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United States

The Science Curriculum in Primary and Lower Secondary Grades

In the United States, the curriculum frameworks of individual states vary. Students begin studying science in lower elementary school in an observational way. Science in elementary school covers basic concepts of life sciences, physical sciences, and Earth and space sciences that develop across the grades. In middle school, students study science in more depth; science courses are still integrated in most states and districts, but the focus on specific content areas may differ across the grades (e.g., a focus on Earth and space sciences in Grade 6, life sciences in Grade 7, and physical sciences in Grade 8). A focus on investigation and experimentation starts in elementary school and increases in sophistication in the middle school grades.25,26

In 2013, new K to 12 science standards, called the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), were published and began influencing how science is taught across the United States. The NGSS have three dimensions that are integrated into instruction at all levels: (1) disciplinary core ideas in the natural sciences (life, physical, and Earth and space sciences), as well as in engineering, technology, and applications of science, which reflect the content to be learned across subject areas; (2) scientific and engineering practices, such as investigating, using models, interpreting data, constructing explanations, and designing solutions, which elaborate the processes and habits of mind in science and engineering that students should develop and apply; and (3) crosscutting concepts, such as energy, matter, and systems, which reflect key underlying concepts that apply across the domains of science and unify the study of science and engineering.

The NGSS give equal emphasis to engineering design and to scientific inquiry, and students are expected not just to learn content, but to understand and develop the methods of scientists and engineers. They define what students must know and be able to do in order to demonstrate that they have met the standards. An important facet of the standards is the integration of science content and scientific and engineering practices. This is a change from traditional teaching, which typically either deals with these areas separately or does not attempt to teach scientific and engineering practices. As of August 2015, 15 states and the District of Columbia had adopted the voluntary standards officially, and other states were using the NGSS as a framework for updating their state science standards. However, full implementation of the NGSS was not in place in the 2014–2015 school year in any of these states.27

Exhibits 4 and 5 (on the following pages) summarize the topics that were commonly included in states’ science curricula during the 2014–2015 school year. The life, physical, and Earth and space sciences topics in the exhibits are based on the TIMSS 2015 Curriculum Questionnaires and the curriculum frameworks for five of the most populous states: California, Florida, Massachusetts, New York, and Texas.g Exhibit 4 focuses on upper elementary school (the Grades 3 to 5 band) and Exhibit 5 focuses on middle school (the Grades 6 to 8 band) in order to cover the science topics that are generally included in the curriculum frameworks for the two TIMSS grades (Grades 4 and 8). These grade bands were selected because the curriculum grade structure in the United States varies by state for both mathematics and science and some topics are taught across grade levels. Additional topics not included in the exhibits appear in some states’ curricula. Moreover, specific curriculum frameworks at the state and district levels may include detailed grade-level instructional benchmarks, approaches to learning, and instructional resource material.

Exhibit 4: Science Curriculum Topics in Upper Elementary School*

Area of Science Topics
Life Sciences
  • Characteristics of living things and the major groups of living things (e.g., mammals, birds, insects, flowering plants)
  • Major body structures and their functions in animals and plants
  • Life cycles of common plants and animals (e.g., mammals, birds, butterflies, frogs, flowering plants), including birth, growth, development, reproduction, and death
  • Understanding that some characteristics of organisms are inherited from the parents, and some are the result of interactions with the environment; examples of inherited versus acquired/learned traits
  • How physical features and behaviors help living things survive in their environments; understanding that when the environment changes, some organisms survive, while others die or move to a different location
  • Relationships in communities and ecosystems (e.g., simple food chains, predator-prey relationships); the role of the Sun, plants, and animals in the transfer of energy in ecosystems; effects of changes in ecosystems (e.g., overpopulation, lack of food sources)**
Physical Sciences
  • States of matter (solid, liquid, gas) and properties of the states of matter (volume, shape); how the state of matter changes by heating or cooling
  • Classifying materials based on physical properties (e.g., weight/mass, volume, color, texture, conducting heat, conducting electricity, magnetic attraction)
  • Mixtures and how to separate a mixture into its components (e.g., sifting, filtering, evaporation, using a magnet)**
  • Chemical changes in everyday life (e.g., decaying, burning, rusting, cooking); knowledge that combining substances may result in new materials with different properties**
  • Types and observations of energy (heat, sound, light, electrical, mechanical/motion); common sources of energy (e.g., the Sun, electricity, wind); and uses of energy (heating and cooling homes, providing light)
  • Energy transformations (e.g., electrical energy converted to motion, sound, heat, or light; mechanical energy converted to heat energy or electrical energy)
  • Basic properties and behavior of light (light travels in a straight line until it strikes an object or travels from one medium to another; light can be reflected, refracted, or absorbed; objects that block light produce shadows)**
  • Basic properties of sound (sound is produced by vibrating objects, and the pitch changes with the rate of vibration)**
  • Electricity and simple circuits (e.g., identifying materials that are conductors); knowing that the flow of electricity requires a closed circuit (complete loop); constructing simple circuits using wires, batteries, and bulbs; demonstrating that electric circuits can produce heat, light, sound, and motion
  • Properties of magnets (e.g., knowing that like poles repel and opposite poles attract, recognizing that magnets can attract some objects); uses of electromagnets**
  • Forces that cause objects to move (e.g., gravity, pushing/pulling, magnetic force); the effect of friction on motion**
  • Descriptions and measurements of position and motion (distance and time); observations of changes in speed and direction**
Earth and Space Sciences
  • Common features of Earth’s landscape (e.g., mountains, plains, deserts, rivers, oceans)
  • Human use of Earth’s natural resources (e.g., land, water, fuels) and its impact on the environment**
  • Where water is found on Earth (e.g., oceans, lakes, rivers, groundwater); how water moves in and out of the air (e.g., evaporation, rainfall, cloud formation, dew formation)
  • Describing and measuring common weather conditions (e.g., temperature, wind, precipitation, clouds); understanding that weather changes from day to day, from season to season, and by geographic location
  • Understanding what fossils are and what they can tell us about past conditions on Earth (fossils as evidence of past living organisms and the nature of the environments at the time)**
  • Objects in the solar system (the Sun, Earth, the Moon, and other planets) and their movements (Earth and other planets revolve around the Sun, the Moon revolves around Earth); the Sun as the source of energy (heat and light) for Earth
  • Understanding how day and night result from Earth’s rotation on its axis, and how shadows change throughout the day
  • Understanding how the changing seasons are a result of Earth’s annual movement around the Sun (does not include the effect of the tilt of Earth’s axis)
  • The appearance of stars outside Earth’s solar system, and knowledge that the Sun is a star
*Upper elementary school refers to Grades 3 to 5. State curricula differ in their grade structuring; some states specify that topics should be taught within a certain grade band (e.g., Grades 3 to 5), while others specify that topics should be taught at specific grades.
**These science topics are introduced in upper elementary school, but are not emphasized until middle school in some states.
NOTE: Curriculum topics listed in this exhibit are based on the TIMSS 2015 Curriculum Questionnaire and the state curriculum frameworks in California, Florida, Massachusetts, New York, and Texas in place during the 2014–2015 school year. The topics listed are not exhaustive, as curriculum frameworks vary by state.

Exhibit 5: Science Curriculum Topics in Middle School*

Area of Science Topics
Life Sciences (Biology)
  • Differences among major taxonomic groups of organisms (plants, animals, fungi, mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, amphibians)
  • Major organs and organ systems in humans and other organisms (structure/function, life processes that maintain stable bodily conditions)
  • Causes of infectious diseases (viruses and bacteria) and the role of the immune system in protecting the human body from disease**
  • Cellular composition of organisms (unicellular and multicellular); structure and functions of cells, including major organelles in plant and animal cells
  • Basic processes, reactants, and products of photosynthesis (use of light energy, carbon dioxide, and water to produce sugars and release oxygen), and cellular respiration (use of oxygen to break down sugars and release carbon dioxide and water)**
  • Reproduction (sexual and asexual) and heredity (the role of genes in the expression and passing on of traits from one generation to another)
  • Diversity, adaptation, and natural selection (the role of genetic variation and adaptation in the survival and extinction of species in changing environments)
  • The fossil record and comparative anatomy as evidence for changes in life forms on Earth over geologic time and the basis for the theory of evolution**
  • Interdependence of populations of organisms in an ecosystem (e.g., cycling of matter and energy flow, food webs, competition, predation) and factors affecting population size in an ecosystem
Physical Sciences (Chemistry and Physics)
  • Classification and composition of matter; pure substances (elements and compounds) and mixtures (homogeneous solutions and heterogeneous mixtures)
  • Particulate structure of matter (atoms and molecules)
  • Basic atomic structure and subatomic particles (protons, neutrons, and electrons)**
  • Physical and chemical properties of matter (including metals and nonmetals)
  • The periodic table (organization and classification of elements based on properties)**
  • Chemical change (transformation of reactants and conservation of matter/atoms); evidence of chemical change; difference between chemical and physical change; common reactions
  • Physical states and changes in matter (explanations of properties and changes of state in terms of movement and distance between particles)
  • Conservation of mass in physical and chemical changes**
  • Energy forms  and transformations: kinetic energy; types of potential energy (gravitational, magnetic, electric); electrical circuits transferring electrical energy; light, sound, and heat (thermal energy); relationship between heat and temperature
  • Conservation of total energy (e.g., transformations between kinetic and potential energy, conversions between kinetic energy and heat)**
  • Properties and behavior of  light (reflection, refraction, transmission, absorption, color, wavelength, and energy); regions of the electromagnetic spectrum (e.g., microwaves, infrared light, visible light, ultraviolet light)**
  • Properties and behavior of sound (sound as vibrational waves, transmission through different media, volume and amplitude, pitch and frequency)**
  • Forces and motion: types of forces (contact, electric, magnetic, gravitational, friction); additive forces and net force acting on objects; description of motion (position, speed, direction); motion graphs
  • Applications of Newton’s laws of motion (law of inertia; relationship between force, mass, and motion; action-reaction forces)**
Earth and Space Sciences
  • Earth’s structure and physical features (Earth’s crust, mantle, and core; composition and relative distribution of water; composition of air)
  • Earth’s processes and cycles (rock cycle, water cycle, weathering, erosion)
  • Plate tectonics; lithospheric plate movement resulting in major geological events (e.g., earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, mountain building)
  • Earth’s history (changes in Earth’s surface over time; formation of fossils and fossil fuels; measurement of geologic time)
  • Weather and climate (global weather patterns, atmospheric movement, role of the Sun and oceans in driving weather systems, weather versus climate)
  • Earth’s resources, their use, and conservation (e.g., renewable and nonrenewable resources, human use of land/soil, and water resources)
  • Human impact on the environment (e.g., deforestation, urbanization, desertification, erosion, air and water quality)
  • Factors contributing to climate change (e.g., greenhouse gases, ash from volcanic eruptions)
  • Model of the solar system to explain phenomena on Earth (day and night, year, phases of the moon, eclipses, seasons); the role of gravity in the formation and motions of objects in the solar system; physical features of Earth compared to other bodies, including the Sun, other planets, moons, asteroids, and comets
  • Stars, galaxies, and the universe (components of the universe, the Sun as a star, hierarchical relationships in distance and size of bodies inside and outside the solar system)
*Middle school refers to Grades 6 to 8. State curricula differ in their grade structuring; some states specify that topics should be taught within a certain grade band (e.g., Grades 6 to 8), while others specify that topics should be taught at specific grades.
**These science topics are introduced in middle school, but are not emphasized until high school in some states.
NOTE: Curriculum topics listed in this exhibit are based on the TIMSS 2015 Curriculum Questionnaire and the state curriculum frameworks in California, Florida, Massachusetts, New York, and Texas in place during the 2014–2015 school year. The topics listed are not exhaustive, as curriculum frameworks vary by state.