What does a student learn in StateAlaska,GradeGrade 10,SubjectScience?

Students use the periodic table to predict how an element will behave, based on how many electrons sit in its outermost shell. Position on the table reveals patterns, so students can compare elements without memorizing each one individually.

Students design and run an experiment to figure out why some substances are harder, denser, or have higher melting points than others. The goal is to connect what they can measure in the lab to the invisible forces holding the substance together at the atomic level.

Students draw or diagram what happens inside an atom's nucleus during nuclear reactions. They show how fission splits a nucleus apart, how fusion joins two together, and how radioactive decay releases energy over time.

Students explain how the arrangement of atoms and molecules in a material determines what that material can do. A bone, a plastic, a solar panel: the invisible structure inside explains the visible behavior outside.

Students explain why certain chemicals react the way they do by looking at where electrons sit on the outer edge of each atom. They use patterns from the periodic table to predict what new substances will form.

When chemicals react, bonds between atoms break and new ones form. Students learn to draw or diagram why some reactions give off heat and others absorb it, based on whether the new bonds store more or less energy than the old ones did.

Changing the temperature or concentration of chemicals changes how fast a reaction runs. Students explain why, using evidence about how often and how hard reacting particles collide.

Students explain why changing temperature, pressure, or concentration shifts a chemical reaction that has reached a balance point. The argument comes from how fast molecules are moving and colliding, not just from memory of rules.

In a chemical reaction, atoms rearrange but none disappear. Students use equations and numbers to show that the total mass of the starting materials equals the total mass of the products.

Students use real data to show how force, mass, and acceleration are mathematically connected. A heavier object needs more force to reach the same acceleration, and Newton's second law is the equation that ties all three together.

Students use math to show that when no outside force acts on a group of objects, their total momentum stays the same before and after a collision. Think of two shopping carts colliding: what one loses, the other gains.

Students design and test something that absorbs or cushions a collision, like padding around a fragile object, then evaluate how well it reduces the force of impact and improve it based on results.

Students use math formulas to calculate the pull of gravity between two objects and the push or pull between electrically charged objects. Both forces grow stronger when objects are closer together or have more mass and charge.

Students run experiments to show that electricity flowing through a wire creates a magnetic field, and that moving a magnet near a wire generates electricity. Both effects are real and testable, not just theory.

Students build a model or equation that tracks where energy goes when it moves between parts of a system. If you know how much energy each other part gained or lost, you can calculate the missing piece.

Objects store energy in two ways: by moving and by their position relative to other objects. Students build models showing how those two forms add up to explain the total energy of a system, like a swinging pendulum or a compressed spring.

Students design and build a working device that converts one form of energy into another, such as motion into electricity or heat into light, then refine it until it meets specific requirements.

Students mix two substances at different temperatures, then measure how heat moves between them until both reach the same temperature. The experiment shows that heat always flows from warmer to cooler, never the other way.

Students build or draw a model showing how two charged or magnetized objects push and pull each other without touching, then use it to explain how the force between them changes as the objects move closer or farther apart.

Students use equations to show how a wave's frequency and wavelength are connected to its speed, and how those relationships shift when a wave moves through different materials like air, water, or glass.

Students compare how digital and analog methods record and send information, such as music or images, then weigh what each approach does better and where it falls short.

Light can be described as a wave or as a stream of particles, and both descriptions are correct depending on the situation. Students examine the evidence for each model and decide which one better explains a given phenomenon.

Students read scientific articles and decide whether the evidence holds up. They judge whether claims about how radio waves, visible light, X-rays, or other radiation affect the body or materials are backed by solid data.

Devices like cell phones, solar panels, and medical scanners rely on how waves move and interact with matter. Students explain the science behind how these technologies send, receive, or store information and energy.

DNA holds the instructions for building proteins, and proteins do almost every job in the body. Students trace how the sequence of bases in DNA leads to a specific protein shape, then explain why that shape determines what the protein can do.

Cells group into tissues, tissues into organs, and organs into systems that keep the body running. Students build or use a diagram to show how these layers connect and what job each one does.

Students design and run an experiment to show how the body keeps conditions stable, like how sweating cools you down or how blood sugar returns to normal after a meal.

Photosynthesis is how plants turn sunlight into food. Students use a diagram or model to show how light energy goes in and sugar stored in the plant comes out.

Students trace how the carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen in sugar get rearranged, with the help of other elements, to build amino acids and larger molecules the body uses for growth and repair.

Cellular respiration is how cells break down food and oxygen to release usable energy. Students model the chemical reactions that rearrange those molecules into new compounds, showing where the energy goes at each step.

Students explain how matter cycles and energy flows through living systems, comparing what happens when oxygen is present versus when it isn't. Lab data and other evidence drive the explanation, and students revise it when new evidence changes the picture.

Students use graphs, equations, or data tables to show how carbon, nitrogen, and energy move through an ecosystem, from producers to consumers to decomposers, and why matter cycles while energy doesn't.

Students trace how carbon moves through living things, the air, water, and soil by building a diagram or model that shows photosynthesis and cellular respiration as the two key steps that keep carbon cycling.

Students use graphs or calculations to explain what limits how many animals or plants a habitat can support, such as how much food, water, or space is available.

Students use graphs and data to explain why some ecosystems have more species than others, and to update their explanations when new evidence changes the picture.

Ecosystems usually keep a steady mix of plants and animals because species depend on each other. Students look at real evidence to judge whether that balance holds, and what happens when conditions shift enough to change the whole ecosystem.

Students design and test a real plan to reduce human damage to an ecosystem, such as filtering runoff or restoring a habitat, then revise it based on what works.

Animals that live and work in groups often survive longer and have more offspring than those that go it alone. Students look at real evidence to figure out why coordinated behavior, like hunting in packs or warning calls, helps a species persist.

Students build or adjust a computer simulation to test whether a proposed fix (like a wildlife corridor or pollution limit) actually reduces the damage human activity causes to local species and habitats.

Cells in the body copy themselves through mitosis and then specialize into skin, muscle, nerve, and other cell types. Together, those two processes build a complex organism and keep it running.

DNA carries the instructions that make a child look or function like their parents. Students examine how those instructions are stored in chromosomes and passed down through generations.

Students explain why children aren't identical copies of their parents. They trace genetic variation to three sources: the shuffling that happens during reproduction, copying errors in DNA, and mutations triggered by things in the environment.

Students use probability and data to explain why a trait like eye color or blood type appears more or less often across a population. They look at patterns in real data to understand how variation spreads through a group.

Students examine fossil records, DNA comparisons, and anatomical similarities across species to build a case for how life on Earth has changed over time and where different species share common ancestors.

Students explain why species change over time by connecting four ideas: populations can grow fast, offspring inherit random genetic differences, resources run short, and the individuals best suited to their environment survive to reproduce.

Students use probability and data to explain why a helpful inherited trait spreads through a population over generations. If a trait helps an organism survive and reproduce, more of its offspring carry that trait, and the numbers show it.

Students explain, using real examples, how traits that help animals survive get passed down until most of the population has them. The focus is on building that argument from evidence, not just naming the idea.

Students look at real scientific data to figure out how a shifting environment can cause one species to thrive, push another toward extinction, and sometimes give rise to a brand-new species over generations.

Students model how the Sun generates energy by fusing hydrogen atoms in its core, and how that process also forges the heavier elements found throughout the universe. The energy produced travels across space and arrives at Earth as light and heat.

Students use three types of real astronomical evidence to explain how the universe began: the way light from distant stars stretches toward red, galaxies moving away from us in every direction, and the mix of elements found across the universe.

Students use math to predict where planets, moons, and other objects will be as they orbit the sun. The same equations that track a spacecraft also explain why the moon rises on a predictable schedule.

Continents and ocean floors move over millions of years, and the rocks they leave behind record that history. Students use that rock evidence to explain why rocks in different places formed at different times.

Students use evidence from rocks, meteorites, and other planets to piece together how Earth formed and what its earliest history looked like. The goal is building a reasoned account, not just memorizing dates.

Students create diagrams or models showing how slow processes deep inside Earth (like magma movement) and faster surface processes (like erosion) work together over millions of years to build mountains, ocean trenches, and continents.

Students look at real data, like temperature records or ice measurements, to explain how one change on Earth sets off a chain reaction. Melting ice, for example, exposes darker ocean water, which absorbs more heat and drives further warming.

Students build a model showing how heat from deep inside Earth moves rock and other material in slow, circular currents. Those currents shift the plates on Earth's surface and drive geological activity like earthquakes and volcanoes.

Students investigate how water behaves physically and chemically, then connect those properties to real processes like erosion, weathering, and how landscapes change over time.

Students build a model using real numbers to show how carbon moves between the ocean, air, rocks, and living things. The goal is to show where carbon goes, how fast it moves, and what happens when one part of the cycle changes.

Students build a written argument explaining how living things and Earth's oceans, atmosphere, and land have shaped each other over billions of years. A change in one drives change in the other.

Students use diagrams or simulations to explain why Earth's climate shifts when the balance of incoming sunlight and outgoing heat changes. Think of it as tracking what the planet absorbs versus what it releases.

Students study real climate data and computer model outputs to predict how quickly Earth's climate is changing and what that means for oceans, weather patterns, and ecosystems in the decades ahead.

Students examine how natural resources, disasters, and shifting climates have shaped where and how people live. They build an explanation using real evidence, such as why cities grew near rivers or why communities relocated after floods.

Students compare real proposals for mining, drilling, or building power sources and weigh the trade-offs between cost, effectiveness, and environmental impact to decide which option makes the most sense.

Students build a computer model that shows how decisions about water, land, or other resources affect both human populations and wildlife over time.

Students look at a real design (a water filter, a solar panel, a wetland restoration plan) and judge whether it actually reduces harm to the environment. If it falls short, students revise it.

Students use models or simulations to show how human activity, like burning fuel or clearing land, changes the way Earth's air, water, land, and living things interact with each other.

Students pick a real-world problem (clean water, energy, disaster response) and spell out exactly what a good solution must do and what limits it must stay within, using both numbers and human needs as the measuring stick.

Students take a big, messy real-world problem and split it into smaller pieces that are each solvable on their own. Then they design solutions to those pieces.

Students pick the best engineering solution by weighing what matters most: cost, safety, how well it works, and its effect on people and the environment. Not every solution is perfect, so students explain what gets gained and what gets given up.

Students run computer simulations to test how a proposed engineering solution would perform in a messy real-world situation, checking how changes in one part of a system affect everything connected to it.