Elementary Science

Each elementary grade level contains standards called “Performance Expectations” (PEs) from the Next Generation Science standards (NGSS). Each PE is written to include a science practice, crosscutting concept and disciplinary core idea. This 3-dimensional approach to science learning is the key innovation of the NGSS.

Instruction with the NGSS should engage students in the science and engineering practices, along with the crosscutting concepts, in order to learn the disciplinary core ideas. Each elementary grade level contains disciplinary core ideas from life, earth/space, and physical science. Student understanding of science content and practices should grow increasingly more sophisticated as concepts build throughout the elementary science science curriculum. The content covered at each grade level includes:

The students will develop and apply an understanding of:

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Pre-K

Prekindergarteners will learn about the world around them through play, hands-on exploration, and guided curiosity.

Key Topics

Light, Sound & Shadows: Playing with sound, light, and making shadows using different everyday materials.
Physical Properties & Motion: Exploring shapes, colors, textures, and weights, testing how solids and liquids change, and experimenting with how objects move, roll, and bounce.
Plants, Animals & Life Cycles: Observing how living things grow and transform over time.
Earth & Sky: Noticing changes in the sky and weather, exploring natural materials like dirt, rocks, and water, and learning simple ways to take care of the Earth.

Science Skills They’ll Practice

Asking questions, noticing details, and describing what they see
Testing ideas through play and hands-on experiments
Making simple predictions about how things move or change
Spotting everyday problems and trying out creative solutions with help

Kindergarten

Kindergarteners will explore big questions through hands-on activities, observation, and problem-solving.

Key Topics

Plants & Animals: What living things need to survive and why they live in specific environments.
Weather & Patterns: Tracking daily weather, comparing changes, and understanding forecasts and safety.
Pushes and Pulls: How changing force or direction affects how objects move.

Science Skills They’ll Practice

Asking big questions and gathering clues
Doing simple experiments and using models
Comparing data and sharing their discoveries
Designing creative solutions to simple problems

Grade 1

First graders will explore the world around them by observing patterns, testing ideas, and building everyday understandings of nature and physical forces.

Key Topics

Sun, Moon & Stars: Observing, describing, and predicting patterns of objects in the night and daytime sky.
Light & Sound: How vibrations create sound, how light lets us see, and how light interacts with different objects.
Plants & Animals: How living things use their physical traits and parent behaviors to survive, grow, and meet their needs.
Parents & Offspring: How young plants and animals are similar to—but not exactly like—their parents.

Science Skills They’ll Practice

Planning and carrying out simple tests
Analyzing data and looking for patterns
Explaining how things work and designing solutions
Gathering, sharing, and communicating their findings

Grade 2

Second graders will investigate the natural world by exploring how Earth changes, testing properties of materials, and examining how plants and animals interact.

Key Topics

Materials & Properties: Testing and classifying different materials to see how their properties make them useful for building or design.
Land & Water: Identifying landforms and bodies of water, mapping where water is found, and seeing how wind and water shape the land.
Plant Growth & Pollination: What plants need to grow and how they rely on animals for pollination and spreading seeds.
Habitat Diversity: Comparing the wide variety of living things found in different environments on Earth.

Science Skills They’ll Practice

Building and using models to explain ideas
Testing materials and collecting data through hands-on investigations
Designing and comparing solutions to prevent land erosion
Sharing evidence to support their conclusions

Grade 3

Third graders will dig deeper into forces, weather patterns, ecosystems, and traits passed down through generations.

Key Topics

Weather & Climate: Tracking weather patterns over time, understanding world climates, and designing ways to reduce weather-related hazards.
Life Cycles & Traits: How plants and animals go through life cycles, inherit traits from parents, and adapt to their environments.
Ecosystems & Survival: How living in groups helps some animals survive and what happens when habitats change.
Forces & Motion: How balanced and unbalanced forces affect movement, and how electric or magnetic forces work.

Science Skills They’ll Practice

Asking questions and defining engineering problems
Conducting fair tests and controlling variables
Analyzing data from charts, graphs, and tables
Constructing arguments using evidence from observations

Grade 4

Fourth graders will explore how energy works, how waves move, how the Earth's surface changes, and how living things adapt to their environments.

Key Topics

Energy & Motion: Understanding how speed relates to energy, how energy transfers through collisions, and how light, heat, sound, and electricity move from place to place.
Waves & Information: Modeling how waves move, seeing how light helps us see objects, and exploring how waves carry information.
Earth's Changing Landscape: Investigating how wind, water, ice, and plants reshape the land over time, and using maps to spot patterns in Earth's features.
Plant & Animal Structures: How internal and external body parts support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

Science Skills They’ll Practice

Building models to explain wave action and light
Designing, testing, and refining devices that convert energy
Analyzing maps and data to find Earth patterns
Constructing explanations using evidence from experiments

Grade 5

Fifth graders will dive into complex concepts like the microscopic structure of matter, food web energy, Earth's systems, and space patterns.

Key Topics

Earth’s Systems & Water: Exploring how the land, water, air, and living things interact, and graphing where water is distributed across the planet.
Matter & Reactions: Understanding that matter is made of tiny invisible particles, weight is saved even when matter changes, and mixing materials can create new substances.
Space & Earth's Orbit: Tracking patterns in shadow lengths, day/night cycles, and seasonal shifts in the stars to understand Earth's movement in space.
Ecosystems & Energy: How plants grow using air and water, how energy from the sun flows through food chains, and how matter recycles through decomposers.

Science Skills They’ll Practice

Developing models to visualize invisible particles and ecosystems
Planning and carrying out controlled chemistry experiments
Using math and graphing to represent scientific data
Constructing evidence-based arguments to support conclusions

LEARN MORE BELOW...

Maryland Integrated Science Assessment (MISA)

The MISA is given in grade 5 and assesses content from grades 3-5. Check out resources such as Blueprints/Test Preparation/Rubrics:

MSDE MISA

NGSS Parent Guides

This suite of NGSS Parent Guides illustrates how the standards are a powerful foundation to help students build a cohesive understanding of science over time. The parent guides are available for Grades K-2 and Grades 3-5.

MORE INFO?
Contact your child’s school for additional information about current science learning and/or how to support your student at home.