Montana Content Standards

Demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meanings.

Acquire and use accurately a range of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.

Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.

Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from or supports the argument presented.

Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.

Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.

Communicate ideas about the impact of humans on the land, water, air, or other living things in the local environment.

Ask questions to obtain information about the purpose of weather forecasting to predict, prepare for, and respond to weather.

Construct an explanation based on observations of the effect of sunlight on earth's surface.

Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking plant and animal structures and functions that help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.

Make an evidence-based explanation of how young plants and animals are like, but not exactly like, their parents.

Design a solution or build a device that facilitates communication over distance using light or sound.

Construct explanations to compare multiple physical and naturally built designs which impact wind or water's effect on the shape of the land.

Develop models to represent the shapes and kinds of land and bodies of water in an area.

Obtain information to identify where water is found on Earth and that water can be solid, liquid, or gas.

Plan and conduct a cause and effect investigation to determine whether plants need sunlight and water to grow.

Develop a simple model that mimics the structure and function of an animal in dispersing seeds or pollinating plants.

Make observations of plants and animals to compare and contrast the diversity of life in different habitats.

Conduct an investigation and analyze data to determine which materials have the properties best suited for an intended purpose.

Make observations to construct an evidence-based claim of how an object made of a small set of pieces can be disassembled and made into a new object.

Obtain and represent data using tables and graphical displays to describe observed and predicted weather conditions during a particular season.

Make a claim based on information about the merit of a design solution that reduces the impacts of a weather-related hazard.

Make a claim about the effectiveness of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changes and that the types of plants and animals that live there may change.

Construct a cause and effect argument communicating some animals, including humans, form groups and communities that help members survive.

Observe and record qualitative and quantitative data about an object's motion to provide evidence that a pattern can be used to predict future motion.

Obtain and combine information from a variety of sources to communicate that energy and fuels are derived from natural resources and their uses affect the environment.

Analyze and interpret data from maps as evidence to make a claim about patterns of Earth's features.

Use evidence to describe the relationship between the speed of an object and the energy of that object.

Graph and explain the proportion and quantities of water and fresh water in various natural and human-made reservoirs to provide evidence about the distribution of water on Earth.

Obtain and combine information from various sources about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth's resources, environment, and systems and describe examples of how American Indians use scientific knowledge and practices to maintain relationships with the natural world.

Use evidence or models to support the claim that differences in the apparent brightness of the sun compared to other stars is due to their relative distances from Earth.

Graph the daily changes in the length, shape, and direction of shadows; lengths of day and night; and the seasonal appearance of select stars to communicate the patterns of the Earth's movement and describe how astronomical knowledge is used by American Indians.

Develop and critique a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.

Measure and graph quantities to provide evidence that the total mass of matter is conserved regardless of the type of change that occurs when heating, cooling, or mixing substances.

Observe and record qualitative and quantitative evidence to support identification of materials based on their properties.

Conduct an investigation that produces quantitative and qualitative data to analyze whether the mixing of two or more substances results in new substances.

Use models to describe that energy in animals' food was once energy from the sun.

Support an argument that the gravitational force exerted by Earth on objects is directed toward the center of the Earth.

Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth's systems including indigenous populations.

Develop and use a model to describe the structure and function of a cell as a whole and ways parts of cells contribute to the function.

Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem and analyze scientific concepts used by American Indians to maintain healthy relationships with environmental sources.

Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how environmental and genetic factors influence the growth and development of organisms.

Develop and use a model to describe why structural changes to genes, such as mutations, may affect proteins and may result in harmful, beneficial, or neutral effects to the structure and function of the organism.

Develop and critique models that describe the atomic composition of simple molecules and extended structures.

Gather information to describe that synthetic materials come from natural resources and impact society.

Develop, use, and critique a model to describe how the total number of atoms does not change in a chemical reaction and thus mass is conserved.

Design and conduct an investigation to provide evidence that fields exist between objects exerting forces on each other even though the objects are not in contact.

Develop and critique models to describe that when the arrangement of objects interacting at a distance changes, different amounts of potential energy are stored in the system.

Use mathematical representations to describe a simple model for waves that includes how the amplitude and wavelength of a wave is related to the energy in a wave.

Create a computational simulation to illustrate the relationships among management of natural resources, the sustainability of human populations, biodiversity, and investigate and explain how some American Indian tribes use scientific knowledge and practices in managing natural resources.

Develop and use a model to illustrate the organizational structure of interacting systems that provide specific functions within multicellular organisms.

Construct an explanation based on evidence from multiple sources for how carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur may combine with other elements to form organic macromolecules with different structures and functions.

Use mathematical or computational representations to support arguments about environmental factors that affect carrying capacity, biodiversity, and populations in ecosystems.

Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the direct and indirect impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity and analyze scientific concepts used by American Indians to maintain healthy relationships with environmental resources.

Construct an explanation using evidence from multiple sources to describe the role of cellular division and differentiation in producing and maintaining complex organisms.

Make and defend a claim based on evidence from multiple sources that inheritable genetic variations may result from: • new genetic combinations through meiosis • viable errors occurring during replication • mutations caused by environmental factors

Evaluate and communicate scientific information about how common ancestry and biological evolution are supported by multiple lines of empirical evidence.

Construct an explanation based on evidence that the process of evolution by natural selection primarily results from four factors: • the potential for a species to increase in number • the heritable genetic variation of individuals in a species due to mutation and sexual reproduction • competition for limited resources • the proliferation of those organisms that are better able to survive and reproduce in the environment

Evaluate the evidence supporting claims that changes in environmental conditions may result in: • changes in the number of individuals of some species • the emergence of new species over time • the extinction of other species • investigate and explain American Indian perspectives on changes in environmental conditions and their impacts

Refine the design of a chemical system by specifying changes in conditions that would alter the amount of products at equilibrium.

Apply scientific and engineering ideas to design, evaluate, and refine a device that minimizes forces on an object during collisions.

Use a mathematical representation of Newton's Law of Gravitation and Coulomb's Law to explain gravitational and electrostatic forces between objects.

Create a computational model to calculate the change in the energy of one component in a system when the change in energy of the other component and energy flows in and out of the system are known.

Develop and use models to illustrate that energy at the macroscopic scale can be accounted for as a combination of energy associated with the motions of particles and energy associated with the relative position of particles.

Use mathematical representations to support a claim regarding relationships among the frequency, amplitude, wavelength, and speed of waves traveling in various media.