7 th Grade Science State Assessment Review

1. 7th Grade Science State Assessment Review https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2014-02-28.0757.M.CE19F434D56E599313E9D05729AAD2.vcr&sid=559

2. Standard 5Science and Technology

3. Standard 6Science in Personal and Environmental Perspectives The student will apply process skills to explore and develop an understanding of issues of personal health, population, resources and environment, and natural hazards.

4. The student will understand scientific knowledge relative to personal health. • (S6.B1.1) -- The student identifies individual nutrition, exercise, and a rest needs based on science and uses a scientific approach to thinking critically about personal health, lifestyle choices, risks and benefits.

5. Everyone needs nutrition, exercise, and rest. Thinking about these needs scientifically can help you stay healthy. • Your diet should have a proper balance of proteins, fats, carbohydrates/sugars, fiber, vitamins, minerals, and water. Junk food, which is everywhere, is usually loaded with carbohydrates/sugars, does nothing to keep you healthy, and can lead to diabetes. • Proper exercise will build muscle strength, stamina, bone strength, mental alertness, and a healthy cardiovascular system. • Getting enough sleep will help keep you free from disease and will also increase alertness and stamina

6. Put it into Practice • A student is going on a hike, and he wants to bring a snack. Rather than bringing along a candy bar or salty snack, he chooses to bring a piece of fruit, some nuts, and a few slices of low-fat cheese. He also brings along some water. By picking a low-fat snack with plenty of vitamins and minerals, he'll have plenty of energy for the hike.

7. Being healthy means making intelligent choices. • You might like to get a good tan, but too much time spent in the sun without proper protection often leads to skin cancer. • You might like to take a dip in a stream, but you need to know if the water has been polluted. • When you shop, make sure to choose products with natural ingredients, and be careful about products that have been chemically treated. • Some people who are afraid of getting lung cancer choose to chew tobacco, but this is a poor choice. Chewing is a major cause of mouth cancer and other illnesses. • If you are on an exercise program, make sure that you don't focus only on one kind of exercise. Strength training, flexibility, and cardiovascular exercise all help keep you strong, healthy, alert, and free from illness.

8. A healthy lifestyle comes down to making intelligent choices, and science has taught us much about what is and isn't healthy. • We know that we need plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grain foods. • Low-fat milk and milk products, which contain calcium, are important, too. • Meat and poultry is fine, but many people eat too much of these foods, and they get more protein than they need, or they eat high-fat meat. • In general, people eat too many fatty foods, which are bad for the heart and can lead to obesity. Instead, one could eat healthy fish, or beans, nuts, seeds, and peas. • Read food labels so you know what you are putting into your body. • Completely avoid all tobacco products and illegal drugs. • Alcohol is an addictive and dangerous substance that is harmful to many adults and is not for children at all. • Exercise, like diet, should be a mix of activities, so that you increase your strength, flexibility, and cardiovascular ability. • Getting enough sleep and staying away from harmful pollutants also are important to staying healthy.

9. The student will understand the impact of human activity on resources and environment. • (S6.B2.1) -- The student investigates the effects of human activities on the environment and analyzes decisions based on the knowledge of benefits and risks.

10. People around the world affect the environment. Some of these effects need to be analyzed carefully because of possible harm. • For example, people have been burning fossil fuels for hundreds of years. Fossil fuels are a relatively inexpensive energy source used to power cars and heat cities, but there is a cost as well as a benefit. Because we're putting so much carbon dioxide in the air by burning fossil fuels, we're trapping heat on the surface of the planet, causing temperatures to rise. • Another effect that people have on the planet is the destruction of rain forests. People want the lumber from the trees that are cut down, but the animals in the forest need the trees, too. Without plant growth, erosion will make the land useless. In addition, carbon dioxide levels increase without the trees to absorb the gas. • We also, for many years, have put gases into the air that have made the ozone layer thinner. The ozone layer helps keep harmful ultraviolet rays from reaching the planet, but more of them can now reach us and seriously damage our skin. How well we solve these problems will have a big influence on the health of the planet and all living creatures.

11. Put it into Practice A student is growing a garden at home and wants to get rid of the weeds. She considers getting a spray, and she looks for one that does not have toxic chemicals. She knows that poisonous substances put into the ground will eventually reach the water level where they could end up in drinking water. She chooses a spray that does not have these chemicals. • Humans don't just live on the planet; they change the planet. Some of these changes come with risks. We've put enough pollution into the air to make breathing itself dangerous in certain parts of the world. We've put enough pollution into the water to threaten not only drinking water but also the fish that live in the water and the people who eat the fish. We've put pesticides into the ground and the air to kill pests, but these substances can harm other animals, as well as people. We've put sulfur dioxide into the air, causing acid rain, which is harmful to plants, fish, and buildings. We need to consider how we change the planet, or we can harm it, ourselves, and other living things.

12. When we use natural resources, we should consider the long-term effects. • For example, sometimes we change a river's path to help grow crops or prevent flooding. This is called stream channelization. But this process can lead to erosion and even to flooding in other areas. We also need to think wisely about how and where we live. As the population grows, cities and suburbs spread outward, creating what is called sprawl. People in these areas usually get around by driving, not walking or bicycling, and this causes more pollution and frequently leads to traffic accidents. It also means people don't get as much exercise. In addition, as more and more housing is needed, more and more land is developed and not left in its natural state, which can affect waterways, vegetation, and wildlife.

13. Human activity can reduce the harm caused by misuse of natural resources and the planet. • We can plant trees to absorb the dangerous amounts of carbon dioxide in the air. • We can make sure that endangered animals are protected. • We can recycle waste and use nonpolluting energy sources. • We can drive less and use public transportation when available. • Generally, we must realize that natural resources must be used wisely, which means considering the long-term effects on the climate, the water, the soil, the plants, the animals, and of course, ourselves.

14. Standard 7:History and Nature of Science The student will examine and develop an understanding of science as a historical human endeavor.

15. The student will research contributions to science throughout history. • The student recognizes that new knowledge leads to new questions and new discoveries, replicates historic experiments to understand principles of science, and relates contributions of men and women to the fields of science.(S7.B2.1)

16. The roots of science are found in ancient cultures. • Although people were often guided by superstition and had few scientific tools, they had questions about their world and tried to answer these questions. • Some of their answers were accepted by later generations, and some were rejected. • Our scientific knowledge today is built upon these early investigations. • Most scientific progress is slow, but occasionally, as with the work of Isaac Newton or Albert Einstein, a real jump is made in our understanding of the world. • Today, people from all over the world, driven by the need to know, ask questions and conduct investigations, hoping to make even a small contribution to science and our understanding of the world.

17. Put it into Practice • A student is writing a report on early astronomy. He finds that people once thought that the earth was at the center of the universe and did not move. Later, scientists thought that sun was at the center of the universe and did not move. Even later, scientists realized, through experiments and observations, that the sun was not actually at the center of the universe but was actually just one among many, many stars. They also realized that nothing in the universe is fixed or unmoving. The student learns that an increase in understanding came from better observational tools and from scientists learning from the successes and mistakes of others.

18. Even the most brilliant scientists build on the work of others. • Isaac Newton was influenced by Kepler, Galileo, and others. • Charles Darwin, who studied and theorized about evolution and natural selection, was influenced by the work of Thomas Malthus. • Louis Pasteur, who studied germ theory, was influenced by John Snow. • Albert Einstein was influenced by the work of many scientists who came before him, from Newton on, but each of these great scientists also made their own discoveries through observation and experimentation. • These great minds are the exception, however, most scientific progress happens in small steps as people check and re-check their work and the work of others. • Good scientists must not only ask questions about the world, but they must also question their own assumptions about the world and must accept corrections to their work.

19. Sometimes scientists don't realize the truth of an idea at first. • People in ancient cultures did not have our knowledge of the world or our observational tools, but they still asked questions about the world and tried to answer them. • People in ancient Mesopotamia (now Iraq), India, and later in Greece and elsewhere, understood important mathematical ideas that we still use today in all the sciences, and they used these ideas to track the movements of planets and other objects. • Often, however, they were influenced by non-scientific beliefs. • Astrology was once studied the way astronomy is today. • Later, in the 1500s, some people had religious beliefs that made them angry at Copernicus for stating that Earth traveled around the sun. • For example, in the 1800s, Gregor Mendel wrote about genes in peas, and this led to the discovery of DNA and the whole field of genetics. At the time, however, scientists didn't pay much attention to him or thought he was very wrong.

20. The scientific community is made up of men and women from every country. • Scientists are constantly asking questions about how the universe works, from the electrons to the stars. • They use giant telescopes, powerful computers, and sometimes they just take intelligent guesses. • In every case, however, they must test and re-test their ideas and theories. • Other scientists will certainly check their work and perhaps find mistakes, forcing them to re-do and re-think their work. • This is the long and sometimes difficult road to scientific progress, which started thousands of years ago as people wondered about the stars in the sky, the growth of their crops, and the inner workings of animals and people. • Once in a while, a leap is made, such as when Albert Einstein published his papers on the theory of relativity. • Usually, the steps are small, as scientists build on other people's work. As long as people keep asking questions about their world, scientists will be kept busy.