Nonliving things can be humancreated or naturally occurring.
In order to survive in their environment, plants and animals must be adapted to that environment.
• seeds disperse by a plant’s own mechanism and/or in a variety of ways that can include wind, water, and animals;
• leaf, flower, stem, and root adaptations may include variations in size, shape, thickness, color, smell, and texture;
• animal adaptations include coloration for warning or attraction, camouflage, defense mechanisms, movement, hibernation, and migration
Plants and animals closely resemble their parents and other individuals in their species.
Animals need air, water, and food in order to live and thrive.
Each generation of animals goes through changes in form from young to adult. This completed sequence of changes in form is called a life cycle. Some insects change from egg to larva to pupa to adult.
Each animal has different structures that serve different functions in growth, survival, and reproduction.
• wings, legs, or fins enable some animals to seek shelter and escape predators;
• the mouth, including teeth, jaws, and tongue, enables some animals to eat and drink;
• eyes, nose, ears, tongue, and skin of some animals enable the animals to sense their surroundings;
• claws, shells, spines, feathers, fur, scales, and color of body covering enable some animals to protect themselves from predators and other environmental conditions, or enable them to obtain food;
• some animals have parts that are used to produce sounds and smells to help the animal meet its needs;
• the characteristics of some animals change as seasonal conditions change (e.g., fur grows and is shed to help regulate body heat; body fat is a form of stored energy and it changes as the seasons change)
Some animal behaviors are influenced by environmental conditions. These behaviors may include: nest building, hibernating, hunting, migrating, and communicating.
Particular animal characteristics are influenced by changing environmental conditions including: fat storage in winter, coat thickness in winter, camouflage, shedding of fur.
Humans, as individuals or communities, change environments in ways that can be either helpful or harmful for themselves and other organisms.
Green plants are producers because they provide the basic food supply for themselves and animals.
The Sun’s energy is transferred on Earth from plants to animals through the food chain.
Individuals within a species may compete with each other for food, mates, space, water, and shelter in their environment.
Weather can be described and measured by:
• temperature;
• wind speed and direction;
• form and amount of precipitation;
• general sky conditions (cloudy, sunny, partly cloudy)
Extreme natural events (floods, fires, earthquakes,volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, tornadoes, and other severe storms) may have positive or negative impacts on living things.
Natural cycles and patterns include:
• Earth spinning around once every 24 hours (rotation), resulting in day and night;
• Earth moving in a path around the Sun (revolution), resulting in one Earth year;
• the length of daylight and darkness varying with the seasons;
• weather changing from day to day and through the seasons;
• the appearance of the Moon changing as it moves in a path around Earth to complete a single cycle
Erosion and deposition result from the interaction among air, water, and land.
• interaction between air and water breaks down earth materials;
• pieces of earth material may be moved by air, water, wind, and gravity;
• pieces of earth material will settle or deposit on land or in the water in different places;
• soil is composed of brokendown pieces of living and nonliving earth material
Water is recycled by natural processes on Earth.
• evaporation: changing of water (liquid) into water vapor (gas);
• condensation: changing of water vapor (gas) into water (liquid);
• precipitation: rain, sleet, snow, hail;
• runoff: water flowing on Earth’s surface;
• groundwater: water that moves downward into the ground
Objects have properties that can be observed, described, and/or measured: length, width, volume, size, shape, mass or weight, temperature, texture, flexibility, reflectiveness of light.
The material(s) an object is made up of determine some specific properties of the object (sink/float, conductivity, magnetism). Properties can be observed or measured with tools such as hand lenses, metric rulers, thermometers, balances, magnets, circuit testers, and graduated cylinders.
Some properties of an object are dependent on the conditions of the present surroundings in which the object exists. For example:
• temperature - hot or cold;
• lighting - shadows, color;
• moisture - wet or dry
Matter exists in three states: solid, liquid, gas.
• solids have a definite shape and volume;
• liquids do not have a definite shape but have a definite volume;
• gases do not hold their shape or volume
Electricity travels in a closed circuit.
Some materials transfer energy better than others (heat and electricity).
Heat can be released in many ways, for example, by burning, rubbing (friction), or combining one substance with another.
Everyday events involve one form of energy being changed to another.
• animals convert food to heat and motion;
• the Sun’s energy warms the air and water
Describe chemical and physical changes, including changes in states of matter.
Use appropriate scientific tools, such as metric rulers, spring scale, pan balance, graph paper, thermometers [Fahrenheit and Celsius], graduated cylinder to solve problems about the natural world
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