Organization of Interacting Systems

Priority Performance Standard: LS1-HS-2. Develop and use a model to illustrate the hierarchical organization of interacting systems that provide specific functions within multicellular organisms.

Cellular functions

REVIEW Performance Standard: LS1-MS-2. Develop and use a model to describe the function of a cell as a whole and ways parts of cells contribute to the function.

Homeostasis

Supporting Performance Standard: LS1-HS-3. Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence that feedback mechanisms maintain homeostasis.

Role of cells in maintaining life

Supporting Performance Standard: LS1-HS-4. Use a model to illustrate the role of cellular division (mitosis) and differentiation in producing and maintaining complex organisms.

Photosynthesis

Priority Performance Standard: LS1-HS-5. Use a model to illustrate how photosynthesis transforms light energy into stored chemical energy.

Cellular Respiration

Priority Performance Standard: LS1-HS-7. Use a model to illustrate that cellular respiration is a chemical process whereby the bonds of food molecules and oxygen molecules are broken and the bonds in new compounds are formed resulting in a net transfer of energy.

Carbon-based molecules

Supporting Performance Standard: LS1-HS-6. Construct and revise an explanation based on evidence for how carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen from sugar molecules may combine with other elements to form amino acids and/or other large carbon-based molecules.

Cycling of matter and energy in respiration

Supporting Performance Standard: LS2-HS-3. Construct and revise an explanation based on evidence for the cycling of matter and flow of energy in aerobic and anaerobic conditions.

DNA to proteins

Priority Performance Standard: LS1-HS-1. Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the structure of DNA determines the structure of proteins which carry out the essential functions of life through systems of specialized cells.

Coding for traits with genes

Supporting Performance Standard: LS3-HS-1. Ask questions to clarify relationships about the role of DNA and chromosomes in coding the instructions for characteristic traits passed from parents to offspring.

Mitosis

Supporting Performance Standard: LS1-HS-4. Use a model to illustrate the role of cellular division (mitosis) and differentiation in producing and maintaining complex organisms.

Inheritance and Genetic Variation

Priority Performance Standard: LS3-HS-2. Make and defend a claim based on evidence that inheritable genetic variations may result from: (1) new genetic combinations through meiosis, (2) viable errors occurring during replication, and/or (3) mutations caused by environmental factors.

Chromosomes and inheritance

Supporting Performance Standard: LS3-HS-1. Ask questions to clarify relationships about the role of DNA and chromosomes in coding the instructions for characteristic traits passed from parents to offspring.

Variation and distribution of traits

Supporting Performance Standard: LS3-HS-3. Apply concepts of statistics and probability to explain the variation and distribution of expressed traits in a population.

Biotechnology

Enrichment Performance Standard: ETS1-HS-1. Analyze a major global challenge to specify qualitative and quantitative criteria and constraints for solutions that account for societal needs and wants.

Lines of Evolution and Ancestry

Priority Performance Standard: LS4-HS-1. Communicate scientific information that common ancestry and biological evolution are supported by multiple lines of empirical evidence.

Adaptation of Populations

Priority Performance Standard: LS4-HS-4. Construct an explanation based on evidence for how natural selection leads to adaptation of populations.

Natural selection

Supporting Performance Standard: LS4-HS-2. Construct an explanation based on evidence that the process of evolution primarily results from four factors: (1) the potential for a species to increase in number, (2) the heritable genetic variation of individuals in a species due to mutation and sexual reproduction, (3) competition for limited resources, and (4) the proliferation of those organisms that are better able to survive and reproduce in the environment.

Group behavior

Supporting Performance Standard: LS2-HS-8. Evaluate the evidence for the role of group behavior on individual and species’ chances to survive and reproduce.

Statistical trends

Supporting Performance Standard: LS4-HS-3. Apply concepts of statistics and probability to support explanations that organisms with an advantageous heritable trait tend to increase in proportion to organisms lacking this trait.

Influences of changing environments

Supporting Performance Standard: LS4-HS-5. Evaluate the evidence supporting claims that changes in environmental conditions may result in: (1) increases in the number of individuals of some species, (2) the emergence of new species over time, and (3) the extinction of other species.

Ecosystem Interactions

Priority Performance Standard: LS2-HS-6. Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.

Factors affecting ecosystems

Supporting Performance Standard: LS2-HS-2. Use mathematical representations to support and revise explanations based on evidence about factors affecting biodiversity and populations in ecosystems of different scales.

Carrying capacity

Supporting Performance Standard: LS2-HS-1. Use mathematical and/or computational representations to support explanations of factors that affect carrying capacity of ecosystems at different scales.

Energy and Matter Flow in Ecosystems

Priority Performance Standard: LS2-HS-4. Use mathematical representations to support claims for the cycling of matter and flow of energy among organisms in an ecosystem.

Carbon cycle

Supporting Performance Standard: LS2-HS-5. Develop a model to illustrate the role of photosynthesis and cellular respiration in the cycling of carbon among the biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere.

Human Impacts

Priority Performance Standard: LS2-HS-7. Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.

Supporting Performance Standard: LS4-HS-6. Create or revise a simulation to test a solution to mitigate adverse impacts of human activity on biodiversity.