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Proposed NGSS Standards for 7th Grade

California Department of Education
Proposed Standards
July 29, 2013

Grade 7

On July 10, 2013, Superintendent Torlakson recommended the following to the State Board of Education (SBE): That the SBE adopt Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) for California as follows:

• Kindergarten through grade five (K–5) at each grade level as presented by NGSS;
• At specific grade levels in middle school, grades six, seven, and eight; and
• In grade spans for grades nine through twelve (9–12) as presented in NGSS.

NGSS presents middle grade standards in a grade span of sixth through eighth grades. However, California is a K–8 Instructional Materials adoption state and requires that standards be placed at specific grade levels – sixth, seventh, and eighth. Therefore, the Superintendent recommended the adoption of the placement of these original NGSS standards at each grade level as described in the document below. This arrangement of standards was developed by the Science Expert Panel (SEP), a group made up of kindergarten through grade twelve (K–12) teachers, scientists, educators, business, industry representatives and informal science educators. Feedback was provided by the Science Review Panel and from the public via three open forums and a webinar.

The SEP used the following criteria to arrange the performance expectations (standards) for grades six , seven, and eight:

• Performance expectations (PEs) were placed at each grade level so that they support content articulation across grade levels (from fifth through eighth grade) and provide the opportunity for content integration within each grade level.
• Performance expectations were aligned with Common Core State Standards(CCSS) in English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics so that science learning would not be dependent upon math skills not yet acquired.
• The final arrangement of performance expectations reflected a balance both in content complexity and number at each grade level with human impact and engineering performance expectations appropriately integrated.

In addition to these criteria, the SEP worked to ensure that the performance expectations could be bundled together in various ways to facilitate curriculum development.

The chart below illustrates the vision for middle school: opportunities for articulation between grades (six, seven, and eight) within the disciplines as well as opportunities for content integration across disciplines at each grade.

Middle School Learning Progression

Keep this chart in mind as you explore the arrangement of the performance expectations explained below.

First, the performance expectations for grade seven are listed. The order in which the performance expectation in each discipline is listed does not imply the order of teaching or the instructional sequence. This is followed by a discussion of how bundling the performance expectations provides a content topic view to which one can more easily apply cross-cutting concepts as the topics are integrated. Lastly, the performance expectations are presented in a six through eight topic view to illustrate articulation from sixth to seventh to eighth grade for each discipline.

Grade Level List of Performance Expectations

The performance expectations assigned to seventh grade are:

• LS1-6. Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for the role of photosynthesis in the cycling of matter and flow of energy into and out of organisms.
• LS1-7. Develop a model to describe how food is rearranged through chemical reactions forming new molecules that support growth and/or release energy as this matter moves through an organism.
• LS2-1. Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.
• LS2-3. Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.
• LS2-4. Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
• LS2-2. Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.
• LS2-5. Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.
• ESS2-2. Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth's surface at varying time and spatial scales.
• ESS2-3. Analyze and interpret data on the distribution of fossils and rocks, continental shapes, and seafloor structures to provide evidence of the past plate motions.
• ESS2-1. Develop a model to describe the cycling of Earth's materials and the flow of energy that drives this process.
• ESS3-1. Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how the uneven distributions of Earth's mineral, energy, and groundwater resources are the result of past and current geoscience processes.
• ESS3-2. Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects.
• PS1-1. Develop models to describe the atomic composition of simple molecules and extended structures.
• PS1-3. Gather and make sense of information to describe that synthetic materials come from natural resources and impact society.
• PS1-4. Develop a model that predicts and describes changes in particle motion, temperature, and state of a pure substance when thermal energy is added or removed.
• PS1-2. Analyze and interpret data on the properties of substances before and after the substances interact to determine if a chemical reaction has occurred.
• PS1-5. Develop and use a model to describe how the total number of atoms does not change in a chemical reaction and thus mass is conserved.
• PS1-6. Undertake a design project to construct, test, and modify a device that either releases or absorbs thermal energy by chemical processes.
• ETS1-1. Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions.
• ETS1-2. Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
• ETS1-3. Analyze data from tests to determine similarities and differences among several design solutions to identify the best characteristics of each that can be combined into a new solution to better meet the criteria for success.
• ETS1-4. Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved.

Topic Arrangement for Integration

Bundling these performance expectations provides a topic view of the performance expectations to which one can more easily apply cross-cutting concepts as seen in this chart:

Cross Cutting Concepts

While many cross-cutting concepts could be used to organize the performance expectations, the SEP identified two for seventh grade: Energy & Matter: Flow, Cycles & Conservation, and Cause & Effect. Examples of how the cross-cutting concepts could be used to deepen and connect student understanding are presented below.

Energy & Matter: Conservation cycles and flows is one of the cross-cutting concepts emphasized in seventh grade. Because both matter and energy are conserved, keeping track of how they enter or leave and flow or cycle within any system is a critical element of understanding how that system functions. Matter cycles are accompanied and driven by energy flows and energy transformations (e.g., from light to chemically stored energy in photosynthesis). Understanding these concepts in the context of chemical reactions support understanding of photosynthesis (cycling of matter, energy flow and transformation) and trophic levels (biomass and energy flows) in ecosystems, and the rock cycle (cycling of matter) and plate tectonics (matter movement and energy flows) in geoscience. The Human Impact performance expectation allows the students to forecast matter and energy flow impacts in catastrophic events and consider how human actions can reduce or increase their consequences.

Cause & Effect is the third cross-cutting concept emphasized in seventh grade. Science seeks to understand mechanisms of cause and effect, how particular actions on or conditions of a system influence the way it functions (what occurs). In life science, the abiotic factors in an ecosystem impact the types of living organisms found in that ecosystem. In earth science, tectonic plate movement is caused by geothermal and gravitationally driven flows of matter and energy deeper within the geosphere, and leads to ocean floor spreading, and mountain uplifts, as well as volcanism and earthquake activity. In physical science, the nature, condition (temperature and pressure), and proportions of reactants affect whether a chemical reaction occurs and the products of the reaction. The Human Impact performance expectation allows the students to consider how human choices can alter conditions (e.g., where housing is placed) in order to mitigate catastrophic events (i.e., cause them to have lower impacts).

Arrangement for Articulation

This chart illustrates the topic arrangement of the performance expectations to link the learning progression from elementary through middle school in each discipline.

Performance Expectations

Life Science (six–eight): The learning progression builds from the individual organism in sixth grade to its place in an ecosystem in seventh grade to the development of these systems over time in eighth grade. In sixth grade, the focus is on the structure of cells and organisms including body systems, growth and development, and the basis of sexual and asexual reproduction. More detailed DNA-level of understanding is deferred to eighth grade, after students have developed sufficient understanding of chemical processes and atomic level structure for these concepts to be meaningfully developed. The performance expectations at seventh grade develop the idea of the interdependence of organisms to each other and abiotic factors as well as the cycling of matter and flow of energy that maintains ecosystems. These concepts are supported by the energy and matter concepts from sixth and seventh grades. In eighth grade, the critical ideas of variability and natural selection are introduced, and, together with the ideas of deep time and the fossil record, form the basis for the relationship between the history of the earth and life on it. These topics require understanding of time scale and population distributions of traits that need eighth grade level mathematical sophistication.

Earth and Space Science (six–eight): The learning progression builds from the interaction of earth’s systems in fifth grade to a deeper exploration of the hydrosphere and atmosphere in sixth grade. These two systems play very large roles in weather conditions and in regional and global climate. In seventh grade, the focus turns to the geosphere as student learn about changes to the earth’s surface, plate movement and the formation of earth materials. In eighth grade, the earth takes its place in the solar system and the universe as students get a much broader sense of time and space including the more cosmic perspectives of the solar system, Milky Way galaxy and a universe teeming with other galaxies.

Human Impact (six–eight): Embedded in the Earth and Space Science Performance Expectations are those PEs for human impact. In sixth grade, the PE asks students to apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment. This links nicely with the concepts of weather and climate. In seventh grade, the PE highlights natural hazards providing opportunities to investigate earthquakes and connect with plate tectonics. In eighth grade, the PE challenges students to think deeply about the consequences of human population growth and resource consumption.

Physical Science (six–eight): The learning progression builds on the knowledge of the particulate structure of matter from fifth grade as student develop an understanding of energy in terms of the motions of particles of matter in sixth grade. Students investigate thermal energy and the transfer of energy. They are also introduced to a conceptual understanding of potential and kinetic energy with the full mathematical understanding of the concepts delayed until eighth grade. In seventh grade, the structure and property of matter and chemical reactions are studied. These build on and deepen ideas from K–5, connect to the chemical nature of the earth and life science concepts in seventh grade, and begin to develop atomic and molecular level ideas about matter that are the base for eighth grade and high school science. Eighth grade provides opportunities to continue the study of forces and interactions built in K–5, applied in the context of structure and function in sixth grade, structure and properties of matter in seventh grade, and finally to the context of space science in eighth grade. In eighth grade, mathematical expressions and relationships for forces and interactions and kinetic and potential energy are introduced and students begin to build an understanding of them that includes these more quantitative aspects. Waves and electromagnetic interactions are also not introduced until eighth grade because of the mathematical representations required to describe and quantify their properties. 

Engineering (six–eight): There are four engineering PEs. They are arranged for each grade to maximize opportunities for students to engage in the engineering practices. These standards can be combined with any of the science disciplines to provide rich learning experiences for students.