The content objectives and classroom connectors on this page were written by selected Tennessee teachers of science and are congruent with the CE/CE Content Topics listed for Second Grade Science. In addition, Standards and Benchmarks have been added to each classroom connector in compliance with the Four Components of Science Education derived from a unique curricular concept. The grade level presentations prepared by the CE/CE represent one of many ways the classroom connectors can be organized.

• National Science Education Standards' Content Standards, Content Topics, and Rationale
  • CE/CE Concepts and CE/CE Content Objectives Based on CE/CE Content Topics as Defined by NSES Rationale

NSES Content Standard

• Physical Science 6-8

• Motions And Forces

  The motion of an object can be described by its position, direction of motion, and speed. This motion can be represented on a graph.

  An object that is not being subjected to a force will continue to move at a constant speed and in a straight line.

  If more than one force acts on an object, then the forces can reinforce or cancel one another, depending on their direction and magnitude. Unbalanced forces will cause changes in the speed and/or direction of an object's motion.

  CE/CE Concept B:

  • Magnets are either natural or man-made.

  CE/CE Content Objectives:

  • 6B1

    To understand the use of magnetism as a force

  • 6B2

    To understand the construction of a magnet and the force it produces

NSES Content Standard

• Physical Science 6-8

• Tranformations Of Energy

  Energy exists in many forms, including heat, light, chemical, nuclear, mechanical and electrical. Energy can be transformed from one form to another.

  Heat energy moves in predictable ways, flowing from warmer objects to cooler ones until both objects are at the same temperature.

  Light interacts with matter by transmission (including refraction), absorption, or scattering (including reflection). To see an object, light from that object -- emitted by or scattered from it -- must enter the eye.

  Electrical circuits provide a means of converting electrical energy into heat, light, sound, chemical or other forms of energy.

  The sun is a major source of energy for changes on the Earth's surface. The sun's energy arrives as light with a range of wavelengths, consisting mainly of visible light with significant amounts of infrared and ultraviolet radiation.

  CE/CE Concept Ca:

  • Various sources of energy can be utilized in the production of electricity.

  CE/CE Content Objective:

  • 6C1

    To understand various methods of producing electricity

  CE/CE Concept Cb:
  • Electricity involves the movement of electrons.

  CE/CE Content Objective:

  • 6C2

    To understand the structure of batteries and how the changing of chemical to electrical energy is useful

  CE/CE Concept Cc:
  • Sound is produced by vibrating matter and is transmitted in all directions.

  CE/CE Content Objective:

  • 6C3

    To understand the properties of sound and the effect of electricity on sound

  CE/CE Concept Cd:
  • Heat is present in all matter.

  CE/CE Content Objectives:

  • 6C4

    To understand the scientific meaning of heat

  • 6C5

    To understand how heat is transferred

  CE/CE Concept Ce:
  • Electricity can be harmful.

  CE/CE Content Objective:

  • 6C6

    To understand the importance of observing safety rules in the use of electricity

  CE/CE Concept Cf:
  • Energy may be obtained from various sources.

  CE/CE Content Objective:

  • 6C7

    To understand alternative energy forms

NSES Content Standard

• Life Science 6-8

• Reproduction And Heredity

  Reproduction is a characteristic of all living systems; since no individual organism lives forever, it is essential to the continuation of species. Some organisms reproduce asexually. Other organisms reproduce sexually.

  In many species, including humans, females produce eggs and males produce sperm. An egg and sperm unite beginning the development of a new individual. This new individual has an equal contribution of information from its mother (via the egg) and its father (via the sperm). Sexually produced offspring are never identical to either of their parents.

  Each organism requires a set of instructions for specifying its traits. Heredity is the passage of these instructions from one generation to another.

  Hereditary information is contained in genes, located in the chromosomes of each cell. Each gene carries a single unit of information, and an inherited trait of an individual can be determined by either one or many genes. A human cell contains many thousands of different genes.

  The characteristics of an organism can be described in terms of a combination of traits. Some traits are inherited and others result from interactions with the environment.

  CE/CE Concept E:

  • Traits are passed from parent to offspring.

  CE/CE Content Objectives:

  • 6E1

    6E1.00 To understand how traits are passed from parent to offspring

NSES Content Standard

• Life Science 6-8

• Populations And Ecosystems

  Populations consist of all individuals of a species that occur together at a given place. All of the populations living together and the physical factors with which they interact compose an ecosystem.

  Populations of organisms can be categorized by the function they serve in an ecosystem. Plants and some micro-organisms are producers--they make their own food. All animals, including humans, are consumers, which obtain food by eating other organisms. Decomposers, primarily bacteria and fungi, are consumers that use waste materials and dead organisms for food. Food webs identify the relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers in an ecosystem.

  For ecosystems, the major source of energy is sunlight. Energy entering ecosystems as sunlight is converted by producers into stored chemical energy through photosynthesis, It then passes from organism to organism in food webs.

  The number of organisms an ecosystem can support depends on the resources available and abiotic factors such as quantity of light and water, range of temperatures, and the soil composition. Given adequate biotic and abiotic resources and no disease or predators, populations, including humans, increase at very rapid (exponential) rates. Limitations of resources and other factors such as predation and climate limit the growth of populations in specific niches in the ecosystem.

  CE/CE ConceptGa:

  • Photosynthesis and cellular respiration are life-sustaining plant processes.

  CE/CE Content Objective:

  • 6G1

    To understand how the process of photosynthesis changes sunlight into stored chemical energy by producers

  CE/CE ConceptGb:
  • Increasing population impacts the natural resources of the earth.

  CE/CE Content Objective:

  • 6G2

    To understand the relationship among population size, life-style and consumption of natural resources

  CE/CE ConceptGc
  • Factors influence the stability of ecosystems.

  CE/CE Content Objectives:

  • 6G3

    To understand the factors which influence the stability of ecosystems

  CE/CE Content Objectives:

  • 6G4

    To understand the role of predators in an ecosystem

NSES Content Standard

• Earth and Space Science 6-8

• Structure Of The Earth

  The solid Earth is layered with a thin brittle crust, hot convecting mantle, and dense metallic core.

  Crustal plates on the scale of continents and oceans constantly move at rates of centimeters per year in response to movements in the mantle. Major geological events, such as earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountain building, result from these plate motions.

  Land forms are the result of a combination of constructive and destructive forces. Constructive forces include crustal deforamtion, volcanoes, and deposition of sediment, while destructive forces include weathering and erosion.

  Changes in the solid Earth can be described as the rock cycle. Old rocks at the Earth's surface weather, forming sediments that are buried, then compacted, heated, and often recrystallized into new rock. Eventually, these new rocks may be brought to the surface by the forces that drive plate motions, and the rock cycle continues.

  Soil consists of weathered rocks, decomposed organic material from dead plants, animals, and bacteria. Soils are often found in layers, with each having a different chemical composition ant texture.

  Water, which covers the majority of the Earth's surface, circulates through the crust, oceans, and atmosphere in what is known as the water cycle. Water evaporates from the Earth's surface, rises and cools as it moves to higher elevations, condenses as rain or snow, and falls to the surface where it collects in lakes, oceans, soil and in rocks underground.

  Water is a solvent. As it passes through the water cycle it dissolves mineral sand gases and carries them to the oceans.

  The atmosphere is a mixture of oxygen, nitrogen, and trace gases that include water vapor The atmosphere has different properties at different elevations.

  Clouds, formed by the condensation of water vapor, affect weather and climate. Some do so by reflecting much of the sunlight that reaches Earth from the sun, while others hold heat energy emitted from the Earth's surface.

  Global patterns of atmospheric movement influence local weather. Oceans have a major effect on climate, because water in the oceans hold a large amount of heat.

  Living have played many roles in the Earth system, including affecting the composition of the atmosphere and contributing to the weathering of rocks.

  CE/CE Concept Ia:

  • Changes are constantly occurring in and on the earth.

  CE/CE Content Objectives:

  • 6I1

    To understand the composition and characteristics of the various layers of the earth

  • 6I2

    To understand forces on the surface and within the earth which cause it to change

  CE/CE Concept Ib:
  • The atmosphere has different properties at different elevations.

  CE/CE Content Objectives:

  • 6I3

    To understand, at different elevations, how the Earth's atmosphere was formed and describe the layers of the atmosphere

NSES Content Standard

• Earth and Space Science 6-8

• Earth's History

  The Earth processes we see today, including erosion, movement of crustal plates, and changes in atmospheric composition, are similar to those that occurred in the past. Earth history is also influenced by occasional catastrophes, such as the impact of an asteroid or comet.

  Fossils provide important evidence of how life and environmental conditions have changed.

  CE/CE Concept J:

  • Changes are constantly occurring in and on the earth.

  CE/CE Content Objectives:

  • 6J1

    To understand how fossils are formed

NSES Content Standard

• Earth and Space Science 6-8

• The Solar System

  The Earth is the third planet from the sun in a system that includes the moon, the sun, eight other planets and their moons, and smaller objects such as asteroids and comets. The sun, an average star, is the central and largest body in the solar system.

  Most objects in the solar system are in regular and predictable motion. These motions explain such phenomena as the day, the year, phases of the moon, and eclipses.

  Gravity is the force that keeps planets in orbit around the sun and governs the rest of the motion in the solar system. Gravity alone holds us to the Earth's surface and explains the phenomena of the tides.

  The sun is the major sources of energy for phenomena on the Earth's surface, such as growth of plants, winds, ocean currents, and the water cycle. Seasons result from variations in the amount of the sun's energy hitting the surface, due to the tilt of the Earth's rotation axis.

  CE/CE Concept K:

  • The sun's energy arrives as light with a range of wavelengths.

  CE/CE Content Objectives:

  • 6K1

    To understand what makes up light and how it relates to your life.

For more information please contact the CE/CE Online

This is the time this file has been accessed since 12/20/95.

The University of Tennessee at Martin is not responsible for the information or views expressed here.

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