Science
Grade-Level Indicators
Life Sciences
Students demonstrate an understanding of how living systems function and how they interact with the physical environment. This includes an understanding of the cycling of matter and flow of energy in living systems. An understanding of the characteristics, structure, and function of cells, of organisms and of living systems are developed as well as a deeper understanding of the principles of heredity, biological evolution, and the diversity and interdependence of life. Students also demonstrate an understanding of different historical perspectives, scientific approaches and emerging scientific issues associated with the life sciences.
Characteristics and
Structure of
Life 1. Explore differences between living and non-living things (e.g.,
plant-rock).
2.
Discover that stories (e.g., cartoons, movies,
comics) sometimes give plants and animals characteristics they really do not
have (e.g., talking flowers).
Heredity 3.
Describe how plants and animals usually resemble their parents.
4. Investigate variations that exist among individuals of the same kind of
plant or animal.
Diversity
and
Interdependence
of
Life 5. Investigate
observable features of plants and animals that help them live in different kinds
of places.
6.
Investigate the habitats of many different kinds of
local plants and animals and some of the ways in which animals depend on plants
and each other in our community.
Characteristics and
Structure of Life 1. Explore that organisms, including people, have
basic needs which include air, water, food, living space and shelter.
2.
Explain that food comes from sources other than
grocery stores (e.g., farm crops, farm animals, oceans, lakes and forests).
3.
Explore that humans and other animals have body
parts that help to seek, find and take in food when they are hungry (e.g.,
sharp teeth, flat teeth, good nose, sharp vision).
Diversity
and
Interdependence
of
Life 4. Investigate
that animals eat plants and/or other animals for food and may also use plants
or other animals for shelter and nesting.
5.
Recognize that seasonal changes can influence the
health, survival or activities of organisms.
Characteristics and
Structure of
Life 1. Explain that animals, including people, need air, water, food, living
space and shelter, and plants need air, water, nutrients (e.g., minerals),
living space and light to survive.
2.
Identify that there are many distinct environments
that support different kinds of organisms.
3. Explain why organisms can survive only in environments that meet their
needs (e.g., organisms that once lived on Earth have disappeared for different
reasons such as natural forces or human-caused effects).
Heredity 4. Compare
similarities and differences among individuals of the same kind of plants and
animals, including people.
Diversity and
Interdependence of
Life 5. Explain that food is a basic
need of plants and animals (e.g., plants need sunlight to make food and to
grow, animals eat plants and/or other animals for food, food
chain) and is important because it is a source of energy (e.g., energy used to
play, ride bicycles, read, etc.).
6.
Investigate the different structures of plants and
animals that help them live in different environments (e.g., lungs, gills,
leaves and roots).
7. Compare the habitats of many different kinds of Ohio plants and animals and some of the ways animals depend on plants and each other.
8. Compare the
activities of Ohio’s common animals (e.g., squirrels, chipmunks, deer,
butterflies, bees, ants, bats and frogs) during the different seasons by
describing changes in their behaviors and body covering.
9.
Compare
Ohio plants during the different seasons by describing changes in their
appearance.
Heredity 1. Compare the
life cycles of different animals including birth to adulthood, reproduction and
death (e.g., egg-tadpole-frog, egg-caterpillar-chrysalis-butterfly).
Diversity
and
Interdependence
of
life
2. Relate
animal structures to their specific survival functions (e.g., obtaining food, escaping
or hiding from enemies).
3.
Classify animals according to their characteristics
(e.g., body coverings and body structure).
4. Use examples to explain that extinct organisms may resemble organisms
that are alive today.
5. Observe and explore how fossils provide evidence about animals that
lived long ago and the nature of the environment at that time.
6. Describe how changes in an organism’s habitat are sometimes beneficial
and sometimes harmful.
Heredity 1. Compare the life cycles of different plants
including germination, maturity, reproduction and death.
Diversity and
Interdependence of
Life 2. Relate
plant structures to their specific functions (e.g., growth, survival and
reproduction).
3.
Classify common plants according to their
characteristics (e.g., tree leaves, flowers, seeds, roots, stems).
4.
Observe and explore that fossils provide evidence
about plants that lived long ago and the nature of the environment at that
time.
5.
Describe how organisms interact with one another in
various ways (e.g., many plants depend on animals for carrying pollen or
dispersing seeds).
Diversity and
Interdependence of
Life 1. Describe the role of producers in the transfer of
energy entering ecosystems as sunlight to chemical energy through photosynthesis.
2.
Explain how almost all kinds of animals’ food can
be traced back to plants.
3.
Trace the organization of simple food chains and
food webs (e.g., producers, herbivores, carnivores, omnivores and decomposers).
4.
Summarize that organisms can survive only in ecosystems
in which their needs can be met (e.g., food, water, shelter, air, carrying
capacity and waste disposal). The world
has different ecosystems and distinct ecosystems support the lives of different
types of organisms.
5.
Support how an organism’s patterns of behavior are
related to the nature of that organism’s ecosystem, including the kinds and
numbers of other organisms present, the availability of food and resources, and
the changing physical characteristics of the ecosystem.
6. Analyze how all organisms, including humans, cause changes in their ecosystems and how these changes can be beneficial, neutral or detrimental (e.g., beaver ponds, earthworm burrows, grasshoppers eating plants, people planting and cutting trees, and people introducing a new species).
Characteristics and
Structure of Life 1. Explain that many of the basic functions of
organisms are carried out by or within cells and are similar in all organisms.
2.
Explain that multicellular organisms have a variety
of specialized cells, tissues, organs and organ systems that perform
specialized functions.
3.
Identify how plant cells differ from animal cells
(e.g., cell wall, chloroplasts).
Heredity 4. Recognize
that an individual organism does not live forever; therefore reproduction is necessary
for the continuation of every species and traits are passed on to the next
generation through reproduction.
5.
Describe that in asexual reproduction all the
inherited traits come from a single parent.
6.
Describe that in sexual reproduction an egg and sperm
unite and some traits come from each parent, so the offspring is never
identical to either of its parents.
7.
Recognize that likenesses between parents and
offspring (e.g., eye color, flower color) are inherited. Other likenesses, such as table manners are
learned.
Diversity and
Interdependence of
Life 8. Describe how organisms may interact with one another.
Characteristics and
Structure of Life 1. Investigate the great variety of body plans and
internal structures found in multicellular organisms.
Diversity and
Interdependence of
Life 2. Investigate
how organisms or populations may interact with one another through symbiotic
relationships and how some species have become so adapted to each other that
neither could survive without the other (e.g., predator–prey, parasitism,
mutualistism, commensalism).
3. Explain how the
number of organisms an ecosystem can support depends on adequate biotic
(living) resources (e.g., plants, animals) and abiotic (non-living) resources
(e.g., light, water, soil).
4. Investigate how
overpopulation impacts an ecosystem.
5. Explain that some
environmental changes occur slowly while others occur rapidly (e.g., forest and
pond succession, fires and decomposition).
6. Summarize the
ways that natural occurrences and human activity affect the transfer of energy
in Earth’s ecosystems (e.g., fire, hurricanes, roads, oil spills).
7. Explain that
photosynthetic cells convert solar energy into chemical energy that is used to
carry on life functions or is transferred to consumers and used to carry on
their life functions.
Evolutionary Theory 8. Investigate the great
diversity among organisms.
Heredity 1. Describe that asexual reproduction limits the
spread of detrimental characteristics through a species and allows for genetic
continuity.
2.
Recognize that in sexual reproduction new
combinations of traits are produced which may increase or decrease an
organism’s chances for survival.
Evolutionary Theory 3. Explain
how variations in structure, behavior or physiology allow some organisms to
enhance their reproductive success and survival in a particular environment.
4.
Explain that diversity of species is developed
through gradual processes over many generations (e.g., fossil record).
5. Investigate how an organism adapted to a particular environment may become extinct if the environment, as shown by the fossil record, changes.
(No 9th
grade Life Science indicators.)
Characteristics and
Structure of Life 1. Explain
that living cells
a.
are composed of a small number of key chemical
elements (carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur)
b.
are the basic unit of structure and function of all
living things
c.
come from pre-existing cells after life originated,
and
d.
are different from viruses
2. Compare the structure, function and interrelatedness of cell organelles
in eukaryotic cells (e.g., nucleus, chromosome, mitochondria, cell membrane,
cell wall, chloroplast, cilia, flagella) and prokaryotic cells.
3.
Explain the characteristics of life as indicated by
cellular processes including
a.
homeostasis
b.
energy transfers and transformation
c. transportation of molecules
d. disposal of
wastes
e. synthesis of new
molecules
4. Summarize the
general processes of cell division and differentiation, and explain why
specialized cells are useful to organisms and explain that complex
multicellular organisms are formed as highly organized arrangements of
differentiated cells.
Heredity 5. Illustrate
the relationship of the structure and function of DNA to protein synthesis and
the characteristics of an organism.
6. Explain that a
unit of hereditary information is called a gene, and genes may occur in
different forms called alleles (e.g., gene for pea plant height has two
alleles, tall and short).
7. Describe that spontaneous changes in DNA are mutations, which are a source of genetic variation. When mutations occur in sex cells, they may be passed on to future generations; mutations that occur in body cells may affect the functioning of that cell or the organism in which that cell is found.
8. Use the concepts
of Mendelian and non-Mendelian genetics (e.g., segregation, independent
assortment, dominant and recessive traits, sex-linked traits, jumping genes) to
explain inheritance.
Diversity and
Interdependence of
Life 9. Describe how matter cycles and energy flows through different levels of
organization in living systems and between living systems and the physical
environment. Explain how some energy is stored and much is dissipated into the
environment as thermal energy (e.g., food webs and energy pyramids).
10. Describe how cells and organisms acquire and release energy
(photosynthesis, chemosynthesis, cellular respiration and fermentation).
11. Explain that living organisms use matter and energy to synthesize a
variety of organic molecules (e.g., proteins, carbohydrates, lipids and nucleic
acids) and to drive life processes (e.g., growth, reacting to the environment,
reproduction and movement).
12. Describe that biological classification represents how organisms are
related with species being the most fundamental unit of the classification
system. Relate how biologists arrange organisms into a hierarchy of groups and
subgroups based on similarities and differences that reflect their evolutionary
relationships.
13. Explain that the
variation of organisms within a species increases the likelihood that at least
some members of a species will survive under gradually changing environmental
conditions.
14. Relate diversity
and adaptation to structures and their functions in living organisms (e.g.,
adaptive radiation).
15. Explain how
living things interact with biotic and abiotic components of the environment
(e.g., predation, competition, natural disasters and weather).
16. Relate how
distribution and abundance of organisms and populations in ecosystems are
limited by the ability of the ecosystem to recycle materials and the
availability of matter, space and energy.
17. Conclude that
ecosystems tend to have cyclic fluctuations around a state of approximate
equilibrium that can change when climate changes, when one or more new species
appear as a result of immigration or when one or more species disappear.
18. Describe ways
that human activities can deliberately or inadvertently alter the equilibrium
in ecosystems. Explain how changes in
technology/biotechnology can cause significant changes, either positive or
negative, in environmental quality and carrying capacity.
19. Illustrate how
uses of resources at local, state, regional, national, and global levels have
affected the quality of life (e.g., energy production, sustainable vs.
nonsustainable agriculture).
Evolutionary Theory 20. Recognize that a
change in gene frequency (genetic composition) in a population over time is a
foundation of biological evolution.
21. Explain that
natural selection provides the following mechanism for evolution; undirected
variation in inherited characteristics exist within every species. These characteristics may give individuals
an advantage or disadvantage compared to others in surviving and reproducing. The advantaged offspring are more likely to
survive and reproduce. Therefore, the
proportion of individuals that have advantageous characteristics will
increase. When an environment changes,
the survival value of some inherited characteristics may change.
22. Describe
historical scientific developments that occurred in evolutionary thought (e.g.,
Lamarck and Darwin, Mendelian Genetics and modern synthesis).
23. Describe how
scientists continue to investigate and critically analyze aspects of
evolutionary theory. (The intent of
this indicator does not mandate the teaching or testing of “intelligent
design”.)
24. Analyze how
natural selection and other evolutionary mechanisms (e.g. genetic drift,
immigration, emigration, mutation) and their consequences provide a scientific
explanation for the diversity and unity of past life forms, as depicted in the
fossil record, and present life forms.
25. Explain that life
on Earth is thought to have begun as simple, one celled organisms approximately
4 billion years ago. During most of the
history of Earth only single celled microorganisms existed, but once cells with
nuclei developed about a billion years ago, increasingly complex multicellular
organisms evolved.
Historical
Perspectives and
Scientific Revolutions 26. Use historical examples to explain how new ideas
are limited by the context in which they are conceived. These ideas are often
rejected by the scientific establishment; sometimes spring from unexpected
findings; and usually grow slowly through contributions from many different
investigators (e.g., biological evolution, germ theory, biotechnology,
discovering germs).
27. Describe advances
in life sciences that have important long-lasting effects on science and
society (e.g., biological evolution, germ theory, biotechnology, discovering
germs).
28. Analyze and investigate emerging scientific issues (e.g., genetically modified food, stem cell research, genetic research, cloning).
Characteristics and
Structure of Life 1. Describe how the maintenance of a relatively stable
internal environment is required for the continuation of life, and explain how
stability is challenged by changing physical, chemical and environmental
conditions as well as the presence of pathogens.
2.
Recognize that chemical bonds of food molecules
contain energy. Energy is released when
the bonds of food molecules are broken and new compounds with lower energy
bonds are formed. Some of this energy
is released as thermal energy.
3.
Relate how birth rates, fertility rates and death
rates are affected by various environmental factors.
4. Examine the contributing factors of human population growth that impact
natural systems such as levels of education, children in the labor force,
education and employment of women, infant mortality rates, costs of raising
children, birth control methods, and cultural norms.
5. Investigate the impact on the structure and stability of ecosystems due to changes in their biotic and abiotic components as a result of human activity.
Diversity and
Interdependence of
Life 6. Predict some possible impacts on an ecosystem with
the introduction of a non-native species.
7.
Show how populations can increase through linear or
exponential growth with corresponding effects on resource use and environmental
pollution.
8. Recognize that populations can reach or temporarily exceed the carrying capacity of a given environment. Show that the limitation is not just the availability of space but the number of organisms in relation to resources and the capacity of earth systems to support life.
9.
Give
examples of how human activity can accelerate rates of natural change and can
have unforeseen consequences.
10.
Explain
how environmental factors can influence heredity or development of organisms.
11. Investigate
issues of environmental quality at local, regional, national and global levels
such as population growth, resource use, population distribution,
over-consumption, the capacity of technology to solve problems, poverty, the
role of economics, politics and different ways humans view Earth.
Evolutionary Theory 12. Recognize that
ecosystems change when significant climate changes occur or when one or more
new species appear as a result of immigration or speciation.
13. Describe how the
process of evolution has changed the physical world over geologic time.
14.
Describe
how geologic time can be estimated by observing rock sequences and using
fossils to correlate the sequences at various locations. Recognize that current methods include using
the known decay rates of radioactive isotopes present in rocks to measure the
time since the rock was formed.
Characteristics and
Structure of Life 1. Recognize that information stored in DNA provides
the instructions for assembling protein molecules used by the cells that
determine the characteristics of the organism.
2.
Explain why specialized cells/structures are useful
to plants and animals (e.g., stoma, phloem, xylem, blood, nerve, muscle, egg
and sperm).
3.
Explain that the Sun is essentially the primary
source of energy for life. Plants
capture energy by absorbing light and using it to form strong (covalent)
chemical bonds between the atoms of carbon-containing (organic) molecules.
4. Explain that carbon-containing molecules can be used to assemble larger
molecules with biological activity (including proteins, DNA, sugars and
fats). In addition, the energy stored in bonds
between the atoms (chemical energy) can be used as sources of energy for life
processes.
Heredity 5. Examine
the inheritance of traits through one or more genes and how a single gene can
influence more than one trait.
6. Explain how
developmental differentiation is regulated through the expression of different
genes.
Diversity and
Interdependence of
Life 7. Relate
diversity and adaptation to structures and functions of living organisms at
various levels of organization.
8. Based on the
structure and stability of ecosystems and their nonliving components, predict
the biotic and abiotic changes in such systems when disturbed (e.g.
introduction of non-native species, climatic change, etc.).
9. Explain why and how living systems require a continuous input of energy to maintain their chemical and physical organization. Explain that with death and the cessation of energy input, living systems rapidly disintegrate toward more disorganized states.
Evolutionary Theory 10. Explain additional components of the evolution
theory, including genetic drift, immigration, emigration and mutation.
Historical
Perspectives and
Scientific Revolutions 11. Trace the historical development of a
biological theory or idea (e.g., genetics, cytology and germ theory).
12. Describe advances in life sciences that have important, long-lasting effects on science and society (e.g., biotechnology).