Units-All Year

Objectives:

I. Science as Process

1. Develop questions of problems for investigation that can be answered empirically.

2. Suggest empirical tests of hypotheses.

3. Design and conduct scientific investigations.

4. Recognize and explain the limitations of measuring devices.

5. Gather and synthesize information from books and other sources of information.

6. Discuss topics in groups by being able to restate or summarize what others have said, ask for clarification or elaboration, and take alternative perspectives.

7. Reconstruct previously learned knowledge.

II. Reflecting on Scientific Knowledge

1. Justify plans or explanations on a theoretical or empirical basis.

2. Describe some general limitations of scientific knowledge.

3. Show how common themes of science, math, and technology apply in real-world contexts.

4. Describe the historical, political, and social factors affecting developments in science.

First Quarter

III. Cells

1. What are Cells?

a. Classify cells/organisms on the basis of organelle and /or cell types.

b. Explain how multi-cellular organisms grow, based on how cells grow and reproduce.

c. Compare and contrast ways in which selected cells are specialized to carry out particular life functions.

2. How are cells adapted to survive, grow, develop and reproduce?

a. Compare and contrast the chemical composition of selected cell types..

b. Explain how essential materials move into cells and how waste and other materials get out.

c. How are the parts of living things adapted to carry out specific functions?

d. Explain how living things maintain a stable internal environment.

Second Quarter

III. Cells

2. How are cells adapted to survive and grow?

a. Compare the transformations of matter and energy during photosynthesis and respiration.

b. Explain how cells use food to grow.

c. How do living things obtain energy?

IV. Heredity

End of First Semester

Second Semester

Objectives:

Third Quarter

V. Organization of Living Things

1. How are groups of living things classified?

a. Classify major groups of organisms on the basis of the five-kingdom system.

VI. Evolution

1. How do scientists trace the origin and development of species?

a. Describe what biologist considers to be evidence for human evolutionary relationships to selected animal groups.

2. In what ways are living things adapted (suited) to survive in their environments?

a. Explain how a new specie or variety may originate through the evolutionary process of natural selection.

3. How do species change through time?

a. Explain how new traits might arise and become established in a population.

Fourth Quarter

VII. Ecosystems

1. How are parts of an ecosystem related and how do they interact?

a. Describe common ecological relationships among species.

2. How is energy distributed to living things in an ecosystem?

a. Explain how energy flows through familiar ecosystems.

3. How do communities of living things change over a period of time?

a. Describe general factors regulation population size in ecosystems.

b. Describe responses of an ecosystem to events that cause it to change.

4. How do materials cycle through an ecosystem and get reused in the environment?

a. Describe how water, carbon dioxide, and soil nutrients cycle through selected ecosystems.

5. How do humans and the environment interact?

6. How do living things obtain and use energy?

a. Explain the process of food storage and food use in organisms.