PK–12 Essential Standards and Benchmarks

Kahua Standards and Benchmarks

PK-12 essential standards and benchmarks for Hawaiian-focused education.

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Grade 7 - Science

In addition to HFCS ‘Āina-based Learning Competencies (click to view), the PK-12 Science Kahua is grounded in the belief that the purpose of science is “Science is best defined as a careful, disciplined, logical search for knowledge about any and all aspects of the universe, obtained by examination of the best available evidence and always subject to correction and improvement upon discovery of better evidence. What's left is magic. And it doesn't work.” (year, Randi).

End of school year grade level outcomes were crosswalked with the HFCS Vision of the Graduate (2013), NGSS, Fountas and Pinnell, and were prioritized using the following criteria (Reeves, 2004): 1) Endurance, 2) Leverage, 3) Readiness, 4) Assessment Requirements.

  • S.7.1Gather manaʻo about moʻokūʻauhau and kūlana through nīnauele (interviews) and oral histories.
  • S.7.2Use ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi inoa ‘āina (traditional place names, mauka/makai) to understand various traditions/histories of a place and to understand my place in different spaces.
  • S.7.3Demonstrate appropriate lawena when engaging in different cultural protocol (i.e. welcoming, entering, gathering, planting, mahalo, kamaʻāina/malihini) in a variety of settings (i.e. in and out of school).
  • S.7.4Contribute to community wellness by practicing ola pono (i.e. ʻai pono, laʻau lapaʻau, māla, hoʻoponopono) and building the capacity to connect with ʻāina.
  • S.7.5Ground our thoughts and actions in kānaka historical and contemporary best practices (i.e. resource management, conservation) and educate others.

  • S.7.6Develop a model to predict and/or describe phenomena based on kilo, nīnauele, research, and/or oral histories.
  • S.7.7Develop a model to describe unobservable, more abstract mechanisms that could be at the microscopic and atomic levels.
  • S.7.8Analyze and interpret data to determine similarities and differences in findings.
  • S.7.9In addition to results from scientific experiments and/or the testing of designs, provide further evidence to support findings based on kilo, nīnauele, research, and/or oral histories.
  • S.7.10Undertake a design project, engaging in the design cycle, to construct and/or implement a solution that meets specific design criteria and constraints.
  • S.7.11Use ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi inoa ‘āina (traditional place names, mauka/makai) to understand various traditions/histories of a place and one’s role and kuelana to solve problems in the community.
  • S.7.12When evaluating and communicating information, ground findings in the thoughts and actions in kānaka historical and contemporary best practices of science and engineering.

  • S.7.13For any pair of interacting objects (i.e. two colliding objects), the force exerted by the first object on the second object is equal in strength to the force that the second object exerts on the first, but in the opposite direction (Newton’s Third Law of Motion).
  • S.7.14For an object to move the total force acting on it will need to be greater than zero (unbalanced forces versus balanced forces referring to Newton’s First Law). The greater the mass of the object, the greater the force needed to achieve the same change in motion (relating to Newton’s Second Law). For any given object, a larger force causes a larger change in motion.
  • S.7.15Electric and magnetic (electromagnetic) forces can be attractive or repulsive, and their sizes depend on the magnitude of the charges, currents, or magnetic strengths involved and on the distances between interacting objects.
  • S.7.16Temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of particles of matter. The relationship between the temperature and the total thermal energy of a system depends on the types, states, and amounts of matter present.
  • S.7.17Mechanical energy is the sum of kinetic and potential energy within a closed system. As an example, the mechanical energy of the Earth-Moon system is nearly stable as the energy is rhythmically interchanged between its kinetic and potential forms.
  • S.7.18Energy (heat, work, mass) can be transferred mechanically (kinetic energy), by radiation (by light or sound waves), or by heating (conduction, convection, or radiation) in a system. Electrical circuits require a complete loop through which an electrical current (energy) can pass. The transfer of energy can be tracked as energy flows through a designed or natural system.

  • S.7.19All living things are made up of cells, which is the smallest unit that can be said to be alive. There are single cell (unicellular) or multicellular organisms with different numbers and specialized types of cells that carry out the basic functions of life. Within cells, special structures and organelles are responsible for all life functions in unicellular organisms, and particular life functions for multicellular organisms. Cell membranes serve as a boundary that controls what enters and leaves the cell.
  • S.7.20In multicellular organisms, the body is a system of multiple interacting subsystems. Which are groups of cells working together to form tissues and organs that are specialized for particular body functions. In the human body the basic functions of life with the major systems include digestion, respiration, reproduction, circulation, and excretion.
  • S.7.21Plant and animal cells, including major organelles within cells, can differ in structure and their organization into tissues, organs, and systems, which lead to performing different life functions that enable them to survive and reproduce.
  • S.7.22Organisms reproduce either sexually (cellular reproduction where two parents contribute genetic materials) to create offspring with combined genomes; or asexually (an organism makes more of itself without exchanging genetic information with another organism through sex) to create identical offispring.
  • S.7.23Genes are located in the chromosomes of cells, with each chromosome pair containing two variants of each of many distinct genes. Each distinct gene chiefly controls the production of specific proteins which in turn affects the traits of an individual. Gene mutations on chromosomes may affect the proteins produced which can affect the structures and functions of the organism and change traits, and could be harmful, beneficial, or neutral to the function of the organism.
  • S.7.24Cell division can take place via meiosis or meiosis, and occurs when a parent cell divides up into two or more daughter cells. Offspring resulting from sexual reproduction (fertilization and meiosis) have greater variation than offspring resulting from asexual reproduction (budding and mitosis). In sexual reproduction each parent contributes half of the genes acquired (at random) by the offspring. Individuals have two of each chromosome and hence two alleles of each gene, which contributes to the variation of traits inherited in the offspring.
  • S.7.25In addition to genetic mutations impacting the biological inheritance of traits (which can include common genetic diseases), the environment and lifestyle choices may also result in harmful, beneficial, or neutral effects to the structure and function of the organism.

  • S.7.26Water continually cycles among land, ocean, and atmosphere via transpiration, evaporation, condensation and crystallization, and precipitation, as well as downhill flows on land. Movements of water and changes in its form as part of the hydrologic cycle are propelled by sunlight and gravity.
  • S.7.27Winds, landforms, and ocean temperatures influence the patterns of changes and movements of water in and out of the atmosphere, which are the major determinants of local weather patterns.
  • S.7.28Air masses flow from regions of high pressure to low pressure, causing weather (defined by temperature, pressure, humidity, precipitation, and wind) at a fixed location to change over time, and sudden changes in weather can result when different air masses collide. Frontal boundaries separate two different types of air masses, with one usually denser than the other.
  • S.7.29Unequal heating and rotation of the Earth cause patterns of atmospheric and oceanic circulation that determine regional climates.
  • S.7.30Weather and climate are influenced by interactions involving sunlight, the ocean, the atmosphere, ice, and living things. These interactions vary with latitude, altitude, and local and regional geography, all of which can affect oceanic and atmospheric flow patterns.
  • S.7.31As human populations and per-capita consumption of natural resources increase, so do the negative impacts on Earth unless the activities and technologies involved are engineered otherwise. Monitoring and maintaining the good health of humans and the natural environment (atmospheric air quality and oceanic water quality) requires the understanding that all human activity draws on natural resources that can have both short and long-term consequences, positive as well as negative.