State Curriculum - Science

 
Grade 2
Standard 3.0 Life Science: The students will use scientific skills and processes to explain the dynamic nature of living things, their interactions, and the results from the interactions that occur over time.
A. Diversity of Life
B. Cells
C. Genetics
1. Explain that there are identifiable stages in the life cycles (growth, reproduction, and death) of plants and animals.
a. Investigate and describe that seeds change and grow into plants.
b. Compare and describe the changes that occur in humans during their life cycle (birth, newborn, child, adolescent, adult, elder).
c. Given pictures of stages in the life cycle of a plant or an animal, determine the sequence of the stages in the life cycle.
d. Provide examples, using observations and information from readings that life cycles differ from species to species.
D. Evolution
1. Observe and describe examples of variation (differences) among individuals of one kind within a population.
a. Observe and describe individuals in familiar animal populations, such as cats or dogs, to identify how they look alike and how they are different.
b. Examine pictures of organisms that lived long ago, such as dinosaurs, and describe how they resemble organisms that are alive today.
c. Recognize that some kinds of organisms have completely disappeared.
E. Flow of Matter and Energy
F. Ecology
1. Explain that organisms can grow and survive in many very different habitats.
a. Investigate a variety of familiar and unfamiliar habitats and describe how animals and plants found there maintain their lives and survive to reproduce.
b. Explain that organisms live in habitats that provide their basic needs.
  • Food
  • Water
  • Air
  • Shelter
c. Explain that animals and plants sometimes cause changes in their environments.
 

Note: Highlighting identifies assessment limits. All highlighted Indicators will be tested on the Grades 5 and 8 MSA. The highlighted Objectives under each highlighted Indicator identify the limit to which MSA items can be written. Although all content standards are tested on MSA, not all Indicators and Objectives are tested. Objectives that are not highlighted will not be tested on MSA, however are an integral part of Instruction.

 

MSDE has developed a toolkit for these standards which can be found online at: http://mdk12.org/instruction/curriculum/science/vsc_toolkit.html.

 

January 2008