CROSSCUTTING CONCEPTS (CCCs)
Key ideas used across the scientific disciplines to make sense of phenomena...
Patterns
Observed patterns in nature guide organization and classification and prompt questions about relationships and causes underlying them.
Cause & Effect: Mechanism & Explanation
Events have causes, sometimes simple, sometimes multifaceted. Deciphering causal relationships, and the mechanisms by which they are mediated, is a major activity of science and engineering.
Scale, Proportion, & Quantity
In considering phenomena, it is critical to recognize what is relevant at different size, time, and energy scales, and to recognize proportional relationships between different quantities as scales change.
Systems & System Models
A system is an organized group of related objects or components; models can be used for understanding and predicting the behavior of systems.
Matter & Energy: Cycles, Flows, & Conservation
Tracking energy and matter flows, into, out of, and within systems helps one understand their system’s behavior.
Structure & Function
The way an object is shaped or structured determines many of its properties and functions.
Stability & Change
For both designed and natural systems, conditions that affect stability and factors that control rates of change are critical elements to consider and understand.
Page credit(s)
The introductory text used to describe each Crosscutting Concept is taken from the “Crosscutting Concepts” page on the NGSS@NSTA website.