DESK
9th Grade English
Essential skills and knowledge for this Davis School District course
Davis Essential Skills & Knowledge
Reading
□ Acquire skills and strategies for vocabulary development.
□ Make inferences from implicit information.
□ Discriminate between relevant and less important information.
□ Analyze the use of external text features and internal text structures in a
variety of texts.
□ Understand and use literary elements to comprehend narrative and poetic
text.
□ Read a variety of literary and informational texts.
Writing
□ Use expository writing to compare and contrast.
□ Write well organized persuasive essays that clearly take a position and
refute counter arguments.
□ Take selected expository pieces through all stages of the writing process.
□ Correct errors in grammar, usage, and punctuation.
Inquiry
□ Formulate questions that evoke multiple points of view.
□ Gather and analyze multiple sources of information for credibility.
□ Paraphrase, summarize, and quote sources; use informal and formal
citations.
□ Conduct interviews to support inquiry and present results.
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Biology
Essential skills and knowledge for this Davis School District course
Ecosystems
□ Summarize energy flow through an ecosystem.
□ Explain the relationships between matter cycles and organisms.
□ Describe the interactions among organisms and their environment.
Cells
Davis Essential Skills & Knowledge
□ Describe the fundamental chemistry of living cells.
□ Explain the flow of energy and matter in cellular function.
□ Investigate cellular functions and structures.
Structure and Function of Organs and Organ Systems
□ Diagram, describe, and relate the structure and function of organs.
□ Examine the relationships of organ systems within organisms.
Heredity and Genetics
□ Understand the processes of cellular reproduction.
□ Predict and interpret patterns of inheritance.
□ Explain how the structure and replication of DNA relates to heredity and protein
synthesis.
Evolutionary Process
□ Relate the principles of evolution to biological diversity.
□ Cite evidence of adaptations within populations over time.
Classification System
□ Generalize criteria used for classification of organisms.
□ Classify organisms using classification tools.
Skill Acquisition through Practice
□ Make predictions, design and conduct experiments, and collect data to formulate
conclusions.
□ Use data to compare, contrast, and calculate.
□ Select and use appropriate scientific instruments.
□ Construct models to describe concepts and principles.
□ Use precise scientific language in oral and written communication.
© 2/9/2016 Davis School District, Farmington, UT 84025
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DESK
Earth Systems
Essential skills and knowledge for this Davis School District course
Universe and Solar System
□ Describe the Big Bang Theory and the evidence that supports it.
□ Relate the structure and composition of the solar system and universe.
Davis Essential Skills & Knowledge
Biosphere
□ Describe, compare and evaluate the Earth’s evolving environment.
□ Observe, compare and evaluate the biodiversity of Earth over time.
□ Analyze, predict, and observe ecosystem interactions and changes.
Geosphere
□ Explain and evaluate the evidence of plate tectonics.
□ Describe, model, and predict the processes of plate tectonics.
Hydrosphere
□ Identify, illustrate, and analyze the water cycle.
□ Analyze the physical and biological dynamics of the ocean.
Atmosphere
□ Describe, diagram and interpret matter cycles through Earth systems.
□ Identify and evaluate how the atmosphere has been altered over time.
Energy distribution
□ Describe, illustrate Selection and use of appropriate scientific instruments and
model energy transformation and flow.
□ Relate how energy sources and transformation affect Earth’s systems.
Skill acquisition through practice
□ Make predictions, design and conduct experiments, and collect data to formulate
conclusions.
□ Construct models to describe concepts and principles.
□ Compare, contrast and calculate data.
□ Use precise scientific language in oral and written communication.
□ Select and use appropriate scientific instruments.
© 2/9/2016 Davis School District, Farmington, UT 84025
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DESK
World Geography
Essential skills and knowledge for this Davis School District course
World Geography is a systematic study of the world’s regions including North-,
Middle-, and South America, Europe and Russia, Central Asia, Southwest Asia
and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, South-, East-, and Southeast Asia,
Australia, and Oceania. Students study each of these regions as described below.
Davis Essential Skills & Knowledge
Acquire social studies skills through practice.
□ Evaluate the role of geography in history.
□ Analyze primary source materials.
□ Establish chronology.
□ Describe change over time.
□ Connect events from different time periods and the present.
Explore applied geography.
□ Geographic applications in various careers.
□ Applied geography in community service.
□ Geographic application in research.
□ Analysis of current events and issues around the world.
Investigate the world’s regions from a spatial perspective.
□ Maps and spatial data sets.
□ Place-name geography.
□ Mental maps and sketch maps.
□ Human-environment interaction.
□ Different scales: local to global
Examine the physical geography of the world’s regions.
□ Landforms.
□ Climates.
□ Ecosystems.
□ Natural resources.
□ Natural hazards and disasters.
Investigate the human geography of the world’s regions.
□ Population distribution and demographics.
□ Culture; language, religion, and ethnicity.
□ Political systems.
□ Economic activities and development.
© 2008 Davis School District, Farmington, UT 84025
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DESK
Algebra 1
Essential skills and knowledge for this Davis School District course
Davis Essential Skills & Knowledge
Reasoning with Rational and Irrational Numbers
□ Compute fluently and make reasonable estimates.
□ Express answers in exact form (e.g. 2π instead of 6.28).
Algebraic Reasoning
□ Represent linear relationships with equations and graphs.
□ Explore slopes and intercepts of lines.
□ Apply slope and linear relationships in problem solving.
□ Simplify algebraic expressions.
□ Solve linear equations and inequalities, and systems both
algebraically and graphically.
□ Explore polynomials and monomials.
□ Factor polynomials with common monomial factors and simple
quadratic expressions.
□ Solve quadratic equations.
□ Use the Pythagorean Theorem.
Reasoning with Probability and Statistics
□ Display and discuss data with two variables.
□ Discover approximate lines of best fit.
□ Use approximate lines of best fit to make predictions.
© 2/9/2016 Davis School District, Farmington, UT 84025
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Algebra A
Essential skills and knowledge for this Davis School District course
Reasoning with Rational and Irrational Numbers
□ Compute fluently and make reasonable estimates.
□ Represent rational and irrational numbers in a variety of ways.
Davis Essential Skills & Knowledge
Algebraic Reasoning
□ Represent linear relationships with equations and graphs.
□ Explore slopes and intercepts of lines.
□ Apply linear relationships in problem solving.
□ Simplify algebraic expressions.
□ Solve linear equations and inequalities both algebraically and graphically.
□ Use the Pythagorean Theorem.
Proportional and Geometric Reasoning
□ Find measurements of figures (length, area, volume).
□ Create and interpret scale drawings.
□ Understand and model relationships between ratio, fraction, and percent.
□ Find measurements of similar figures.
© 2/9/2016 Davis School District, Farmington, UT 84025
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Geometry
Essential skills and knowledge for this Davis School District course
Davis Essential Skills & Knowledge
Formal Reasoning and Proof in Mathematics
□ Use inductive and deductive reasoning to prove mathematical properties.
□ Provide counterexamples to disprove false statements.
□ Fluently use accepted geometric notation.
Properties of Geometric Figures
□ Classify polygons, including subsets of quadrilaterals, by their properties.
□ Produce basic geometric constructions.
□ Understand the characteristics and properties of angles, lines, rays, and
segments.
□ Apply angle relationships to parallel and perpendicular lines.
□ Use congruence and similarity in problem solving.
□ Identify parts and understand properties of triangles, right triangles,
quadrilaterals, regular polygons, circles, and three-dimensional figures.
□ Find unknown measures of right triangles using trigonometric ratios.
Measurement and Coordinate Geometry
□ Represent geometric figures on a coordinate grid.
□ Use formulas for slope, midpoint, and distance.
□ Understand and apply the equation of a circle.
□ Use formulas and estimation techniques to determine common
measurements of polygons, three-dimensional figures, irregular figures,
arcs, and sectors.
© 2/9/2016 Davis School District, Farmington, UT 84025
All Rights Reserved