What does a student learn in StateDelaware,GradeGrade 9,SubjectScience?

Students learn to turn a curiosity or a real-world problem into a question that can actually be tested or built. The focus is on framing problems precisely enough that an experiment or a design can answer them.

Students build diagrams, simulations, or physical models to show how a system or process works, then use those models to explain patterns or test ideas.

Students design and run their own experiments to collect real data, then use that data to check whether their original idea holds up.

Students look at data from experiments or research and pull out what it actually means. They spot patterns, compare results, and explain what the numbers or observations are telling them.

Students use math, data, and calculations to back up scientific explanations. This might mean running numbers to test a hypothesis, analyzing a dataset, or using a model to show why a conclusion holds up.

Students build written or oral explanations for a science phenomenon by tying their reasoning directly to data, observations, or established science principles. The explanation has to hold up against the evidence, not just sound plausible.

Students look at two or more scientific explanations or proposed solutions, then use real data and reasoning to argue which one holds up better. The focus is on the evidence, not just the opinion.

Students read scientific sources, judge how reliable they are, and explain findings clearly to others. This practice shows up across every science topic, from lab reports to research presentations.

Students examine what atoms and molecules are made of and how they interact to explain everyday physical phenomena, like why materials change state or conduct heat.

Students study how objects speed up, slow down, and stay balanced by applying Newton's laws and conservation rules. They run investigations to explain why things move the way they do, from a rolling ball to a braking car.

Students trace how energy changes form and moves from one object to another, and confirm that the total amount of energy in a system stays the same before and after any change.

Students study how waves carry energy and information from one place to another, then explore real applications like radio signals, medical imaging, or fiber-optic cables.

Students examine how living things are built and how they work, starting with cells and zooming out to organs and whole-body systems. The goal is to see how structure at every level connects to function.

Students trace how energy moves through a food web and how materials like carbon and water cycle through living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem. They also study how organisms compete, cooperate, and depend on each other within a community.

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. This covers the rules of inheritance and the sources of variation.

Students examine how all living things share common traits while also differing in important ways, then explore what drives those differences over time, including natural selection and genetic change.

Students study where Earth sits in the solar system and how the planets move, while also tracing how Earth itself formed and changed over billions of years.

Students examine how Earth's land, water, air, and living things connect and affect one another. A volcanic eruption, a rainstorm, or a dying forest can set off changes that ripple across all four systems.

Students examine how things like burning fuel or clearing land change Earth's air, water, and soil, and how earthquakes, floods, and wildfires put communities at risk.

Students identify a real-world problem, brainstorm solutions, build or model a design, then test and improve it until it works better.

Students examine how bridges get built, how apps change daily habits, and how public needs push engineers to solve new problems. Each shapes the others in a continuous back-and-forth.