What does a student learn in StateVermont,GradeGrade 6,SubjectScience?

Students identify a question or problem that can actually be tested or built, not just discussed. They practice turning a curiosity or real-world challenge into something science or engineering can take on.

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

Students design and run experiments to collect data and check whether an idea holds up. This means deciding what to test, how to measure it, and what the results actually show.

Students read charts, graphs, and data tables to spot patterns and explain what the numbers actually mean.

Students use numbers, measurements, and calculations to back up scientific ideas. Instead of just describing what they observe, they show it with data.

Students build written explanations for science phenomena by connecting their claim directly to data or observations. The explanation has to hold up against scientific principles, not just sound reasonable.

Students look at two or more explanations for the same science question and use data or test results to argue which one holds up better. The goal is to defend a choice with evidence, not just an opinion.

Students read science articles or data, judge whether the source and reasoning hold up, and explain their findings clearly in writing or discussion.

Students examine how atoms and molecules are arranged and how they interact to explain everyday physical events, like why ice melts or why oil and water separate.

Students learn why objects speed up, slow down, or stay still by studying Newton's laws and how forces interact. They apply those ideas to real situations, like a ball rolling to a stop or a collision between two objects.

Students trace how energy moves and changes form, such as from heat to motion or light to electricity, and show that the total amount of energy in a system stays the same even as it shifts.

Students study how waves, like sound and light, carry energy from one place to another. They also look at how waves are used to send information, the way a phone signal or radio broadcast travels through the air.

Sixth through eighth graders study how living things are built and how they work, from the smallest cell up to full body systems like digestion or circulation.

Students trace how nutrients and energy move through a food web, from plants to animals to decomposers, and examine how organisms depend on and affect each other in the same habitat.

Students trace how traits like eye color or height pass from parents to offspring, and explore why siblings can look different even when they share the same parents.

Students study how living things share basic traits across species while also varying in ways that help some survive better than others. Those survival advantages, passed down over generations, explain how species change over time.

Students map out where Earth sits in the solar system and trace how it moves alongside the other planets. They also look back at Earth's long history to see how the planet has changed over time.

Students study how Earth's land, water, air, and living things work as one connected system, and how a change in one part (like a drought or an eruption) can ripple through the others.

Students study how things like farming, building, and burning fuel change the land, water, and air, and how earthquakes, floods, and other natural events disrupt where and how people live.

Students identify a real problem, sketch or build possible solutions, then test and adjust their design until it works better. The focus is on the back-and-forth of testing and fixing, not just coming up with an idea.

Students explore how the tools and systems people build shape daily life, and how the needs of society push engineers to solve new problems.