The STEM Ready! Science Standards define what students should understand and be able to do by the end of each grade or course. The New Mexico Instructional Scope for Science was created to support educators in deeply understanding the performance expectations for each grade level or course along with other elements or tenets that are part of providing a guaranteed, viable, and equitable instruction to all students.
How to use the Instructional Scope for Science:
- Support your lesson planning
- Guide teams to discuss, plan, model, and reflect on your practice.
- Scaffold your deliberate planning and your focused conversations with your colleagues during professional learning community discussions, supporting your use of high-quality instruction that meets the needs of all learners.
- Consider how to address learning needs and where targeted scaffolds may be needed to assist students in accessing grade level core instruction.
- Use side by side with high-quality instructional materials.
- Incorporate supports that contribute to equitable classroom structures.
- Design classroom learning environments that minimize barriers and optimize learning for all students.
- Monitor students’ progress on grade-appropriate assignments.
Science standards have been broken down to give clarity around what the performance expectation means, as well as clarity around the Science Engineering Practices, the Disciplinary Core Ideas, and the Crosscutting Concepts. Embedded formative assessments tasks/samples are aligned with each performance expectation. These may be used as part of formative assessments or as tasks during instruction.
You are encouraged to read the NM Instructional Scope in its entirety. You will find full grade level documents (K-5) and separate documents for each science domain (middle school and high school) broken down into separate PDFs.
Should you need assistance, please contact the Math and Science Bureau staff.
Instructional Scope reference guides:
To better understand the Instructional Scope documents for Science, please be sure to read through the sections below in order, each of which are present within each Instructional Scope document.
- Section 1 — NM STEM Ready! Science Standards Implementation Guide
- Section 2 — Individual grade level/course standards
- Section 3 — Resources, References, and Glossary
Kindergarten
1st Grade
2nd Grade
3rd Grade
4th Grade
5th Grade
Middle School Physical Science
- PS1 Physical Science: Matter and its Interactions
- PS2 Physical Science: Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions
- PS3 Physical Science: Energy
- PS4 Physical Science: Waves and theri Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer
Middle School Life Science
- LS1 Life Science: From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes
- LS2 Life Science: From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes
- LS3 Life Science: From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes
- LS4 Life Science: From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes
Middle School Earth Sciences
- ESS1 Earth Sciences: Earth’s Place in the Universe
- ESS2 Earth Sciences: Earth’s Systems
- ESS3 Earth Sciences: Earth and Human Activity
Middle School Engineering Design
High School Physical Science
- PS1 Physical Science: Matter and Its Interactions
- PS2 Physical Science: Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions
- PS3 Physical Science: Energy
- PS4 Physical Science: Waves and theri Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer
High School Life Science
- LS1 Life Science: From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes
- LS2 Life Science: Ecosystems, Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
- LS3 Life Science: Hereditary Inheritance and Variation of Traits
- LS4 Life Science: Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity
High School Earth Sciences
- ESS1 Earth Sciences: Earth’s Place in the Universe
- ESS2 Earth Sciences: Earth’s Systems
- ESS3 Earth Sciences: Earth and Human Activity