Texas Administrative Code
Title 19 - EDUCATION
Part 2 - TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY
Chapter 112 - TEXAS ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS FOR SCIENCE
Subchapter A - ELEMENTARY
Section 112.3 - Science, Grade 1, 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. Students focus on observable properties and patterns of objects, including larger and smaller, heavier and lighter, shape, color, and texture. The students understand changes in materials caused by heating and cooling.

(C) Force, motion, and energy. Students know that force and motion are related and that energy exists in many forms as a part of everyday life. Magnetism interacts with various materials and can be used as a push and pull. The students investigate the importance of heat and focus on changes caused by heating and cooling.

(D) Earth and space. Patterns, cycles, and systems are recognizable in the natural world and among objects in the sky. Students make informed choices by understanding weather and seasonal patterns. Students understand that natural resources on Earth, including rocks, soil, and water, are used by humans and can be conserved.

(E) Organisms and environments. All living organisms interact with living and nonliving things within their environments and use structures to meet their basic needs. Students know that organisms are interdependent and part of a food chain. The students investigate the life cycle of animals 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, heat-resistant gloves, trays, cups, bowls, beakers, sieves/sifters, tweezers, primary balance, notebooks, terrariums, aquariums, stream tables, soil samples (loam, sand, gravel, rocks, and clay), seeds, plants, windsock, pinwheel, student thermometer, demonstration thermometer, rain gauge, straws, ribbons, non-standard measuring items, flashlights, sandpaper, wax paper, items that are magnetic, non-magnetic items, a variety of magnets, hot plate, aluminum foil, Sun-Moon-Earth model, and plant and animal life cycle models 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 Katherine Johnson, Sally Ride, and Ernest Just 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 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) classify objects by observable physical properties, including, shape, color, and texture, and attributes such as larger and smaller and heavier and lighter;

(B) explain and predict changes in materials caused by heating and cooling; and

(C) demonstrate and explain that a whole object is a system made of organized parts such as a toy that can be taken apart and put back together.

(A) explain how pushes and pulls can start, stop, or change the speed or direction of an object's motion; and

(B) plan and conduct a descriptive investigation that predicts how pushes and pulls can start, stop, or change the speed or direction of an object's motion.

(A) investigate and describe applications of heat in everyday life such as cooking food or using a clothes dryer; and

(B) describe how some changes caused by heat may be reversed such as melting butter and other changes cannot be reversed such as cooking an egg or baking a cake.

(A) investigate and document the properties of particle size, shape, texture, and color and the components of different types of soils such as topsoil, clay, and sand;

(B) investigate and describe how water can move rock and soil particles from one place to another;

(C) compare the properties of puddles, ponds, streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans, including color, clarity, size, shape, and whether it is freshwater or saltwater; and

(D) describe and record observable characteristics of weather, including hot or cold, clear or cloudy, calm or windy, and rainy or icy, and explain the impact of weather on daily choices.

(A) identify and describe how plants, animals, and humans use rocks, soil, and water;

(B) explain why water conservation is important; and

(C) describe ways to conserve water such as turning off the faucet when brushing teeth and protect natural sources of water such as keeping trash out of bodies of water.

(A) classify living and nonliving things based upon whether they have basic needs and produce young;

(B) describe and record examples of interactions and dependence between living and nonliving components in terrariums or aquariums; and

(C) identify and illustrate how living organisms depend on each other through food chains.

(A) identify the external structures of different animals and compare how those structures help different animals live, move, and meet basic needs for survival;

(B) record observations of and describe basic life cycles of animals, including a bird, a mammal, and a fish; and

(C) compare ways that young animals resemble their parents.