National and State Academic Standards

All curricular activities were designed by a selected team of science and mathematics middle school teachers.  Marine scientists from the University of South Florida's Department of Marine Science proofed the activities to ensure their scientific accuracy.

The activities adhere primarily to two sets of academic standards:  1)  The National Science Education Standards and 2)  Florida's Sunshine State Standards.
 
 



About the Standards


 







1)  The National Science Education Standards

The following exerpts are taken from the National Science Education Standards, a book that was published in 1998 by the National Academy Press in Washington, DC.

The Making Waves team targeted the Science Content Standards for this project.  The Science Content Standards are divided into 8 categories:  Unifying concepts and processes in science, Science as inquiry, Physical science, Life science, Earth and space science, Science and technology, Science in personal and social perspectives, and History and nature of science.  These standards are also divided into specific grade levels:  K-4, 5-8, 9-12.  Because we are targeting the middle school level, we focused specifically on the standards for grade levels 5-8.

2)  Florida's Sunshine State Standards

The following excerpt is taken from the web site for the Sunshine State Standards.

The team behind Making Waves targeted a middle school audience (grades 6-8 from the Florida Sunshine State Standards) studying science and math.