National Standards for All Grades - Fields of Science

The descriptions below are summaries of the major topic areas to be probed within each field in the NAEP Science Assessment. This content represents key elements in science that all students should be expected to know and understand.

Earth Science

The NAEP Science Assessment will probe student understanding of how Earth scientists depict data through maps and other means to interpret objects, their features and structures, and the events and processes that caused them. What do students know about their own position with respect to objects and structures on, below, and above the Earth’s surface? What do students know about the changes in position of objects and environments through time? What do students know about the relative movements of the Earth, the Moon, the Sun, and the planets? The content to be assessed in Earth science centers on objects and features that are relatively accessible or visible: the solid Earth (lithosphere), water (hydrosphere), air (atmosphere), and the Earth in space. With respect to Earth science, the NAEP Science Assessment should focus on the following concepts and topics.

Concepts related to solid Earth:

• composition of the Earth
• forces that alter the Earth's surface
• rocks and their formation, characteristics, and uses
• soil and its changes and uses
• natural resources used by humankind
• forces within the Earth

Concepts related to water:

• water cycle
• nature of the oceans and their effects on water and climate
• location, distribution, and characteristics of water, and its effect and influence on human activity

Concepts related to air:

• composition and structure of the atmosphere, including energy transfer
• nature of weather
• common weather hazards
• air quality and climate

Concepts related to Earth in space:

• setting of the Earth in the solar system
• setting and evolution of the solar system in the universe
• tools and technology used to gather information about space
• apparent daily motions of the Sun, the Moon, the planets, and the stars
• rotation of the Earth about its axis and the Earth’s revolution around the Sun
• tilt of the Earth’s axis that produces seasonal variations in climate
• Earth as a unique member of the solar system (may be approximated in other galaxies in the universe) that evolved at least 4.5 billion years ago