What does a student learn in StateConnecticut,GradeGrade 7,SubjectScience?

Students practice turning curiosity into questions that can actually be tested, or turning a real-world problem into something specific enough to solve. This is how scientific investigations and engineering projects get started.

Students build diagrams, simulations, or physical models to show how something works in nature or in an engineered system. The model becomes a tool for testing ideas and explaining what's hard to see directly.

Students design a test, collect data, and use the results to check whether their idea holds up. This is how scientists (and students) find out if an explanation is actually supported by evidence.

Students look at collected data, spot patterns, and explain what those patterns mean. This is how scientists turn raw numbers or observations into actual conclusions.

Students use math, calculations, or data patterns to back up a scientific idea. Instead of just describing what they observe, they show it with numbers or models.

Students build written explanations for science phenomena by connecting their reasoning directly to data or observations. The explanation has to hold up against what the evidence actually shows, not just what sounds right.

Students look at two or more explanations for the same phenomenon and use data or test results to argue which one holds up better. The goal is to pick the stronger explanation, not just share an opinion.

Students read scientific sources, judge whether the information holds up, and share what they found in writing or discussion. The focus is on handling real science content, not just summarizing it.

Students examine how atoms and molecules are arranged and how they interact to explain everyday physical changes, like why ice melts or why some materials dissolve in water.

Students learn why objects speed up, slow down, or stay still by studying Newton's laws and how forces like gravity and friction work. They apply these ideas to predict what happens when objects collide or push against each other.

Students explore how energy changes form (heat, light, motion, sound) and moves from one object to another, while the total amount of energy in a closed system stays the same.

Students study how waves like sound and light carry energy from place to place, and how those same waves are used to send information, from radio signals to medical imaging.

Cells are the building blocks of every living thing. Students study how cells group into tissues, organs, and body systems, and how each level works together to keep an organism alive.

Students trace how energy from the sun and nutrients from the soil move through living things in an ecosystem. They also study how animals, plants, and other organisms depend on and affect each other.

Students study how traits like eye color or height pass from parents to offspring, and why siblings can look different even when they share the same parents.

Students study why living things share certain traits and why others differ, then look at how those differences build up over generations to explain how species change over time.

Students map out where Earth sits in the solar system and trace how it moves alongside the other planets. They also look back at Earth's long history to understand how it has changed over billions of years.

Students study how Earth's major systems (land, water, air, and living things) affect one another. They investigate questions like how rainfall shapes rock, how plants change the air, and how ocean temperatures shift weather patterns.

Students examine how things like farming, building, and burning fuel change land, water, and air, and how earthquakes, floods, and storms put communities at risk.

Students identify a real problem, brainstorm possible fixes, then test and improve their best design until it works better. This is the core loop of engineering work.

Students explore how the tools and systems people build shape daily life, and how the needs of society push engineers to solve new problems.