Colorado Academic Standards Online
Use the options below to create customized views of the Colorado Academic Standards. For all standards resources, see the Office of Standards and Instructional Support.
Social Studies - 2022
Third Grade, Standard 2. Geography
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Prepared Graduates:
- 3. Apply geographic representations and perspectives to analyze human movement, spatial patterns, systems, and the connections and relationships among them.
Grade Level Expectation:
1. Use geographic tools to develop spatial thinking skills.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Read and interpret information from geographic tools and formulate geographic questions.
- Locate oceans and continents, major countries, bodies of water, mountains, urban areas, the state of Colorado, and neighboring states on maps.
- Describe the natural and man-made features of a specific area on a map.
- Identify geography-based problems and examine the ways that people have tried to solve them.
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Articulate the most effective geographic tools to access information needed for developing spatial thinking (Critical Thinking and Analysis).
Inquiry Questions:
- What questions do geographers ask?
- How does the geography of where we live influence how we live?
- How do physical features provide opportunities and challenges to regions?
Nature and Skills of Geography:
- Geographic thinkers use and interpret information from geographic tools to investigate geographic questions.
- Geographic thinkers use geographic tools to answer questions about places and locations such as where to locate a business or park and how to landscape a yard.
- Geographic thinkers develop the skills to organize and make connections such as reading a map and understanding where you are, where you want to go, and how to get to the destination.
- Geographic thinkers use maps, satellite images, photographs, and other representations to explain relationships between the locations of places and regions and their environmental characteristics.
Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:
- Use information gained from illustrations such as maps and photographs, as well as the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text. For example: Where, when, why, and how key events occur.
- Determine the kinds of sources that will be helpful in answering compelling and supporting questions, taking into consideration the different opinions people have about how to answer the questions.
- Find information using technology.
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Prepared Graduates:
- 4. Examine the characteristics of places and regions, and the changing nature among geographic and human interactions.
Grade Level Expectation:
2. Define the concept of region through an examination of similarities and differences in places and communities.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Observe and describe the physical, cultural, and human-made characteristics of a local region. For example: The Eastern Plains, San Luis Valley, Pikes Peak, Northwest, Front Range, South Central, Southwest, and Western Slope.
- Identify the factors that make a region unique. For example: Cultural diversity, industry and agriculture, and landforms.
- Give examples of places that are similar and different from a local region.
- Characterize regions using different types of features such as physical, political, cultural, urban, and rural attributes.
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Investigate a variety of places and communities and draw conclusions about regions (Critical Thinking and Analysis).
Inquiry Questions:
- Are regions in the world more similar or different?
- Why do people describe regions using human or physical characteristics?
- What are the geographic characteristics of a region?
- How do cultures lead to similarities and differences between regions?
Nature and Skills of Geography:
- Geographic thinkers analyze connections among places.
- Geographic thinkers compare and contrast characteristics of regions when making decisions and choices such as where to send children to school, what part of town to live in, what type of climate suits personal needs, and what region of a country to visit.
- Geographic thinkers can explain how natural and human-made catastrophic events in one place affect people living in other places.
Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:
- Use information gained from illustrations such as maps and photographs, as well as the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text. For example: Where, when, why, and how key events occur.
- Compare and contrast the most important points and key details presented in two texts on the same topic.
- Identify disciplinary concepts and ideas associated with a compelling question that are open to different interpretations.
- Find information using technology.
Science - 2019
Third Grade, Standard 1. Physical Science
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Prepared Graduates:
- 2. Students can use the full range of science and engineering practices to make sense of natural phenomena and solve problems that require understanding interactions between objects and within systems of objects.
Grade Level Expectation:
1. Patterns of motion can be used to predict future motion.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence of the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object. (3-PS2-1) (Clarification Statement: Examples could include an unbalanced force on one side of a ball can make it start moving and balanced forces pushing on a box from both sides will not produce any motion at all.) (Boundary Statements: Limited to one variable at a time: number, size or direction of forces and to gravity being addressed as a force that pulls objects down. Does not include quantitative force size, only qualitative and relative.)
- Make observations and/or measurements of an object’s motion to provide evidence that a pattern can be used to predict future motion. (3-PS2-2) (Clarification Statement: Examples of motion with a predictable pattern could include a child swinging in a swing, a ball rolling back and forth in a bowl and two children on a see-saw.) (Boundary Statement: Does not include technical terms such as period and frequency.)
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills and Science and Engineering Practices:
- Ask questions that can be investigated based on patterns such as cause and effect relationships. (Asking Questions and Defining Problems) (Entrepreneurial: Inquiry/Analysis)
- Define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool. (Asking Questions and Defining Problems) (Entrepreneurial: Inquiry/Analysis)
- Plan and conduct an investigation collaboratively to produce data to serve as the basis for evidence, using fair tests in which variables are controlled and the number of trials considered. (Planning and Carrying Out Investigations) (Entrepreneurial: Inquiry/Analysis)
- Make observations and/or measurements to produce data to serve as the basis for evidence for an explanation of a phenomenon or test a design solution. (Planning and Carrying Out Investigations) (Entrepreneurial: Inquiry/Analysis)
Elaboration on the GLE:
- Students can answer the questions: How can one predict an object’s continued motion, changes in motion or stability? What underlying forces explain the variety of interactions observed?
- PS2:A Forces and Motion: Each force acts on one particular object and has both strength and a direction. An object at rest typically has multiple forces acting on it, but they add to give zero net force on the object. Forces that do not sum to zero can cause changes in the object’s speed or direction of motion. (Boundary: Qualitative and conceptual, but not quantitative addition of forces is used at this level). The patterns of an object’s motion in various situations can be observed and measured; when that past motion exhibits a regular pattern, future motion can be predicted from it. (Boundary: Technical terms, such as magnitude, velocity, momentum and vector quantity, are not introduced at this level, but the concept that some quantities need both size and direction to be described is developed.)
- PS2:B Types of Interactions: Objects in contact exert forces on each other.
Cross Cutting Concepts:
- Cause and Effect: Cause - and - effect relationships are routinely identified.
- Patterns: Patterns of change can be used to make predictions.
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Prepared Graduates:
- 3. Students can use the full range of science and engineering practices to make sense of natural phenomena and solve problems that require understanding how energy is transferred and conserved.
Grade Level Expectation:
2. Objects in contact exert forces on each other; electric and magnetic forces between a pair of objects do not require contact.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Ask questions to determine cause - and - effect relationships of electric or magnetic interactions between two objects not in contact with each other. (3-PS2-3) (Clarification Statement: Examples of an electric force could include the force on hair from an electrically charged balloon and the electrical forces between a charged rod and pieces of paper; examples of a magnetic force could include the force between two permanent magnets, the force between an electromagnet and steel paperclips and the force exerted by one magnet versus the force exerted by two magnets. Examples of cause - and - effect relationships could include how the distance between objects affects strength of the force and how the orientation of magnets affects the direction of the magnetic force.) (Boundary Statement: Limited to forces produced by objects that can be manipulated by students, and electrical interactions are limited to static electricity.)
- Define a simple design problem that can be solved by applying scientific ideas about magnets. (3-PS2-4) (Clarification Statement: Examples of problems could include constructing a latch to keep a door shut and creating a device to keep two moving objects from touching each other.)
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills and Science and Engineering Practices:
- Ask questions that can be investigated based on patterns such as cause - and - effect relationships. (Asking Questions and Defining Problems) (Entrepreneurial: Inquiry/Analysis).
- Define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool. (Asking Questions and Defining Problems) (Personal: Personal responsibility).
- Plan and conduct an investigation that control variables and provide evidence to support explanations or design solutions. (Planning and Carrying Out Investigations) (Entrepreneurial: Inquiry/Analysis).
Elaboration on the GLE:
- Students can answer the question: Why are some physical systems more stable than others?
- PS2:B Types of Interactions: Electric and magnetic forces between a pair of objects do not require that the objects be in contact. The sizes of the forces in each situation depend on the properties of the objects and their distances apart and for forces between two magnets on their orientation relative to each other.
Cross Cutting Concepts:
- Cause and Effect: Cause and effect relationships are routinely identified, tested and used to explain change.
- Connections to Engineering, Technology and Applications of Science: Interdependence of Science, Engineering and Technology-Scientific discoveries about the natural world can often lead to new and improved technologies, which are developed through the engineering design process.
Need Help? Submit questions or requests for assistance to bruno_j@cde.state.co.us