Florida SC.6.N.2.2
The Standard
Explain that scientific knowledge is durable because it is open to change as new evidence or interpretations are encountered.
Florida Next Generation Sunshine State Standards for Science
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students explain why well-supported scientific explanations can be trusted while still being revised. They use examples to identify what remained accepted, what changed, and which evidence caused the change.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given a scientific case, a student can describe how repeated evidence supported an explanation over time. The student can also explain why credible new evidence led scientists to revise part of it.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think scientific ideas never change, or that one new claim overturns all previous evidence. They may also think a revision means earlier scientists were careless or that opinions count as evidence.
How to Assess It
- Give students a case where new fossil evidence changes part of an explanation. Ask: What should scientists keep, what should they revise, and why?
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give groups a sealed mystery box and clue cards, then add one new clue and have them revise their model.
Write: How can changing an explanation after new evidence make scientific knowledge more reliable, not less reliable?
Play Keep, Revise, or Reject by showing claims with new evidence cards and having teams defend each choice.
Compare the 1992 Food Guide Pyramid with MyPlate, then list evidence researchers might use to revise nutrition guidance.
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Printable SC.6.N.2.2 Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to SC.6.N.2.2, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
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Related Standards
- SC.7.N.2.1
Identify an instance from the history of science in which scientific knowledge has changed when new evidence or new interpretations are encountered.
- SC.7.N.1.7
Explain that scientific knowledge is the result of a great deal of debate and confirmation within the science community.
- SC.4.N.1.3
Explain that science does not always follow a rigidly defined method ("the scientific method") but that science does involve the use of observations and empiric...
- SC.4.N.1.7
Recognize and explain that scientists base their explanations on evidence.
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