What does a student learn in StateNew Jersey,GradeGrade 6,SubjectScience?

Students figure out which questions science can actually test and which problems engineering can fix. They practice framing a question or a problem so it's specific enough to investigate with evidence.

Students build diagrams, drawings, or simulations to explain how something in nature works or how an engineered system is designed. The model helps show patterns or causes that are hard to see directly.

Students design a test, collect data from it, and use what they find to check whether their original idea holds up.

Students look at data from experiments or investigations and spot patterns, like which variable changed the most or which results kept repeating. The goal is to figure out what the numbers or observations actually mean.

Students apply math skills like graphing, calculating averages, or working with data to back up their science conclusions. Numbers and patterns become part of the argument, not just a separate math exercise.

Students build written explanations for science phenomena by connecting evidence from investigations to scientific principles. They use data and reasoning together, not just intuition or guesswork.

Students look at two or more competing scientific explanations or design solutions, then use data and evidence to argue which one holds up better.

Students read science articles and data, judge how reliable they are, and explain what they found to others. This skill shows up in lab reports, class discussions, and any time students back up a claim with actual evidence.

Students learn what matter is made of at the atomic level and use that knowledge to explain everyday physical phenomena, like why ice melts or why some materials conduct heat better than others.

Students learn why things speed up, slow down, or stay still by studying Newton's laws. They explore how forces like pushes, pulls, and gravity affect moving objects, and why energy doesn't just disappear when things collide or change direction.

Students explore how energy changes form and moves from one object to another, and why the total amount of energy in a closed system stays the same even as it shifts around.

Waves carry energy and information from one place to another. Students investigate how waves behave, including light and sound, and how those properties are used in real technology like radios and fiber optic cables.

Cells are the building blocks of living things. Students study how cells work together to form tissues and organs, and how those organs form systems that keep an organism alive.

Students trace how food, water, and nutrients move through an ecosystem and how living things depend on, compete with, or help each other to survive.

Students study why kids look like their parents but not exactly like them. They explore how traits like eye color or height get passed down through generations and why those traits can vary from one family member to the next.

Students examine how living things are both similar to and different from one another, then look at how those differences build up over generations to change species over time.

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

Students study Earth's major systems (land, water, air, and living things) and trace how changes in one affect the others, like how a volcanic eruption can alter the atmosphere and shift local weather patterns.

Students look at how things like farming, building, and burning fuel change land, water, and air. They also study how earthquakes, floods, and other natural events disrupt communities.

Students identify a real problem, come up with possible fixes, then test and improve their best idea until it works better.

Engineers solve problems by borrowing ideas from science, and those solutions change how people live and work. Students explore how new tools and systems shape society, and how society's needs push engineers to build something better.