SCI.LS: Life Science

SCI.LS1: Students use science and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, and an understanding of structures and processes (on a scale from molecules to organisms) to make sense of phenomena and solve problems.

SCI.LS1.C: Organization for Matter and Energy Flow in Organisms

SCI.LS1.C.m: Plants use the energy from light to make sugars through photosynthesis. Within individual organisms, food is broken down through a series of chemical reactions that rearrange molecules and release energy.

Cell Energy Cycle
Energy Conversions
Photosynthesis Lab

SCI.LS2: Students use science and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, and an understanding of the interactions, energy, and dynamics within ecosystems to make sense of phenomena and solve problems.

SCI.LS2.A: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems

SCI.LS2.A.m: Organisms and populations are dependent on their environmental interactions both with other living things and with nonliving factors, any of which can limit their growth. Competitive, predatory, and mutually beneficial interactions vary across ecosystems but the patterns are shared.

Coral Reefs 1 - Abiotic Factors
Food Chain
Pond Ecosystem
Prairie Ecosystem

SCI.LS2.B: Cycles of Matter and Energy Transfer in Ecosystems

SCI.LS2.B.m: The atoms that make up the organisms in an ecosystem are cycled repeatedly between the living and nonliving parts of the ecosystem. Food webs model how matter and energy are transferred among producers, consumers, and decomposers as the three groups interact within an ecosystem.

Forest Ecosystem

SCI.LS2.C: Ecosystem Dynamics, Functioning, and Resilience

SCI.LS2.C.m: Ecosystem characteristics vary over time. Disruptions to any part of an ecosystem can lead to shifts in all of its populations. The completeness or integrity of an ecosystem’s biodiversity is often used as a measure of its health.

Coral Reefs 1 - Abiotic Factors
Coral Reefs 2 - Biotic Factors
Food Chain
Rabbit Population by Season

SCI.LS2.D: Social Interactions and Group Behavior

SCI.LS2.D.m: Changes in biodiversity can influence humans’ resources, such as food, energy, and medicines, as well as ecosystem services that humans rely on -- for example, water purification and recycling.

Coral Reefs 1 - Abiotic Factors

SCI.LS3: Students use science and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, and an understanding of heredity to make sense of phenomena and solve problems.

SCI.LS3.B: Variation of Traits

SCI.LS3.B.m: In sexual reproduction, each parent contributes half of the genes acquired by the offspring resulting in variation between parent and offspring. Genetic information can be altered because of mutations, which may result in beneficial, negative, or no change to proteins in or traits of an organism.

Evolution: Mutation and Selection
Evolution: Natural and Artificial Selection

SCI.LS4: Students use science and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, and an understanding of biological evolution to make sense of phenomena and solve problems.

SCI.LS4.A: Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity

SCI.LS4.A.m: The fossil record documents the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of many life forms and their environments through Earth’s history. The fossil record and comparisons of anatomical similarities between organisms enables the inference of lines of evolutionary descent.

Human Evolution - Skull Analysis

SCI.LS4.B: Natural Selection

SCI.LS4.B.m: Both natural and artificial selection result from certain traits giving some individuals an advantage in surviving and reproducing, leading to predominance of certain traits in a population.

Rainfall and Bird Beaks

SCI.LS4.C: Adaptation

SCI.LS4.C.m: Species can change over time in response to changes in environmental conditions through adaptation by natural selection acting over generations. Traits that support successful survival and reproduction in the new environment become more common.

Natural Selection
Rainfall and Bird Beaks