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

Students identify a question or problem that can actually be tested with evidence or solved by building something. This is the step where curiosity gets turned into a plan.

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

Students design a test, collect real data, and use what they find to check whether an idea holds up.

Students read data from charts, graphs, or experiments to spot patterns and explain what those patterns mean.

Students use math, data, and simple calculations to back up a scientific idea. Instead of just describing what they observe, they use numbers and patterns as evidence.

Students build written explanations for science phenomena by connecting what they observed or measured to a scientific principle. They also propose solutions to problems, showing how the evidence supports their reasoning.

Students look at two or more explanations or solutions, weigh the evidence behind each one, and argue for which holds up better. The goal is to change minds with data, not just opinion.

Students read scientific texts and data, judge whether the information is reliable, and explain what they found in writing or presentations.

Students examine how atoms and molecules behave to explain everyday physical phenomena, like why substances dissolve, change state, or react with each other.

Students study how objects speed up, slow down, or stay still based on pushes and pulls. They apply Newton's laws to explain why a kicked ball moves the way it does and how forces balance to keep things from falling over.

Students trace how energy moves and changes form, from a rolling ball slowing down to heat building up in a circuit. They also learn that energy is never lost, just passed along.

Students study how waves, like sound and light, carry energy from place to place. They also explore how those waves are used to send information, such as in radio signals or fiber-optic cables.

Students examine how living things are built, from the tiny cells that make up tissues to the organs and systems that keep an animal or plant alive.

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

Students examine why offspring look similar to their parents but not identical. They trace which traits pass from one generation to the next and explore why some variation shows up along the way.

Students look at how living things on Earth share common features and how species change over generations. They study why some traits survive and spread, and how those changes eventually produce new kinds of life.

Students study where Earth sits in the solar system and how the planets move in predictable patterns. They also look at how Earth itself formed and changed over billions of years.

Students study the four major parts of Earth (the rocky ground, the oceans, the air, and all living things) and look at how each one affects the others.

Students study how things people do, like burning fuel or building cities, change the land, air, and water around them. They also look at how earthquakes, floods, and other natural events disrupt where and how people live.

Students identify a real problem, sketch or build possible fixes, then test and improve their design until it works better.

New tools and systems change how people live and work, and those same changes push engineers to solve new problems. Students study how invention, everyday technology, and social needs all shape one another over time.