Dimension 2: Crosscutting Concepts

Bridging Disciplinary Boundaries
Some important themes pervade science, mathematics, and technology and appear over and over again, whether we are looking at an ancient civilization, the human body, or a comet. They are ideas that transcend disciplinary boundaries and prove fruitful in explanation, in theory, in observation, and in design.*

Question strategies linked to the big ideas in science and engineering: http://crosscutsymbols.weebly.com/

Patterns

Cause and Effect

Stability and Change

  Systems

Structure and Function

Energy and Matter

Scale

*American Association for the Advancement of Science. (1989). Science for all Americans. Project 2061. New York: Oxford University Press. Available: http://www.project2061.org/publications/sfaa/online/sfaatoc.htm [March 2011].