Overview Sciencestandards

NSTA Content Standards

The science content standards outline what students should know, understand, and be able to do in the natural sciences over the course of K-12 education. They are divided into eight categories:

• Unifying concepts and processes in science.
• Science as inquiry. [K-4] [5-8] [9-12]
• Physical science. [K-4] [5-8] [9-12]
• Life science. [K-4] [5-8] [9-12]
• Earth and space science. [K-4] [5-8] [9-12]
• Science and technology. [K-4] [5-8] [9-12]
• Science in personal and social perspective. [K-4] [5-8] [9-12]
• History and nature of science. [K-4] [5-8] [9-12]

The first category is presented for all grade levels, because the understandings and abilities associated with these concepts need to be developed throughout a student's educational experiences. The other seven categories are clustered for grade levels K-4, 5-8, and 9-12.

Each content standard states that as a result of activities provided for all students in those grade levels, the content of the standard is to be understood or certain abilities are to be developed. The standards refer to broad areas of content, such as objects in the sky, the interdependence of organisms, or the nature of scientific knowledge. Following each standard is a discussion of how students can learn that material, but these discussions are illustrative, not proscriptive. Similarly, the discussion of each standard concludes with a guide to the fundamental ideas that underlie that standard, but these ideas are designed to be illustrative of the standard, not part of the standard itself.

Because each content standard subsumes the knowledge and skills of other standards, they are designed to be used as a whole. Although material can be added to the content standards, using only a subset of the standards will leave gaps in the scientific literacy expected of students.