Maine Learning Results 2nd Grade Science Activities

ME.A. Unifying Themes: Students apply the principles of systems, models, constancy and change, and scale in science and technology.

A.1. Systems: Students recognize that parts work together, and make up whole man-made and natural objects.

A.1.a. Explain that most man-made and natural objects are made of parts.

ME.B. The Skills and Traits of Scientific Inquiry and Technological Design: Students plan, conduct, analyze data from and communicate results of in-depth scientific investigations; and they use a systematic process, tools, equipment, and a variety of materials to create a technological design and produce a solution or product to meet a specified need.

B.1. Skills and Traits of Scientific Inquiry: Students conduct and communicate results of simple investigations.

B.1.b. Safely conduct simple investigations to answer questions.

B.1.c. Use simple instruments with basic units of measurement to gather data and extend the senses.

ME.D. The Physical Setting: Students understand the universal nature of matter, energy, force, and motion and identify how these relationships are exhibited in Earth Systems, in the solar system, and throughout the universe.

D.1. Universe and Solar System: Students describe the movement of objects across the sky, as seen from Earth.

D.1.a. Describe how the sun and moon seem to move across the sky.

D.1.b. Describe the changes in the appearance of the moon from day to day.

D.2. Earth: Students describe Earth's weather and surface materials and the different ways they change.

D.2.b. Describe the way in which weather changes over months.

D.2.c. Describe what happens to water left in an open container as compared to water left in a closed container.

ME.E. The Living Environment: Students understand that cells are the basic unit of life, that all life as we know it has evolved through genetic transfer and natural selection to create a great diversity of organisms, and that these organisms create interdependent webs through which matter and energy flow. Students understand similarities and differences between humans and other organisms and the interconnections of these interdependent webs.

E.1. Biodiversity: Students describe similarities and differences in the observable behaviors, features, and needs of plants and animals.

E.1.a. Describe similarities and differences in the way plants and animals look and the things that they do.

E.1.b. Describe some features of plants and animals that help them live in different environments.

E.1.c. Describe how organisms change during their lifetime.

E.2. Ecosystems: Students understand how plants and animals depend on each other and the environment in which they live.

E.2.a. Explain that animals use plants and other animals for food, shelter, and nesting.

E.2.b. Compare different animals and plants that live in different environments of the world.

E.3. Cells: Students describe parts and wholes of living things, their basic needs, and the structures and processes that help them stay alive.

E.3.a. List living things and their parts.

E.3.c. List the basic things that most organisms need to survive.

E.3.d. Identify structures that help organisms do things to stay alive.

E.4. Heredity and Reproduction: Students describe the cycle of birth, development, and death in different organisms and the ways in which organisms resemble their parents.

E.4.b. Describe the life cycle of a plant or animal (including being born, growing, reproducing, and dying).

E.5. Evolution: Students describe similarities and differences between present day and past organisms that helped the organisms live in their environment.

E.5.a. Describe some organisms' features that allow the organisms to live in places others cannot.

E.5.b. Explain how some kinds of organisms that once lived on Earth have completely disappeared, although they were similar to some that are alive today.