What does a student learn in StateAlaska,GradeGrade 6,SubjectScience?

Students draw or build models showing how atoms link together to form molecules like water or table salt. The goal is to show what a substance is made of at a level too small to see.

Students research where synthetic materials (plastics, nylon, synthetic rubber) come from in nature, then weigh the trade-offs: what these materials make possible and what problems they create for people and the environment.

Students build a diagram or model showing what happens to a substance as it heats up or cools down: particles move faster or slower, temperature rises or falls, and solids melt or liquids freeze.

Students compare what a substance looks like, smells like, or how it behaves before and after mixing it with something else. If the result is a new substance with different properties, a chemical reaction happened.

In a chemical reaction, atoms rearrange into new substances but none are created or destroyed. Students model this to show why the total mass before and after a reaction stays the same.

Students design and test a device that uses a chemical reaction to produce heat or cold, like a hand warmer or an instant ice pack, then adjust the design based on what works.

When two objects collide, each one pushes back on the other with equal force. Students use that idea to design a solution, like padding, bumpers, or materials that reduce damage when objects crash together.

Students plan and run a test to show how the total push or pull on an object, and how heavy that object is, determine how much its motion changes. More force speeds things up faster; more mass slows that change down.

Students look at data to figure out what makes electric and magnetic forces stronger or weaker. Things like distance between objects or the size of a current change how strong the force is.

Students build an argument, using data or examples, for why gravity pulls objects toward each other and why heavier objects pull more strongly than lighter ones.

Students test how magnets or electrically charged objects push and pull each other without touching. They also judge whether the experiment was set up well enough to trust the results.

Students read and build graphs that show how a moving object's energy changes when it gets heavier or faster. A heavier car and a faster car both hit harder, and these graphs show exactly how much.

When objects pull or push on each other from a distance, moving them farther apart or closer together changes how much energy is stored. Students model this using examples like a ball held high above the ground or two magnets pushed close together.

Students design and build a device to control heat flow, then test whether it works. Think of keeping a drink cold or stopping a metal handle from burning your hand.

Students plan an experiment to figure out how heating different materials changes their temperature. They test how the type of material and its mass affect how much the temperature rises when energy is added.

When a moving object speeds up or slows down, energy is moving too. Students argue, using real evidence, that something caused that change by pushing energy into the object or pulling it away.

Students describe how waves move and measure their size and energy. A taller wave carries more energy than a shorter one, the same way a bigger ocean wave hits harder than a small ripple.

Waves hit materials and do one of three things: bounce back, get soaked in, or pass through. Students model this behavior to explain why a mirror reflects light, a wall blocks sound, or glass lets sunlight through.

Students investigate whether living things are made of one cell or many. They gather evidence by examining real organisms, building the case that the cell is the basic unit of all life.

Students build and use a diagram to show how a cell works, explaining what each part does and how those parts keep the whole cell running.

Students explain how groups of cells work together to form tissues, organs, and body systems, then back that claim with evidence. The focus is on how each part depends on the others to keep the body running.

Sensory receptors in the eyes, ears, skin, and nose detect what's happening around us and send signals to the brain. The brain acts on those signals right away or stores them as memories.

Plants capture sunlight and use it to turn water and carbon dioxide into sugar. That process, photosynthesis, is how energy enters the food chain and how carbon moves between living things and the air.

Students model what happens inside the body when food breaks down. Chemical reactions rearrange the molecules in food to build new cells or release energy the body can use.

Students study what happens to animals and plants when food, water, or space runs low. They read charts and data to explain why a population grows, shrinks, or stays the same based on what resources are available.

Students build a diagram or model showing how water, carbon, and other materials move through living things, soil, and air, while energy from the sun flows one direction through the food chain.

When something in an ecosystem changes, such as a drought or the loss of a predator, populations of plants and animals change too. Students use real data and observations to build an argument explaining why.

Students study how living things interact across different ecosystems and predict what those patterns will look like. They explain why similar relationships, like predator and prey or competition for food, show up in forests, oceans, and grasslands alike.

Students compare different real-world plans for protecting wildlife and healthy ecosystems, then decide which approach works best and explain why.

Students explain why certain animal behaviors or body features make it more likely that an organism will reproduce successfully. They back up their explanation with real evidence, such as how a bird's mating call or a flower's color attracts the right partner.

Students explain why two plants or animals of the same species can grow differently, pointing to causes like available food, sunlight, or water alongside inherited traits passed down from parents.

Genes on chromosomes carry instructions for building proteins. Students model what happens when those instructions change due to a mutation, and explain why the resulting effect on the organism can be harmful, helpful, or nothing noticeable at all.

Students explain why kids don't look exactly like either parent. They model how sexual reproduction mixes genetic information from two sources, while asexual reproduction copies one parent's information exactly.

Students research how technologies like selective breeding and genetic engineering let humans decide which traits animals or crops pass on to their offspring.

Students study fossils to find patterns in how life on Earth has changed over time, including which creatures appeared, which died out, and how species shifted across millions of years.

Students compare bones, body shapes, and other physical features across living animals and fossils to figure out which species share a common ancestor.

Students look at diagrams of animal embryos from different species and compare how similar they look at early stages of development. Those early similarities reveal connections between species that you would never spot just by looking at the adult animals.

Some animals are born with slight differences from others in their group. Those differences can make it easier to find food, avoid predators, or survive harsh conditions, so those animals are more likely to live long enough to have offspring.

Students use graphs and data to explain why some traits become more or less common in a population across generations. They connect the math to the idea that helpful traits spread and harmful ones fade.

Students use diagrams or models to show why the moon appears to change shape each month and why the sun or moon occasionally goes dark. The key is where Earth, the sun, and the moon are lined up relative to each other.

Students use a diagram to show why Earth has seasons. The key idea is that Earth's tilted axis causes different parts of the planet to receive more or less direct sunlight at different times of year, not how close Earth is to the sun.

Students use diagrams or models to explain how gravity keeps planets orbiting the sun and stars grouped together in a galaxy. Without gravity, those orbits collapse and the solar system falls apart.

Students compare the actual sizes and distances of planets, moons, and the sun using real data. The numbers are so large that students practice converting them into scaled-down models to make sense of how spread out the solar system really is.

Students read layers of rock like pages in a history book, using older and newer layers to sort Earth's 4.6-billion-year history into named time periods.

Rocks, landforms, and fossils tell a story. Students use real evidence to explain how forces like erosion, volcanic activity, and shifting land have reshaped Earth's surface over thousands or millions of years.

Fossils, rock layers, and the shapes of coastlines all leave clues about how Earth's continents have shifted over millions of years. Students study those clues to explain where the land masses once sat and how they moved.

Students build a diagram or model showing how rock, water, and other earth materials move through cycles over time. They explain what energy source (usually heat from inside the earth or the sun) keeps each cycle going.

Students map how water moves through the sky, ground, and oceans in a repeating cycle. They show how sunlight drives that movement by causing evaporation and how gravity pulls water back down as rain or snow.

Students explain why oil, coal, freshwater, and minerals aren't spread evenly across the planet. The location of these resources traces back to geological events, some millions of years old, that concentrated them in specific places.

Students track how air masses move and collide to explain why weather changes. They collect real data, like temperature and pressure readings, to show what drives storms, wind shifts, and other weather events.

Students learn why some places are hot and rainy while others are cold and dry. Uneven heating from the sun and Earth's spin push air and ocean water into patterns that shape the climate where you live.

Students look at temperature records, carbon data, and other evidence to figure out what has driven Earth's warming over the last hundred years. The focus is on asking sharp questions about what the data actually shows.

Students study real data from earthquakes, floods, and volcanic eruptions to spot patterns. The goal is predicting when and where disasters might strike next, and figuring out how to build or design things that reduce the damage.

Students design a plan to track and reduce a real environmental problem, like water pollution or habitat loss, using science to explain why the plan would work.

Students build a written argument, backed by data, explaining how a growing population and rising resource use (think water, fuel, or food) put pressure on land, oceans, and the atmosphere.

Students identify exactly what a solution must do and what it cannot do before any building starts. That means listing real-world limits like cost, materials, and safety rules alongside any science that affects whether the design will actually work.

Students compare two or more design solutions side by side, using a clear set of criteria to judge which one solves the problem better within real-world limits like cost, materials, or time.

Students look at test results from multiple design solutions, then figure out which parts of each worked best. The goal is to combine those strengths into one improved design that solves the problem better than any single solution did on its own.

Students build or sketch a model they can test again and again, then use what they learn from each test to improve the design until it works as well as possible.