#  National Standards 

 



## River City and the National Science Standards

The National Science Education Standards list seven content standards for K-12 school science (National Research Council, 1996). River City maps to five of these standards.

1. **CONTENT STANDARD A: As a result of activities in grades 5-12, all students should develop:** 
    - **Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry**
    - **Understandings about scientific inquiry**
        1. River City is an inquiry-based project;
        2. As an inquiry-based project, students gather data, hypothesize, use tools to test, analyze and make conclusions;
        3. Students are guided to learn the skills necessary to conduct scientific inquiry;
        4. Simultaneously, they engage in an authentic and personal inquiry investigation.
2. **CONTENT STANDARD C: As a result of their activities in grades 5-12, all students should develop understanding of:** 
    - **Structure and function in living systems (grades 5-8)**
    - **Populations and ecosystems (grades 5-8)**
    - **Diversity and adaptations of organisms (grades 5-8)**
    - **Interdependence of organisms (grades 9-12)**
        1. River City helps students understand disease and three forms of disease transmission;
        2. Students are guided to understanding the effect of disease on humans;Students investigate the niche of microorganisms;
        3. Students see the interactions between humans, microorganisms and the ecosystem they both inhabit;
        4. Students learn the role of microorganisms in causing disease.
3. **CONTENT STANDARD E: As a result of activities in grades 5-12, all students should develop:** 
    - **Abilities of technological design**
    - **Understandings about science and technology** 
        1. Students are asked to design virtually an intervention that will potentially solve the River City epidemic;
        2. Students evaluate their intervention to see if it did indeed affect the spread of disease;
        3. Students learn that technological inventions such as microscopes drive scientific discoveries by expanding scientists' ability to make observations;
        4. Students investigate the intended and unintended consequences of a newly introduced technological invention.
4. **CONTENT STANDARD F: As a result of activities in grades 5-12, all students should develop understanding of Personal health** 
    - **Community Health (grades 9-12)**
    - **Populations, resources, and environments (grades 5-8)**
    - **Environmental quality (grades 9-12)**
    - **Natural hazards**
    - **Human-induced hazards (grades 9-12)**
    - **Risks and benefits**
    - **Science and technology in society** 
        1. Students explore three different diseases with varying health impact;
        2. Students discover that there are human-caused health hazards in the river;
        3. Students' investigations lead them to understand that the causes of these hazards stem from natural occurrences such as heavy rain, water stagnation as well as human impact;
        4. Through experimentation, students are able to test out their hypothesis of the cause of the sudden increase in disease before making recommendations;
        5. Students need to weigh the advantages and drawbacks to various interventions before choosing what they view as the best option;
        6. Students join politicians, doctors, and university professors in working together to understand the impact on the poorest segment of the River City population.
5. **CONTENT STANDARD G: As a result of activities in grades 5-12, all students should develop understanding of: Science as a human endeavor** 
    - **Nature of science (grades 5-8) and of scientific knowledge (grades 9-12)**
    - **History of science (grades 5-8)**
    - **Historical perspectives (grades 9-12)** 
        1. Students participate in science along with men and women in various virtual roles;
        2. Students are exposed to concepts of nature of science;
        3. Students are encouraged to base their conclusions and decisions on evidence and to re-evaluate them in light of new evidence;
        4. Students travel back in time to experience the “dawn of microbiology” along with the culture and habits typical of that time

  
**Reference**

National Research Council. (1996). *National science education standards: Observe, interact, change, learn*. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.