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The NGSS and middleschoolchemistry.com

Overview of the NGSS

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The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) focus on three main areas or dimensions that students need to understand and be able to do. They are Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCI), Science and Engineering Practices (SEP), and Crosscutting Concepts (CC).

The NGSS Standards are written as Performance Expectations (PEs) and integrate these three dimensions. These PEs are meant to guide assessment of student understanding at the end of a grade band, such as 6-8.

The NGSS sets the stage for curricula that integrates these three dimensions so that students use science or engineering practices to understand disciplinary core ideas while recognizing crosscutting concepts embedded in the lesson or unit.

Integrating SEPs, DCIs, and CCs in middleschoolchemistry.com

In middleschoolchemistry.com, students help design investigations to answer questions about phenomena they observe. They use molecular model illustrations, animations, and physical models to help understand and explain their observations on the molecular level. Designing investigations and developing and using models to explore and explain phenomena help students understand the nature of the science practice, the disciplinary core ideas, and the crosscutting concepts in chemistry-related physical science.

Lesson Alignments

To read about how a particular lesson addresses the Disciplinary Core Ideas, Science and Engineering Practices, and Crosscutting Concepts for an NGSS standard, simply choose the lesson to go to the NGSS alignment for that lesson.

Chapter 1: Matter—Solids, Liquids, and Gases

  1. Molecules Matter
  2. Molecules in Motion
  3. The Ups and Downs of Thermometers
  4. Moving Molecules in a Solid
  5. Air, It's Really There

Chapter 2: Changes of State

  1. Heat, Temperature, and Conduction
  2. Changing State—Evaporation
  3. Changing State—Condensation
  4. Changing State—Freezing
  5. Changing State—Melting

Chapter 3: Density

  1. What is Density?
  2. Finding Volume—The Water Displacement Method
  3. Density of Water
  4. Density—Sink and Float for Solids
  5. Density—Sink and Float for Liquids
  6. Temperature and Density

Chapter 4: The Periodic Table & Bonding

  1. Protons, Neutrons, and Electrons
  2. The Periodic Table
  3. The Periodic Table & Energy Level Models
  4. Energy Levels, Electrons, and Covalent Bonding
  5. Energy Levels, Electrons, and Ionic Bonding
  6. Represent Bonding with Lewis Dot Diagrams

Chapter 5: The Water Molecule and Dissolving

  1. Water is a Polar Molecule
  2. Surface Tension
  3. Why Does Water Dissolve Salt?
  4. Why Does Water Dissolve Sugar?
  5. Using Dissolving to Identify an Unknown
  6. Does Temperature Affect Dissolving?
  7. Can Liquids Dissolve in Water?
  8. Can Gases Dissolve in Water?
  9. Temperature Changes in Dissolving

Chapter 6: Chemical Change

  1. What is a Chemical Reaction?
  2. Controlling the Amount of Products in a Chemical Reaction
  3. Forming a Precipitate
  4. Temperature and Rate of a Chemical Reaction
  5. A Catalyst and the Rate of Reaction
  6. Using Chemical Change to Identify an Unknown
  7. Energy Changes in Chemical Reactions
  8. pH and Color Change
  9. Neutralizing Acids and Bases
  10. Carbon Dioxide Can Make a Solution Acidic

Project Based Lessons

  1. Chemical Reactions & Engineering Design
  2. Natural Resources & Synthetic Materials

Which Chapters Address Which Standards?

Structure and Properties of Matter

MS-PS1-1 Develop models to describe the atomic composition of simple molecules and extended structures. (Chapters 2, 3, 5)

MS-PS1-4 Develop a model that predicts and describes changes in particle motion, temperature, and state of a pure substance when thermal energy is added or removed. (Chapters 1 and 2)

MS-PS1-3 Gather and make sense of information to describe that synthetic materials come from natural resources and impact society. (Chapter 6, Lesson 12)

Chemical Reactions

MS-PS1-2 Analyze and interpret data on the properties of substances before and after the substances interact to determine if a chemical reaction has occurred. (Chapter 6)

MS-PS1-5 Develop and use a model to describe how the total number of atoms does not change in a chemical reaction and thus mass is conserved. (Chapter 6)

MS-PS1-6 Undertake a design project to construct, test, and modify a device that either releases or absorbs thermal energy by chemical processes. (Chapter 6, Lesson 11)