Show of Force

Gravity's Role in Space

6th Grade

The planets orbit the sun without being pulled into it.

• Ask questions that arise from careful observation of phenomena, models, or unexpected results, to clarify and/or seek additional information.

• Ask questions to identify and/or clarify evidence and/or the premise(s) of an argument.

• Ask questions to clarify and/or refine a model, an explanation, or an engineering problem.

• Develop and/or revise a model to show the relationships among variables, including those that are not observable but predict observable phenomena.

• Develop and/or use a model to predict and/or describe phenomena.

• Construct, analyze, and/or interpret graphical displays of data and/or large data sets to identify linear and nonlinear relationships.

• Use graphical displays (e.g., maps, charts, graphs, and/or tables) of large data sets to identify temporal and spatial relationships.

• Distinguish between casual and correlational relationships in data.

• Construct an explanation using models or representations.

• Construct a scientific explanation based on valid and reliable evidence obtained from sources (including the students' own experiments) and the assumption that theories and laws that describe the natural world operate today as they did in the past and will continue to do so in the future.

• Apply scientific ideas, principles, and/or evidence to construct, revise and/or use an explanation for realworld phenomena, examples, or events.

• Respectfully provide and receive critiques about one's explanations, procedures, models, and questions by citing relevant evidence and posing and responding to questions that elicit pertinent elaboration and detail.

• Construct, use, and/or present an oral and written argument supported by empirical evidence and scientific reasoning to support or refute an explanation or a model for a phenomenon or a solution to a problem.

• Communicate scientific and/or technical information (e.g., about a proposed object, tool, process, system) in writing and/or through oral presentations.

• Students can understand that systems may interact with other systems; they may have sub-systems and be a part of larger complex systems. They can use models to represent systems and their interactions—such as inputs, processes and outputs—and energy, matter, and information flows within systems. They can also learn that models are limited in that they only represent certain aspects of the system under study.

• The solar system contains many varied objects held together by gravity. Solar system models explain and predict eclipses, lunar phases, and seasons.