Download Middle School Life Science

Middle School Life Science Comparison of Ohio’s 2002 and 2010 Science Standards
and the First NGSS Draft
MS-Life Science
Topic
Cells
Ohio’s 2002 Science
Standards
6th grade
1. Explain that many of the basic functions
of organisms are carried out by or within
cells and are similar in all organisms.
3. Identify how plant cells differ from
animal cells (e.g., cell wall and
chloroplasts).
Ohio’s 2010 Science
Standards
6th grade
Cells are the fundamental unit of life.
All living things are composed of cells.
Different body tissues and organs are made
of different kinds of cells. The ways cells
function are similar in all living organisms.
All cells come from pre-existing cells.
Cells repeatedly divide resulting in more
cells and growth and repair in multicellular
organisms.
Cells carry on specific functions that
sustain life.
Many basic functions of organisms occur in
cells. Cells take in nutrients and energy to
perform work, like making various
molecules required by that cell or an
organism.
Structure and Function
6th grade
2. Explain that multicellular organisms have
a variety of specialized cells, tissues, organs
and organ systems that perform specialized
functions.
7th grade
1. Investigate the great variety of body plans
and internal structures found in multicellular
organisms.
8. Investigate the great diversity among
organisms.
©2012 Compiled and created by Dave Shellhaas
6th grade
Living systems at all levels of
organization demonstrate the
complementary nature of structure and
function.
Level of organization within organisms
includes cells, tissues, organs, organ
systems and whole organisms. Whether the
organism is single-celled or multicellular,
all of its parts function as a whole to
perform the tasks necessary for the survival
of the organism.
Organisms have diverse body plans,
symmetry and internal structures that
contribute to their being able to survive in
their environments.
NGSS First Draft
MS.LS-SFIP Structure, Function, and
Information Processing
a. Investigate and present evidence that the
structure of cells in both unicellular and
multicellular organisms is related to how
cells function.
b. Investigate and generate evidence that
unicellular and multicellular organisms
survive by obtaining food and water,
disposing of waste, and having an
environment in which to live.
c. Construct an explanation for the function
of specific parts of cells including: nucleus,
chloroplasts, and mitochondria and the
structure of the cell membrane and cell wall
for maintaining a stable internal
environment.
MS.LS-SFIP Structure, Function, and
Information Processing
d. Construct models and representations of
body systems to demonstrate how multiple
interacting subsystems and structures work
together to accomplish specific functions.
e. Provide explanations of how sense
receptors respond to stimuli by sending
messages to the brain to be processed for
immediate behavior or stored as
information.
f. Communicate an explanation for how the
storage of long-term memories requires
changes in the structure and function of
millions of interconnected nerve cells in the
brain.
MS-Life Science
Topic
Matter and Energy in
Ecosystems
Ohio’s 2002 Science Standards
7th grade
6. Summarize the ways that natural occurrences and
human activity affect the transfer of energy in Earth's
ecosystems (e.g., fire, hurricanes, roads and oil spills).
7. Explain that photosynthetic cells convert solar
energy into chemical energy that is used to carry on life
functions or is transferred to consumers and used to
carry on their life functions.
Ohio’s 2010 Science
Standards
6th grade
Matter is transferred continuously
between one organism to another and
between organisms and their physical
environments.
Plants use the energy in light to make sugars
out of carbon dioxide and water
(photosynthesis).
7th grade
In any particular biome, the number,
growth and survival of organisms and
populations depend on biotic and abiotic
factors.
Biomes are regional ecosystems
characterized by distinct types of organisms
that have developed under specific soil and
climatic conditions.
Relationships in
Ecosystems
7th grade
2. Investigate how organisms or populations may interact with
one another through symbiotic relationships and how some
species have become so adapted to each other that neither
could survive without the other (e.g., predator-prey,
parasitism, mutualism and commensalism).
3. Explain how the number of organisms an ecosystem can
support depends on adequate biotic (living) resources (e.g.,
plants, animals) and abiotic (non-living) resources (e.g., light,
water and soil).
4. Investigate how overpopulation impacts an ecosystem.
5. Explain that some environmental changes occur slowly
while others occur rapidly (e.g., forest and pond succession,
fires and decomposition).
6. Summarize the ways that natural occurrences and human
activity affect the transfer of energy in Earth's ecosystems
(e.g., fire, hurricanes, roads and oil spills).
8. Investigate the great diversity among organisms.
©2012 Compiled and created by Dave Shellhaas
7th grade
In any particular biome, the number,
growth and survival of organisms and
populations depend on biotic and abiotic
factors.
Biomes are regional ecosystems
characterized by distinct types of organisms
that have developed under specific soil and
climatic conditions.
NGSS First Draft
MS.LS-MEOE Matter and Energy in
Organisms and Ecosystems
a. Develop an explanation for the role of
photosynthesis in the cycling of matter and
flow of energy on Earth.
b. Investigate the cycling of matter among
living and nonliving parts of ecosystems to
explain the flow of energy and conservation
of matter.
c. Use models to explain the transfer of
energy into, out of, and within ecosystems.
d. Construct and communicate models of
food webs that demonstrate the transfer of
matter and energy among organisms within
an ecosystem.
e. Use evidence to support an explanation
that matter is conserved when molecules
from food react with oxygen in the
environment and cycle repeatedly between
living and non-living components of
ecosystem.
f. Use evidence to support arguments that
changing any physical or biological
component of an ecosystem may result in
shifts in the populations of species in the
ecosystem.
MS.LS-IRE Interdependent Relationships in
Ecosystems
a. Use a model to demonstrate the effect of
resource availability on organisms and
populations of organisms in an ecosystem.
b. Construct explanations to describe competitive,
predatory, and mutually beneficial interactions as
patterns across various ecosystems.
c. Ask researchable questions about the ways
organisms obtain matter and energy across
multiple and varied ecosystems.
d. Use models to explain the role of biodiversity
in ecosystems.
e. Use evidence to construct arguments for how
biodiversity can influence humans’ resources as
well as ecosystem services that humans rely on.
f. Pose questions about patterns in social
interactions and grouping behaviors of animals
that contribute to survival advantages.
MS-Life Science
Topic
Growth and Reproduction
Traits, Adaptation and
Survival
Ohio’s 2002 Science
Standards
Ohio’s 2010 Science
Standards
NGSS First Draft
6th grade
4. Recognize that an individual organism does not
live forever; therefore reproduction is necessary for
the continuation of every species and traits are
passed on to the next generation through
reproduction.
5. Describe that in asexual reproduction all the
inherited traits come from a single parent.
6. Describe that in sexual reproduction an egg and
sperm unite and some traits come from each parent,
so the offspring is never identical to either of its
parents.
8th grade
Reproduction is necessary for the
continuation of every species.
Every organism alive today comes from a long
line of ancestors who reproduced successfully
every generation. Reproduction is the transfer of
genetic information from one generation to the
next.
MS.LS-GDRO Growth, Development, and
Reproduction of Organisms
a. Use evidence to support an explanation of how
environmental and genetic factors affect the growth of
organisms.
b. Investigate and present evidence that plants
continue to grow throughout their life through the
production of new plant matter via photosynthesis.
c. Use models to construct an explanation of how the
genetic contribution from each parent through sexual
reproduction results in variation in offspring and how
asexual reproduction results in offspring with identical
genetic information.
d. Plan and conduct investigations to gather evidence
for the relationship among specialized plant structures,
specific animal behaviors, and the successful
reproduction of the plant.
e. Use empirical evidence to support an argument for
how characteristic animal behaviors affect the
probability of successful reproduction.
8th grade
Diversity of species occurs through gradual
processes over many generations. Fossil
records provide evidence that changes have
occurred in number and types of species.
Fossils provide important evidence of how life
and environmental conditions have changed.
Changes in environmental conditions can affect
how beneficial a trait will be for the survival
and reproductive success of an organism or an
entire species.
MS.LS-NSA Natural Selection and Adaptations
a. Analyze and interpret patterns of change in fossils to
provide evidence of the history of life on Earth.
b. Construct explanations for the anatomical
similarities and differences between fossils of onceliving organisms and organisms living today.
c. Develop explanations for why most individual
organisms, as well as some entire species of
organisms, that lived in the past were never fossilized.
d. Recognize and compare patterns in the
embryological development across different species to
identify relationships not evident in the fully formed
anatomy.
e. Communicate explanations for how genetic
variations of traits in a population increase some
individual’s probability of surviving and reproducing
in a specific environment which tends to increase these
traits in the population.
f. Use mathematical models to explain how natural
selection over many generations results in changes
within species in response to environmental conditions
that increase or decrease certain traits in a population.
g. Obtain and evaluate information about how two
populations of the same species in different
environments have evolved to become separate
species.
8th grade
1. Describe that asexual reproduction limits the
spread of detrimental characteristics through a
species and allows for genetic continuity.
2. Recognize that in sexual reproduction new
combinations of traits are produced which may
increase or decrease an organism's chances for
survival.
7th grade
7. Recognize that likenesses between parents and
offspring (e.g., eye color, flower color) are
inherited. Other likenesses, such as table manners
are learned.
8th grade
3. Explain how variations in structure, behavior or
physiology allow some organisms to enhance their
reproductive success and survival in a particular
environment.
4. Explain that diversity of species is developed
through gradual processes over many generations
(e.g., fossil record).
5. Investigate how an organism adapted to a
particular environment may become extinct if the
environment, as shown by the fossil record,
changes.
©2012 Compiled and created by Dave Shellhaas
The characteristics of an organism are a
result of inherited traits received from
parent(s).
Expression of all traits is determined by genes
and environmental factors to varying degrees.
Many genes influence more than one trait, and
many traits are influenced by more than one
gene.