Standards
Idaho State Standards
Here are correlations to the Idaho State Language and Math standards and to the Idaho State Science Standards. For more information about the overall standards, see the complete Idaho Content Standards for Science, the Next Generation Science Standards, and the alignment between Idaho and NGSS Science Standards. You may also access the Idaho English Language Arts/Literacy Standards and Mathematics Standards.
Language
Second Grade
ELA-2.WB.1
Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade-level reading and content, choosing flexibly from an array of strategies.
Suggested Lesson
Read the book What Is Climate? by Ellen Lawrence. Discuss climate terms such as desert, tundra, temperate, tropical, precipitation, etc. Write each word and illustrate with a picture.
Third Grade
ELA-3.RW.4
Write personal or fictional stories that recount an event or experience, include details to develop the characters or event(s), and provide a sense of closure.
Suggested Lesson
Where I Went On A Pretend Vacation activity: Research an area's climate and write a postcard about the climate of the place as if you went there.
Sixth Grade
ELA-6.RW.2
Write arguments that introduce and support a distinct point of view with relevant claims, evidence and reasoning; demonstrate an understanding of the topic; and provide a concluding section that follows from the argument presented.
Suggested Lesson
Take a position on a strategy people could do to mitigate climate change. Write an opinion paper outlining your reasons for supporting this position, using credible sources.
Math
Kindergarten
Math-K.MD.A.2
Directly compare two objects with a measurable attribute in common, to see which object has "more of"/"less of" the attribute, and describe the difference.
Suggested Lesson
View pictures of a tropical climate and an arid climate, including pictures that show animals, plants, and humans of the region. Analyze which climate is wetter, drier, hotter, colder. Which has more rainfall? How could that be measured? Do the same with pictures of a temperate and a polar climate.
Fourth Grade
Math-4.NBT.B.4
Fluently use the standard algorithm for multi-digit whole number addition and subtraction.
Suggested Lesson
Find the high and low annual temperatures in a region with a tropical climate, and the high and low annual temperatures in a region with a continental climate. Subtract to find the temperature range of each climate region. What does temperature variability tell us about these climate types?
Sixth Grade
MATH-6.RP.A.1
Understand the concept of a ratio and use ratio language to describe a ratio relationship between two quantities.
Suggested Lesson
Watch the video clip, The Effect of Land Mass on Climate. Water stores more heat energy than land, and releases it more slowly. Determine the percentage of land versus ocean in the Northern Hemisphere and in the Southern Hemisphere. Does the difference in this ratio support the statement that the Southern Hemisphere has a more moderate climate than locations in the Northern Hemisphere at the same latitude?
Science
Kindergarten
Earth and Space Sciences: K-ESS-2.3
Communicate ideas that would enable humans to interact in a beneficial way with the land, water, air, and/or other living things in the local environment.
Supporting Content
Things that people do can affect the world around them. People can reduce their effects on the land, water, air, and other living things.
Earth and Space Sciences: K-ESS-2.3
Ask questions to obtain information about the purpose of weather forecasting to prepare for, and respond to, local weather.
Supporting Content
Some kinds of weather are more likely than others in a given region. Weather scientists forecast the weather so that local communities can prepare for and respond to these events.
Emphasis is on local forms of weather.
Earth and Space Sciences: K-ESS-2.1
Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants and animals and the places they live.
Supporting Content
Living things need water, air, and resources from the land. They live in places that have the things they need.
Earth and Space Sciences: K-ESS-1.1
Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe variations in patterns throughout the year.
Supporting Content
Weather is the combination of sunlight, wind, snow or rain, and temperature in a particular region, at a particular time. People measure these conditions to describe and record patterns over time.
The four seasons occur in a specific order due to their weather patterns.
Physical Sciences: K-PS-2.2
Design and build a structure that will reduce the warming effect of the Sun’s energy on a material.
Supporting Content
Sunlight warms Earth's surface.
Examples of structures could include umbrellas, canopies, and tents that minimize the warming effect of the Sun on Earth’s surface.
Physical Sciences: K-PS-2.1
Make observations to determine the effect of sunlight on Earth's surface.
Supporting Content
Sunlight warms Earth's surface.
Assessment of temperature is limited to relative measures such as warmer/cooler.
First Grade
Earth and Space Sciences: 1-ESS-1.2
Make observations at different times of year to relate the amount of daylight to the time of year.
Supporting Content
Seasons are created by weather patterns for a particular region and time. Local patterns create four distinct seasons.
Second Grade
Earth and Space Sciences: 2-ESS-2.1
Compare multiple solutions designed to slow or prevent water from changing the shape of the land.
Supporting Content
Wind and water can change the shape of the land.
Examples of solutions could include different designs of dikes and windbreaks to hold back wind and water, and different designs for using shrubs, grass, and trees to hold back the land.
Earth and Space Sciences: 2-ESS-1.1
Use information from several sources to provide evidence that Earth events can occur quickly or slowly.
Supporting Content
Some events happen very quickly; others occur very slowly over a time period longer than one can observe.
Third Grade
Earth and Space Sciences: 3-ESS-2.1
Make a claim about the merit of a design solution that reduces the impacts of a weather-related hazard.
Supporting Content
A variety of natural hazards result from natural processes. Humans cannot eliminate natural hazards but can take steps to reduce their impacts.
Examples of design solutions to weather-related hazards could include barriers to prevent flooding, wind-resistant roofs, and lightning rods.
Earth and Space Sciences: 3-ESS-1.2
Obtain and combine information to describe climates in different regions of the world.
Supporting Content
Climate describes a range of an area's weather conditions and the extent to which those conditions vary over years.
Earth and Space Sciences: 3-ESS-1.1
Represent data in tables and graphical displays to describe typical weather conditions expected during a particular season.
Supporting Content
Scientists record patterns of weather across different times and areas so that they can make predictions about what kind of weather might happen next.
Examples of data could include average temperature, precipitation, and wind direction.
Fourth Grade
Earth and Space Sciences: 4-ESS-3.1
Obtain and combine information to describe that energy and fuels are derived from natural resources and their uses affect the environment.
Supporting Content
Some sources are renewable over time, and others are not.
Examples of environmental effects could include air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels.
Earth and Space Sciences: 4-ESS-2.1
Make observations and/or measurements to provide evidence of the effects of weathering or the rate of erosion by water, ice, wind, or vegetation.
Supporting Content
Rainfall helps to shape the land and affects the types of living things found in a region. Water, ice, wind, living organisms, and gravity break rocks, soils, and sediments into smaller particles and move them around.
Fifth Grade
Life Sciences: 5-LS-2.1
Analyze and interpret data from fossils to provide evidence of the organisms and the environments that existed long ago and compare those to living organisms and their environments.
Supporting Content
Fossils provide evidence about the types of organisms that lived long ago and also about the nature of their environments.
Examples of data could include type, size, and distributions of fossil organisms. Examples of fossils and environments could include marine fossils found on dry land, tropical plant fossils found in Arctic areas, and fossils of extinct organisms.
Earth and Space Sciences 5-ESS-3.1
Obtain and combine information about ways communities protect Earth's resources and environment using scientific ideas.
Supporting Content
Human activities in agriculture, industry and everyday life have effects on the land, vegetation, ocean, and air, and even outer space.
Earth and Space Sciences: 5-ESS-2.2
Describe and graph the amounts and percentages of water in various reservoirs to interpret and analyze the distribution of water on Earth.
Supporting Content
Nearly all of Earth's available water is in the ocean. Most fresh water is in glaciers or underground; only a tiny fraction is in streams, lakes, wetlands, and the atmosphere. Assessment is limited to oceans, lakes, rivers, glaciers, and polar ice caps.
Earth and Space Sciences: 5-ESS-2.1
Develop a model using an example to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and/or atmosphere interact.
Supporting Content
Examples could include the influence of the ocean on ecosystems, landform shape, and climate; the influence of the atmosphere on landforms and ecosystems through weather and climate; and the influence of mountain ranges on winds and clouds in the atmosphere.
Life Sciences: 5-LS-2.3
Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changes and the types of plants and animals living there may change.
Supporting Content
Assessment is limited to a single environmental change. Assessment does not include the greenhouse effect or climate change.
Sixth Grade - Middle School
Earth and Space Sciences: MS-ESS-3.5
Ask questions to interpret evidence of the factors that cause climate variability throughout Earth’s history
Supporting Content
Current scientific models indicate that human activities, such as the release of greenhouse gases from fossil fuel combustion, can contribute to the present-day measured rise in Earth’s mean surface temperature. Natural activities, such as changes in incoming solar radiation, also contribute to changing global temperatures.
Earth and Space Sciences: MS-ESS-3.2
Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events to mitigate their effects.
Supporting Content
Mapping the history of natural hazards in a region, combined with an understanding of related geologic forces, can help forecast the locations and likelihoods of future events.
Emphasis is on how some natural hazards, such as volcanic eruptions and severe weather, are preceded by phenomena that allow for reliable predictions. Others, such as earthquakes, occur suddenly, and are not yet predictable.
Examples of natural hazards can be taken from interior processes (such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions), surface processes (such as mass wasting and tsunamis), or severe weather events (such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods). Examples of data can include the locations, magnitudes, and frequencies of the natural hazards. Examples of mitigation strategies can be global (such as satellite systems to monitor hurricanes or forest fires) or local (such as building basements in tornado-prone regions or reservoirs to mitigate droughts).
Earth and Space Sciences: MS-ESS-2.6
Develop and use a model to describe how unequal heating and rotation of the Earth cause patterns of atmospheric and oceanic circulation that determine regional climates.
Supporting Content
Weather and climate are influenced by interactions involving sunlight, the ocean, the atmosphere, ice, landforms, and living things. These interactions vary with latitude, altitude, and local and regional geography, all of which can affect oceanic and atmospheric flow patterns.
The ocean exerts a major influence on weather and climate by absorbing energy from the Sun, releasing it over time, and globally redistributing it through ocean currents.
Earth and Space Sciences: MS-ESS-2.5
Collect data to provide evidence for how the motions and complex interactions of air masses results in changes in weather conditions.
Supporting Content
The complex patterns of the changes and the movement of water in the atmosphere, determined by winds, landforms, and ocean temperatures and currents, are major determinants of local weather patterns.
Because these patterns are so complex, weather can only be predicted using probability.
Life Sciences: MS-LS-2.5
Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
Supporting Content
Ecosystems are dynamic in nature; their characteristics can vary over time. Disruptions to any physical or biological component of an ecosystem can lead to shifts in all its populations. Emphasis is on recognizing patterns in data and making warranted inferences about changes in populations, and on evaluating empirical evidence supporting arguments about changes to ecosystems