MS-PS1-3: How Synthetic Materials Come from Nature
Also called NGSS MS-PS1-3 · Topic: Structure and Properties of Matter · Physical Science
The Official Wording
Gather and make sense of information to describe that synthetic materials come from natural resources and impact society.
Clarification statement: Emphasis is on natural resources that undergo a chemical process to form the synthetic material. Examples of new materials could include new medicine, foods, and alternative fuels.
Assessment boundary: Assessment is limited to qualitative information.
NGSS Lead States, 2013 · Read it on nextgenscience.org · checked October 15, 2026
What MS-PS1-3 Means in Plain English
Middle schoolers research where a synthetic material comes from. They trace a product such as a plastic, a medicine or a fuel back to its natural starting material, name the chemical change that turned one into the other, and explain how the product helps or harms people.
The work stays descriptive: students explain the steps and the effects in words, with no calculations. It builds on MS-PS1-2, where a chemical reaction makes new substances, and connects to MS-ESS3-3, where students design ways to shrink a human impact on the environment.
MS-PS1-3 I Can Statements
- I can trace a synthetic material back to its natural resource.
- I can describe the chemical change that makes a new material.
- I can explain one benefit and one cost of a synthetic material.
MS-PS1-3 Worked Example
A research task built around one compostable cup from the school cafeteria.
Where does a compostable PLA cup come from, and what does it change for people?
Set It Up: A clear cup stamped PLA, a spoonful of corn starch, a glass of water, and printed fact sheets from the cup maker and a city composting program.
- Read the cup label and the maker's sheet to find the raw material.Corn, grown on farms
- Stir the corn starch into the water, then fill the PLA cup with water.Starch clouds the water, the cup is unchanged
- Use the fact sheet to list the chemical steps from corn to cup.Starch → sugar → lactic acid → long PLA chains
- Sort the effects on society into benefits and costs.Less oil used, but farmland and a composting plant needed
- Check the composting sheet for where the cup actually breaks down.Hot industrial compost, not a backyard pile
The PLA cup starts as corn but is a new substance with new properties, and it only helps cut waste where a community has industrial composting.
Why it works: Bacteria turn plant sugar into lactic acid, and a chemical process links that acid into long chains, so the cup is a synthetic material with properties corn never had.
Common Mistakes with MS-PS1-3
Calling it natural because it came from a plant
“PLA is just corn, so it is not really plastic.”
Try this: The corn's sugar was chemically changed into new chains. The cup has properties corn starch never had, so it is synthetic.
Listing only benefits
A report that says the cup is good for everyone
Try this: Name at least one cost too, like farmland used or the need for a composting plant, and say who is affected.
Skipping the chemical step
“They melt corn into a cup.”
Try this: Show that the starting material went through a chemical change, like fermentation, that made a substance with new properties, not just a new shape.
Where MS-PS1-3 Fits
Practice MS-PS1-3
Quick Check
- What natural resource is PLA plastic made from?
- Why is a PLA cup a synthetic material and not just a corn product?
- Name one way a synthetic material can affect society.