Museum Learning Experiences
New York State Core Curriculum in Science, and the New York City K-8 Science Scope and Sequence
Gottesman Center for Science Teaching and Learning, American Museum of Natural History
NYC Scope &
Sequence Unit
Grade
Focus Question
NYS Major
Understandings
LE 1.1a
Animals need air,
water, and food in
order to live and
thrive.
K
1
1
2
3
NYC Core Science
Materials Unit
FOSS
Animals Two by Two
Unit 3
Animals
What do animals
need?
Unit 2
Weather & Seasons
(objects in the sky)
What are some of
the changes we
can notice
observing the day
and night sky.
PS 1.1c
The Sun and other
stars appear to move
in a recognizable
pattern both daily
and seasonally.
How are animals
alike and different?
LE 3.1a
Each animal has
different structures
that serve different
functions in growth,
survival, and
reproduction.
What materials
make up the Earth?
PS 3.1f
Objects and/or
materials can be
sorted or classified
according to their
properties.
FOSS
Pebbles, Sand, Silt
How are animals
well-suited to live in
their environments?
LE 3.1c
In order to survive in
their environment,
plants and animals
must be adapted to
that environment.
FOSS
Structures of Life
Unit 3
Animal Diversity
Unit 2
Earth Materials
Unit 4
Animal Adaptations
Gottesman Center
LE 6.1b
All animals depend
on plants. Some
animals (predators)
eat other animals
(prey).
Harcourt Science
Unit 3
Museum Halls
African Mammals
North American Mammals
Hall of Ocean Life
Bird Halls
FOSS
Air & Weather
Conceptual Focus

Most living things need water,
food, and air. Animals eat
plants or other animals for food
and may also use plants (or
even other animals) for shelter
and nesting.*

The sun can be seen only in
the daytime, but the moon can
be seen sometimes at night
and sometimes during the day.
The sun, moon, and stars all
appear to move slowly across
the sky.*

Some animals are alike in the
way they look and in the things
they do, and others are very
different from one another.*

Chunks of rocks come in many
sizes and shapes, from
boulders to grains of sand and
even smaller.*

For any particular
environment, some kinds of
plants and animals survive
well, some survive less well,
and some cannot survive at
all.*
Hayden Planetarium
Harcourt Science
Unit 2
FOSS
Insects
Harcourt Science
Unit 3
African Mammals
North American Mammals
Hall of Ocean Life
Bird Halls
Hall of Planet Earth
Harcourt Science
Unit 2
Harcourt Science
Unit 4
AMNH / Education
African Mammals
North American Mammals
Hall of Ocean Life
Bird Halls
DRAFT Feb 08
NYC Scope &
Sequence Unit
Grade
4
4
5
5
5
Focus Question
NYS Major
Understandings
Unit 3
Properties of Water
What makes water
so special?
Unit 4
Interactions of Air,
Water & Land
How do wind and
water change the
earth’s surface?
PS 2.1d
Erosion and
deposition result from
the interaction among
air, water, and land.**
What are rocks
made of?
PS 2.1e
Rocks are composed of
minerals. Only a few
rock-forming minerals
make up most of the
rocks of Earth. Minerals
are identified on the
basis of physical
properties such as
streak, hardness, and
reaction to acid.
What are
topographic maps?
PS Skill
Generate and interpret
field maps including
topographic and weather
maps
Unit 2
Earth Science
Unit 2
Earth Science
Gottesman Center
What are the
processes that help
shape the land?
Museum Halls

When liquid water disappears,
it turns into a gas (vapor) in the
air and can reappear as a
liquid when cooled, or as a
solid if cooled below the
freezing point of water. Clouds
and fog are made of tiny
droplets or frozen crystals of
water.*

Waves, wind, water, and ice
shape and reshape the earth’s
land surface by eroding rock
and soil in some areas and
depositing them in other areas,
sometimes in seasonal layers.*

Rock is composed of different
combinations of minerals.
Smaller rocks come from the
breakage and weathering of
bedrock and larger rocks.*

Topographic maps describe
features of landforms

Some changes in the earth’s
surface are abrupt (such as
earthquakes and volcanic
eruptions) while other changes
happen very slowly (such as
uplift and weathering down of
mountains).*
Hall of Planet Earth
Harcourt Science
Unit 3
PS 2.1g
The dynamic processes
that wear away Earth’s
surface include
weathering and erosion.
DSM
Earth Movements
Hall of Planet Earth
Harcourt Science
Unit 4
FOSS
Landforms
Hall of Planet Earth
Harcourt Science
Unit 2
FOSS
Landforms
Hall of Planet Earth
Harcourt Science
Unit 2
FOSS
Landforms
Hall of Planet Earth
PS 2.2c
Folded, tilted, faulted,
and displaced rock
layers suggest past
crustal movement.
Conceptual Focus
FOSS
Water
PS 2.1c
Water is recycled by
natural processes on
Earth.**
Unit 2
Earth Science
NYC Core Science
Materials Unit
Harcourt Science
Unit 2
AMNH / Education
DRAFT Feb 08
NYC Scope &
Sequence Unit
Grade
6
6
6
6
Unit 2
Weather
Unit 3
Diversity of Life
Unit 3
Diversity of Life
Unit 4
Interdependence
Gottesman Center
Focus Question
NYS Major
Understandings
How does the
movement of air
cause weather?
PS 2.2m
Most local weather
condition changes are
caused by movement of
air masses.
How do scientists
classify the
biodiversity of living
things?
LE 1.1h
Living things are
classified by shared
characteristics on the
cellular and organism
level. In classifying
organisms, biologists
consider details of
internal and external
structures. Biological
classification systems
are arranged from
general (kingdom) to
specific (species).
How does the
transfer of matter
and energy through
biological
communities
support the
diversity of living
things?
How is diversity
essential in
maintaining life on
Earth?
LE 6.1b
Food webs identify
feeding relationships
among producers,
consumers, and
decomposers in an
ecosystem.
LE 7.2a
In ecosystems, balance
is the result of
interactions between
community members
and their environment.
NYC Core Science
Materials Unit
Museum Halls
Conceptual Focus

The weather is always
changing and can be
described by measurable
quantities such as
temperature, wind direction
and speed, and precipitation.
Large masses of air with
certain properties move across
the surface of the earth. The
movement and interaction of
these air masses is used to
forecast the weather.*

In classifying organisms,
scientists consider details of
both internal and external
structures.*

All organisms, including the
human species, are part of and
depend on two main
interconnected global food
webs. One includes
microscopic ocean plants, the
animals that feed on them, and
finally the animals that feed on
those animals. The other web
includes land plants, the
animals that feed on them, and
so forth.*

The world contains a wide
diversity of physical conditions,
which creates a wide variety of
environments: freshwater,
marine, forest, desert,
grassland, mountain, and
others. In any particular
environment, the growth and
survival of organisms depend
on the physical conditions.*
FOSS
Water & Weather
Hall of Planet Earth
Harcourt Science
Unit 2
FOSS
Populations and
Ecosystems
Hall of Biodiversity
Harcourt Science
Unit 3
FOSS
Populations and
Ecosystems
Hall of Biodiversity
Hall of Ocean Life
Harcourt Science
Unit 3
FOSS
Populations and
Ecosystems
Harcourt Science
Unit 4
AMNH / Education
Hall of Biodiversity
Hall of Ocean Life
DRAFT Feb 08
NYC Scope &
Sequence Unit
Grade
7
Unit 1
Geology
Focus Question
NYS Major
Understandings
How do rocks
change?
PS 2.2g
Rocks are classified
according to their
method of formation.
The three classes of
rocks are sedimentary,
metamorphic, and
igneous. Most rocks
show characteristics that
give clues to their
formation conditions.
PS 2.1f
Fossils are usually
found in sedimentary
rocks. Fossils can be
used to study past
climates and
environments.
7
7
Unit 1
Geology
Unit 1
Geology
Gottesman Center
What are fossils
and how do they
provide evidence
about Earth’s
history?
What is evidence
that the Earth has
changed?
LE 3.2c
Many thousands of
layers of sedimentary
rock provide evidence
for the long history of
Earth and for the long
history of changing
lifeforms whose remains
are found in the rocks.
Recently deposited rock
layers are more likely to
contain fossils
resembling existing
species.
PS 2.2d
Continents fitting
together like puzzle
parts and fossil
correlations provided
initial evidence that
continents were once
together.
NYC Core Science
Materials Unit
SEPUP
Issues in Earth
Science: Unit B
(Rocks and Minerals)
Museum Halls
Conceptual Focus

Sedimentary rock buried
enough may be reformed by
pressure and heat, perhaps
melting and recrystallizing into
different kinds of rock. These
reformed rock layers may be
forced up again to become
land surface and even
mountains.*

Many thousands of layers of
sedimentary rock provide
evidence for the long history of
the earth and for the long
history of changing life forms
whose remains are found in
the rocks.*

Matching coastlines and
similarities in rock types and
life forms suggest that today’s
continents are separated parts
of what was long ago a single
continent.*
Hall of Planet Earth
Hall of Minerals
Glencoe NY Science
Unit 1
SEPUP
Issues in Earth
Science: Unit B
(Rocks and Minerals)
Fossil Halls
Glencoe NY Science
Unit 1
SEPUP
Issues in Earth
Science: Unit D
(Plate Tectonics)
Glencoe NY Science
Unit 1
AMNH / Education
Hall of Planet Earth
DRAFT Feb 08
NYC Scope &
Sequence Unit
Grade
7
8
8
Unit 1
Geology
Unit 1
Evolution
Unit 3
Earth, Sun, Moon
System
Gottesman Center
Focus Question
How do geologists
read and interpret
maps?
NYS Major
Understandings
PS Skill
Generate and interpret
field maps including
topographic and weather
maps
How does life on
Earth continue to
adapt in response
to environmental
change?
LE 3.2b
Extinction of a species
occurs when the
environment changes
and the adaptive
characteristics of a
species are insufficient
to permit its survival.
Extinction of species is
common. Fossils are
evidence that a great
variety of species
existed in the past.
What are the
patterns of the
Earth, Sun, and
moon system?
PS 1.1g
Moons are seen by
reflected light. Our
Moon orbits Earth,
while Earth orbits the
Sun. The Moon’s phases
as observed from Earth
are the result of seeing
different portions of the
lighted area of the
Moon’s surface. The
phases repeat in a cyclic
pattern in about one
month.
NYC Core Science
Materials Unit
SEPUP
Issues in Earth
Science: Unit D
(Plate Tectonics)
Museum Halls
Conceptual Focus

Topographic and geologic
maps are used to identify
landform features and
composition of the Earth’s
surface

In all environments . . .
organisms with similar needs
may compete with one another
for resources, including food,
space, water, air, and shelter.
In any particular environment,
the growth and survival or
organisms depend on physical
conditions.*

The moon’s orbit around the
earth once in about 28 days
changes what part of the moon
is lighted by the sun and how
much of that part can be seen
from the earth—the phases of
the moon.*
Hall of Planet Earth
Glencoe NY Science
Unit 1
SEPUP
Science and Life
Issues: Unit F
(Evolution)
Dinosaur Halls
Hall of Human Origins
Glencoe NY Science
Unit 1
FOSS
Planetary Science
Glencoe NY Science
Unit 3
AMNH / Education
Hayden Planetarium
Hall of the Universe
DRAFT Feb 08
NYC Scope &
Sequence Unit
Grade
8
Unit 3
Earth, Sun, Moon
Systems
Gottesman Center
Focus Question
What role do major
celestial bodies
play in the Solar
System?
NYS Major
Understandings
PS 1.1c
The Sun and the planets
that revolve around it
are the major bodies in
the solar system. Other
members include
comets, moons, and
asteroids. Earth’s orbit
is nearly circular.
NYC Core Science
Materials Unit
FOSS
Planetary Science
Glencoe NY Science
Unit 3
AMNH / Education
Museum Halls
Hayden Planetarium
Hall of the Universe
Conceptual Focus

Nine planets of very different
size, composition, and surface
features move around the sun
in nearly circular orbits. Some
planets have a variety of
moons and even flat rings of
rock and ice particles orbiting
around them. Some of these
planet and moon show
evidence of geologic activity.
The earth is orbited by one
moon, many artificial satellites,
and debris.*

Many chunks of rock orbit the
sun. Those that meet the earth
glow and disintegrate from
friction as they plunge through
the atmosphere—and
sometimes impact the ground.
Other chunks of rock mixed
with ice have long, off-center
orbits that carry them close to
the sun, where the sun’s
radiation boils off frozen
materials from their surfaces
and pushes it into a long,
illuminated tail.*
DRAFT Feb 08