Science

    We have drawn on the National Science Education Standards (NSES) developed by the National Academy of Sciences [http://www.nap.edu/nap/online/nses/html/overview.html].

    The Global Warming Unit addresses the following NSES items:

• Unifying concepts and processes - systems, order, and organization;
• Unifying concepts and processes - evidence, models, and explanation;
• Science as inquiry;
• Earth and space science;
• Science and technology;
• Science in personal and social perspective.

    The National Science Education Standards are complemented by the Project 2061 Benchmarks for Science Literacy, which are a product of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) [http://www.aaas.org/Project2061/2061main.htm]. The Benchmarks are available in printed and computer-readable formats, and detail the specific science content knowledge and abilities AAAS believes students should obtain by particular grade levels.

  Writing

    The Mid-Continent Writing Standards [http://www.mcrel.org/standards-benchmarks/standardslib/langarts.html] suggest helpful general and specific skills for K-12 students to learn, and consist of items or tasks specified for several grade levels.

• Demonstrates competence in the general skills and strategies of the writing process.
• Demonstrates competence in the stylistic and rhetorical aspects of writing.
• Writes with a command of the grammatical and mechanical conventions of composition.
• Effectively gathers and uses information for research purposes.
• Demonstrates competence in using different information sources, including those of a technical nature, to accomplish specific tasks.