South Dakota Grades 6–8 science standards
The Grades 6–8 science outcomes we teach, in the standards's own words, with the lessons and practice pages for each. Pick an outcome code for the full list of lessons and printables.
South Dakota Science Standards (2024). Every lesson comes with a printable teacher guide and student sheet.
Earth and Space Sciences
MS.ESS1.1 Develop and use a model of the Earth-sun-moon system to describe the cyclic patterns of lunar phases, eclipses of the sun and moon, and seasons.
Lessons: The Reason for the Seasons: Tilt, Daylight and the Solstice (Is summer when Earth is closest to the Sun?, Why are summer days longer?, Why is sunlight stronger in summer?) (partly)
Practice: The Reason for the Seasons: Tilt, Daylight and the Solstice workbook · Sun, Earth and Moon workbook
MS.ESS1.2 Develop and use a model to describe the role of gravity in the motions within galaxies and the solar system.
Lessons: The Solar System: Gravity, Orbits and Scale (Why do planets go around the Sun and not fly away?) (partly)
Practice: The Solar System: Gravity, Orbits and Scale workbook
MS.ESS1.3 Analyze and interpret data to determine scale properties of objects in the solar system.
Lessons: The Solar System: Gravity, Orbits and Scale (How big is the solar system, really?, What is each world like?)
Practice: The Solar System: Gravity, Orbits and Scale workbook · Sun, Earth and Moon workbook
MS.ESS2.1 Develop a model to describe the cycling of Earth’s materials and the flow of energy that drives this process.
Lessons: Stone, Bamboo and Storms: Building in Vietnam (How did rain carve the islands of Hạ Long Bay?, Why do builders in Vietnam trust bamboo?, How can a roof survive a typhoon?)
Practice: Stone, Bamboo and Storms: Building in Vietnam workbook · Grade 4 Rocks and Minerals
MS.ESS2.2 Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth’s surface at varying time and spatial scales.
Lessons: Stone, Bamboo and Storms: Building in Vietnam (How did rain carve the islands of Hạ Long Bay?, Why do builders in Vietnam trust bamboo?, How can a roof survive a typhoon?)
Practice: Stone, Bamboo and Storms: Building in Vietnam workbook
MS.ESS2.3 Analyze and interpret data on the age of the Earth, distribution of fossils and rocks, continental shapes, and seafloor structures to provide evidence of the past plate motions.
Lessons: Restless Earth: Fossils, Soils, Volcanoes and Plates (Where do volcanoes and earthquakes happen?, What do moving plates do, and can a building survive?) (partly)
MS.ESS2.4 Develop a model to describe the cycling of water through Earth’s systems driven by energy from the sun and the force of gravity.
Lessons: The Water Cycle, Start to Finish (Where has the water in your glass been?, Can you make a mini water cycle?) (partly)
MS.ESS3.1 Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how the uneven distributions of Earth’s mineral, energy, and groundwater resources are the result of past and current geoscience processes.
Lessons: Our Changing Planet: Resources and Human Impact (Where does your stuff come from?) (partly)
Practice: Our Changing Planet: Resources and Human Impact workbook
MS.ESS3.2 Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects.
Lessons: Stone, Bamboo and Storms: Building in Vietnam (How did rain carve the islands of Hạ Long Bay?, Why do builders in Vietnam trust bamboo?, How can a roof survive a typhoon?)
Practice: Stone, Bamboo and Storms: Building in Vietnam workbook
MS.ESS3.3 Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
Lessons: Our Changing Planet: Resources and Human Impact (How can a town use less and waste less?) (partly)
Practice: Our Changing Planet: Resources and Human Impact workbook
MS.ESS3.4 Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth’s systems.
Lessons: Our Changing Planet: Resources and Human Impact (Do more people always use more resources?) (partly)
Practice: Our Changing Planet: Resources and Human Impact workbook
MS.ESS3.5 Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that may have caused a change in global temperatures over the past century.
Lessons: Climate Clues (Is this winter colder than when your grandparents were kids?, What can a tree ring tell us?) (partly)
Practice: Climate Clues workbook
Engineering, Technology and Applications of Science
MS.ETS1.1 Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, considering relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions.
Lessons: Forces and Motion: Crash, Push and Stop (Can you design a crumple zone?)
MS.ETS1.2 Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
Lessons: Forces and Motion: Crash, Push and Stop (Can you design a crumple zone?) · Stone, Bamboo and Storms: Building in Vietnam (How did rain carve the islands of Hạ Long Bay?, Why do builders in Vietnam trust bamboo?, How can a roof survive a typhoon?)
Practice: Forces and Motion: Crash, Push and Stop workbook · Stone, Bamboo and Storms: Building in Vietnam workbook
MS.ETS1.3 Analyze data from tests to determine similarities and differences among several design solutions to identify the best characteristics of each that can be combined into a new solution to better meet the criteria for success.
Lessons: Test the Claim: Science Facts, Myths and AI Answers (Which source should we trust?) (partly) · Stone, Bamboo and Storms: Building in Vietnam (How did rain carve the islands of Hạ Long Bay?, Why do builders in Vietnam trust bamboo?, How can a roof survive a typhoon?)
Practice: Test the Claim: Science Facts, Myths and AI Answers workbook · Stone, Bamboo and Storms: Building in Vietnam workbook
Life Sciences
MS.LS1.1 Plan and carry out an investigation to provide evidence that living things are made of cells; either one cell or many different types and numbers of cells.
Lessons: Cells: The Smallest Living Things (How big is a cell?)
MS.LS1.2 Develop and use a model to describe the function of a cell as a whole and ways parts of cells contribute to the function.
Lessons: Cells: The Smallest Living Things (How do things get in and out of a cell?, Can you pull DNA out of a strawberry?) (partly)
MS.LS1.6 Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for the role of photosynthesis in the cycling of matter and flow of energy into and out of organisms.
Lessons: How Plants Make Food: Photosynthesis and Respiration (Where does a tree's mass come from?, What happens to the food a plant makes?)
Practice: How Plants Make Food: Photosynthesis and Respiration workbook
MS.LS1.7 Develop a model to describe how food is rearranged through chemical reactions forming new molecules that support growth and/or release energy as this matter moves through an organism.
Lessons: How Plants Make Food: Photosynthesis and Respiration (What happens to the food a plant makes?)
Practice: How Plants Make Food: Photosynthesis and Respiration workbook
MS.LS2.1 Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.
Lessons: Ecosystems and Biomes: Who Depends on Whom (What happens to a population when food runs out?)
Practice: Ecosystems and Biomes: Who Depends on Whom workbook
MS.LS2.2 Construct an explanation that predicts patterns (relationships) of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.
Lessons: Ecosystems and Biomes: Who Depends on Whom (Are living things competitors, predators or partners?)
Practice: Ecosystems and Biomes: Who Depends on Whom workbook
MS.LS2.3 Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.
Lessons: How Plants Make Food: Photosynthesis and Respiration (How does energy from the Sun move through a whole ecosystem?)
Practice: How Plants Make Food: Photosynthesis and Respiration workbook
MS.LS2.4 Construct an evidence-based argument that articulates how changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
Lessons: Ecosystems and Biomes: Who Depends on Whom (What happens to a population when food runs out?, How can we protect an ecosystem's services?) (partly)
Practice: Ecosystems and Biomes: Who Depends on Whom workbook
MS.LS2.5 Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem preservation practices and services.
Lessons: Ecosystems and Biomes: Who Depends on Whom (How can we protect an ecosystem's services?) (partly)
Practice: Ecosystems and Biomes: Who Depends on Whom workbook
MS.LS3.1 Develop and use a model to describe why structural changes to genes (mutations) located on chromosomes may affect proteins and may result in harmful, beneficial, or neutral effects to the structure and function of the organism.
Lessons: Genes and Traits: Heredity and Punnett Squares (What happens when a gene changes?)
Practice: Genes and Traits: Heredity and Punnett Squares workbook
MS.LS3.2 Develop and use a model to describe why asexual reproduction results in offspring with identical genetic information and sexual reproduction results in offspring with genetic variation.
Lessons: Genes and Traits: Heredity and Punnett Squares (Why do you look like your family, but not exactly?, How can two purple-flowered pea plants have a white-flowered one?, What did Mendel count?)
Practice: Genes and Traits: Heredity and Punnett Squares workbook
MS.LS4.1 Analyze and interpret data for patterns in the fossil record that document the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of life forms throughout the history of life on Earth.
Lessons: Natural Selection: How Living Things Change Over Time (How do fossils show life has changed?) (partly)
Practice: Natural Selection: How Living Things Change Over Time workbook
MS.LS4.2 Apply scientific ideas to construct an explanation for similarities and differences among modern organisms and between modern and fossil organisms to infer evolutionary relationships.
Lessons: Natural Selection: How Living Things Change Over Time (How do fossils show life has changed?)
Practice: Natural Selection: How Living Things Change Over Time workbook
MS.LS4.4 Construct an explanation based on evidence that describes how genetic variations of traits in a population increase some individuals’ probability of surviving and reproducing in a specific environment.
Lessons: Natural Selection: How Living Things Change Over Time (Why do some animals survive and others don't?, What did the Grants find on the Galápagos?)
Practice: Natural Selection: How Living Things Change Over Time workbook
MS.LS4.5 Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about how technological advances have changed the way humans influence the inheritance of desired traits in organisms.
Lessons: Natural Selection: How Living Things Change Over Time (How fast can people change a species?) (partly)
Practice: Natural Selection: How Living Things Change Over Time workbook
MS.LS4.6 Use mathematical representations to support explanations of how natural selection may lead to increases and decreases of specific traits in populations over time.
Lessons: Natural Selection: How Living Things Change Over Time (Why do some animals survive and others don't?, What did the Grants find on the Galápagos?, How fast can people change a species?)
Practice: Natural Selection: How Living Things Change Over Time workbook
Physical Sciences
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.
Lessons: Kitchen Chemistry (Is it a new substance?, Can red cabbage tell acid from base?)
Practice: Kitchen Chemistry workbook
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.
Lessons: Hot and Cold: Particles on the Move (Why do bike tires go soft in winter?, Why does food colouring spread faster in hot water?, How does a thermometer know?) (partly)
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.
Lessons: Kitchen Chemistry (Where does the mass go?)
Practice: Kitchen Chemistry workbook
MS.PS2.1 Design a solution to a problem involving the motion of two colliding objects that illustrates Newton’s Third Law.
Lessons: Forces and Motion: Crash, Push and Stop (Why does a heavier cart hit harder?, Can you design a crumple zone?)
MS.PS2.2 Plan an investigation to provide evidence that the change in an object’s motion depends on the sum of the forces on the object and the mass of the object.
Lessons: Forces and Motion: Crash, Push and Stop (Why do you lurch forward when a bus stops?, Why does a heavier cart hit harder?)
MS.PS3.1 Construct and analyze graphical displays of data to describe the relationships of kinetic energy to the mass and to the speed of an object.
Lessons: Forces and Motion: Crash, Push and Stop (How fast is a toy car really going?, Why does a heavier cart hit harder?) (partly)
MS.PS3.4 Plan an investigation to determine the relationships among the energy transferred, the type of matter, the mass, and the change in the average kinetic energy of the particles as measured by the temperature of the sample.
Lessons: Hot and Cold: Particles on the Move (Why does food colouring spread faster in hot water?, Can you keep an ice cube frozen the longest?) (partly)
Practice: Hot and Cold: Particles on the Move workbook · Hot Stuff: Heat, Temperature and Cooling workbook
Three full lessons, free
Make a free account and download any three Fieldbook lessons as printable PDFs. No card needed.