Students in high school develop understanding of key concepts that help them make sense of life science. The ideas are building upon students’ science understanding of disciplinary core ideas, science and engineering practices, and crosscutting concepts from earlier grades.

There are five life science topics in high school: 1) Structure and Function, 2) Inheritance and Variation of Traits, 3) Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems, 4) Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems, and 5) Natural Selection and Evolution. The performance expectations for high school life science blend core ideas with scientific and engineering practices and crosscutting concepts to support students in developing useable knowledge that can be applied across the science disciplines

Students in high school continue to develop their understanding of the four core ideas in the physical sciences. These ideas include the most fundamental concepts from chemistry and physics but are intended to leave room for expanded study in upper-level high school courses. The high school performance expectations in Physical Science build on the middle school ideas and skills and allow high school students to explain more in-depth phenomena central not only to the physical sciences, but to life and earth and space sciences as well. These performance expectations blend the core ideas with scientific and engineering practices and crosscutting concepts to support students in developing useable knowledge to explain ideas across the science disciplines. In the physical science performance expectations at the high school level, there is a focus on several scientific practices. These include developing and using models, planning and conducting investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, using mathematical and computational thinking, and constructing explanations; and to use these practices to demonstrate understanding of the core ideas. Students are also expected to demonstrate understanding of several engineering practices, including design and evaluation.

Students in high school develop understanding of a wide range of topics in Earth and space science (ESS) that build upon science concepts from middle school through more advanced content, practice, and crosscutting themes. There are five ESS standard topics in high school: Space Systems, History of Earth, Earth’s Systems, Weather and Climate, and Human Sustainability. The content of the performance expectations are based on current community-based geoscience literacy efforts such as the Earth Science Literacy Principles (Wysession et al., 2012), and is presented with a greater emphasis on an Earth Systems Science approach. There are strong connections to mathematical practices of analyzing and interpreting data. The performance expectations strongly reflect the many societally relevant aspects of ESS (resources, hazards, environmental impacts) with an emphasis on using engineering and technology concepts to design solutions to challenges facing human society.