| Grade 6 |
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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.
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A. Diversity of Life
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B. Cells
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C. Genetics
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D. Evolution
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1. Explain that in any particular environment, the growth and survival of organisms and species depend on the physical conditions.
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a. Cite examples and describe that small differences between parents and offspring can accumulate (through selective breeding) in successive generations so that descendants are very different from their ancestors.
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b. Explain that in all environments-freshwater, marine, forest, desert, grassland, mountain, and others-organisms with similar needs may compete with one another for resources, including food, space, water, air, and shelter.
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c. Explain that in any particular environment individual organisms with certain traits are more likely than others to survive and have offspring.
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d. Explain, with examples, ways that people control some characteristics of plants and animals they raise by selective breeding.
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e. Describe ways in which changes in environmental conditions can affect the survival of individual organisms and entire species.
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f. Describe how sediments of sand and smaller particles (sometimes containing the remains of organisms) are gradually buried and are cemented together by dissolved minerals to form solid rock; and describe that such fossils provide evidence for the long history of changing life forms whose remains are found in the rocks.
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g. Explain that the more recently deposited rock layers are likely to contain fossils resembling existing species.
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E. Flow of Matter and Energy
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F. Ecology
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1. Give reasons supporting the fact that the number of organisms an environment can support depends on the physical conditions and resources available.
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a. Explain that populations increase or decrease relative to the availability of resources and the conditions of the environment.
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b. Identify and describe factors that could limit populations within any environment, such as disease, introduction of a nonnative species, depletion of resources, etc.
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c. Explain that within any environment organisms with similar needs may compete with one another for resources.
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d. Cite examples to illustrate that competition is reduced when organisms use different sets of resources, such as birds in a forest eat different kinds and sizes of seeds.
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