Big Ideas of Science

Since 2011, the National Academies of Science have focused educators on the following cross-cutting concepts and core ideas in science.  Your science fair project will address at least one of the following:

• Cause and Effect
• Scale, Proportion and Quantity
• Systems and System Models
• Energy and Matter
• Structure and Function
• Stability and Change

Review some of the “Big Ideas of Science” below and be ready to share with a partner the topics that make you most CURIOUS.  Notice that some Big Ideas are in bold because they lend themselves to science fair projects that students in grades 6-12 can reasonably design and carry out.

1) The universe is regular and predictable.

2)  Energy is conserved and always goes from more useful to less useful forms.

3) Electricity and magnetism are two aspects of the same force.

4) All matter is made of atoms.

5) Everything comes in discrete units, and you can’t measure anything without changing it.

6) The way material behaves depends on how its atoms are arranged.

8) Nuclear energy comes from the conversion of mass.

9)  All matter is made of quarks and leptons.

10) Stars live and die.

11) The universe was born at a specific time in the past, and it has been expanding ever since.

12)  Every observer sees the same laws of nature in operation.

13)  The surface of the earth is constantly changing.

14) The earth operates in many cycles.

15)  All living things are made from cells, the chemical factories of life.

16)  All life is based on the same genetic code.

17)  All forms of life evolved by natural selection.

18)  All life is connected. Living things on earth interact with one another in complex webs called ecosystems.  Understanding how these systems work is essential for the future management of our life.