Unit Overview/Summary:  

Summary  

The unit organizes performance expectations with a focus on helping students build understanding of traits of organisms. Instruction developed from this unit should always maintain the three-dimensional nature of the standards and recognize that instruction is not limited to the practices and concepts directly linked with any of the unit performance expectations. 

Connections between unit Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs)  

The idea that the sun is a star that appears larger and brighter than other stars because it is closer (ESS1.A as in 5-ESS1-1) connects to the idea that there are observable patterns – such as different positions of the sun at different times of the day, month, and year – caused by the orbits of Earth around the sun and of the moon around Earth, together with the rotation of Earth about an axis (ESS1.B as in 5-ESS1-2), as both address the appearance of objects in the sky based on our position relative to other objects in the solar system and universe. 

Unit Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs)

Instruction leading to this unit of PEs will help students build toward proficiency in elements of the practices of analyzing and interpreting data (5-ESS1-2) and engaging in argument from evidence (5-ESS1-1). Many other practice elements can be used in instruction. 

Unit Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs)

Crosscutting concepts have value because they provide students with connections and intellectual tools that are related across the differing areas of disciplinary content and can enrich their application of practices and their understanding of core ideas. As such, they are a way of linking the different domains of science.

Instruction leading to this unit of PEs will help students build toward proficiency in elements of the crosscutting concepts of Patterns (5-ESS1-2) and Scale, Proportion, and Quantity (5-ESS1-1). Many other crosscutting concepts elements can be used in instruction. All instruction should be three-dimensional.