NGSS Crosscutting Concepts: The 7 Concepts with K–5 Examples

The seven NGSS crosscutting concepts are patterns; cause and effect; scale, proportion and quantity; systems and system models; energy and matter; structure and function; and stability and change, and in K–5 they work best as explicit “thinking lenses” students use in every unit, from noticing patterns in kindergarten weather to tracking energy through a food web in 5th grade. The crosscutting concepts are one of the three dimensions of the Next Generation Science Standards, together with science and engineering practices and disciplinary core ideas. They are called crosscutting because they apply in every area of science: life, physical, Earth and space, and engineering. Below, each concept is explained in plain language, with how it develops from K–2 to 3–5, classroom examples and question stems you can post. For an overview of the standards and how they’re organized, see our guide to NGSS science standards.

Why crosscutting concepts matter

Students often see science as separate topics: plants in the fall, weather in the winter, magnets in the spring. Crosscutting concepts connect those topics. When a 3rd grader notices that a plant’s structure helps it survive and later that a bridge’s shape helps it hold weight, they’re using the same idea, structure and function, in life science and engineering. Over time, these concepts become habits of thinking that help students approach any new phenomenon.

In NGSS documents, each performance expectation names the crosscutting concept it emphasizes, and the standards’ appendix describes how each concept grows across grade bands. That makes it easy to see which concept to highlight in each unit.

1. Patterns

What it means: Noticing things that repeat or follow a regular arrangement, and using patterns to sort, explain and predict.

K–2: Students notice patterns in nature, like day and night, the seasons, the shapes of leaves or animal babies that look like their parents. They use patterns to describe and predict (“It’s cold in the morning, so it will probably be cold tomorrow morning”).

3–5: Students use patterns to sort and classify, look for patterns in data, and make predictions, like patterns in shadows over a day or in weather data over a month.

Question stems: What do you notice that repeats? What can we predict from this pattern? How could we sort these?

2. Cause and effect

What it means: Events have causes, and some causes produce predictable effects. Scientists test causes to understand how things work.

K–2: Students investigate simple causes, such as how a harder push makes a ball roll farther (kindergarten standard K-PS2-1 focuses on the effects of pushes and pulls).

3–5: Students routinely identify and test cause-and-effect relationships, like how magnets affect objects at different distances, or how erosion changes land.

Question stems: What caused this to happen? What would happen if we changed ___? How can we test that?

3. Scale, proportion and quantity

What it means: Things happen at different sizes, times and amounts, and measuring them helps us understand them.

K–2: Students compare relative sizes and times: bigger and smaller, faster and slower, hotter and colder.

3–5: Students use standard units to measure and describe quantities like weight, time, temperature and volume. They begin to think about things too small or too far to see, such as particles of matter that can’t be seen with the naked eye (5-PS1-1).

Question stems: How big, how long or how much? How could we measure it? What happens at a much smaller or larger scale?

4. Systems and system models

What it means: A system is a group of parts that work together. Models help us understand how the parts interact.

K–2: Students describe objects and organisms in terms of their parts and how the parts work together, like the parts of a plant or a bicycle.

3–5: Students describe systems in terms of components and their interactions, and use models. For example, in 5th grade they model how matter moves among plants, animals, decomposers and the environment (5-LS2-1), and how Earth’s spheres interact.

Question stems: What are the parts? How do they work together? What happens if one part changes or is missing?

5. Energy and matter

What it means: Tracking how energy and matter flow into, out of and within systems.

K–2: Students observe that objects may break into smaller pieces and be put together into larger pieces, or change shape.

3–5: Students learn that matter is made of particles and that energy can be transferred in various ways, such as sound, light, heat and electric currents. In 5th grade, they trace energy in food back to the sun.

Question stems: Where does the energy come from? Where does it go? What is the matter made of, and where does it end up?

6. Structure and function

What it means: The shape and parts of an object or organism are related to what it does.

K–2: Students observe that the shape and stability of structures relate to their function. For example, in 1st grade they use ideas from plant and animal parts to design solutions to human problems (1-LS1-1), like a helmet modeled on a turtle shell.

3–5: Students explain how the internal and external structures of plants and animals support survival, growth and reproduction, and how materials and shapes affect the function of designed objects.

Question stems: What is it shaped like? What does this part do? How does its shape help it work?

7. Stability and change

What it means: Some things stay the same and some change, quickly or slowly. Understanding what keeps a system stable and what makes it change is central to science.

K–2: Students notice that some things stay the same while others change, and that change can be fast (a landslide) or slow (a canyon forming).

3–5: Students measure change in terms of differences over time and observe that change can happen at very different rates. They design solutions to slow or prevent change, like reducing erosion.

Question stems: What is changing? What is staying the same? How fast is it changing? What could keep it stable?

The seven concepts at a glance

Making crosscutting concepts visible

Post them with icons. A simple icon for each concept (a repeating dot pattern, a domino, a ruler, gears, a lightning bolt, a key, a balance) helps young students remember them. Post the question stems beside them.

Ask “Which lens?” During an investigation, ask students which concept helps explain what they’re seeing. Different answers often lead to rich discussion.

Revisit across units. At the end of each unit, add an example to a class chart under each concept that came up. By spring, the chart shows how the same ideas connect very different topics.

Pair with practices. Crosscutting concepts work together with the science and engineering practices. Students analyze data to find patterns, or develop a model to show a system. Our post on NGSS science and engineering practices explains the eight practices with K–5 examples.

A sample lesson connection

Earth Day lessons are a good example of how concepts combine: a schoolyard litter count reveals patterns, an erosion model shows cause and effect and stability and change, and a habitat survey looks at a system. Our post on Earth Day activities for students has investigations you can use to practice several crosscutting concepts at once.

Supporting all learners

Concept icons and question stems help English learners and students who need language support participate in scientific discussion. Students with IEPs or 504 plans keep the accommodations decided by their team, such as visual supports and sentence frames for explanations.

Prep in less time

Question stem cards, concept posters and investigation recording sheets that name the crosscutting concept take time to make. An AI lesson plan tool can draft a three-dimensional lesson that names the practice, core idea and crosscutting concept for your standard, and you review and adapt it.

Crosscutting concepts are one of the three dimensions of the NGSS. For how the standards are organized, how to read performance expectations and more K–5 resources, visit our guide to NGSS science standards.