The Kindergarten Science objectives are designed to engage students in finding answers to questions related to their interests and the world around them. Kindergarten students engage in active inquiries, investigations and hands-on activities throughout the instructional day to develop conceptual understanding and research skills as described in the objectives. Students use safe and proper techniques for handling, manipulating, and caring for science materials and treating living organisms humanely. Kindergarten objectives include physical, life, earth and space sciences and engineering. In the kindergarten objectives, students are expected to demonstrate age-appropriate proficiency in asking questions, developing and using models, planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, designing solutions, engaging in argument from evidence, and obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information. Engineering, Technology, and the Application of Science objectives are integrated throughout instruction as students define problems and design solutions related to the course objectives. Students are expected to use these practices to demonstrate an understanding of the scientific world.

Topic: All West Virginia teachers are responsible for classroom instruction that integrates content literacy and 21st Century Learning Skills and Technology Tools.

S.K.GS.1

Students will plan and conduct an investigation to compare the effects of different strengths or different directions of pushes and pulls on the motion of an object.

S.K.GS.2

Students will analyze data to determine if a design solution works as intended to change the speed or direction of an object with a push or a pull.*

Topic: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems: Animals, Plants, and Their Environment.

S.K.GS.3

Students will use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.

S.K.GS.4

Students will construct an argument supported by evidence for how plants and animals (including humans) can change the environment to meet their needs.

S.K.GS.5

Students will use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants or animals (including humans) and the places they live.

S.K.GS.6

Students will communicate solutions that will reduce the impact of humans on the land, water, air, and/or other living things in the local environment.*

Topic: Weather and Climate.

S.K.GS.7

Students will use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time.

S.K.GS.8

Students will ask questions to obtain information about the purpose of weather forecasting to prepare for, and respond to, severe weather.*

S.K.GS.9

Students will make observations to determine the effect of sunlight on Earth’s surface.

S.K.GS.10

Students will use tools and materials to design and build a structure that will reduce the warming effect of sunlight on an area.*

Grade K-2: Science (Engineering, Technology, and Applications of Science)

Topic: Engineering Design

S.K-2.ETS.1

Students will ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.

S.K-2.ETS.2

Students will develop a simple sketch, drawing, or physical model to illustrate how the shape of an object helps it function as needed to solve a given problem.

S.K-2.ETS.3

Students will analyze data from tests of two objects designed to solve the same problem to compare the strengths and weaknesses of how each performs.