SC-Alt Science Support Guide Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1 Age 5 on or before September 1 (Kindergarten)........................................................................ 5 Core Concept: Life Science: Exploring Organisms and the Environment ................................ 7 Core Concept: Earth Science: Exploring Weather Patterns ..................................................... 13 Core Concept: Physical Science: Exploring Properties of Objects and Materials ................... 16 Age 6 on or before September 1 (Grade 1) ............................................................................... 21 Core Concept: Physical Science: Exploring Light and Shadows ............................................ 23 Core Concept: Earth Science: Exploring the Sun and Moon ................................................... 28 Core Concept: Earth Science: Exploring Earth’s Natural Resources ...................................... 32 Core Concept: Life Science: Plants and Their Environment ................................................... 36 Age 7 on or before September 1 (Grade 2) ............................................................................... 41 Core Concept: Earth Science: Weather .................................................................................... 43 Core Concept: Physical Science: Properties of Solids and Liquids ......................................... 47 Core Concept: Physical Science: Exploring Pushes and Pulls ................................................ 51 Core Concept: Life Science: Animals and Their Environment ............................................... 55 Age 8 on or before September 1 (Grade 3) ............................................................................... 61 Core Concept: Physical Science: Properties and Changes in Matter ....................................... 63 Core Concept: Physical Science: Energy Transfer—Electricity and Magnetism .................... 69 Core Concept: Earth Science: The Earth’s Materials and Processes ....................................... 74 Core Concept: Life Science: Environments and Habitats ........................................................ 82 Age 9 on or before September 1 (Grade 4) ............................................................................... 87 Core Concept: Earth Science: Weather and Climate ............................................................... 89 Core Concept: Earth Science: Stars and the Solar System ...................................................... 93 Core Concept: Physical Science: Forms of Energy—Light and Sound................................... 98 Core Concept: Life Science: Characteristics and Growth of Organisms ............................... 102 -i- Table of Contents (Continued) Age 10 on or before September 1 (Grade 5) ........................................................................... 109 Core Concept: Physical Science: Matter and Mixtures ......................................................... 111 Core Concept: Earth Science: Changes in Landforms and Ocean ......................................... 116 Core Concept: Life Science: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems .......................... 119 Core Concept: Physical Science: Forces and Motion ............................................................ 123 Age 11 on or before September 1 (Grade 6) ........................................................................... 129 Core Concept: Earth Science: Earth’s Weather and Climate ................................................. 131 Core Concept: Physical Science: Energy Transfer and Conservation ................................... 135 Core Concept: Life Science: Diversity of Life—Classification and Animals ....................... 139 Core Concept: Life Science: Diversity of Life—Protists, Fungi, and Plants ........................ 143 Age 12 on or before September 1 (Grade 7) ........................................................................... 147 Core Concept: Physical Science: Classification and Conservation of Matter ....................... 149 Core Concept: Life Science: Organization in Living Systems .............................................. 153 Core Concept: Life Science: Heredity—Inheritance and Variation of Traits ........................ 156 Core Concept: Ecology: Interactions of Living Systems and the Environment .................... 160 Age 13 on or before September 1 (Grade 8) ........................................................................... 165 Core Concept: Physical Science: Forces and Motion ............................................................ 167 Core Concept: Earth Science: Earth’s Place in the Universe ................................................. 171 Core Concept: Earth Science: Earth Systems and Resources ................................................ 174 Age 16 on or before September 1 (Biology) ............................................................................ 179 Core Concept: Cells as a System ........................................................................................... 181 Core Concept: Energy Transfer ............................................................................................. 186 Core Concept: Heredity ......................................................................................................... 190 Core Concept: Biology........................................................................................................... 196 Core Concept: Ecosystem Dynamics ..................................................................................... 200 -ii- Introduction Introduction The South Carolina Alternate Assessment (SC-Alt): Science Assessment and Instructional Support Guide document was developed to provide guidance to teachers for including students with significant cognitive disabilities in challenging academic instruction. The South Carolina Science standards are prioritized for students participating in the alternate assessment. This prioritized content, designated within the “It is essential for students to know” section for each core concept, preserves the essence of the grade-level expectations while narrowing the depth and breadth of content that students with significant cognitive disabilities are exposed to during instruction and assessment. This support guide identifies prioritized content, by grade level, core concept, and standard. For each standard, prioritized content is addressed in the “It is essential for students to know:” in a narrative form to give the big picture across the core concept. The prioritized content is then presented as a matrix to show the continuum of the concept across complexity levels. The matrix shows varying access points to the prioritized content. A student’s progression through content contained in the matrix is intended to be fluid. It is not the intent, nor should it be the practice, for a student to be exposed to content in a straight vertical line through one of the columns. Every student, regardless of disability, comes to class with a different set of prior knowledge and experiences. For this reason a student may be able to access some content from the middle complexity level; but may be able to access other concepts at the more complex level. Teachers should evaluate a student’s ability in relation to the content and select the entry point based on that evaluation. Students should not be locked into receiving exposure to all content at the same entry point. Sample activities for selected standards are provided in “Application of Performance Indicators at the Middle Level—Instructional Activities.” The intent of providing these activities is to assist teachers in linking their instruction to the prioritized content. The support guide includes activity adaptations for more or less complexity. These adaptations provide suggestions for making the content accessible to students with a varying range of abilities within the classroom. The activities and adaptations provided are intended to serve as a model of how students participating in the SC-Alt Science assessment may receive academic instruction in science. There are many ways in which skills and concepts can be incorporated based on student’s individual learning styles and needs. The support guide also includes a sample investigation for each core concept. Within the investigations, there is an emphasis on writing. The intent of this emphasis is to demonstrate a variety of ways in which writing can be incorporated across the curriculum for students with significant cognitive disabilities. The activities and investigations have been provided as examples with the intent that teachers will differentiate the activities and investigations for the diverse learning needs within a class. It is important to understand that students are not expected to rote recall the specific information included in sample activities. As this guide is used, it is important to remember that students participating in SC-Alt are assigned to test forms based on their age, not grade level. The age corresponds to the grade level in which a student that age is typically enrolled. Age and typical grade level correspondence have been listed on the cover sheets. Information about age and grade level also can be found on the Age and Birthdate Reference Sheet for the current school year. -1- Incorporating Student Writing into