Standards

California Standards for Grade 6

Science

 

Focus on Earth Sciences

Plate Tectonics and Earth’s Structure

1. Plate tectonics accounts for important features of Earth’s surface and major geologic events. As a basis for understanding this concept: 
a. Students know evidence of plate tectonics is derived from the fit of the continents; the location of earthquakes, volcanoes, and midocean ridges; and the distribution of fossils, rock types, and ancient climatic zones.
 
d. Students know that earthquakes are sudden motions along breaks in the crust called faults and that volcanoes and fissures are locations where magma reaches the surface.
 
e. Students know major geologic events, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and mountain building, result from plate motions.

f. Students know how to explain major features of California geology (including mountains, faults, volcanoes) in terms of plate tectonics.

Shaping Earth’s Surface

 2. Topography is reshaped by the weathering of rock and soil and by the transportation and deposition of sediment. As a basis for understanding this concept:

d. Students know earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, and floods change human and wildlife habitats.

Investigation and Experimentation 

7.  Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept and addressing the content in the other three strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:
  
         b. Select and use appropriate tools and technology (including calculators,
         computers, balances, spring scales, microscopes, and binoculars) to perform tests,
         collect data, and display data.
 
          c. Construct appropriate graphs from data and develop qualitative statements about
          the relationships between variables.

f. Read a topographic map and a geologic map for evidence provided on the maps and construct and interpret a simple scale map.

Language Arts

Listening and Speaking

1.0 Listening and Speaking Strategies. 
Students deliver focused, coherent presentations that convey ideas clearly and relate to the background and interests of the audience. They evaluate the content of oral communication.
 
Organization and Delivery of Oral Communication

1.4 Select a focus, an organizational structure, and a point of view, matching the purpose, message, occasion, and vocal modulation to the audience.

1.5 Emphasize salient points to assist the listener in following the main ideas and concepts.

1.6 Support opinions with detailed evidence and with visual or media displays that use appropriate technology.

1.7 Use effective rate, volume, pitch, and tone and align nonverbal elements to sustain audience interest and attention.

 
2.0 Speaking Applications (Genres and Their Characteristics)
Students deliver well-organized formal presentations employing traditional rhetorical strategies (e.g., narration, exposition, persuasion, description). Student speaking demonstrates a command of standard American English and the organizational and delivery strategies outlined in Listening and Speaking Standard 1.0.
 
2.2 Deliver informative presentations:
    b. Develop the topic with facts, details, examples, and explanations from multiple
        authoritative sources (e.g., speakers, periodicals, online information).