How energy moves through and changes matter, from heat and light to energy in living systems.
6.6 Matter and energy: know that matter consists of atoms, can be sorted by its properties, and can change
6.6A Compare solids, liquids, and gases by structure, shape, volume, and the kinetic energy of their atoms and molecules
6.6B Investigate matter's physical properties to distinguish heterogeneous mixtures, homogeneous mixtures (solutions), and pure substances
6.6C Classify periodic table elements as metals, nonmetals, metalloids, or rare Earth elements by their physical properties, and recognize their value to modern life
6.6D Compare the density of substances to the density of various fluids
6.6E Identify when a new substance has formed by spotting a possible chemical change, including gas production, a thermal energy change, precipitate production, and a color change
Force, Motion, and Energy
How forces change motion, and how energy is transferred, transformed and conserved.
6.7 Force, motion, and energy: know what forces are and how they affect systems that stay stable or change
6.7A Identify and explain, with real-world applications, the effect of forces on objects, including normal forces, applied forces, friction, magnetism, and gravity
6.7B Use diagrams to calculate the net force acting on an object horizontally or vertically and determine whether forces are balanced or unbalanced
6.7C Apply Newton's third law (action and reaction) to identify the pairs of forces, acting at the same moment with equal size and opposite direction, that arise when objects interact
6.8 Force, motion, and energy: know that a system's total energy is conserved as energy is transferred and transformed
6.8A Compare and contrast kinetic energy with gravitational potential, elastic potential, and chemical potential energy
6.8B Describe the conservation of energy during transfers and transformations in systems, for example photosynthesis, food webs, electrical circuits, or amusement park rides
6.8C Explain how transverse and longitudinal waves carry energy
Earth and Space
Earth's materials and processes, weather and climate, and the sun, moon and other objects in space.
6.9 Earth and space: model how the Moon, Earth, and Sun move in repeating cycles and describe the effects
6.9A Model and illustrate how Earth's tilt as it orbits the Sun produces the seasons
6.9B Describe and predict how the alignment of Earth, Sun, and Moon creates daily, spring, and neap ocean tides through gravitational forces
6.10 Earth and space: understand the rock cycle and how Earth is structured
6.10A Distinguish the geosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere from one another and name the components of each
6.10B Model and describe Earth's layers: crust, mantle, outer core, and inner core
6.10C Describe how igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks are created and altered by geologic processes within the rock cycle
6.11 Earth and space: understand the ways resources are managed
6.11A Research and describe why managing resources matters for easing global energy needs, malnutrition, poverty, and pollution of air and water
6.11B Explain how technology, conservation, and greater efficiency can help manage energy, soil, water, and air resources
Organisms and Environments
How living things meet their needs, interact with each other and their surroundings, and change over time.
6.12 Organisms and environments: know that living systems and their surroundings depend on one another
6.12A Explore how populations and organisms in an ecosystem rely on, and may compete for, living (biotic) resources like food and nonliving (abiotic) conditions like light, water, temperature range, or soil composition
6.12B Describe and give examples of predator-prey, competitive, and symbiotic relationships, including mutualism, parasitism, and commensalism
6.12C Describe how organism, population, and community nest in order within an ecosystem
6.13 Organisms and environments: know that organisms are organized in levels of structure and that variation can affect whether populations survive
6.13A Describe how cell theory developed historically and explain that organisms consist of one or more cells, arise from earlier cells, and have cells as their fundamental building block for structure and function
6.13B Identify and compare basic organism characteristics, including prokaryotic versus eukaryotic, unicellular versus multicellular, and autotrophic versus heterotrophic
6.13C Describe how variation within a population can help or hurt its survival as environments change
Recurring Themes and Concepts
Big ideas, like patterns, cause and effect, systems and models, that connect every area of science.
6.5 Recurring themes: understand that unifying themes and concepts link ideas across science disciplines
6.5A Recognize patterns and apply them to link scientific phenomena and make sense of them, or to design solutions
6.5B Find and investigate relationships between causes and effects to analyze problems or explain scientific phenomena
6.5C Analyze how changes in scale, proportion, or quantity alter structure or performance in a system
6.5D Examine and model a system's parts and how they depend on each other for the system to work
6.5E Analyze and explain how matter cycles and energy flows through systems, and how both are conserved across many kinds of systems
6.5F Analyze and explain how structure and function complement each other in objects, organisms, and systems
6.5G Analyze and explain how conditions or factors influence whether objects, organisms, and systems stay stable or change
Scientific and Engineering Practices
The ways students do science at every level: asking questions, investigating safely, using evidence and communicating explanations.
6.1 Practices: ask questions, spot problems, and safely plan and carry out classroom, lab, and field investigations with suitable tools and models, devoting a minimum of 40% of instructional time to this work
6.1A Ask questions and define problems using observations or information from texts, phenomena, models, or investigations
6.1B Plan and carry out descriptive, comparative, and experimental investigations with scientific practices, and design solutions to problems with engineering practices
6.1C Use suitable safety equipment and safe procedures in lab, classroom, and field investigations, following safety standards approved by the Texas Education Agency
6.1D Use suitable tools: balances, scales, thermometers, temperature probes, graduated cylinders, metric rulers, hand lenses, microscopes with slides, petri dishes, dissecting kits, lab ware, timers, pH indicators, hot plates, periodic tables, force sensors or spring scales, magnets, models and life science models, wave-modeling tools, satellite images, lab notebooks or journals
6.1E Gather quantitative data in International System of Units measurements, along with qualitative data, as evidence
6.1F Build suitable tables, graphs, maps, and charts that organize data, using repeated trials and averages
6.1G Develop and use models that represent phenomena, systems, processes, or engineering solutions
6.1H Tell scientific hypotheses, theories, and laws apart
6.2 Practices: analyze and interpret data to find patterns, features, and relationships or correlations that support evidence-based arguments or the evaluation of designs
6.2A Identify the benefits and drawbacks of models, such as those tied to scale, size, materials, and properties
6.2B Analyze data by finding limitations, sources of error, patterns, and significant descriptive statistical features
6.2C Use math calculations to judge quantitative relationships in data
6.2D Evaluate the designs of experiments and engineering projects
6.3 Practices: build evidence-based explanations and share findings, conclusions, and proposed solutions
6.3A Develop explanations and propose solutions backed by data and models that fit accepted scientific ideas, principles, and theories
6.3B Share explanations and solutions, alone and with others, across different settings and formats
6.3C Engage in respectful scientific argument, drawing on empirical evidence and applied scientific explanations
6.4 Practices: know what scientists have contributed and recognize why research and innovation matter to society
6.4A Connect past and present research to scientific thinking and society, covering cost-benefit analysis, how science works as a process, and the contributions of diverse scientists relevant to the content
6.4B Make informed decisions by weighing evidence from several suitable sources for the methods used, accuracy, credibility, and cost-effectiveness
6.4C Research and explore resources like libraries, museums, private companies, professional organizations, online platforms, and mentors who work in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics fields, in order to investigate careers in those fields
How many 6th Grade TEKS Science Standards are there?
There are 49 6th Grade TEKS Science Standards on this page, in 6 strands: Matter and Energy, Force, Motion, and Energy, Earth and Space, Organisms and Environments, Recurring Themes and Concepts, and Scientific and Engineering Practices.
How do I write an assessment for a 6th Grade TEKS Science standard?
Pick a standard on this page and choose Make a quiz or Make an exit ticket. AssessmentWiz opens the generator with the standard's code and text filled in, so every question targets that standard.
What does a code like 6.6A mean?
TEKS science codes read grade, knowledge and skills statement, student expectation. In 6.6A, the first number is the grade (K for kindergarten), the next number is the knowledge and skills statement, and the letter is the student expectation under it.