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Children can learn that skunks let off a bad odor to protect themselves. A relationship exists between the way organisms and objects look (feel, smell, sound, and taste) and the things they do. Children can also observe and describe changes in the properties of water when it boils, melts, evaporates, freezes, or condenses. Parents and children can track the position of the moon at the same time each night and draw pictures of the moon's changing shape to learn that change takes place during the lunar cycle. Children can be asked to observe changes in the position and apparent shape of the moon. The natural world continually changes, although some changes may be too slow to observe.

Intermediate grade children can use a model of the earth's crust to demonstrate the cause of earthquakes. But primary grade children can gain experience with it by drawing a picture of a cell as they observe it through a microscope.

This is a hard concept for very young children. We can create or design objects that represent other things. Would the mouse still have the same proportions if it were that large? What changes would have to occur in the elephant-sized mouse for it to function? Intermediate grade children can be asked to describe the magnification of a microscope. Yet primary grade children can begin to understand scale if they are asked, for instance, to imagine a mouse the size of an elephant. It's hard for children to understand that certain phenomena can exist only within fixed limits of size. Thermometers, rulers, and weighing devices help children see that objects and energy vary in quantity.

Scale refers to quantity, both relative and absolute.Older children might gain an understanding of systems by studying the plumbing or heating systems in their homes. Primary children can learn about systems by studying the notion of balance-for example, by observing the movements and interactions in an aquarium. Children begin to understand systems by tracking changes among the individual parts. The amount of matter, energy, and information, and the rate at which they are transferred through the pathways, varies over time. In science, systems involve matter, energy, and information that move through defined pathways. A system is a whole that is composed of parts arranged in an orderly manner according to some scheme or plan.

Intermediate grade children can discover that good lubrication and streamlining the body of a pinewood derby car can make it run faster. Primary children can learn about cause and effect by observing the effect that light, water, and warmth have on seeds and plants. Searching for explanations is the major activity of science effects cannot occur without causes. Intermediate grade children can classify vegetables or fruits according to properties they observe in them, and then compare their own classification schemes to those used by scientists. Primary grade children can be introduced to this concept by sorting objects like leaves, shells, or rocks according to their characteristics. Or objects can be arranged according to their complexity (single-celled amoeba, sponges, and so on to mammals). For example, natural objects can be assembled in hierarchies (atoms, molecules, mineral grains, rocks, strata, hills, mountains, and planets). Scientists have made the study of science manageable by organizing and classifying natural phenomena. Many of the activities described in this handbook teach these concepts, which are drawn from the center's recent report, Getting Started in Science: A Blueprint for Elementary School Science Education. The National Center for Improving Science Education recommends that elementary schools design curricula that introduce nine scientific concepts.