McREL Standards with Aligned Historical Entries
McREL
Physical Sciences Standard 9
McREL Physical Sciences Standard 10
| Physical Sciences Standard 9: Understands the sources and properties of energy (Level IV, Grades 9–12) | Links to Historical Entries |
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| Standard 9:1—Understands the concept of entropy (e.g., although the total energy of the universe remains constant, matter tends to become steadily less ordered as various energy transfers occur; the energy tends to spread out uniformly, thereby decreasing the amount of useful energy). | Rudolf Clausius Albert Einstein James Clerk Maxwell |
| Standard 9:2—Knows that all energy can be considered to be either kinetic energy (energy in motion), potential energy (depends on relative position), or energy contained by a field (electromagnetic waves). | Robert Hooke Devised an equation describing elasticity. |
| Standard 9:3—Understands the relationship between heat and temperature (heat energy consists of the random motion and vibrations of atoms, molecules, and ions; the higher the temperature, the great the atomic or molecular motion). | Rudolf Clausius Albert Einstein James Clerk Maxwell |
Standard 9:4—Knows how the energy associated with individual atoms and molecules can be used to identify the substances they make up; each kind of atom or molecule can gain or lose energy only in particular discrete amounts and, thus, can absorb and emit light only at wavelengths corresponding to these amounts. | Niels Bohr Werner Heisenberg |
| Standard 9:5—Knows that nuclear reactions convert a fraction of the mass of interacting particles into energy (e.g., fission involves the splitting of a large nucleus into smaller pieces; fusion is the joining of two nuclei at extremely high temperature and pressure) and release much greater amounts of energy than atomic interactions. | Niels Bohr Richard Feynman Werner Heisenberg Lise Meitner J. Robert Oppenheimer Ernest Rutherford |
| Standard 9:6—Knows that waves (e.g., sound, seismic, water, light) have energy and can transfer energy when they interact with matter. | Rudolf Clausius Albert Einstein Robert Hooke Isaac Newton |
| Standard 9:7—Knows the range of the electromagnetic spectrum (e.g., radio waves, microwaves, infrared radiation, visible light, ultraviolet radiation, X-rays, gamma rays); electromagnetic waves result when a charged object is accelerated or decelerated, and the energy of electromagnetic waves is carried in packets whose magnitude is inversely proportional to the wavelength. | Marie Curie James Clerk Maxwell Wilhelm Röntgen
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| Physical Sciences Standard 10: Understands forces and motion (Level IV, Grades 9–12) | Links to Historical Entries |
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| Standard 10:1—Knows that magnetic forces are very closely related to electric forces and can be thought of as different aspects of a single electromagnetic force (moving electric charges produce magnetic forces and moving magnets produce electric forces); the interplay of these forces is the basis for electric motors, generators, radio, television, and many other modern technologies. | Michael Faraday James Clerk Maxwell Hans Christian Ørsted Nikola Tesla |
| Standard 10:2—Knows that nuclear forces are much stronger than electromagnetic forces, which are vastly stronger than gravitational forces; the strength of nuclear forces explains why great amounts of energy are released from the nuclear reactions in atomic or hydrogen bombs, and in the Sun and other stars. | Richard Feynman Werner Heisenberg J. Robert Oppenheimer |
| Standard 10:3—Knows that the strength of the gravitational force between two masses is proportional to the masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. | Robert Hooke Isaac Newton |
| Standard 10:4—Knows that the strength of the electric force between two charged objects is proportional to the charges (opposite charges attract whereas like charges repel) and, as with gravitation, inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. | Nikola Tesla Invented the alternating-current power system. |
| Standard 10:5—Knows that electromagnetic forces exist within and between atoms (e.g., electric forces between oppositely charged electrons and protons hold atoms and molecules together and are involved in all chemical reactions; electric forces hold solid and liquid materials together and act between objects when they are in contact). | Michael Faraday Richard Feynman |
| Standard 10:6—Knows how different kinds of materials respond to electric forces (e.g., as insulators, semiconductors, conductors, superconductors). | Georg Simon Ohm Discovered the law of electricity that showed that the current flow through a conductor is proportional to the voltage and inversely proportional to the resistance. |
| Standard 10:8—Knows that laws of motion can be used to determine the effects of forces on the motion of objects (e.g., objects change their motion only when a net force is applied; whenever one object exerts force on another, a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction is exerted on the first object; the magnitude of the change in motion can be calculated using the relationship F=ma, which is independent of the nature of the force). | Isaac Newton Formulated the three fundamental laws of motion. |
| Standard 10:10—Understands general concepts related to the theory of special relativity (e.g., in contrast to other moving things, the speed of light is the same for all observers, no matter how they or the light source happen to be moving; the laws of physics are the same in any inertial frame of reference). | Albert Einstein James Clerk Maxwell |
