MST Learning Standards Standard 4—Science - Intermediate 3. Individual organisms and species change over time. Students: • 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. This is evident, for example, when students:
conduct a long-term investigation of plant or animal communities.
investigate the acquired effects of industrialization on tree trunk color and those effects on different insect species.
4. The continuity of life is sustained through reproduction and development. Students: • observe and describe cell division at the microscopic level and its macroscopic effects. This is evident, for example, when students:
apply a model of the genetic code as an analogue for the role of the genetic code in human populations.
5. Organisms maintain a dynamic equilibrium that sustains life. Students: • compare the way a variety of living specimens carry out basic life functions and maintain dynamic equilibrium. This is evident, for example, when students:
record and compare the behaviors of animals in their natural habitats and relate how these behaviors are important to the animals.
7. Human decisions and activities have had a profound impact on the physical and living environment. Students: • describe how living things, including humans, depend upon the living and nonliving environment for their survival. • describe the effects of environmental changes on humans and other populations. This is evident, for example, when students:
conduct an extended investigation of a local environment affected by human actions, (e.g., a pond, stream, forest, empty lot)
Standard 5 – Technology - Intermediate 2. Technological tools, materials, and other resources should be selected on the basis of safety, cost, availability, appropriateness, and environmental impact; technological processes change energy, information, and material resources into more useful forms. Students: • choose and use resources for a particular purpose based upon an analysis and understanding of their properties, costs, availability, and environmental impact. • use a variety of hand tools and machines to change materials into new forms through forming, separating, and combining processes, and processes which cause internal change to occur. • Process energy into other forms and information into more meaningful information. 3. Computers, as tools for design, modeling, information processing, communication, and system control, have greatly increased human productivity and knowledge. Students: • use a computer system to connect to and access needed information from various Internet sites. • use computer hardware and software to draw and dimension prototypical designs. • use a computer as a modeling tool. • use a computer system to monitor and control external events and/or systems. 5. Technology has been the driving force in the evolution of society from an agricultural to an industrial to an information base. Students: • describe how new technologies have evolved as a result of combining existing technologies (e.g., photography combined optics and chemistry; the airplane combined kite and glider technology with a lightweight gasoline engine). 6. Technology can have positive and negative impacts on individuals, society, and the environment and humans have the capability and responsibility to constrain or promote technological development. Students: • describe how technology can have positive and negative effects on the environment and on the way people live and work.
General Skills 1. follow safety procedures in the classroom and laboratory 2. safely and accurately use measurement tools: 3. use appropriate units for measured or calculated values 4. recognize and analyze patterns and trends 5. classify objects according to an established scheme and a student-generated scheme 6. develop and use a dichotomous key 7. sequence events 8. identify cause-and-effect relationships 9. use indicators and interpret results Living Environment Skills 6. classify living things according to a student-generated scheme and an established scheme 9. identify structure and function relationships in organisms Key Idea 3: Individual organisms and species change over time. Introduction: Evolution is the change in a species over time. Millions of diverse species are alive today. Generally this diversity of species developed through gradual processes of change occurring over many generations. Species acquire many of their unique characteristics through biological adaptation, which involves the selection of naturally occurring variations in populations (natural selection). Biological adaptations are differences in structures, behaviors, or physiology that enhance survival and reproductive success in a particular environment. Describe sources of variation in organisms and their structures and relate the variations to survival. Major Understandings: 3.1b Changes in environmental conditions can affect the survival of individual organisms with a particular trait. Small differences between parents and offspring can accumulate in successive generations so that descendants are very different from their ancestors. Individual organisms with certain traits are more likely to survive and have offspring than individuals without those traits. 3.1c Human activities such as selective breeding and advances in genetic engineering may affect the variations of species. Describe factors responsible for competition within species and the significance of that competition. Major Understandings: 3.2a In all environments, organisms with similar needs may compete with one another for resources. 3.2b Extinction of a species occurs when the environment changes and the adaptive characteristics of a species are insufficient to permit its survival. Extinction of species is common. Fossils are evidence that a great variety of species existed in the past. Key Idea 7: Human decisions and activities have had a profound impact on the physical and living environment. Introduction: The number of organisms an ecosystem can support depends on the resources available and physical factors: quantity of light, air, and water; range of temperatures; soil composition. To ensure the survival of our planet, people have a responsibility to consider the impact of their actions on the environment. Describe how living things, including humans, depend upon the living and nonliving environment for their survival. Major Understandings: 7.1a A population consists of all individuals of a species that are found together at a given place and time. Populations living in one place form a community. The community and the physical factors with which it interacts compose an ecosystem. 7.1b Given adequate resources and no disease or predators, populations (including humans) increase. Lack of resources, habitat destruction, and other factors such as predation and climate limit the growth of certain populations in the ecosystem. 7.1c In all environments, organisms interact with one another in many ways. Relationships among organisms may be competitive, harmful, or beneficial. Some species have adapted to be dependent upon each other with the result that neither could survive without the other. 7.1d Some microorganisms are essential to the survival of other living things. 7.1e The environment may contain dangerous levels of substances (pollutants) that are harmful to organisms. Therefore, the good health of environments and individuals requires the monitoring of soil, air, and water, and taking steps to keep them safe. Describe the effects of environmental changes on humans and other populations. Major Understandings: 7.2a In ecosystems, balance is the result of interactions between community members and their environment. 7.2b The environment may be altered through the activities of organisms. Alterations are sometimes abrupt. Some species may replace others over time, resulting in longterm gradual changes (ecological succession). 7.2c Overpopulation by any species impacts the environment due to the increased use of resources. Human activities can bring about environmental degradation through resource acquisition, urban growth, land-use decisions, waste disposal, etc. 7.2d Since the Industrial Revolution, human activities have resulted in major pollution of air, water, and soil. Pollution has cumulative ecological effects such as acid rain, global warming, or ozone depletion. The survival of living things on our planet depends on the conservation and protection of Earth’s resources.
ELA Common Core Standards
Key Ideas and Details
RI.7.1. Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
RI.7.2. Determine two or more central ideas in a text and analyze their development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.
RI.7.3. Analyze the interactions between individuals, events, and ideas in a text (e.g., how ideas influence individuals or events, or how individuals influence ideas or events).
Craft and Structure
RI.7.4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone.
RI.7.5. Analyze the structure an author uses to organize a text, including how the major sections contribute to the whole and to the development of the ideas.
RI.7.6. Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author distinguishes his or her position from that of others.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
RI.7.7. Compare and contrast a text to an audio, video, or multimedia version of the text, analyzing each medium’s portrayal of the subject (e.g., how the delivery of a speech affects the impact of the words).
RI.7.8. Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient to support the claims.
RI.7.9. Analyze how two or more authors writing about the same topic shape their presentations of key information by emphasizing different evidence or advancing different interpretations of facts.
Category
Examples
Knowledge: Recall data or information.
Selecting important information from nonfiction text to include in science journal.
Recalling facts and using them in group discussions and writing
Defining what an ecosystem is.
Defining what an invasive species is.
Comprehension: Understand the meaning, translation, interpolation, and interpretation of instructions and problems. State a problem in one's own words.
Explains what an ecosystem is.
Rewrites what is learned from texts and lessons in class to support his or her learning
Predicts what type of species they will be barcoding
Summarizes their finding about various subjects covered in unit
Application: Use a concept in a new situation or unprompted use of an abstraction. Applies what was learned in the classroom into novel situations in the work place.
Produces a ppt that explains their findings
Shows how to extract DNA from a specimen
Produces a model of DNA
Analysis: Separates material or concepts into component parts so that its organizational structure may be understood. Distinguishes between facts and inferences.
Compares and contrast ecosystems
Infers if a species is invasive
Analyzes the results of DNA barcoding to figure out what type of species they have
Synthesis: Builds a structure or pattern from diverse elements. Put parts together to form a whole, with emphasis on creating a new meaning or structure.
Categorizes species as invasive or non-invasive
Summarizes threats to ecosystems and the place that man plays in those threats
Evaluation: Make judgments about the value of ideas or materials.
Evaluates DNA results and explains how they were able to identify a species using new technology
Interprets the loss of diversity and what it means for humans.
Standard 4—Science - Intermediate
3. Individual organisms and species change over time.
Students:
• 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.
This is evident, for example, when students:
- conduct a long-term investigation of plant or animal communities.
- investigate the acquired effects of industrialization on tree trunk color and those effects on different insect species.
4. The continuity of life is sustained through reproduction and development.Students:
• observe and describe cell division at the microscopic level and its macroscopic effects.
This is evident, for example, when students:
- apply a model of the genetic code as an analogue for the role of the genetic code in human populations.
5. Organisms maintain a dynamic equilibrium that sustains life.Students:
• compare the way a variety of living specimens carry out basic life functions and maintain dynamic equilibrium.
This is evident, for example, when students:
- record and compare the behaviors of animals in their natural habitats and relate how these behaviors are important to the animals.
7. Human decisions and activities have had a profound impact on the physical and living environment.Students:
• describe how living things, including humans, depend upon the living and nonliving environment for their survival.
• describe the effects of environmental changes on humans and other populations.
This is evident, for example, when students:
- conduct an extended investigation of a local environment affected by human actions, (e.g., a pond, stream, forest, empty lot)
Standard 5 – Technology - Intermediate2. Technological tools, materials, and other resources should be selected on the basis of safety, cost, availability, appropriateness, and environmental impact; technological processes change energy, information, and material resources into more useful forms.
Students:
• choose and use resources for a particular purpose based upon an analysis and understanding of their properties, costs, availability, and environmental impact.
• use a variety of hand tools and machines to change materials into new forms through forming, separating, and combining processes, and processes which cause internal change to occur.
• Process energy into other forms and information into more meaningful information.
3. Computers, as tools for design, modeling, information processing, communication, and system control, have greatly increased human productivity and knowledge.
Students:
• use a computer system to connect to and access needed information from various Internet sites.
• use computer hardware and software to draw and dimension prototypical designs.
• use a computer as a modeling tool.
• use a computer system to monitor and control external events and/or systems.
5. Technology has been the driving force in the evolution of society from an agricultural to an industrial to an information base.
Students:
• describe how new technologies have evolved as a result of combining existing technologies (e.g., photography combined optics and chemistry; the airplane combined kite and glider technology with a lightweight gasoline engine).
6. Technology can have positive and negative impacts on individuals, society, and the environment and humans have the capability and responsibility to constrain or promote technological development.
Students:
• describe how technology can have positive and negative effects on the environment and on the way people live and work.
General Skills
1. follow safety procedures in the classroom and laboratory
2. safely and accurately use measurement tools:
3. use appropriate units for measured or calculated values
4. recognize and analyze patterns and trends
5. classify objects according to an established scheme and a student-generated scheme
6. develop and use a dichotomous key
7. sequence events
8. identify cause-and-effect relationships
9. use indicators and interpret results
Living Environment Skills
6. classify living things according to a student-generated scheme and an established scheme
9. identify structure and function relationships in organisms
Key Idea 3:
Individual organisms and species change over time.
Introduction: Evolution is the change in a species over time. Millions of diverse species are alive today. Generally this diversity of species developed through gradual processes of change occurring over many generations. Species acquire many of their unique characteristics through biological adaptation, which involves the selection of naturally occurring variations in populations (natural selection). Biological adaptations are differences in structures, behaviors, or physiology that enhance survival and reproductive success in a particular environment. Describe sources of variation in organisms and their structures and relate the variations to survival.
Major Understandings:
3.1b Changes in environmental conditions can affect the survival of individual organisms with a particular trait. Small differences between parents and offspring can accumulate in successive generations so that descendants are very different from their ancestors. Individual organisms with certain traits are more likely to survive and have offspring than individuals without those traits.
3.1c Human activities such as selective breeding and advances in genetic engineering may affect the variations of species.
Describe factors responsible for competition within species and the significance of that competition.
Major Understandings:
3.2a In all environments, organisms with similar needs may compete with one another for resources.
3.2b Extinction of a species occurs when the environment changes and the adaptive characteristics of a species are insufficient to permit its survival. Extinction of species is common. Fossils are evidence that a great variety of species existed in the past.
Key Idea 7:
Human decisions and activities have had a profound impact on the physical and living environment.
Introduction: The number of organisms an ecosystem can support depends on the resources available and physical factors: quantity of light, air, and water; range of temperatures; soil composition. To ensure the survival of our planet, people have a responsibility to consider the impact of their actions on the environment. Describe how living things, including humans, depend upon the living and nonliving environment for their survival.
Major Understandings:
7.1a A population consists of all individuals of a species that are found together at a given place and time. Populations living in one place form a community. The community and the physical factors with which it interacts compose an ecosystem.
7.1b Given adequate resources and no disease or predators, populations (including humans) increase. Lack of resources, habitat destruction, and other factors such as predation and climate limit the growth of certain populations in the ecosystem.
7.1c In all environments, organisms interact with one another in many ways. Relationships among organisms may be competitive, harmful, or beneficial. Some species have adapted to be dependent upon each other with the result that neither could survive without the other.
7.1d Some microorganisms are essential to the survival of other living things.
7.1e The environment may contain dangerous levels of substances (pollutants) that are harmful to organisms. Therefore, the good health of environments and individuals requires the monitoring of soil, air, and water, and taking steps to keep them safe.
Describe the effects of environmental changes on humans and other populations.
Major Understandings:
7.2a In ecosystems, balance is the result of interactions between community members and their environment.
7.2b The environment may be altered through the activities of organisms. Alterations are sometimes abrupt. Some species may replace others over time, resulting in longterm gradual changes (ecological succession).
7.2c Overpopulation by any species impacts the environment due to the increased use of resources. Human activities can bring about environmental degradation through resource acquisition, urban growth, land-use decisions, waste disposal, etc.
7.2d Since the Industrial Revolution, human activities have resulted in major pollution of air, water, and soil. Pollution has cumulative ecological effects such as acid rain, global warming, or ozone depletion. The survival of living things on our planet depends on the conservation and protection of Earth’s resources.
ELA Common Core Standards
Key Ideas and Details
Craft and Structure
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
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