Texas Administrative Code
Title 19 - EDUCATION
Part 2 - TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY
Chapter 112 - TEXAS ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS FOR SCIENCE
Subchapter A - ELEMENTARY
Section 112.4 - Science, Grade 2, 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 upon their knowledge of the natural world using their senses. The students focus on physical properties of matter and determine how observable properties can be changed through various processes. Students use these processes to form new objects.

(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 sound energy and focus on how sound affects objects.

(D) Earth and space. Students observe objects in the sky, including the Sun and the Moon, and collect and analyze weather data. In addition, students identify natural and manmade resources and how they 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 understand 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, notebooks, stream tables, soil, sand, gravel, flowering plants, student thermometer, demonstration thermometer, rain gauge, flashlights, ramps, balls, spinning tops, drums, tuning forks, sandpaper, wax paper, items that are flexible, non-flexible items, magnets, hot plate, aluminum foil, Sun-Moon-Earth model, and frog and butterfly 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 Alexander Graham Bell, Marie Daly, Mario Molina, and Jane Goodall 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) measure and describe the properties of objects in terms of size and 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 matter by observable physical properties, including texture, flexibility, and relative temperature, and identify whether a material is a solid or liquid;

(B) conduct a descriptive investigation to explain how physical properties can be changed through processes such as cutting, folding, sanding, melting, or freezing; and

(C) demonstrate that small units such as building blocks can be combined or reassembled to form new objects for different purposes and explain the materials chosen based on their physical properties.

(A) explain how objects push on each other and may change shape when they touch or collide; and

(B) plan and conduct a descriptive investigation to demonstrate how the strength of a push and pull changes an object's motion.

(A) demonstrate and explain that sound is made by vibrating matter and that vibrations can be caused by a variety of means, including sound;

(B) explain how different levels of sound are used in everyday life such as a whisper in a classroom or a fire alarm; and

(C) design and build a device using tools and materials that uses sound to solve the problem of communicating over a distance.

(A) describe the Sun as a star that provides light and heat and explain that the Moon reflects the Sun's light; and

(B) observe objects in the sky using tools such as a telescope and compare how objects in the sky are more visible and can appear different with a tool than with an unaided eye.

(A) investigate and describe how wind and water move soil and rock particles across the Earth's surface such as wind blowing sand into dunes on a beach or a river carrying rocks as it flows;

(B) measure, record, and graph weather information, including temperature and precipitation; and

(C) investigate different types of severe weather events such as a hurricane, tornado, or flood and explain that some events are more likely than others in a given region.

(A) distinguish between natural and manmade resources; and

(B) describe how human impact can be limited by making choices to conserve and properly dispose of materials such as reducing use of, reusing, or recycling paper, plastic, and metal.

(A) describe how the physical characteristics of environments, including the amount of rainfall, support plants and animals within an ecosystem;

(B) create and describe food chains identifying producers and consumers to demonstrate how animals depend on other living things; and

(C) explain and demonstrate how some plants depend on other living things, wind, or water for pollination and to move their seeds around.

(A) identify the roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds of plants and compare how those structures help different plants meet their basic needs for survival;

(B) record and compare how the structures and behaviors of animals help them find and take in food, water, and air;

(C) record and compare how being part of a group helps animals obtain food, defend themselves, and cope with changes; and

(D) investigate and describe some of the unique life cycles of animals where young animals do not resemble their parents, including butterflies and frogs.