Standard 4
Science

Students will: understand and apply scientific concepts, principles, and theories pertaining to the physical setting and living environment and recognize the historical development of ideas in science.

The Living Environment

 

Key Ideas: Numbers
Performance Indicators: Bullets

 

Students will:

Elementary

Intermediate

Commencement

1. Living things are both similar to and different from
each other and nonliving things.
• describe the characteristics of and variations between living and nonliving things

• describe the life processes common to all living things

 • compare and contrast the parts of plants, animals, and one-celled organisms

• explain the functioning of the major human organ systems and their interactions

 • explain how diversity of populations within ecosystems relates to the stability of ecosystems

• describe and explain the structures and functions of the human body at different organizational levels (e.g., systems, tissues, cells, organelles)

• explain how a one-celled organism is able to function despite lacking the levels of organization present in more complex organisms

2. Organisms inherit genetic information in a variety of ways that result in continuity of structure and function between parents and offspring.
•  recognize that traits of living things are both inherited and acquired or learned

• recognize that for humans and other living things there is genetic continuity between generations

 • describe sexual and asexual mechanisms for passing genetic materials from generation to generation

• describe simple mechanisms related to the inheritance of some physical traits in offspring

 • explain how the structure and replication of genetic material result in offspring that resemble their parents

• explain how the technology of genetic engineering allows humans to alter the genetic makeup of organisms

3. Individual organisms and species change over time.
• describe how the structures of plants and animals complement the environment of the plant or animal

• observe that differences within a species may give individuals an advantage in surviving and reproducing

 • describe sources of variation in organisms and their structures and relate the variations to survival

• describe factors responsible for competition within species and the significance of that competition

 • explain the mechanisms and patterns of evolution