1. Students should know that science is a system and should be seen as a single discipline rather than a set of separate disciplines.

2. In order to understand science better, students should be able to connect and integrate the underlying themes into what they know about themselves and the world around them.

3. Students should know that scientific knowledge is the best possible explanation of the natural world developed from the activities of scientists.

4. Students should know that researchers and those involved in science follow a generally accepted set of rules to produce scientific knowledge.

5. Students should experience scientific inquiries that allow them to be actively engaged in constructing ideas and explanation.

6. Students should be involved in inquiries that afford them the opportunity to develop the skills of doing science.

7. Students should understand that natural events are the result of interactions of matter and energy.

8. Students should be able to explain and predict chemical and physical changes that occur around them.

9. Students should understand that the properties of matter can be explained in terms of the atomic structure of matter.

10. Students should understand that forces acting throughout the solar system and the universe influence all bodies in space.

11. Students should understand the earth's origins, its place in the universe, and be able to make predictions about its future.

12. Students should understand the structure and function of living things, ecosystems, life cycles, energy movement, energy change, and changes in populations of organisms though time.

13. Students should understand how the choices they make about their lifestyles impact communities and living things in their environment.

14. Students should understand that science and technology compliment each other and that science helps drive technology and technology provides science with tools for investigation, inquiry and analysis.

15. Students should understand that advances in science and technology affect the earth's systems.

16. Students should understand that science and technology provide solution to human problems, needs, and aspirations.

17. Students should understand that science education provides a means to act on personal, economic, social, political, and international issues.