School Curriculum: Life Science
This page is designed to enable parents to understand what their child should be learning, when they should be learning it, and what degree of mastery the child should have attained (at a median level) by a certain grade level. For Homeschoolers, we hope that this page will serve as a valuable asset in establishing a baseline curriculum. For parents whose children attend public or private schools (or for the inquisitive student) this page should give some guidance as to whether or not the school curriculum and methods are providing students with an adequate standard of education.
What is meant by "Life Science," why is it important, and how is it approached ? Below is a description of the core discipline and its components, and the answers to why-how-when these components are taught. Life Science components have median level goals to be attained by the end of Grade 2, by the end of Grade 4, by the end of Grade 6, by the end of Grade 8, and by the end of Grade 12.
This page
does not contain articles for education in this discipline.
For educational articles, go to: Life
Science: A. Matter, Energy, and
Organization in Living Systems, B. Diversity and
Biological Evolution, C. Reproduction and
Heredity
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STANDARD 5.5 (CHARACTERISTICS OF LIFE) ALL STUDENTS WILL GAIN AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE STRUCTURE, CHARACTERISTICS, AND BASIC NEEDS OF ORGANISMS AND WILL INVESTIGATE THE DIVERSITY OF LIFE. |
Descriptive Statement: The study of science must include the diversity, complexity, and interdependence of life on Earth. Students should know how organisms evolve, reproduce, and adapt to their environments.
Strands and Cumulative Progress Indicators
By the end of Grade 2, students will:
A. Matter, Energy and Organization in Living Systems
1. Investigate the basic needs of humans and other organisms.
2. Compare and contrast essential characteristics that distinguish living things from nonliving things.
B. Diversity and Biological Evolution
1. Recognize that different types of plants and animals live in different parts of the world.
2. Recognize that some kinds of organisms that once lived on earth have completely disappeared.
C. Reproduction and Heredity
1. Recognize that humans and other organisms resemble their parents.
Building upon knowledge and skills gained in preceding grades, by the end of Grade 4, students will:
A. Matter, Energy and Organization in Living Systems
1. Identify the roles that organisms may serve in a food chain.
2. Differentiate between the needs of plants and those of animals.
3. Recognize that plants and animals are composed of different parts performing different functions and working together for the well being of the organism.
4. Describe the basic functions of the major systems of the human body including, but not limited to:
digestive system
circulatory system
respiratory system
nervous system
skeletal system
muscular system
reproductive system
B. Diversity and Biological Evolution
1. Develop a simple classification scheme for grouping organisms.
2. Recognize that individuals vary within every species, including humans.
C. Reproduction and Heredity
1. Identify different stages in the lives of various organisms.
Building upon knowledge and skills gained in preceding grades, by the end of Grade 6, students will:
A. Matter, Energy and Organization in Living Systems
1. Explain how systems of the human body are interrelated and regulate the body's internal environment.
2. Identify and describe the structure and function of cells and cell parts.
B. Diversity and Biological Evolution
1. Describe and give examples of the major categories of organisms and of the characteristics shared by organisms.
2. Compare and contrast acquired and inherited characteristics in human and other species.
C. Reproduction and Heredity
1. Describe life cycles of humans and other organisms.
Building upon knowledge and skills gained in preceding grades, by the end of Grade 8, students will:
A. Matter, Energy and Organization in Living Systems
1. Explain how the products respiration and photosynthesis are recycled.
2. Recognize that complex multicellular organisms, including humans, are composed of and defined by interactions of the following:
cells
tissues
organs
systems
B. Diversity and Biological Evolution
1. Compare and contrast kinds of organisms using their internal and external characteristics.
2. Discuss how changing environmental conditions can result in evolution or extinction of a species.
3. Recognize that individual organisms with certain traits are more likely to survive and have offspring.
C. Reproduction and Heredity
1. Describe how the sorting and recombining of genetic material results in the potential for variation among offspring of humans and other species.
Building upon knowledge and skills gained in preceding grades, by the end of Grade 12, students will:
A. Matter, Energy and Organization in Living Systems
1. Relate the structure of molecules to their function in cellular structure and metabolism.
2. Explain how plants convert light energy to chemical energy.
3. Describe how plants produce substances high in energy content that become the primary source of energy for life.
4. Relate disease in humans and other organisms to infections or intrinsic failures of system.
B. Diversity and Biological Evolution
1. Explain that through evolution the Earth's present species developed from earlier distinctly different species.
2. Explain how the theory of natural selection accounts for extinction as well as an increase in the proportion of individuals with advantageous characteristics within a species.
C. Reproduction and Heredity
1. Describe how information is encoded and transmitted in genetic material.
2. Explain how genetic material can be altered by natural and/or artificial means; mutations and new gene combinations may have positive, negative, or no effect on organisms or species.
3. Assess the impact of current and emerging technologies on our understanding of inherited human characteristics.
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