Science

MIDDLE SCHOOL SCIENCE media type="youtube" key="X-elygXbo7s" height="385" width="480" align="center"

The goal of the North Carolina Standard Course of Study(NCSCS) for Science is to achieve scientific literacy. The National Science Education Standards define scientific literacy as "the knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts and processes required for scientific decision making, participation in civic and cultural affairs, and economic productivity." (p. 22)

The tenets of scientific literacy include the ability to:
 * Find or determine answers to questions derived from everyday experiences.
 * Describe, explain, and predict natural phenomena.
 * Understand articles about science.
 * Engage in non-technical conversation about the validity of conclusions.
 * Identify scientific issues underlying national and local decisions.
 * Pose explanations based on evidence derived from one's own work.

North Carolina students can achieve scientific literacy through an instructional program based on the science component of the Standard Course of Study for Science. The SCS is designed to merge unifying concepts of science, strands, content goals, and objectives.

These unifying concepts are:
 * Systems, Order and Organization
 * Evidence, Models, and Explanation
 * Constancy, Change, and Measurement
 * Evolution and Equilibrium
 * Form and Function

The strands include:
 * Nature of Science
 * Science as Inquiry
 * Science and Technology
 * Science in Social and Personal Perspectives

**__MIDDLE GRADES 6-8__** The middle school science component of the SCS focuses on the Unifying Concepts of Science as identified by the National Science Education Standards. The unifying concepts and the Strands should be integrated with science content goals and objectives for middle school.

The Unifying Concepts of Science consist of:
 * Systems, Order, and Organization
 * Evidence, Models, and Explanation.
 * Constancy, Change, and Measurement.
 * Evolution and Equilibrium.
 * Form and Function.

The **Strands** include the following goals:

Nature of Science As a result of activities in grades 6-8, all students should develop an understanding of:
 * Science as a human endeavor.
 * Nature of scientific knowledge.
 * Historical perspectives.

Science as Inquiry As a result of activities in grades 6-8, all students should develop an understanding of: Science and Technology As a result of activities in grades 6-8, all students should develop an understanding of:
 * Ability to do scientific inquiry.
 * Understanding about scientific inquiry.
 * Ability to perform safe and appropriate manipulation of materials, scientific equipment, and technology.
 * Mastery of integrated process skills.
 * acquiring, processing, and interpreting data
 * identifying variables and their relationships[[image:science_1.jpg width="300" height="535" align="right"]]
 * designing investigations
 * experimenting
 * analyzing investigations
 * constructing hypotheses
 * formulating models
 * What technologies are.
 * Ability to perform technological design.
 * Understanding science and technology.

Science in Personal and Social Perspectives As a result of activities in grades 6-8, all students should develop an understanding of:
 * Personal and community health.
 * Population dynamics.
 * Environmental quality.
 * Natural and human-induced hazards.
 * Science and technology in local, national, and global challenges.
 * Careers in science and technology.

[|North Carolina Standard Course of Study] = National Science Education Standards = The National Science Education Standards were produced by the National Research Council in 1995 and published in 1996. The Standards were the result of four years of work by twenty-two scientific and science education societies and over 18,000 individual contributors. The National Science Teachers Association is now part of an ongoing effort to implement the Standards in classrooms throughout the country. Unlike other documents, the Standards deal concurrently with six aspects of science education: Standards are not a curriculum. They are not a set of lesson plans. They are goals for achievement that are appropriate for all members of the science education community.
 * Standards for science teaching (Chapter 3).
 * Standards for professional development for teachers of science (Chapter 4).
 * Standards for assessment in science education (Chapter 5).
 * Standards for science content (Chapter 6).
 * Standards for science education programs (Chapter 7).
 * Standards for science education systems (Chapter 8).

[|National Science Education Standards] [|National Science Teachers Association]

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