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.RC.3
Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in Grade-level texts heard or read.
Suggested Lesson
Read the ScienceTrek Facts page for The Brain. With a partner, make a list of answers to who, what, where, when, why and how questions about the brain.
Fourth Grade
ELA-4.RC.3
Refer to details and examples in grade-level texts when explaining what texts says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
Suggested Lesson
Try the Stroop Effect Experiment found at the Neuroscience For Kids site. Read the science behind it found on this site (or a more detailed explanation at Wikipedia). Explain this effect to a partner in your class (after they have also tried the experiment.)
Fifth Grade
ELA-5.GC.2
Demonstrate command of the conventions of English punctuation and capitalization when writing and reading aloud to create meaning.
Suggested Lesson
Create a list of all of things that your brain does without your awareness. Separate your list items with appropriate punctuation.
Math
Kindergarten
Math-K.G.B.5
Model shapes in the world by building shapes from components/materials and drawing shapes (e.g., sticks and clay balls).
Suggested Lesson
Build a model of the brain using clay or salt dough. Include the three major parts: the cerebrum, the cerebellum, and the brain stem.
Third Grade
Math-3.MD.A.1
Tell and write time to the nearest minute within the same hour and measure time intervals in minutes. Solve word problems involving addition and subtraction of time intervals in minutes, (e.g., by representing the problem on a number line diagram).
Suggested Lesson
See how your brain learns — measure how long it takes to solve a medium difficulty maze on paper. Perform the same maze a second and third time, again measuring the time it takes to solve. This site has a number of printable mazes.
Fifth Grade
Math-5.MD.B.2
2. Collect, represent, and interpret numerical data, including whole numbers, and fractional and decimal values.
a. Interpret numerical data, with whole-number values, represented with tables or line plots.
b. Use graphic displays of data (line plots (dot plots), tables, etc.) to solve real world problems using fractional data.
Suggested Lesson
Sleep is important to the health of the body and the brain function. After reading the following article on Brain Basics: Understanding Sleep (NIH), create a line plot of the stages of sleep. Make it to scale based on the amount of time devoted to each of the five stages.
Science
First Grade
Life Sciences: 1-LS-1.1
Design and build a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.
Supporting Content
Animals have body parts that capture and convey different kinds of information needed for growth and survival. Animals respond to these inputs with behaviors that help them survive.
Third Grade
Life Sciences: 3-LS-3.2
Use evidence to support the explanation that traits can be influenced by the environment.
Supporting Content
Many characteristics involve both inheritance and environment. Characteristics result from individuals’ interactions with the environment, which can range from diet to learning.
Fourth Grade
Life Sciences: 4-LS-1.2
Use a model to describe that animals receive different types of information through their senses, process the information in their brain, and respond to the information in different ways.
Supporting Content
Different sense receptors are specialized for particular kinds of information, which may then be processed by the animal's brain. Animals are able to use their perceptions and memories to guide their actions.
Emphasis is on systems of information transfer.
Life Sciences: 4-LS-1.1
Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
Supporting Content
Animals have various body systems with specific functions for sustaining life: skeletal, circulatory, respiratory, muscular, digestive, etc.
Examples of structures could include heart, stomach, lung, brain, and skin.
Fifth Grade
Physical Sciences: 5-PS-3.1
Use models to describe that energy in animals' food (used for body repair, growth, motion, and to maintain body warmth) was once energy from the sun.
Supporting Content
The energy released from food was once energy from the Sun. The energy was captured by plants in the chemical process that forms plant matter (from air and water).
Food provides animals with the materials they need for body repair and growth.
Sixth Grade - Middle School
Life Sciences: MS-LS-1.6
Develop a model to describe how food is rearranged through chemical reactions forming new molecules that support growth and/or release energy as matter moves through an organism.
Supporting Content
Within individual organisms, food moves through a series of chemical reactions in which it is broken down and rearranged to form new molecules, to support growth, or to release energy.
Life Sciences: MS-LS-1.3
Make a claim supported by evidence for how a living organism is a system of interacting subsystems composed of groups of cells.
Supporting Content
In multicellular organisms, the body is a system of multiple interacting subsystems. These subsystems are groups of cells that work together to form tissues and organs that are specialized for particular body functions.
Examples could include the interaction of subsystems within a system and the normal functioning of those systems.