A: Scientific Investigation Skills and Career Exploration

A1: demonstrate scientific investigation skills (related to both inquiry and research) in the four areas of skills (initiating and planning, performing and recording, analysing and interpreting, and communicating);

A1.1: formulate relevant scientific questions about observed relationships, ideas, problems, or issues, make informed predictions, and/or formulate educated hypotheses to focus inquiries or research

Coral Reefs 2 - Biotic Factors
Sight vs. Sound Reactions

A1.5: conduct inquiries, controlling relevant variables, adapting or extending procedures as required, and using appropriate materials and equipment safely, accurately, and effectively, to collect observations and data

Coral Reefs 2 - Biotic Factors
Triple Beam Balance

A1.6: compile accurate data from laboratory and other sources, and organize and record the data, using appropriate formats, including tables, flow charts, graphs, and/or diagrams

Identifying Nutrients

A1.8: synthesize, analyse, interpret, and evaluate qualitative and/or quantitative data to determine whether the evidence supports or refutes the initial prediction or hypothesis and whether it is consistent with scientific theory; identify sources of bias and/or error; and suggest improvements to the inquiry to reduce the likelihood of error

Evolution

A1.10: draw conclusions based on inquiry results and research findings, and justify their conclusions with reference to scientific knowledge

Coral Reefs 2 - Biotic Factors
Diffusion

A1.13: express the results of any calculations involving data accurately and precisely, to the appropriate number of decimal places or significant figures

Unit Conversions 2 - Scientific Notation and Significant Digits

B: Diversity of Living Things

B1: analyse the effects of various human activities on the diversity of living things;

B1.1: analyse some of the risks and benefits of human intervention (e.g., tree plantations; monoculture of livestock or agricultural crops; overharvesting of wild plants for medicinal purposes; using pesticides to control pests; suppression of wild fires) to the biodiversity of aquatic or terrestrial ecosystems

Pond Ecosystem
Photosynthesis

B1.2: analyse the impact that climate change might have on the diversity of living things (e.g., rising temperatures can result in habitat loss or expansion; changing rainfall levels can cause drought or flooding of habitats)

Coral Reefs 1 - Abiotic Factors

B2: investigate, through laboratory and/or field activities or through simulations, the principles of scientific classification, using appropriate sampling and classification techniques;

B2.1: use appropriate terminology related to biodiversity, including, but not limited to: genetic diversity, species diversity, structural diversity, protists, bacteria, fungi, binomial nomenclature, and morphology

Coral Reefs 1 - Abiotic Factors

B2.4: create and apply a dichotomous key to identify and classify organisms from each of the kingdoms

Dichotomous Keys

B3: demonstrate an understanding of the diversity of living organisms in terms of the principles of taxonomy and phylogeny.

B3.2: compare and contrast the structure and function of different types of prokaryotes, eukaryotes, and viruses (e.g., compare and contrast genetic material, metabolism, organelles, and other cell parts)

Paramecium Homeostasis
RNA and Protein Synthesis
Virus Lytic Cycle

B3.5: explain why biodiversity is important to maintaining viable ecosystems (e.g., biodiversity helps increase resilience to stress and resistance to diseases or invading species)

Coral Reefs 1 - Abiotic Factors
Coral Reefs 2 - Biotic Factors

C: Evolution

C1: analyse the economic and environmental advantages and disadvantages of an artificial selection technology, and evaluate the impact of environmental changes on natural selection and endangered species;

C1.1: analyse, on the basis of research, the economic and environmental advantages and disadvantages of an artificial selection technology (e.g., livestock and horticultural breeding)

Evolution: Natural and Artificial Selection

C1.2: evaluate the possible impact of an environmental change on natural selection and on the vulnerability of species (e.g., adaptation to environmental changes can affect reproductive success of an organism)

Evolution: Mutation and Selection
Natural Selection
Rainfall and Bird Beaks - Metric

C2: investigate evolutionary processes, and analyse scientific evidence that supports the theory of evolution;

C2.1: use appropriate terminology related to evolution, including, but not limited to: extinction, natural selection, phylogeny, speciation, niche, mutation, mimicry, adaptation, and survival of the fittest

Evolution: Mutation and Selection
Evolution: Natural and Artificial Selection
Microevolution
Rainfall and Bird Beaks - Metric
Evolution

C2.4: investigate, through a case study or computer simulation, the processes of natural selection and artificial selection (e.g., selective breeding, antibiotic resistance in microorganisms), and analyse the different mechanisms by which they occur

Evolution: Mutation and Selection
Evolution: Natural and Artificial Selection
Microevolution
Rainfall and Bird Beaks - Metric
Evolution

C3: demonstrate an understanding of the theory of evolution, the evidence that supports it, and some of the mechanisms by which it occurs.

C3.1: explain the fundamental theory of evolution, using the evolutionary mechanism of natural selection to illustrate the process of biological change over time

Evolution: Mutation and Selection
Evolution: Natural and Artificial Selection
Rainfall and Bird Beaks - Metric
Evolution

C3.2: explain the process of adaptation of individual organisms to their environment (e.g., some disease-causing bacteria in a bacterial population can survive exposure to antibiotics due to slight genetic variations from the rest of the population, which allows successful surviving bacteria to pass on antibiotic resistance to the next generation)

Evolution: Mutation and Selection

C3.4: describe some evolutionary mechanisms (e.g., natural selection, artificial selection, sexual selection, genetic variation, genetic drift, biotechnology), and explain how they affect the evolutionary development and extinction of various species (e.g., Darwin’s finches, giraffes, pandas)

Evolution: Mutation and Selection
Evolution: Natural and Artificial Selection
Microevolution
Evolution

D: Genetic Processes

D2: investigate genetic processes, including those that occur during meiosis, and analyse data to solve basic genetics problems involving monohybrid and dihybrid crosses;

D2.1: use appropriate terminology related to genetic processes, including, but not limited to: haploid, diploid, spindle, synapsis, gamete, zygote, heterozygous, homozygous, allele, plasmid, trisomy, non-disjunction, and somatic cell

Chicken Genetics
Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium
Human Karyotyping

D2.3: use the Punnett square method to solve basic genetics problems involving monohybrid crosses, incomplete dominance, codominance, dihybrid crosses, and sex-linked genes

Chicken Genetics
Fast Plants^® 2 - Mystery Parent
Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium

D2.4: investigate, through laboratory inquiry or computer simulation, monohybrid and dihybrid crosses, and use the Punnett square method and probability rules to analyse the qualitative and quantitative data and determine the parent genotype

Chicken Genetics
Fast Plants^® 2 - Mystery Parent
Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium
Microevolution

D3: demonstrate an understanding of concepts, processes, and technologies related to the transmission of hereditary characteristics.

D3.1: explain the phases in the process of meiosis in terms of cell division, the movement of chromosomes, and crossing over of genetic material

Meiosis

D3.2: explain the concepts of DNA, genes, chromosomes, alleles, mitosis, and meiosis, and how they account for the transmission of hereditary characteristics according to Mendelian laws of inheritance

Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium
Microevolution
Meowsis

D3.3: explain the concepts of genotype, phenotype, dominance, incomplete dominance, codominance, recessiveness, and sex linkage according to Mendelian laws of inheritance

Chicken Genetics
Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium
Microevolution

D3.4: describe some genetic disorders caused by chromosomal abnormalities (e.g., non-disjunction of chromosomes during meiosis) or other genetic mutations in terms of chromosomes affected, physical effects, and treatments

Human Karyotyping

E: Animals: Structure and Function

E3: demonstrate an understanding of animal anatomy and physiology, and describe disorders of the respiratory, circulatory, and digestive systems.

E3.2: explain the anatomy of the digestive system and the importance of digestion in providing nutrients needed for energy and growth (e.g., the body’s mechanical and chemical processes digest food, which provides the proteins needed to build muscle, and the fibre, water, vitamins, and minerals needed to regulate body processes)

Digestive System

E3.3: explain the anatomy of the circulatory system (e.g., blood components, blood vessels, the heart) and its function in transporting substances that are vital to health

Circulatory System

F: Plants: Anatomy, Growth, and Function

F2: investigate the structures and functions of plant tissues, and factors affecting plant growth;

F2.4: investigate various techniques of plant propagation (e.g., leaf cutting, stem cutting, root cutting, seed germination)

Seed Germination

F3: demonstrate an understanding of the diversity of vascular plants, including their structures, internal transport systems, and their role in maintaining biodiversity.

F3.3: explain the reproductive mechanisms of plants in natural reproduction and artificial propagation (e.g., germination of seeds, leaf cuttings, grafting of branches onto a host tree)

Seed Germination

F3.4: describe the various factors that affect plant growth (e.g., growth regulators, sunlight, water, nutrients, acidity, tropism)

Fast Plants^® 1 - Growth and Genetics