Science Curriculum Preview Committee Clarification of Learning Results

Curriculum Organizing Questions	How do people change between birth and death? How do animals change between birth and death? How do plants change after a seed germinates? What is a life cycle? What are some ways life cycles of organisms are different? What are some of the ways life cycles of organisms are the same?
Elaboration	Students should be able to trace the development of a living thing over time, if it does not change too markedly in appearance. Because the child's world at grades K-4 is closely associated with the home, school, and immediate environment, the study of organisms should include observations and interactions within the natural world of the child.NSES p. 128. It is important that children understand that living things change over time, and that this change is normal.
Specific Ideas	Plants and animals have a life cycle that includes being born, developing into adults, reproducing, and eventually dying. NSES C 2a. Details of life cycles are different for different organisms.NSES C 2a.
Developmental & Instructional Implications	Young children do not understand the continuity of life form--for example, seed to seedling or larvae to pupae to adult. Many students believe that some stages are "dead" and then the next is living (pupae are "dead," butterflies are "living"). NSES p. 128. This is inappropriately placed. Research shows that students can not differentiate between living and nonliving reliably at this stage and that they do not understand continuity in life form; some organisms have incredibly complex life cycles. Care should be taken to use familiar and relatively simple examples for young children. See Driver pages 17 to 22 for more information.
Examples	Students could demonstrate the progression of development in a frog's life cycle after facilitated observation over time.