The Rhode Island Science Framework: Grades 6-8 Benchmarks

Technology has strongly influenced the course of history and continues to do so. It is largely responsible for the great revolutions in agriculture, manufacturing, sanitation and medicine, warfare, transportation, information processing, and communications that have radically changed how people live.

B. The Physical Setting

We live on a relatively small planet, the third from the sun in the only system of planets definitely known to exist (although other, similar systems may be discovered in the universe).
• Earth Within the Solar System AND ALL FOCUS TOPICS
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/ear81/1.asp
  

(Benchmark 2 of 5)

The earth is mostly rock. Three-fourths of its surface is covered by a relatively thin layer of water (some of it frozen), and the entire planet is surrounded by a relatively thin blanket of air. It is the only body in the solar system that appears able to support life. The other planets have compositions and conditions very different from earth.
• Earth's Location and its Effects
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/ear81/1b.asp
  

(Benchmark 3 of 5)

Everything on or anywhere near the earth is pulled toward the earth's center by gravitational force.
• Mass and Weight
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/psc91/4e.asp
  
• Universal Gravitation
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/psc91/9b.asp
  

(Benchmark 4 of 5)

Because the earth turns daily on an axis that is tilted relative to the plane of the earth's yearly orbit around the sun, sunlight falls more intensely on different parts of the earth during the year. The difference in heating of the earth's surface produces the planet's seasons and weather patterns.
• The Spin We're In
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/ear81/2a.asp
  
• Night and Day
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/ear81/2b.asp
  
• The Reasons for Seasons
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/ear81/2d.asp
  

(Benchmark 5 of 5)

The moon's orbit around the earth once in about 28 days changes what part of the moon is lighted by the sun and how much of that part can be seen from the earth--the phases of the moon, but the same side of the moon always faces the earth.
• Fly Me to the Moon
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/ear81/1e.asp
  

(Benchmark 1 of 5)

Sediments of sand and smaller particles (sometimes containing the remains of organisms) are gradually buried and are cemented together by precipitation of dissolved minerals to form solid rock again.
• Sedimentary Rocks: Layered Storytellers
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/ear82/7b.asp
  

(Benchmark 2 of 5)

Sedimentary rock buried deep enough may be reformed by pressure and heat, perhaps melting and recrystallizing into different kinds of rock (metamorphism). These re-formed rock layers may be forced up again to become land surface and even mountains. Subsequently, this new rock too will erode. Rock bears evidence of the minerals, temperatures, and forces that created it.
• Metamorphism: Changed Rocks
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/ear82/7c.asp
  

(Benchmark 3 of 5)

Thousands of layers of sedimentary rock confirm the long history of the changing surface of the earth and the changing life forms whose remains are found in successive layers. The youngest layers are not always found on top, because of folding, breaking, and uplift of layers.
• Geologic History
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/ear82/10.asp
  
• Geologic Time Scale
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/ear82/10a.asp
  
• History in Rock and Fossils
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/ear82/10c.asp
  

(Benchmark 4 of 5)

Although weathered rock is the basic component of soil, the composition and texture of soil and its fertility and resistance to erosion are greatly influenced by plant roots and debris, bacteria, fungi, worms, insects, rodents, and other organisms.
• Weathering and Soils AND ALL FOCUS TOPICS
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/ear82/8.asp
  

(Benchmark 5 of 5)

Human activities, such as reducing the amount of forest cover, increasing the amount and variety of chemicals released into the atmosphere, and intensive farming, have changed the earth's land, oceans, and atmosphere. Some of these changes have decreased the capacity of the environment to support some life forms.
• The Living Earth AND ALL FOCUS TOPICS
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/ear82/11.asp
  
• Our Role in Earth's Future AND ALL FOCUS TOPICS
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/ear82/12.asp
  

(Benchmark 1 of 6)

All matter is made up of atoms, which are far too small to see directly through a microscope. The atoms of any element are alike but are different from atoms of other elements. Atoms may stick together in well-defined molecules or may be packed together in large arrays. Different arrangements of atoms into groups compose all substances.
• Fool's Gold: From Alchemy to Chemistry AND ALL FOCUS TOPICS
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/psc92/1.asp
  

(Benchmark 2 of 6)

Equal volumes of different substances usually have different masses.

(Benchmark 3 of 6)

Atoms and molecules are perpetually in motion. Increased temperature means greater average energy of motion, so most substances expand when heated. In solids, the atoms are closely locked in position and can only vibrate. In liquids, the atoms or molecules have higher energy, are more loosely connected, and can slide past one another; some molecules may get enough energy to escape into a gas. In gases, the atoms or molecules have still more energy and are free of one another except during occasional collisions.
• State and Phase Changes AND ALL FOCUS TOPICS
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/psc92/9.asp
  

(Benchmark 4 of 6)

The temperature and acidity of a solution influences reaction rates. Many substances dissolve in water, which may greatly facilitate reactions between them.

(Benchmark 5 of 6)

Scientific ideas about elements were borrowed from some Greek philosophers of 2,000 years earlier, who believed that everything was made from four basic substances: air, earth, fire, and water. It was the combination of these 'elements' in different proportions that gave other substances their observable properties. The Greeks were wrong about those four, but now over 100 different elements have been identified -some rare and some plentiful, out of which everything is made. Because most elements tend to combine with others, few elements are found in their pure form.
• Fool's Gold: From Alchemy to Chemistry
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/psc92/1.asp
  
• Atoms and Their Structure
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/psc92/1e.asp
  
• Patterns in Chemistry AND ALL FOCUS TOPICS
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/psc92/2.asp
  

(Benchmark 6 of 6)

No matter how substances within a closed system interact with one another, or how they combine or break apart, the total weight of the system remains the same. The idea of atoms explains the conservation of matter: If the number of atoms stays the same no matter how they are rearranged, then their total mass stays the same.
• Chemical Equations and Reactions AND ALL FOCUS TOPICS
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/psc92/7.asp
  

(Benchmark 1 of 2)

Energy cannot be created or destroyed, but only changed from one form into another. Most of what goes on in the universe--from exploding stars and biological growth to the operation of machines and the motion of people--involves some form of energy being transformed into another. Energy in the form of heat is almost always one of the products of an energy transformation. Energy appears in different forms. Heat energy is in the disorderly motion of molecules; chemical energy is in the arrangement of atoms; mechanical energy is in moving bodies or in elastically distorted shapes; gravitational energy is in the separation of mutually attracting masses.
• What is Energy?
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/psc91/7b.asp
  
• Conservative and Nonconservative Forces
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/psc91/7c.asp
  
• Calculating Kinetic and Potential Energy
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/psc91/7d.asp
  
• Conservation of Energy
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/psc91/7e.asp
  

(Benchmark 2 of 2)

Heat can be transferred through materials by the collisions of atoms(conduction) or across space through radiation. If the material is fluid, currents will be set up in it that aid the transfer of heat(convection).

(Benchmark 1 of 5)

Light from the sun is made up of a mixture of many different colors of light, even though to the eye the light looks almost white. Other things that give off or reflect light have a different mix of colors.
• Solar Effects
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/ear81/9b.asp
  

(Benchmark 2 of 5)

Something can be "seen" when light waves emitted or reflected byit enter the eye--just as something can be "heard" when sound waves from it enter the ear.

(Benchmark 3 of 5)

An unbalanced force acting on an object changes its speed or path of motion, or both. If the force acts toward a single center, the object's path may curve into an orbit around the center.
• Newton's Laws of Motion: Movin' On AND ALL FOCUS TOPICS
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/psc91/4.asp
  

(Benchmark 4 of 5)

Vibrations in materials set up wavelike disturbances that spread away from the source. Sound and earthquake waves are examples. These and other waves move at different speeds in different materials.
• Pickin' Up Good Vibrations AND ALL FOCUS TOPICS
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/psc91/10.asp
  
• Surrounded by Sound AND ALL FOCUS TOPICS
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/psc91/11.asp
  

(Benchmark 5 of 5)

Human eyes respond to only a narrow range of wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation--visible light. Differences of wavelength within that range are perceived as differences in color.

(Benchmark 1 of 3)

Every object exerts gravitational force on every other object. The force depends on how much mass the objects have and on how farapart they are. The force is hard to detect unless at least one of the objects has a lot of mass.
• Universal Gravitation
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/psc91/9b.asp
  
• The Inverse Square Law
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/psc91/9c.asp
  
• Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/psc91/9d.asp
  

(Benchmark 2 of 3)

The sun's gravitational pull holds the earth and other planets in their orbits, just as the planets' gravitational pull keeps their moons in orbit around them.
• Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/psc91/9d.asp
  

(Benchmark 3 of 3)

Electric currents and magnets can exert a force on each other.

C. The Living Environment

Many thousands of layers of sedimentary rock provide evidence for the long history of the earth and for the long history of changing life forms whose remains are found in the rocks. More recently deposited rock layers are more likely to contain fossils resembling existing species.
• Geologic History AND ALL FOCUS TOPICS
  http://www.beyondbooks.com/ear82/10.asp
  

D. The Human Organism