North Carolina State Standards

The Middle Grades chapter of North Carolina's Science Standard Course of Study was strongly influenced by the National Science Education Standards. It describes a number of Unifying Concepts drawn from NSES, as well as Strands and Competency Goals, some of which apply to all grades and others that are grade specific. Pages in this section make links to specific pages in DITC related to technological design and the study of technology:

•   Unifying Concepts  Big idea themes described here related to design include Systems & Organization; Evidence & Explanations; Change & Measurement; Evolution & Equilibrium; and Form & Function.
•   Strands  The themes from NSES of Science As Inquiry and Technological Design have many links to topics, resources and activities found in DITC.
•   Shared Competency Goals Grades 6-8  Specific Competency These goals are emphasized throughout the middle-school grades and address doing scientific investigations and technological design. These can be addressed by doing designing experiments that inform the design decisions students make about the products they create.
•   Competency Goals Grade 6  See links to pages in DITC related to energy transfer, population dynamics that draw upon the Winter Gloves, Vehicles in Motion, Electromagnets and Simple Machines challenges.
•   Competency Goals Grade 7  While designing model cars in Vehicles in Motion, students can meet the Forces & Motion goals, and apply what they learn about Systems when studying the Atmosphere and Human Body. Students learn about simple machines and mechanical advantage while doing the Machines That Help task.
•   Competency Goals Grade 8  Students can work towards meeting the goals in chemistry by doing the Baking Soda challenge, connect their experiences writing Product Histories, and when studying Evolution refer back to their analysis of the Form/Function of products and Systems.