Next Generation Standards
Curriculum Association
1-LS1-1. Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.
Students will be able to identify and recognize the numerous characteristics that animals require in their surroundings. Students will comprehend the significance of various animal parts such as beaks, claws, and paws.
1-LS3-1. Make observations to construct an evidence-based account that young plants and animals are like, but not exactly like, their parents.
Students will create a visual representation of an animal using various materials to express physical characteristics of animal inheritance.
3-LS3-1. Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of these traits exists in a group of similar organisms.
In this course, students will be able to apply their knowledge of inherited traits to a hands-on project to solidify a visual understanding.
3-LS3-2. Use evidence to support the explanation that traits can be influenced by the environment.
Students will discover and compare the roles of different animal traits.
3-LS4-3. Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
Students will be able to engage in group led discussion about the habitat of organisms and survival level.
4-LS1-2. Use a model to describe that animals receive different types of information through their senses, process the information in their brain, and respond to the information in different ways.
Students will gain knowledge about the functions of the brain and its relationship to the body.
MS-LS1-1. Conduct an investigation to provide evidence that living things are made of cells; either one cell or many different numbers and types of cells.
Students will gain knowledge about the variety of cells that animals possess.
MS-LS1-2. Develop and use a model to describe the function of a cell as a whole and ways the parts of cells contribute to the function.
Students will construct and identify a model to expand their knowledge of a cell and construct a cell to identify the parts and functions of the cell.
MS-ETS1-3. Analyze data from tests to determine similarities and differences among several design solutions to identify the best characteristics of each that can be combined into a new solution to better meet the criteria for success.
Students will expand their knowledge of the cell by constructing a model to identify the parts and functions. Students will build a cell to identify its components and functions while also broadening their understanding of the cell.
MS-LS4-4. Construct an explanation based on evidence that describes how genetic variations of traits in a population increase some individuals’ probability of surviving and reproducing in a specific environment.
In this course, students will apply knowledge of genetic variations to discussion of probability of survival in relation to their environment.