• 4F (6-8) Light from the sun is made up of a mixture of many different colors of light, even though to the eye the light looks almost white. Other things that give off or reflect light have a different mix of colors.
• 4F (6-8) Human eyes respond to only a narrow range of wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation -- visible light. Differences of wavelength within that range are perceived as differences in color.

National Science Education Standards

• Transfer of Energy - Light interacts with matter by transmission (including refraction), absorption, or scattering (including reflection.) To see an object, light from that object -- emitted by or scattered from it -- must enter the eye.
• Transfer of Energy - The sun is a major source of energy for changes on the earth’s surface. The sun loses energy by emitting light. A tiny fraction of that light reaches the earth, transferring energy from the sun to the earth. The sun’s energy arrives as a light with a range of wavelengths, consisting of visible light, infrared, and ultraviolet radiation.

Maryland School Performance Assessment Program Concept Indicators

• (6-8) - Energy can be changed from one form to another. Visible light behaves in a variety of ways.

Remote Sensing Unit

AAAS Project 2061 Benchmarks

• 3A (6-8) Technology is essential to science for such purposes as access to outer space and other remote locations, sample collection and treatment, measurement, data collection and storage, computation, and communication of information.
• 8D (3-5) Communication involves coding and decoding information. In any language, both the sender and the receiver have to know the same code, which means that secret codes can be used to keep communication private.
• 8D (6-8) Information can be carried by many media, including sound, light, and objects. In this century, the ability to code information as electric currents in wires, electromagnetic waves in space, and light in glass fibers has made communication millions of times faster than is possible by mail or sound.
• 8E (6-8) Most computers use digital codes containing only two symbols, 0 and 1, to perform all operations. Continuous signals must be transformed into digital codes before they can be processed by a computer.

National Science Education Standards

• Understanding about Science and Technology - Science and technology are reciprocal. Science helps drive technology, as it addresses questions that demand more sophisticated instruments and provides principles for better instrumentation and technique. Technology is essential to science, because it provides instruments and techniques that enable observations of objects and phenomena that are otherwise unobservable due to factors such as quantity, distance, location, size, and speed. Technology also provides tools for investigations, inquiry, and analysis.

Maryland School Performance Assessment Program Concept Indicators

• (K-3) - The place where you live has a variety of earth features to be investigated, including streams, hills, slopes, and soils.

Biodiversity Unit

AAAS Project 2061 Benchmarks

• 5D (6-8) In all environments - freshwater, marine, forest, desert, grassland, mountain, and others - organisms with similar needs may compete with one another for resources, including food, space, water, air, and shelter. In any particular environment, the growth and survival of organisms depend on the physical conditions.
• 5D (6-8) Two types of organisms may interact with one another in several ways. They may be in a producer/consumer, predator/prey, or parasite/host relationship. Or one organism may scavenge or decompose another. Relationships may be competitive or mutually beneficial. Some species have become so adapted to each other that neither could survive without the other.
• 12A (3-5) Keep records of their investigations and observations and not change the records later.
• 12C (3-5) Keep a notebook that describes observations made, carefully distinguishes actual observations from ideas and speculations about what was observed, and is understandable weeks or months later.

National Science Education Standards

• Populations and Ecosystems - A population consists of all individuals of a species that occur together at a given place and time. All populations living together and the physical factors with which they interact compose an ecosystem.
• Populations and Ecosystems - Populations of organisms can be categorized by the function they serve in an ecosystem. Plants and some micro-organisms are producers -- they make their own food. All animals, including humans, are consumers, which obtain food by eating other organisms. Decomposers, primarily bacteria and fungi, are consumers that use waste materials and dead organisms for food. Food webs identify the relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers in an ecosystem.
• Populations, Resources, and Environments - When an area becomes overpopulated, the environment will become degraded due to the increased use of resources.
• Populations, Resources, and Environments - Causes of environmental degradation and resource depletion vary from region to region from country to country.

Maryland School Performance Assessment Program Concept Indicators

• (4-5) - Individuals and groups of organisms interact with each other and their environment.
• (4-5) - Humans depend on natural resources to meet needs and wants.
• (6-8) - Humans have a major impact on the living and non-living environment.
• (6-8) - Earth is changed over time by different natural and human forces.