Texas Administrative Code
Title 19 - EDUCATION
Part 2 - TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY
Chapter 112 - TEXAS ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS FOR SCIENCE
Subchapter A - ELEMENTARY
Section 112.2 - Science, Kindergarten, Adopted 2021

(A) Scientific and engineering practices. Scientific inquiry is the planned and deliberate investigation of the natural world using scientific and engineering practices. Scientific methods of investigation are descriptive, correlative, comparative, or experimental. The method chosen should be appropriate to the grade level and question being asked. Student learning for different types of investigations includes descriptive investigations, which have no hypothesis that tentatively answers the research question and involve collecting data and recording observations without making comparisons; correlative and comparative investigations, which have a hypothesis that predicts a relationship and involve collecting data, measuring variables relevant to the hypothesis that are manipulated, and comparing results; and experimental investigations, which involve processes similar to comparative investigations but in which a hypothesis can be tested by comparing a treatment with a control.

(B) Matter and its properties. Students build their knowledge of the natural world using their senses. The students focus on observable properties and patterns of objects, including shape, color, texture, and material.

(C) Force, motion, and energy. Students explore the location, motion, and position of objects and investigate the importance of light energy as it relates to the students' everyday lives. Students focus on demonstrating light energy sources and their effect on objects.

(D) Earth and space. Patterns are recognizable in the natural world and among objects in the sky. Students understand that weather, seasons of the year, and day and night are repeated patterns. Materials found on Earth can be used and classified.

(E) Organisms and environments. All living organisms satisfy basic needs through interactions with nonliving things and living organisms, and they have structures and functions that help them survive within their environments. Students investigate the life cycle of plants and identify likenesses between parents and young.

(A) observations are active acquisition of either qualitative or quantitative information from a primary source through the senses;

(B) inferences are conclusions reached on the basis of observations or reasoning supported by relevant evidence;

(C) hypotheses are tentative and testable statements that must be capable of being supported or not supported by observational evidence. Hypotheses of durable explanatory power that have been tested over a wide variety of conditions are incorporated into theories; and

(D) scientific theories are based on natural and physical phenomena and are capable of being tested by multiple independent researchers. Unlike hypotheses, scientific theories are well established and highly reliable explanations, but they may be subject to change as new areas of science and new technologies are developed.

(A) ask questions and define problems based on observations or information from text, phenomena, models, or investigations;

(B) use scientific practices to plan and conduct simple descriptive investigations and use engineering practices to design solutions to problems;

(C) identify, describe, and demonstrate safe practices during classroom and field investigations as outlined in Texas Education Agency-approved safety standards;

(D) use tools, including hand lenses, goggles, trays, cups, bowls, sieves or sifters, notebooks, terrariums, aquariums, samples (rocks, sand, soil, loam, gravel, clay, seeds, and plants), windsock, demonstration thermometer, rain gauge, straws, ribbons, non-standard measuring items, blocks or cubes, tuning fork, various flashlights, small paper cups, items that roll, noise makers, hot plate, opaque objects, transparent objects, foil pie pans, foil muffin cups, wax paper, Sun-Moon-Earth model, and plant life cycle model to observe, measure, test, and compare;

(E) collect observations and measurements as evidence;

(F) record and organize data using pictures, numbers, words, symbols, and simple graphs; and

(G) develop and use models to represent phenomena, objects, and processes or design a prototype for a solution to a problem.

(A) identify basic advantages and limitations of models such as their size, properties, and materials;

(B) analyze data by identifying significant features and patterns;

(C) use mathematical concepts to compare two objects with common attributes; and

(D) evaluate a design or object using criteria to determine if it works as intended.

(A) develop explanations and propose solutions supported by data and models;

(B) communicate explanations and solutions individually and collaboratively in a variety of settings and formats; and

(C) listen actively to others' explanations to identify important evidence and engage respectfully in scientific discussion.

(A) explain how science or an innovation can help others; and

(B) identify scientists and engineers such as Isaac Newton, Mae Jemison, and Ynes Mexia and explore what different scientists and engineers do.

(A) identify and use patterns to describe phenomena or design solutions;

(B) investigate and predict cause-and-effect relationships in science;

(C) describe the properties of objects in terms of relative size (scale) and relative quantity;

(D) examine the parts of a whole to define or model a system;

(E) identify forms of energy and properties of matter;

(F) describe the relationship between the structure and function of objects, organisms, and systems; and

(G) describe how factors or conditions can cause objects, organisms, and systems to either change or stay the same.

(A) communicate the idea that objects can only be seen when a light source is present and compare the effects of different amounts of light on the appearance of objects; and

(B) demonstrate and explain that light travels through some objects and is blocked by other objects, creating shadows.

(A) identify, describe, and predict the patterns of day and night and their observable characteristics; and

(B) observe, describe, and illustrate the Sun, Moon, stars, and objects in the sky such as clouds.

(A) describe and classify rocks by the observable properties of size, shape, color, and texture;

(B) observe and describe weather changes from day to day and over seasons; and

(C) identify evidence that supports the idea that air is all around us and demonstrate that wind is moving air using items such as a windsock, pinwheel, or ribbon.

(A) observe and identify the dependence of plants on air, sunlight, water, nutrients in the soil, and space to grow; and

(B) observe and identify the dependence of animals on air, water, food, space, and shelter.

(A) identify the structures of plants, including roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and fruits;

(B) identify the different structures that animals have that allow them to interact with their environment such as seeing, hearing, moving, and grasping objects;

(C) identify and record the changes from seed, seedling, plant, flower, and fruit in a simple plant life cycle; and

(D) identify ways that young plants resemble the parent plant.