• Explain why organism differ from or are similar to their parents based on the characteristics of the organism.
• Give examples of likenesses that are inherited and some that are not.

•  Understand the interdependence of plants and animals with their ecosystem, including estuaries and salt marshes, oceans, lakes and ponds, forests and grasslands.
• Classify the organisms within an ecosystem according to the function they serve:  producers, consumers, or decomposers (biotic factors).
• Infer the effects that may result form the interconnected relationship of plants and animals to their ecosystem.

• Understand weather patterns and phenomena, making connections to the weather in a particular place and time. 
  •   wind speed and direction, precipitation and temperature and patterns
  • Predict upcoming weather events from weather data collected through observation and measurements.
  • Explain how global patterns such as the jet stream and water currents influence local weather in measurable terms.

• Understand force, motion and the relationship between them. 
  •  gravity, friction, change in mass and the motion of objects
  • distance traveled, time and direction
  • predict the effect of a given force or a change in mass on the motion of an object.
• Understand the interactions of matter and energy and the changes that occur.
  • water cycle
  • weight of an object to the sum of the weight of its parts before and after interaction.
  • summarize properties of original materials and the new material(s) formed, to demonstrate change
• Explain how the properties of some material change a a result of heating and cooling.
  • transfer of heat (conduction, convection or radiation)

• Explain how the sun's energy impacts the processes of the water cycle
• compare the weight of an object to the sum of the weight of its parts before and after an interaction.
• Summarize properties of original materials, and the new material(s) formed, to demonstrate that a change has occurred. 

Forces and Motion:  Relationship between Force and Motion (Gravity, Friction, and Change in Mass)

•  Explain how factors such as gravity, friction, and change in mass affect the motion of objects.
• Infer the motion of objects in terms of how far they travel in a certain amount of time and the distance in which they travel.
• Illustrate the motion of an object using a graph to show a change in position over a period of time.
• Predict the effect of a given force or a change in mass on the motion of an object.

• Understand how structures and systems of organisms (to include the human body) perform functions necessary for life.