Grade 6 · Integrated Human Systems Science
Grade 6 learners reason abstractly, analyze multiple interacting variables, interpret quantitative data, and distinguish between short-term effects and long-term system behavior. This year marks the shift from learning about systems to thinking like a systems analyst, with formal modeling, structured argumentation, and technical vocabulary grounded in familiar systems.
Continuing Anchor Ideas
Now treated explicitly as analytical tools, these anchors guide modeling, risk reasoning, and evidence-based redesign across domains.
Human and natural systems are complex, interacting networks.
Students map interactions, trace impacts across subsystems, and identify leverage points.
Matter and energy flow and cycle through systems.
Students model transfers, transformations, and cycles, then explain how human action alters them.
Systems exhibit feedback, stability, and change.
Students distinguish balancing and reinforcing feedback, and predict short-term versus long-term behavior.
Human decisions introduce risk, tradeoffs, and unintended consequences.
Students evaluate decisions using evidence, quantify risk when possible, and anticipate second-order effects.
Models, data, and evidence are used to predict, explain, and improve systems.
Students use quantitative and qualitative evidence to justify claims, evaluate solutions, and redesign systems.
Students can reason abstractly, analyze multiple interacting variables, interpret quantitative data, and distinguish between short-term effects and long-term system behavior. They are ready for formal modeling, structured argumentation, and technical vocabulary, provided it is grounded in systems they already understand.
What Grade 6 adds to the system: systems thinking becomes explicit and formal, students reason about risk, resilience, and failure, and models plus data become required for explanations and solution evaluation.
Grade 6 Standards by Domain
Students build formal models, analyze interacting variables, evaluate risk and resilience, then design improvements using data, constraints, and evidence.
6-HS1
Water Systems, Cycles, and Human Impact
Clean Water & Sanitation
Cycles
Risk
- 6-HS1.1 Students model the global and local water cycle, including human modification.
- 6-HS1.2 Students analyze how water use, pollution, and climate factors alter water availability.
- 6-HS1.3 Students evaluate risks to water quality and access.
- 6-HS1.4 Students design mitigation strategies to improve water system resilience.
Hands-on STEM expectation
Watershed modeling, water quality testing, risk mapping, mitigation design challenges.
6-HS2
Energy Transfer, Transformation, and Systems
Affordable & Clean Energy
Efficiency
Optimization
- 6-HS2.1 Students model energy transfer and transformation across systems.
- 6-HS2.2 Students analyze efficiency and loss in energy systems.
- 6-HS2.3 Students evaluate environmental and social impacts of energy choices.
- 6-HS2.4 Students design optimized energy solutions using data and constraints.
Hands-on STEM expectation
Energy flow diagrams, efficiency experiments, system redesign challenges.
6-HS3
Health, Environmental Exposure, and Risk
Good Health & Well-Being
Exposure
Prevention
- 6-HS3.1 Students analyze how environmental factors influence human health.
- 6-HS3.2 Students model pathways of exposure to hazards.
- 6-HS3.3 Students evaluate prevention and intervention strategies.
- 6-HS3.4 Students design evidence-based solutions to reduce health risks.
Hands-on STEM expectation
Exposure pathway modeling, risk assessment activities, intervention testing.
6-HS4
Infrastructure Systems and Failure Analysis
Industry, Innovation, & Infrastructure
Failure
Resilience
- 6-HS4.1 Students model infrastructure as interconnected systems.
- 6-HS4.2 Students analyze causes and impacts of system failure.
- 6-HS4.3 Students evaluate infrastructure resilience under stress.
- 6-HS4.4 Students design infrastructure improvements using failure data.
Hands-on STEM expectation
Stress testing models, failure case studies, redesign challenges.
6-HS5
Urban Systems and Sustainability
Sustainable Cities & Communities
Indicators
Systems integration
- 6-HS5.1 Students analyze cities as systems of energy, water, transportation, and waste.
- 6-HS5.2 Students evaluate how urban growth affects system performance.
- 6-HS5.3 Students assess sustainability indicators.
- 6-HS5.4 Students design improvements to increase urban sustainability.
Hands-on STEM expectation
Urban system simulations, indicator analysis, design optimization tasks.
6-HS6
Production Systems and Resource Flows
Responsible Consumption & Production
Life cycle
Tradeoffs
- 6-HS6.1 Students analyze material and energy flows in production systems.
- 6-HS6.2 Students evaluate environmental impacts across product life cycles.
- 6-HS6.3 Students assess tradeoffs between efficiency and sustainability.
- 6-HS6.4 Students design improved production systems using circular principles.
Hands-on STEM expectation
Life-cycle analysis, flow modeling, circular design challenges.
6-HS7
Aquatic Ecosystem Dynamics
Life Below Water
Disturbance
Intervention
- 6-HS7.1 Students model energy and matter flow in aquatic ecosystems.
- 6-HS7.2 Students analyze ecosystem responses to disturbance.
- 6-HS7.3 Students evaluate human impacts on aquatic systems.
- 6-HS7.4 Students design ecosystem management strategies.
Hands-on STEM expectation
Food web modeling, disturbance simulations, management planning.
6-HS8
Terrestrial Ecosystem Dynamics
Life on Land
Biodiversity
Resilience
- 6-HS8.1 Students model energy and matter flow in terrestrial ecosystems.
- 6-HS8.2 Students analyze impacts of land-use change.
- 6-HS8.3 Students evaluate conservation and restoration strategies.
- 6-HS8.4 Students design land management solutions using evidence.
Hands-on STEM expectation
Land-use simulations, conservation modeling, impact analysis.
Grade 6 throughline: model system behavior, analyze interacting variables, evaluate risk and resilience, then design improvements using evidence, criteria, and constraints.
Design and Practice Standards
Applied across all domains, students develop and refine models, analyze data, evaluate solutions under constraints, and construct structured arguments supported by evidence.
- 6-DSP1 Students develop and refine system models.
- 6-DSP2 Students analyze quantitative and qualitative data.
- 6-DSP3 Students evaluate solutions using criteria, constraints, and evidence.
- 6-DSP4 Students construct structured arguments supported by models and data.
What Grade 6 accomplishes
Systems thinking becomes explicit and formal, students reason about risk, resilience, and failure, data and models become required for explanations, and all eight SDGs remain integrated as one system that prepares students for deeper abstraction in Grade 7.