Grade 1 · Human Systems Science I
Grade 1 learners move beyond simple noticing into describing relationships, explaining reasons, and making purposeful design choices. They can compare systems, recognize patterns over time, and improve designs based on evidence. Students still learn through concrete experience, but they are now expected to explain their thinking and justify choices.
Continuing Anchor Ideas
These anchor ideas are explicitly referenced throughout the year so students recognize continuity from Kindergarten.
Living things need clean water, energy, food, air, and care to survive and grow.
Students connect health and growth to systems that provide resources and protection.
Humans design tools, structures, and systems to meet needs.
Students compare designs, explain why they work, and improve them using evidence.
Natural systems and human-made systems interact.
Students model how changes in one part of a system can affect other parts.
Human choices can help or harm living things and environments.
Students connect habits and community choices to environmental impact and well-being.
Problems can be explored through planning, building, testing, and improving.
Design cycles become purposeful, students plan, test, record results, then revise.
What Grade 1 adds to the system: students move from noticing to explaining relationships, systems are named and modeled, design is purposeful, evidence begins to matter, Kindergarten concepts are explicitly reused as reference points.
Grade 1 Standards by Domain
Interwoven across the year, anchored to design cycles and repeated language.
1-HS1
Water Systems and Cleanliness
Clean Water & Sanitation
Filtration
Design-test
- 1-HS1.1 Students describe where water comes from and where it goes after use.
- 1-HS1.2 Students explain how clean water supports health for people, plants, and animals.
- 1-HS1.3 Students investigate how materials affect water cleanliness.
- 1-HS1.4 Students design and test a simple system to move, store, or clean water.
Hands-on STEM expectation
Water pathway models, filtration experiments, container testing, simple flow investigations.
1-HS2
Energy and Change
Affordable & Clean Energy
Transfer
Materials test
- 1-HS2.1 Students identify sources of energy in their environment, including sunlight and movement.
- 1-HS2.2 Students describe how energy causes changes in objects or living things.
- 1-HS2.3 Students compare materials based on how they absorb or block energy.
- 1-HS2.4 Students design a structure that uses energy to solve a problem.
Hands-on STEM expectation
Shadow tracking, ramp investigations, material testing, shade or warmth design challenges.
1-HS3
Health, Safety, and Environment
Good Health & Well-Being
Prevention
Safety
- 1-HS3.1 Students explain how daily choices affect health.
- 1-HS3.2 Students investigate how cleanliness and environment affect the spread of illness.
- 1-HS3.3 Students model safe behaviors that reduce risk.
- 1-HS3.4 Students explain how healthy environments support healthy communities.
Hands-on STEM expectation
Environmental checks, germ spread simulations, safety testing scenarios.
1-HS4
Tools, Structures, and Problem Solving
Industry, Innovation, & Infrastructure
Structure-function
Redesign
- 1-HS4.1 Students compare tools and structures used to solve different problems.
- 1-HS4.2 Students explain how structure affects function.
- 1-HS4.3 Students build and test structures for strength or stability.
- 1-HS4.4 Students improve designs based on testing results.
Hands-on STEM expectation
Bridge building, tool comparisons, strength testing, redesign cycles.
1-HS5
Communities and Shared Systems
Sustainable Cities & Communities
Shared resources
Cooperation
- 1-HS5.1 Students identify systems that help communities function.
- 1-HS5.2 Students describe how people depend on shared resources.
- 1-HS5.3 Students model a community system, such as water, transportation, or waste.
- 1-HS5.4 Students explain how rules and design choices affect community well-being.
Hands-on STEM expectation
Community system models, traffic flow simulations, shared resource planning.
1-HS6
Material Use and Waste
Responsible Consumption & Production
Life cycle
Reduce-reuse
- 1-HS6.1 Students identify how materials are used to make products.
- 1-HS6.2 Students explain what happens to materials after use.
- 1-HS6.3 Students investigate how waste affects environments.
- 1-HS6.4 Students design ways to reduce or reuse materials.
Hands-on STEM expectation
Product disassembly, waste audits, reuse engineering challenges.
1-HS7
Water Habitats and Life
Life Below Water
Pollution
Protection
- 1-HS7.1 Students describe how water habitats support living things.
- 1-HS7.2 Students explain how changes in water affect organisms.
- 1-HS7.3 Students investigate how pollution affects water life.
- 1-HS7.4 Students design solutions to protect water habitats.
Hands-on STEM expectation
Habitat simulations, pollution impact models, solution prototyping.
1-HS8
Land Habitats and Life
Life on Land
Conservation
Protect-improve
- 1-HS8.1 Students describe how land habitats meet the needs of living things.
- 1-HS8.2 Students explain how humans change land environments.
- 1-HS8.3 Students investigate how changes affect plants and animals.
- 1-HS8.4 Students design ways to protect or improve land habitats.
Hands-on STEM expectation
Habitat modeling, planting experiments, erosion simulations.
Grade 1 throughline: the domains spiral, the anchor ideas stay visible, and students are consistently asked to explain what happened and why it matters, using drawings, models, and simple writing.
Design and Practice Standards
Applied continuously across every domain, students plan, investigate, improve, and communicate explanations.
- 1-DSP1 Students ask questions and make predictions.
- 1-DSP2 Students plan and carry out investigations with guidance.
- 1-DSP3 Students build, test, and improve solutions.
- 1-DSP4 Students communicate explanations using drawings, models, and simple writing.
Weekly rhythm
Ask and predict, plan and test, improve based on results, communicate what happened and why.