What does a student learn in StateKansas,GradeGrade 6,SubjectScience?

Students study what matter is made of and how it changes. They learn why substances react, mix, or stay the same when they combine.

Students learn why objects speed up, slow down, or change direction by studying the forces acting on them. They also explore how things stay balanced when forces cancel each other out.

Students study where energy comes from, how it moves between objects, and what happens when it changes form, like heat turning into motion or light.

Students study how waves carry energy and information, from sound and light to the signals inside radios and phones. The focus is on how that wave behavior gets put to work in real technology.

Living things are made of cells, and those cells run on energy from food. Students learn how the parts of an organism work together to keep it alive and growing.

Students study how living things in an ecosystem depend on each other and on nonliving resources like sunlight and water. They trace how energy moves through food webs and explore what happens when the balance shifts.

Students learn why offspring resemble their parents but are never identical copies. They study how traits pass from one generation to the next and why small differences show up along the way.

Students study how living things have changed over millions of years and why so many different species exist today. They look at fossils, body structures, and inherited traits to understand why some organisms survive and others don't.

Students study how Earth fits into the larger universe, from the Moon and Sun to distant stars and galaxies. They learn what causes seasons, eclipses, and the patterns we see in the night sky.

Students learn how Earth's layers, oceans, atmosphere, and landforms interact with each other. Think plate tectonics, weather patterns, and the water cycle.

Students study how humans use Earth's resources and how those choices affect the land, water, and atmosphere. The focus is on finding ways to reduce the damage and build systems that last.

Students apply engineering thinking to real problems: they define the problem, weigh possible solutions, and test a design to see if it actually works.

Students draw or build models to show how atoms link together to form molecules like water or table salt, and how those same building blocks repeat to make larger solid structures like crystals.

Students compare substances before and after mixing to figure out if a new substance formed. A color change, gas, or unexpected heat are clues that a chemical reaction happened.

Students trace everyday synthetic materials, like plastic or nylon, back to the natural resources they came from. They also look at how those materials have changed daily life, for better or worse.

Students draw or diagram what happens inside a substance as it heats up or cools down, showing how particles move faster or slower and why the substance might melt, freeze, or boil as a result.

In a chemical reaction, atoms rearrange into new substances but none are created or destroyed. Students build or use a model to show why the total mass before and after the reaction stays the same.

Students design and test a device that uses a chemical reaction to either heat up or cool down, like a hand warmer or a cold pack. They adjust the design based on what the tests show.

When two objects collide, each one pushes on the other with equal force in the opposite direction. Students use that rule to design a solution, such as a bumper or padding, that controls what happens during the collision.

Students design an experiment to show how the speed or direction of a moving object changes based on how hard it's pushed or pulled and how heavy it is. A heavier object needs more force to change how it moves.

Students investigate what makes magnets and electric forces stronger or weaker by asking questions about data from experiments. They look at how distance, materials, and the amount of current or charge change the strength of those forces.

Students build an argument for why gravity pulls objects toward each other and why heavier objects pull harder. They back up the claim with evidence, not just a guess.

Students test how magnets or electrically charged objects push and pull each other without touching. They also judge whether the experiment was set up in a way that gives reliable results.

Students read and build graphs that show how a moving object's energy changes when it gets heavier or faster. A heavier car or a faster pitch both carry more energy, and the graphs make that pattern visible.

When two objects pull or push on each other from a distance, moving them closer or farther apart changes how much stored energy the system holds. Students build a model (a diagram, a simulation, or a physical setup) to show how that stored energy grows or shrinks as the arrangement shifts.

Students design and build a device to control how heat moves, then test whether it works. Think of it as building something that either traps warmth (like an insulated container) or lets heat escape quickly.

Students plan and run an experiment to see how heating different materials changes their temperature, and whether the amount or type of material affects how much heat it takes to warm them up.

When a moving object speeds up or slows down, energy is moving into or out of it. Students learn to build and explain arguments showing where that energy went or came from.

Students use math to describe how waves work, focusing on amplitude (the height of a wave) and energy. A taller wave carries more energy, and students show that relationship with numbers and simple models.

Waves hit a surface and one of three things happens: they bounce back, get soaked up, or pass through. Students model how different materials, like glass, wood, or water, change what a wave does when it arrives.

Students study why digital signals, sent as on/off pulses, carry information more reliably than older analog waves. They read scientific and technical sources, then pull that evidence together to explain the tradeoff.

Students investigate living things under a microscope and gather evidence showing that every organism, from a single bacterium to a plant or animal, is built from one cell or many cells working together.

Students build a diagram or model of a cell and explain what each part does, the way parts of a machine each do a specific job to keep the whole thing running.

Students explain how the body's major systems (like the digestive or nervous system) work together, using real evidence to back up their reasoning. The focus is on how groups of cells form tissues and organs that keep each other running.

Students use real evidence to explain why certain animal behaviors (like courtship or migration) and plant structures (like flowers or fruit) make reproduction more likely to succeed.

Students explain why some plants or animals grow bigger, stronger, or faster than others, pointing to specific causes like sunlight, food, water, or traits passed down from parents.

Students explain, using evidence, how plants use sunlight, water, and air to make food. That process moves energy and raw materials into living things and releases what other organisms need to survive.

Food doesn't just disappear when the body uses it. Students learn how molecules in food get broken apart and rebuilt into new molecules that help the body grow or release energy.

Students learn how the body's sense organs pick up signals from the world around them and send those signals to the brain, which either triggers an instant reaction or stores the experience as a memory.

Students study what happens to animals and plants when food, water, or space runs low. They read charts and data to explain why populations grow, shrink, or disappear based on what resources are available.

Students predict how living things affect each other, such as predators reducing prey populations or plants supporting whole food chains. The goal is spotting those same patterns across different ecosystems, not just one.

Students build a diagram or model showing how water, carbon, and other materials move through an ecosystem, and how energy flows from the sun through plants, animals, and soil. Nothing in an ecosystem is wasted; it cycles back around.

When something in an ecosystem changes, such as a drought or a new predator, other living things are affected. Students use real data to argue how those changes ripple through plant and animal populations.

Students compare different plans people have proposed to protect wildlife and healthy ecosystems. They weigh the trade-offs and decide which approach does the best job of keeping plants, animals, and natural resources stable.

Students learn how a change in a gene can alter the protein that gene builds, and why that shift might make the organism weaker, stronger, or cause no change at all. Chromosomes carry the instructions; mutations rewrite a line or two.

Students explain why a child doesn't look exactly like either parent, and why a plant grown from a cutting looks identical to the original. They use diagrams or models to show how sexual reproduction mixes genetic information while asexual reproduction copies it exactly.

Students study fossil evidence to find patterns in how life on Earth has changed over time, including which creatures once lived, which died out, and how species shifted across millions of years.

Students compare body structures across living and extinct species to figure out which animals share a common ancestor. A fish fin, a human arm, and a whale flipper all have the same bones inside.

Students compare drawings of animal embryos at early stages of development to find clues about how different species are related. A fish, a chicken, and a human embryo can look remarkably alike, even when the adults look nothing like each other.

Some animals in a group are born slightly different from the others. Students explain, using real evidence, how those differences can make certain individuals more likely to survive and have offspring in a particular place.

Students research how breeding methods and genetic technologies let humans choose which traits animals or plants pass on to the next generation, from dog breeding to lab-based gene editing.

Students use graphs or data tables to explain why some traits become more or less common in a population as generations pass. The math shows how natural selection shifts what a group looks like over time.

Students build and use a diagram or model of the Earth, moon, and sun moving together to explain why the moon seems to change shape each month, why eclipses happen, and why seasons come and go.

Gravity pulls every planet, moon, and star toward other objects with mass. Students model how that pull keeps planets orbiting the sun and holds the billions of stars in a galaxy together.

Students compare the sizes and distances of planets, moons, and the sun using real data. They figure out how much bigger or farther apart things in the solar system are than they look in a textbook diagram.

Students read layers of rock like pages in a book, using older and newer layers to sort Earth's 4.6-billion-year history into named time periods. The goal is to explain what the evidence in those layers actually shows.

Students create a diagram or model showing how rocks, water, and soil move through cycles on Earth and what energy sources (like heat from inside the planet or sunlight) keep those cycles going.

Rocks, landforms, and coastlines change over time through processes like erosion, volcanic eruptions, and shifting tectonic plates. Students explain how those changes happen slowly over millions of years or quickly in a single event, and back their explanation with evidence.

Students study maps of where fossils and rock formations appear across continents, then use those patterns to figure out how Earth's plates have shifted over millions of years.

Students map how water moves through Earth: evaporating from oceans, falling as rain or snow, and flowing back downhill. The sun's heat and gravity keep that cycle running.

Students track how air masses move and bump into each other to explain why the weather changes. Think of it as following the story behind a sudden rainstorm or a cold snap.

Students build a model showing why warm air and water move from the equator toward the poles while cool air and water move back. That circulation, shaped by Earth's spin, is what gives each region its typical weather patterns.

Students explain why oil, iron, and drinkable water aren't spread evenly across the planet. They use evidence to connect those uneven deposits to the geological processes, like volcanic activity or erosion, that created them over time.

Students study data from past earthquakes, floods, and volcanic eruptions to spot patterns and predict where disasters are likely to strike next. That analysis also shapes the warning systems and building designs meant to reduce the damage.

Students pick a real environmental problem, such as water pollution or habitat loss, and design a monitoring plan to track it. Then they apply science to suggest practical steps that could reduce the damage.

Students build a written argument explaining how a growing population and rising resource use (energy, water, land) put pressure on Earth's air, water, and soil. They back the argument with real data, not just opinion.

Students study the evidence behind rising global temperatures over the last hundred years and ask questions about what caused the shift. The focus is on separating human factors, like burning fossil fuels, from natural ones.

Before building anything, students figure out what the solution must do, what it cannot do, and what real-world limits (cost, materials, safety, environmental impact) will shape the design.

Students compare two or more design solutions side by side, checking each one against the problem's requirements and limits to decide which works best.

Students compare test results from multiple design attempts to find what each one does well, then combine the best parts into a single improved solution.

Students build a model of their design idea, test it, and use what they learn to make it better. The goal is to keep improving through repeated rounds of testing until the design works as well as it can.