National Science Education Standards addressed in this module

Grades 9-12 Standards

A1. Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry:

· Identify questions and concepts that guide scientific investigations.

· Design and conduct a scientific investigation.

· Use technology and mathematics to improve investigations and communications.

· Formulate and revise scientific explanations and models using logic and evidence.

· Recognize and analyze alternative explanations and models.

· Communicate and defend a scientific argument.

A2. Understanding about scientific inquiry:

· Scientists usually inquire about how physical, living, or designed systems function.

· Scientists conduct investigations for a wide variety of reasons.

· Scientists rely on technology to enhance the gathering and manipulation of data.

· Mathematics is essential in scientific inquiry.

· Scientific explanations must adhere to criteria such as a proposed explanation must be logically consistent; it must abide by the rules of evidence; it must be open to questions and possible modification; and it must be based on historical and current scientific knowledge.

· Results of scientific inquiry emerge from different types of investigations and public communication among scientists.

E1. Abilities of technological design:

· Identify a problem or design an opportunity.

· Propose designs and choose between alternative solutions.

· Implement a proposed design.

· Evaluate the solution and its consequences.

· Communicate the problem, process, and solution.

E2. Understanding about science and technology:

· Scientists in different disciplines ask different questions, use different methods of investigation, and accept different types of evidence to support their explanations.

· Science often advances with the introduction of new technologies.

· Creativity, imagination, and a good knowledge base are all required in the work of science and engineering.

· Science and technology are pursued for different purposes.

· Technological knowledge is often not made public because of patents and the financial potential of the idea or invention.

· Scientific knowledge is made public.

G1. Science as a human endeavor:

· Individuals and teams have contributed and will continue to contribute to the scientific enterprise.

· Scientists have ethical traditions.

· Scientists are influenced by societal, cultural, and personal beliefs and ways of viewing the world.

G2. Nature of scientific knowledge:

· Science distinguishes itself from other ways of knowing and from other bodies of knowledge.

· Scientific explanations must meet certain criteria.

· Because all scientific ideas depend on experimental and observational confirmation, all scientific knowledge is, in principle, subject to change as new evidence becomes available.