CONTENT STANDARD F: Science in Personal and Social Perspectives

As a result of activities in grades K-4, all students should develop understanding of

Personal health

Characteristics and changes in populations

Types of resources

Changes in environments

Science and technology in local challenges

DEVELOPING STUDENT UNDERSTANDING

Students in elementary school should have a variety of experiences that provide initial understandings for various science-related personal and societal challenges. Central ideas related to health, populations, resources, and environments provide the foundations for students' eventual understandings and actions as citizens. Although the emphasis in grades K-4 should be on initial understandings, students can engage in some personal actions in local challenges related to science and technology.

Teachers should be aware of the concepts that elementary school students have about health. Most children use the word "germs" for all microbes; they do not generally use the words "virus" or "bacteria," and when they do, they do not understand the difference between the two. Children generally attribute all illnesses to germs without distinction between contagious and noncontagious diseases and without understanding of organic, functional, or dietary diseases. Teachers can expect students to exhibit little understanding of ideas, such as different origins of disease, resistance to infection, and prevention and cure of disease.

Children link eating with growth, health, strength, and energy, but they do not understand these ideas in detail. They understand connections between diet and health and that some foods are nutritionally better than others, but they do not necessarily know the reasons for these conclusions.

By grades 3 and 4, students regard pollution as something sensed by people and know that it might have bad effects on people and animals. Children at this age usually do not consider harm to plants as part of environmental problems; however, recent media attention might have increased students awareness of the importance of trees in the environment. In most cases, students recognize pollution as an environmental issue, scarcity as a resource issue, and crowded classrooms or schools as population problems. Most young students conceive of these problems as isolated issues that can be solved by dealing with them individually. For example, pollution can be solved by cleaning up the environment and producing less waste, scarcity can be solved by using less, and crowding can be solved by having fewer students in class or school. However, understanding the interrelationships is not the priority in elementary school.

Central ideas related to health, populations, resources, and environments provide the foundations for students' eventual understandings and actions as citizens.

As students expand their conceptual horizons across grades K-12, they will eventually develop a view that is not centered exclusively on humans and begin to recognize that individual actions accumulate into societal actions. Eventually, students must recognize that society cannot afford to deal only with symptoms: The causes of the problems must be the focus of personal and societal actions.

GUIDE TO THE CONTENT STANDARD

Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include

PERSONAL HEALTH

Safety and security are basic needs of humans. Safety involves freedom from danger, risk, or injury. Security involves feelings of confidence and lack of anxiety and fear. Student understandings include following safety rules for home and school, preventing abuse and neglect, avoiding injury, knowing whom to ask for help, and when and how to say no.[ See Content Standard C (grades K-4)]

Individuals have some responsibility for their own health. Students should engage in personal care--dental hygiene, cleanliness, and exercise--that will maintain and improve health. Understandings include how communicable diseases, such as colds, are transmitted and some of the body's defense mechanisms that prevent or overcome illness.

Nutrition is essential to health. Students should understand how the body uses food and how various foods contribute to health. Recommendations for good nutrition include eating a variety of foods, eating less sugar, and eating less fat.

Different substances can damage the body and how it functions. Such substances include tobacco, alcohol, over-the-counter medicines, and illicit drugs. Students should understand that some substances, such as prescription drugs, can be beneficial, but that any substance can be harmful if used inappropriately.

CHARACTERISTICS AND CHANGES IN POPULATIONS

Human populations include groups of individuals living in a particular location. One important characteristic of a human population is the population density--the number of individuals of a particular population that lives in a given amount of space.

The size of a human population can increase or decrease. Populations will increase unless other factors such as disease or famine decrease the population.

TYPES OF RESOURCES

Resources are things that we get from the living and nonliving environment to meet the needs and wants of a population.

Some resources are basic materials, such as air, water, and soil; some are produced from basic resources, such as food, fuel, and building materials; and some resources are nonmaterial, such as quiet places, beauty, security, and safety.[ See Content Standard D (grades K-4)]

The supply of many resources is limited. If used, resources can be extended through recycling and decreased use.

CHANGES IN ENVIRONMENTS

Environments are the space, conditions, and factors that affect an individual's and a population's ability to survive and their quality of life.[ See Content Standard C (grades K-4)]

Changes in environments can be natural or influenced by humans. Some changes are good, some are bad, and some are neither good nor bad. Pollution is a change in the environment that can influence the health, survival, or activities of organisms, including humans.

Some environmental changes occur slowly, and others occur rapidly. Students should understand the different consequences of changing environments in small increments over long periods as compared with changing environments in large increments over short periods.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN LOCAL CHALLENGES

People continue inventing new ways of doing things, solving problems, and getting work done. New ideas and inventions often affect other people; sometimes the effects are good and sometimes they are bad. It is helpful to try to determine in advance how ideas and inventions will affect other people.[ See Content Standard E (grades K-4)]

Science and technology have greatly improved food quality and quantity, transportation, health, sanitation, and communication. These benefits of science and technology are not available to all of the people in the world.