Many students equate science to learning vocabulary terms, labeling pictures, and memorizing facts. Science by nature is much more inclusive and loosely defined. Have you ever asked yourself questions about your surroundings and wondered how or why they are happening? This is science. Science works best when driven by curiosity and innovation. In order for you to experience science in its fullest sense you must take it beyond the textbook and into your everyday experience, but in order to be meaningful there are certain guidelines that can help us. Science is not constrained to Earth Science, but there are cross-cutting concepts threaded throughout all scientific disciplines.

These include:

• Patterns. Example found in Earth Science
• Cause and effect: Mechanism and explanation
• Scale, proportion, and quantity
• Systems and system models
• Energy and matter: Flows, cycles, and conservation
• Structure and function
• Stability and change