Unifying Concepts and Processes
As a result of activities in grades K-12, all students should develop understanding and abilities aligned with the following concepts and processes:

• Systems, order, and organization
• Evidence, models, and explanation
• Constancy, change, and measurement
• Evolution and equilibrium
• Form and function.

Unifying Concepts and Processes
During Theme 1: Science is Doing "What Ifs?" to Use and Compare Materials and Theme 2: Science is Doing "What Ifs?" to Find and Compare Creature Features, Students gain experiences aligned with the following unifying concepts:

• Systems, order, and organization
• Constancy, change, and measurement
• Form and function

A: Science as Inquiry
As a result of activities in grades K-4, all students should develop

• Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
• Understanding about scientific inquiry

A: Science as Inquiry
Scientific inquiry in the Fixer Upper classrooms mimics that employed in the larger scientific community. Students use their senses, and simple tools to investigate materials and organisms in their world. They are asked make careful observations, draw comparisons and to organize their observation in a variety of ways. GALAXY teachers lead students to ask questions about materials, organisms, or events observed in each classroom investigations. The questions asked by students, "What Ifs?" lead to the students planning and conducting their own investigations. Throughout the process, students communicate about their investigations via fax or e-mail to the TV characters and to other classrooms.

1st grade-Investigation and Experimentation

4. Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept, and to address the content the other three strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:

1. draw pictures that correctly portray at least some features of the thing being described.
2. record observations and data with pictures, numbers, and/or written statements.
3. record observations on a bar graph.
4. describe the relative position of objects using two references (e.g., above and next to, below and left of).
5. make new observations when discrepancies exist between two descriptions of the same object or phenomena.

2nd grade-Investigation and Experimentation
4. Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept, and to address the content the other three strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:

1. make predictions based on patterns of observation rather than random guessing.
2. measure length, weight, temperature, and liquid volume with appropriate tools and express measurements in standard and/or non-standard units.
3. compare and sort common objects based on two or more physical attributes (including color, shape, texture, size, weight).
4. write or draw descriptions of a sequence of steps, events, and observations.
5. construct bar graphs to record data using appropriately labeled axes.
6. write or draw descriptions of a sequence of steps, events and observations, and include the use of magnifiers or microscopes to extend senses.
7. follow verbal instructions for a scientific investigation.

B: Physical Science
As a result of activities in grades K-4, all students should develop an understanding of

• Properties of materials and objects
• Position and motion of objects
• Light, heat, electricity, and magnetism

B: Physical Science
Fixer Uppers students develop an understanding of

• Properties of materials and objects
• Magnetism

Throughout Theme 1: Science is Doing "What Ifs?" to Use and Compare Materials, students investigate the properties, including magnetic, of solids, liquids, and mixtures.

1st grade-Physical Sciences
1. Materials come in different forms (states) including solids, liquids, and gases. As a basis for understanding this concept students know:

1. solids, liquids, and gases have different properties.
2. the properties of substances can change when the substances are mixed, cooled, or heated.

2nd grade-Physical Sciences

1. magnets can be used to make some objects move without being touched.

C: Life Science
As a result of activities in grades K-4, all students should develop an understanding of

• The characteristics of organisms
• Life cycles of organisms
• Organisms and environments

C: Life Science
Fixer Uppers students develop an understanding of

• The characteristics of organisms
• Life cycles of organisms
• Organisms and environments

Throughout Theme 2: Science is Doing "What Ifs?" to Find and Compare Creature Features, students observe, compare, communicate about, and organize their observations of a variety of organisms. These include ants, bees, earthworms, snails, isopods, and may include others. The sub-themes are: Features, Growth and Change, and Homes.

Life Sciences
2. Living things have needs. As a basis for understanding this concept, students know:

1. living things are found almost everywhere in the world. Different plants and animals inhabit different kinds of environments.
2. different plants and animals have external features that help them thrive in different kinds of places.
3. plants and animals both need to take in water, and animals need to take in food. In addition, plants need light.
4. animals eat plants or other animals for food and may also use plants (or even other animals) for shelter and nesting.

2nd grade -Life Sciences
2. Plants and animals have predictable life cycles. As a basis for understanding this concept, students know:

1. organisms reproduce offspring of their own kind. The offspring resemble their parents and each other.
2. the sequential stages of life cycles are different for different animals, for example butterflies, frogs, and mice.
3. many characteristics of an organism are inherited from the parents, but others result from the influence of the environment.
4. there is variation among individuals of one kind within a population.

D: Earth and Space Science
As a result of activities in grades K-4, all students should develop an understanding of

• Properties of earth materials
• Objects in the sky
• Changes in earth and sky

D: Earth and Space Science

• Properties of earth materials

In the process of making terrariums, the composition of soil is predicted, observed, described, and organized. Students can elect to go on to separating the materials in soil by a conducting a shake test.

Earth Sciences
3. Earth is made of different kinds of materials that have distinct properties and provide resources for human activities. As the basis for understanding this concept, students know:

1. how to compare the physical properties of different kinds of rocks and that rock is composed of different combinations of minerals.
2. smaller rocks come from the breakage and weathering of larger rocks.
3. soil is made partly from weathered rock and partly from organic materials, and that soils differ in their color, texture, capacity to retain water, and ability to support the growth of many kinds of plants.

E: Science and Technology
As a result of activities in grades K-8, all students should develop

• Abilities of technological design
• Understanding about science and technology
• Abilities to distinguish between natural objects and objects made by humans.

E: Science and Technology
Fixer Uppers students develop an understanding of

• Understanding about science and technology
• Abilities to distinguish between natural objects and objects made by humans.

F: Science in Personal and Social Perspectives

As a result of activities in grades K-4, all students should develop an understanding of

• Personal health
• Characteristics and changes in populations
• Types of resources
• Changes in environments
• Science and technology in local challenges

F: Science in Personal and Social Perspectives
Fixer Uppers students develop an understanding of

• Personal health
• Types of resources
• Science and technology in local challenges

After investigating buoyant and magnetic properties of solids, and separating them by size, students devise a method for separating materials for recycling a mock "garbage dump." Students observe the main character of the show recycling materials. During Theme 2, students discuss and fax recipes for healthy shakes, and determine the needs of all living organisms.

2nd grade-Earth Science

e. rock, water, plants and soil provide many resources including food, fuel, and building materials that humans use.

G: History and Nature of Science
As a result of activities in grades K-4, all students should develop understanding of

• Science as a human endeavor

G: History and Nature of Science
Students in the GALAXY Fixer Uppers develop an understanding of science as a human endeavor. Questions never end; one investigation can lead to many more. Scientists have contributed throughout time to such necessities as cooking, raising animals, recycling trash, and investigating mysteries.