1. Mittens and hats keep people warm when the weather is cold.
  2. Gills on a fish allow them to "breathe" under water.

Nature Of:

  1. Be open to and curious about new tasks and challenges. (DOK 1-3)
  2. Explore and experiment. (DOK 1-3)

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

Concepts and skills students master:

2. Living things develop in predictable patterns
Evidence Outcomes 21st Century Skill and Readiness Competencies

Students Can:

  1. Identify the common needs such as food, air, and water of familiar living things (DOK 1)
  2. Predict, explain, and infer patterns based on observations and representations of living things, their needs, and life cycles (DOK 1-3)
  3. Make and record by drawing, acting out, or describing observations of living things and how they change over time (DOK 1-2)

Inquiry Questions:

  1. How do different living things change over time?
  2. What are some similarities and differences in how living things develop?
  3. How do the adults of various animals compare to younger versions of those same animals?

Relevance & Application:

  1. Butterflies have a predictable growth cycle.
  2. Leaves on a tree change color and fall every year.

Nature Of:

  1. Show a capacity for invention and imagination when looking for patterns of development. (DOK 1-3)

Content Area: Science
Grade Level Expectations: Preschool
Standard: 3. Earth Systems Science

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

Concepts and skills students master:

1. Earth's materials have properties and characteristics that affect how we use those materials
Evidence Outcomes 21st Century Skill and Readiness Competencies

Students Can:

  1. Use senses to gather information about Earth's materials (DOK 1-2)
  2. Make simple observations, explanations, and generalizations about Earth's materials based on real-life experiences (DOK 1-2)
  3. Describe how various materials might be used based on characteristics or properties (DOK 1-2)

Inquiry Questions:

  1. What are the similarities and differences among various earth materials?
  2. How do scientists study and describe Earth's materials?

Relevance & Application:

  1. Use scientific tools in investigations, and play with materials such as rocks, soil, sand, and water.

Nature Of:

  1. Ask testable question based on discoveries made while playing. (DOK 2)
  2. Collect, describe, and record information through discussions, drawings, and charts. (DOK 1-2)

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

Concepts and skills students master:

2. Events such as night, day, the movement of objects in the sky, weather, and seasons have patterns
Evidence Outcomes 21st Century Skill and Readiness Competencies

Students Can:

  1. Identify, predict, and extend patterns based on observations and representations of objects in the sky, daily weather, and seasonal changes (DOK 1-3)
  2. Observe and describe patterns observed over the course of a number of days and nights, possibly including differences in the activities or appearance of plants and animals (DOK 1-2)

Inquiry Questions:

  1. What natural patterns do you notice during the day?
  2. What natural patterns do you notice at night?
  3. What patterns do you notice in the seasons?
  4. What patterns do you notice in weather?

Relevance & Application:

  1. Different activities of various animals - including humans - are aligned with daily and seasonal patterns.

Nature Of:

  1. Be open to and curious about new tasks and challenges. (DOK 1-3)
  2. Explore and experiment. (DOK 1-3)