Standards and Frameworks
B.1.1: The stars differ from each other in size, temperature, and age, but they are made up of the same elements that are found on the earth and behave according to the same physical principles. Unlike the sun, most stars are in systems of two or more stars orbiting around one another (binary stars).
B.2.1: Life is adapted to conditions on the earth, including the force of gravity that enables the planet to retain an adequate atmosphere, and an intensity of radiation from the sun that allows water to cycle between liquid and vapor.
B.2.2: Weather (in the short run) and climate (in the long run) involve the transfer of energy in and out of the atmosphere. Solar radiation heats the land masses, oceans, and air. Transfer of heat energy at the boundaries between the atmosphere, the land masses, and the oceans results in layers of different temperatures and densities in both the ocean and atmosphere. The action of gravitational force on regions of different densities causes them to rise or fall--and such circulation, influenced by the rotation of the earth, produces winds and ocean currents.
Coastal Winds and Clouds
Weather Maps
B.3.1: Plants alter the earth's atmosphere by removing carbon dioxide from it, using carbon and light energy to make sugars, releasing oxygen. This process, commonly known as photosynthesis, is largely responsible for the oxygen content of the air.
Cell Energy Cycle
Interdependence of Plants and Animals
Photosynthesis Lab
B.3.2: The formation, weathering, sedimentation, and reformation of rock constitute a continuing "rock cycle" in which the total amount of material stays the same as its forms change.
B.3.4: The solid crust of the earth--including both the continents and the ocean basins--consists of separate plates that ride on a denser, hot, gradually deformable layer of the earth. The crust sections move very slowly, pressing against one another in some places, pulling apart in other places. Ocean-floor plates may slide under continental plates, sinking deep into the earth. The surface layers of these plates may fold, forming mountain ranges. This is known as 'plate tectonics'.
B.3.5: Earthquakes often occur along the boundaries between colliding plates, and molten rock from below creates pressure that is released by volcanic eruptions, helping to build up mountains. Under the ocean basins, molten rock may well up between separating plates to create new ocean floor. Volcanic activity along the ocean floor may form undersea mountains, which can grow above the ocean's surface to become islands.
Earthquake - Determination of Epicenter
Earthquake - Recording Station
Plate Tectonics
B.4.1: Atoms are made of a positive nucleus surrounded by negative electrons. An atom's electron configuration, particularly the outermost electrons, determines how the atom can interact with other atoms. Atoms form bonds to other atoms by transferring or sharing electrons.
Electron Configuration
Element Builder
Ionic Bonds
Nuclear Decay
B.4.2: Protons and neutrons, having a mass nearly two thousand times greater than the electron, compose the nucleus of the atom. The number of protons in an atom, called the atomic number, equals the number of electrons in the electrically neutral atom. The nucleus is a small fraction of the total volume of the atom. Atoms change their charge by adding or losing electrons. These atoms are then called ions.
Electron Configuration
Element Builder
Nuclear Decay
B.4.3: Neutrons have a mass that is nearly identical to that of protons, but neutrons have no electric charge. Although neutrons have little effect on how an atom interacts with others, they do affect the mass and stability of the nucleus. Isotopes of the same element have the same number of protons (and therefore of electrons) but differ in the number of neutrons.
B.4.4: The nucleus of radioactive isotopes is unstable and spontaneously decays, emitting particles and/or wavelike radiation. It cannot be predicted exactly when, if ever, an unstable nucleus will decay, but a large group of identical nuclei decay at a predictable rate. This predictability of decay rate allows radioactivity to be used for estimating the age of materials that contain radioactive substances.
Element Builder
Half-life
Nuclear Decay
B.4.5: Scientists continue to investigate atoms and have discovered even smaller constituents of which electrons, neutrons, and protons are made.
Bohr Model of Hydrogen
Bohr Model: Introduction
Electron Configuration
Element Builder
Nuclear Decay
B.4.7: Atoms often join with one another in various combinations in distinct molecules or in repeating three-dimensional crystal patterns. An enormous variety of biological, chemical, and physical phenomena can be explained by changes in the arrangement and motion of atoms and molecules.
Dehydration Synthesis
Temperature and Particle Motion
B.4.8: The configuration of atoms in a molecule determines the molecule's properties. Shapes are particularly important in how large molecules interact with others.
Dehydration Synthesis
Ionic Bonds
Limiting Reactants
B.4.9: The rate of reactions among atoms and molecules depends on how often they encounter one another, which is affected by the concentration, pressure, and temperature of the reacting materials. Some atoms and molecules are highly effective in encouraging the interaction of others.
B.5.1: Whenever the amount of energy in one place or form diminishes, the amount in other places or forms increases by the same amount. (The Law of Conservation of Energy)
Energy Conversion in a System
Energy of a Pendulum
Inclined Plane - Sliding Objects
Roller Coaster Physics
B.5.2: Heat energy in a material consists of the disordered motions of its atoms or molecules. In any interactions of atoms or molecules, the statistical odds are that they will end up with less order than they began--that is, with the heat energy spread out more evenly. With huge numbers of atoms and molecules, the greater disorder is almost certain. This disorder is called entropy.
Temperature and Particle Motion
B.5.3: Transformations of energy usually produce some energy in the form of heat, which spreads around by radiation, conduction or convection into cooler places. Although just as much total energy remains, its being spread out more evenly means less can be done with it.
B.5.5: When energy of an isolated atom or molecule changes, it does so in a definite jump from one value to another, with no possible values in between. The change in energy occurs when radiation is absorbed or emitted, so the radiation also has distinct energy values. As a result, the light (radiation) emitted or absorbed by separate atoms or molecules (as in a gas) can be used to identify what the substance is.
Bohr Model of Hydrogen
Bohr Model: Introduction
Electron Configuration
B.6.1: The change in motion of an object (the acceleration) is proportional to the applied force and inversely proportional to the mass.
Fan Cart Physics
Freefall Laboratory
Uniform Circular Motion
B.6.3: Accelerating electric charges produce electromagnetic waves around them. A great variety of radiations are electromagnetic waves: radio waves, microwaves, radiant heat, visible light, ultraviolet radiation, x rays, and gamma rays. These wavelengths vary from radio waves, the longest, to gamma rays, the shortest. In empty space, all electromagnetic waves move at the same speed--the "speed of light."
B.6.4: Whenever one thing exerts a force on another, an equal amount of force is exerted back on it.
2D Collisions
Air Track
Atwood Machine
Fan Cart Physics
Uniform Circular Motion
B.6.5: The observed wavelength of a wave depends upon the relative motion of the source and the observer. If either is moving toward the other, the observed wavelength is shorter; if either is moving away, the wavelength is longer. This is known as the Doppler Effect. Because the light seen from almost all distant galaxies has longer wavelengths than comparable light here on earth, astronomers believe that the whole universe is expanding.
Doppler Shift
Doppler Shift Advanced
B.6.6: Waves can superpose on one another, bend around corners, reflect off surfaces, be absorbed by materials they enter, and change direction when entering a new material. All these effects vary with wavelength. The energy of waves (like any form of energy) can be changed into other forms of energy.
Bohr Model of Hydrogen
Bohr Model: Introduction
Herschel Experiment
Laser Reflection
Photoelectric Effect
Ray Tracing (Lenses)
Refraction
B.7.1: Gravitational force is an attraction between masses. The strength of the force is proportional to the masses and weakens rapidly with increasing distance between them.
Gravitational Force
Uniform Circular Motion
B.7.2: There are two kinds of charges--positive and negative. Like charges repel one another, opposite charges attract. In materials, there are almost exactly equal proportions of positive and negative charges, making the materials as a whole electrically neutral. Negative charges, being associated with electrons, are far more mobile in materials than positive charges are. A very small excess or deficit of negative charges in a material produces noticeable electric forces.
Coulomb Force (Static)
Element Builder
Pith Ball Lab
B.7.4: The forces that hold the nucleus of an atom together are much stronger than the electromagnetic force. That is why such great amounts of energy are released from the nuclear reactions in the sun and other stars.
C.1.1: The variation of organisms within a species increases the likelihood that at least some members of the species will survive under changed environmental conditions, and a great diversity of species increases the chance that at least some living things will survive in the face of large changes in the environment.
C.2.1: Some new gene combinations make little difference, some can produce organisms with new and perhaps enhanced capabilities, and some can be deleterious.
Chicken Genetics
Human Karyotyping
Mouse Genetics (One Trait)
Mouse Genetics (Two Traits)
C.2.4: Genes are segments of DNA molecules. Inserting, deleting, or substituting DNA segments can alter genes. An altered gene may be passed on to every cell that develops from it. The resulting features may help, harm, or have little or no effect on the offspring's success in its environment.
DNA Fingerprint Analysis
Human Karyotyping
C.2.5: Gene mutations can be caused by such things as radiation and chemicals. When they occur in sex cells, the mutations can be passed on to offspring; if they occur in other cells, they can be passed on to descendant cells only. The experiences an organism has during its lifetime can affect its offspring only if the genes in its own sex cells are changed by the experience.
Evolution: Mutation and Selection
C.2.6: The many body cells in an individual can be very different from one another, even though they are all descended from a single cell and thus have essentially identical genetic instructions. Different genes are turned on and other genes are repressed as cells develop and specialize.
Chicken Genetics
Mouse Genetics (One Trait)
Mouse Genetics (Two Traits)
C.3.1: Every cell is covered by a membrane that controls what can enter and leave the cell. In all but quite primitive cells, a complex network of proteins provides organization and shape and, for animal cells, movement.
C.3.2: Within the cell are specialized parts for the transport of materials, energy capture and release, protein building, waste disposal, information feedback, and even movement. In addition to these basic cellular functions common to all cells, most cells in multicellular organisms perform some special functions that others do not.
Cell Energy Cycle
Cell Structure
Paramecium Homeostasis
Photosynthesis Lab
C.3.6: Most cells function best within a narrow range of temperature and acidity. At very low temperatures, reaction rates are too slow. High temperatures and/or extremes of acidity can irreversibly change the structure of most protein molecules. Even small changes in acidity can alter the molecules and how they interact. Both single cells and multicellular organisms have molecules that help to keep the cell's acidity within a narrow range.
Cell Structure
Paramecium Homeostasis
C.3.7: A living cell is composed of a small number of chemical elements, mainly carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorous, and sulfur. Carbon, because of its small size and four available bonding electrons, can join to other carbon atoms in chains and rings to form large and complex molecules.
Cell Structure
Dehydration Synthesis
Paramecium Homeostasis
C.4.1: Ecosystems can be reasonably stable over hundreds or thousands of years. As any population of organisms grows, it is held in check by one or more environmental factors: depletion of food or nesting sites, increased loss to increased numbers of predators, or parasites. If a disaster such as flood or fire occurs, the damaged ecosystem is likely to recover in stages that eventually result in a system similar to the original one.
Food Chain
Rabbit Population by Season
C.4.3: Human beings are part of the earth's ecosystems. Human activities can, deliberately or inadvertently, alter the equilibrium in ecosystems.
Rabbit Population by Season
Water Pollution
C.5.1: At times, environmental conditions are such that plants and marine organisms grow faster than decomposers can recycle them back to the environment. Layers of energy-rich organic material have been gradually turned into great coal beds and oil pools by the pressure of the overlying earth. By burning these fossil fuels, people are passing most of the stored energy back into the environment as heat and releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide.
Cell Energy Cycle
Interdependence of Plants and Animals
Photosynthesis Lab
C.5.2: The amount of life any environment can support is limited by the available energy, water, oxygen, and minerals, and by the ability of ecosystems to recycle the residue of dead organic materials. Human activities and technology can change the flow and reduce the fertility of the land.
Food Chain
Rabbit Population by Season
C.6.1: The basic idea of biological evolution is that the earth's present-day species developed from earlier, distinctly different species.
Human Evolution - Skull Analysis
C.6.2: Molecular evidence substantiates the anatomical evidence for evolution and provides additional detail about the sequence in which various lines of descent branched off from one another.
Human Evolution - Skull Analysis
C.6.3: Natural selection provides the following mechanism for evolution: Some variation in heritable characteristics exists within every species, some of these characteristics give individuals an advantage over others in surviving and reproducing, and the advantaged offspring, in turn, are more likely than others to survive and reproduce. The proportion of individuals that have advantageous characteristics will increase.
Evolution: Mutation and Selection
Natural Selection
C.6.4: Heritable characteristics can be observed at molecular and whole-organism levels--in structure, chemistry, or behavior. These characteristics strongly influence what capabilities an organism will have and how it will react, and therefore influence how likely it is to survive and reproduce.
Evolution: Mutation and Selection
Microevolution
Natural Selection
Rainfall and Bird Beaks
C.6.5: New heritable characteristics can result from new combinations of existing genes or from mutations of genes in reproductive cells. Changes in other cells of an organism cannot be passed on to the next generation.
Evolution: Mutation and Selection
C.6.6: Natural selection leads to organisms that are well-suited for survival in particular environments. Chance alone can result in the persistence of some heritable characteristics having no survival or reproductive advantage or disadvantage for the organism. When an environment changes, the survival value of some inherited characteristics may change.
Evolution: Mutation and Selection
Microevolution
Natural Selection
D.4.1: Faulty genes can cause body parts or systems to work poorly. Some genetic diseases appear only when an individual has inherited a certain faulty gene from both parents.
Human Karyotyping
Microevolution
Natural Selection
D.4.2: Some viral diseases, such as AIDS, destroy critical cells of the immune system, leaving the body unable to deal with multiple infection agents and cancerous cells.
Correlation last revised: 11/13/2008