Crosscutting Concepts
The Next Generation Science Standards are built upon the belief that there are BIG concepts that cut across the boundaries that separate the various disciplines of science. These are the Crosscutting Concepts. These concepts provide students with the intellectual abilities to connect ideas from Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Earth and Space Science. These concepts unify the various branches of science because they are applied to each branch in very similar ways. Activities that align with the NGSS are activities that can be found at the intersection of a core idea unique to a specific discipline, a crosscutting concept that is common to all disciplines, and the application of science and engineering practices. The Crosscutting Concepts are described below and activities that align with each concept are identified.
- Patterns: Observed patterns of forms and events guide organization and classification, and they prompt questions about relationships and the factors that influence them.
Activity 1: Kinematics
Activity 2: Velocity-Time Graphs
Activity 3: Up and Down
Activity 4: Maximizing the Range
Activity 5: Juggling
Activity 6: Marshmallow Launcher
Activity 7: Gravitational Fields
Activity 8: Charge Interactions
Activity 9: Polarization
Activity 10: Coulomb's Law
Activity 11: Electric Field Lines
Activity 12: Simple Wave Simulator
Activity 13: Standing Wave Maker
Activity 14: Kepler's Law of Harmonies
Activity 15: Mass on a Spring
Activity 16: The Sound of Music
Activity 17: Concave Mirrors
Activity 18: Object-Image Relationships
Activity 19: Snell's Law
Activity 20: Lens Magnification Lab
- Cause and Effect: Mechanism and Explanation: Events have causes, sometimes simple, sometimes multifaceted. A major activity of science is investigating and explaining causal relationships and the mechanisms by which they are mediated. Such mechanisms can then be tested across given contexts and used to predict and explain events in new contexts.
Activity 1: Stopping Distance
Activity 2: Rocket Sledder
Activity 3: Push It!
Activity 4: Friction
Activity 5: Coffee Filter Physics
Activity 6: Carts, Bricks, and Bands
Activity 7: Maximizing the Range
Activity 8: Marshmallow Launcher
Activity 9: Air Bag Inflation and Passenger Safety
Activity 10: Collisions
Activity 11: It's All Uphill
Activity 12: Hot Wheels Stopping Distance
Activity 13: Name That Charge
Activity 14: Charge Interactions
Activity 15: Sticky Tape Experiments
Activity 16: Voltage and Resistance
Activity 17: Polarization
Activity 18: Series and Parallel Circuits
Activity 19: Period of a Pendulum
Activity 20: The Sound of Music
Activity 21: Standing Waves on a Rope
Activity 22: Cell Phone Radiation
Activity 23: Concave Mirrors
Activity 24: Reflection and Transmission
- Scale, Proportion, and Quantity: In considering phenomena, it is critical to recognize what is relevant at different measures of size, time, and energy and to recognize how changes in scale, proportion, or quantity affect a system’s structure or performance.
Activity 1: Air Bag Inflation and Passenger Safety
Activity 2: Chart That Motion
Activity 3: It's All Uphill
Activity 4: Coulomb's Law
Activity 5: Kepler's Law of Harmonies
Activity 6: Period of a Pendulum
Activity 7: Intensity and the Decibel Scale
Activity 8: Sound Loudness and the Sone Scale
Activity 9: Standing Waves on a Rope
Activity 10: Cell Phone Radiation
Activity 11: Light Brightness
Activity 12: Object-Image Relationships
Activity 13: Reflection and Transmission
Activity 14: Lens Magnification Lab
- Systems and System Models: Defining the system under study—specifying its boundaries and making explicit a model of that system—provides tools for understanding and testing ideas that are applicable throughout science and engineering.
Activity 1: Skydiving Activity
Activity 2: Inelastic Collisions Activity
Activity 3: Elastic Collisions Activity
Activity 4: Collisions
Activity 5: Energy on an Inclined Plane
Activity 6: Bat-Ball Collision
Activity 7: Roller Coaster Energy
Activity 8: Orbital Motion
Activity 9: Gravitational Fields
- Energy and Matter: Flows, cycles, and conservation. Tracking fluxes of energy and matter into, out of, and within systems helps one understand the systems’ possibilities and limitations.
Activity 1: Chart That Motion
Activity 2: Hot Wheels Stopping Distance
Activity 3: Energy on an Inclined Plane
Activity 4: Bat-Ball Collision
Activity 5: Roller Coaster Energy
Activity 6: Roller Coaster Loops
Activity 7: Mass on a Spring
Activity 8: Intensity and the Decibel Scale
- Structure and Function: The way in which an object or living thing is shaped and its substructure determine many of its properties and functions.
Activity 1: Polarization
Activity 2: Voltage and Resistance
Activity 3: Series and Parallel Circuits
Activity 4: Simple Wave Simulator
Activity 5: Standing Wave Maker
Activity 6: Roller Coaster Loops
Activity 7: Shedding Light on Bulbs
Activity 8: Snell's Law
- Stability and Change: For natural and built systems alike, conditions of stability and determinants of rates of change or evolution of a system are critical elements of study.
Activity 1: Egg Drop
Activity 2: Coffee Filter Physics
Activity 3: Carts, Bricks, and Bands