How energy moves through and changes matter, from heat and light to energy in living systems.
7.6 Matter and energy: tell elements from compounds, classify changes in matter, and understand the properties of solutions
7.6A Contrast and compare how elements and compounds differ in chemical formulas, chemical symbols, atoms, and molecules
7.6B Identify, with the periodic table, the atoms in a chemical formula and the count of each kind
7.6C Tell physical changes in matter apart from chemical changes
7.6D Describe aqueous solutions through their solvent and solute, dilution, and concentration
7.6E Investigate and model the effects of temperature, agitation, and surface area on how fast solid solutes dissolve in water-based solutions
Force, Motion, and Energy
How forces change motion, and how energy is transferred, transformed and conserved.
7.7 Force, motion, and energy: describe how forces and motion are linked as cause and effect
7.7A Calculate average speed from distance and time measurements taken in investigations
7.7B Distinguish speed from velocity in straight-line motion using distance, displacement, and direction
7.7C Measure, record, and interpret how an object moves using distance-time graphs
7.7D Apply Newton's first law, the law of inertia, to analyze how balanced and unbalanced forces affect an object's state of motion
7.8 Force, motion, and energy: understand how thermal energy behaves as it moves into and out of systems
7.8A Investigate conduction, convection, and radiation as ways thermal energy moves into and out of systems
7.8B Investigate how thermal energy travels predictably from hotter to cooler regions until every substance in the system reaches thermal equilibrium
7.8C Explain the link between temperature and the particles' kinetic energy within a substance
Earth and Space
Earth's materials and processes, weather and climate, and the sun, moon and other objects in space.
7.9 Earth and space: understand the movement patterns, organization, and traits of the parts of our solar system
7.9A Describe the locations, movements, and physical properties of planets, moons, the Sun, comets, meteors, the Kuiper belt, asteroids, and the Oort cloud
7.9B Describe how gravity controls motion in Earth's solar system
7.9C Analyze the features of Earth that make life possible, for example its distance from the Sun, liquid water, and atmospheric makeup
7.10 Earth and space: understand why plate tectonics happens and what it causes
7.10A Describe the evidence showing Earth is different now than in the past, including superposition, plate tectonics, and fossil evidence
7.10B Describe how plate tectonics causes volcanic eruptions, mountain building, earthquakes, and ocean basin formation, including hot spots and supervolcanoes
7.11 Earth and space: understand how people can affect the hydrosphere
7.11A Analyze how human activity both helps and harms surface water and groundwater in a watershed
7.11B Describe how people depend on and influence ocean systems, then explain how their activities affect those systems
Organisms and Environments
How living things meet their needs, interact with each other and their surroundings, and change over time.
7.12 Organisms and environments: understand that ecosystems rely on matter cycling and energy flowing
7.12A Diagram how energy moves among trophic levels and describe why less energy is available at each higher level of an energy pyramid
7.12B Describe how a continuous energy flow, along with recycling of matter and nutrients in the biosphere, sustains ecosystems
7.13 Organisms and environments: know how body systems are organized and work to keep an organism healthy, and how traits are inherited
7.13A Identify and model the main jobs of human body systems, including nervous, immune, endocrine, integumentary, reproductive, urinary, digestive, muscular, skeletal, respiratory, and circulatory systems
7.13B Describe how plants and animals are organized from cells up through tissues, organs, and organ systems
7.13C Compare what asexual and sexual reproduction produce in plants and animals, in terms of offspring diversity and population change over time
7.13D Describe, with examples, how natural selection and artificial selection shift how often traits occur in a population across generations
7.14 Organisms and environments: know how the taxonomic system describes the relationships among organisms
7.14A Describe the taxonomic system, which sorts organisms by the similarities and differences groups share
7.14B Describe the traits of the recognized kingdoms and why they matter in ecosystems, for example fungi decomposing organic matter or bacteria aiding digestion
Recurring Themes and Concepts
Big ideas, like patterns, cause and effect, systems and models, that connect every area of science.
7.5 Recurring themes: understand that unifying themes and concepts link ideas across science disciplines
7.5A Recognize patterns and apply them to link scientific phenomena and make sense of them, or to design solutions
7.5B Find and investigate relationships between causes and effects to analyze problems or explain scientific phenomena
7.5C Analyze how changes in scale, proportion, or quantity alter structure or performance in a system
7.5D Examine and model a system's parts and how they depend on each other for the system to work
7.5E Analyze and explain how matter cycles and energy flows through systems, and how both are conserved across many kinds of systems
7.5F Analyze and explain how structure and function complement each other in objects, organisms, and systems
7.5G 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.
7.1 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
7.1A Ask questions and define problems using observations or information from texts, phenomena, models, or investigations
7.1B Plan and carry out descriptive, comparative, and experimental investigations with scientific practices, and design solutions to problems with engineering practices
7.1C Use suitable safety equipment and safe procedures in lab, classroom, and field investigations, following safety standards approved by the Texas Education Agency
7.1D 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
7.1E Gather quantitative data in International System of Units measurements, along with qualitative data, as evidence
7.1F Build suitable tables, graphs, maps, and charts that organize data, using repeated trials and averages
7.1G Develop and use models that represent phenomena, systems, processes, or engineering solutions
7.1H Tell scientific hypotheses, theories, and laws apart
7.2 Practices: analyze and interpret data to find patterns, features, and relationships or correlations that support evidence-based arguments or the evaluation of designs
7.2A Identify the benefits and drawbacks of models, such as those tied to scale, size, materials, and properties
7.2B Analyze data by finding limitations, sources of error, patterns, and significant descriptive statistical features
7.2C Use math calculations to judge quantitative relationships in data
7.2D Evaluate the designs of experiments and engineering projects
7.3 Practices: build evidence-based explanations and share findings, conclusions, and proposed solutions
7.3A Develop explanations and propose solutions backed by data and models that fit accepted scientific ideas, principles, and theories
7.3B Share explanations and solutions, alone and with others, across different settings and formats
7.3C Engage in respectful scientific argument, drawing on empirical evidence and applied scientific explanations
7.4 Practices: know what scientists have contributed and recognize why research and innovation matter to society
7.4A 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
7.4B Make informed decisions by weighing evidence from several suitable sources for the methods used, accuracy, credibility, and cost-effectiveness
7.4C 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 7th Grade TEKS Science Standards are there?
There are 52 7th 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 7th 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 7.6A mean?
TEKS science codes read grade, knowledge and skills statement, student expectation. In 7.6A, 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.