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

Students identify a question or problem that can actually be tested with evidence or solved by building something. The question has to be specific enough that an experiment or design could answer it.

Students build diagrams, simulations, or physical models to show how a system or process works, then use those models to explain what they observed or predict what might happen next.

Students design experiments, collect data, and use what they find to check whether an idea holds up. This is the core of how scientists work, and students practice it directly.

Students look at data from experiments or research, spot trends or patterns, and explain what those findings actually mean.

Students apply math and data analysis to back up scientific ideas. That might mean running calculations, reading a graph, or using a model to test whether an explanation holds up.

Students build written explanations for science phenomena using evidence from data, experiments, or research. The explanation has to connect the evidence to a science principle, not just describe what happened.

Students look at two or more competing scientific explanations or design solutions and use real evidence to argue which one holds up better. The focus is on the reasoning behind the evidence, not just picking a side.

Students read scientific sources, judge how reliable they are, and explain findings clearly to others. This practice runs through every science course, from lab reports to research presentations.

Students examine how atoms and molecules are built and how they interact to explain everyday physical phenomena, like why materials melt, dissolve, or conduct electricity.

Students study Newton's laws to explain why objects speed up, slow down, or stay put. They use conservation principles to predict what happens when forces act on moving objects.

Students trace how energy changes form, such as from motion to heat, and show that the total amount stays the same even as it moves between objects or systems.

Students study how waves (light, sound, radio) carry energy and information from one place to another. They look at real applications like medical imaging, wireless signals, and fiber optics.

Students examine how living things are built and how they work, starting with individual cells and zooming out to full body systems like the circulatory or nervous system.

Students trace how energy flows through a food web and how matter like carbon and water cycles back through living things. They also study how species in a community compete, cooperate, or depend on each other to survive.

Students study how traits like eye color or height pass from parents to children, and why offspring aren't identical copies. They look at patterns in family traits and explore why variation shows up across generations.

Students study why living things share basic features yet look so different from one another, and how those differences build up over generations through natural selection and other forces that shape who survives and reproduces.

Students study where Earth sits in the solar system and how it moves, then trace how Earth itself formed and changed over billions of years.

Students study how Earth's land, water, air, and living things connect and affect each other. A change in one, like a volcanic eruption or a drought, can ripple through the others.

Students examine how things like burning fuel or clearing land change Earth's air, water, and soil, and how events like earthquakes or floods shape where and how people live.

Students identify a real problem, sketch or build possible fixes, then test and improve their designs until the best solution holds up.

Engineers shape how society works, and society shapes what engineers build. Students study real examples of how new technology changes daily life and how human needs push engineers to solve new problems.