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Grade 5 |
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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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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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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A. Diversity of Life
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A. Diversity of Life
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1. Explain how animals and plants can be grouped according to observable features.
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1. Explain the idea that in any particular environment, some kinds of plants and animals survive well, some less well, and some cannot survive at all.
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a. Observe and compile a list of a variety of animals or plants in both familiar and unfamiliar environments.
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a. Identify and describe features and behaviors of some of the plants and animals living in a familiar environment and explain ways that these organisms are well suited to their environment.
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b. Classify a variety of animals and plants according to their observable features and provide reasons for placing them into different groups.
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b. Based on information about the features and behaviors of animals and plants from very different environments describe reasons that they might not survive if their environment changed or if they were moved from one environment to another.
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c. Given a list of additional animals or plants, decide whether or not they could be placed within the established groups or does a new group have to be added.
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c. State reasons why certain animals such as whales, salmon, could not survive in the Chesapeake Bay.
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d. Describe what classifying tells us about the relatedness among the animals or plants placed within any group.
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d. Research the kind of environment needed by the Maryland blue crab, the Black-eyed Susan (Maryland's state flower), or another Maryland native organism.
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e. Explain that the survival of individual organisms and entire populations can be affected by sudden (flood, Tsunami) or slow (global warming, air pollution) changes in the environment.
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B. Cells
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B. Cells
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B. Cells
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1. Provide evidence from observations and investigations to support the idea that some organisms consist of a single cell.
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a. Use microscopes, other magnifying instruments, or video technology to observe, describe, and compare single celled organisms, such as amoeba, euglena, paramecium, etc.
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b. Describe the observable behaviors of single celled organisms
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c. Cite evidence from data gathered that supports the idea that most single celled organisms have needs similar to those of multicellular organisms.
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2. Investigate and provide evidence that living things are made mostly of cells that can be seen and studied only through a microscope.
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a. Use microscopes and/or other video technology to investigate and describe that some organisms are composed of a collection of similar cells working together to meet basic needs of a "colony" of cells.
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b. Use microscopes and pictures to investigate, describe with drawings, and compare the cells in a variety of multicellular organisms, such as cells in elodea and onions; muscle cells, nerve cells, skin cells, etc in animals.
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c. Select information gathered from readings that provides evidence that some organisms' cells vary greatly in appearance and perform very different roles in the organism .
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C. Genetics
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C. Genetics
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C. Genetics
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1. Explain that in order for offspring to resemble their parents, there must be a reliable way to transfer information from one generation to the next.
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a. Describe traits found in animals and plants, such as eye color, height, leaf shape, seed type that are passed from one generation to another
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b. Explain that some likenesses between parents and offspring are inherited (such as eye color in humans, nest building in birds, or flower color in plants) and other likenesses are learned (such as language in humans )
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c. Raise questions based on observations of a variety of parent and offspring likenesses and differences, such as "Why don't all the puppies have the same traits, such as eye color and size as their parents?" or "How do traits get transferred?"
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d. Develop a reasonable explanation to support the idea that information is passed from parent to offspring.
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D. Evolution
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D. Evolution
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D. Evolution
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1. Explain that individuals of the same kind differ in their characteristics, and sometimes the differences give individuals an advantage in surviving and reproducing.
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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. Describe ways in which organisms in one habitat differ from those in another habitat and consider how these differences help them survive and reproduce.
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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 the characteristics of an organism affect its ability to survive and reproduce.
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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. Examine individuals in a group of the same kind of animals or plants to identify differences in characteristics, such as hearing ability in rabbits or keenness of vision in hawks that might give those individuals an advantage in surviving and reproducing.
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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. Examine and compare fossils to one another and to living organisms as evidence that some individuals survive and reproduce.
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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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E. Flow of Matter and Energy
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E. Flow of Matter and Energy
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1. Recognize food as the source of materials that all living things need to grow and survive.
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1. Recognize that some source of energy is needed for all organisms to grow and survive.
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a. Classify the things that people and animals take into their bodies as food or not food.
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a. Identify the sun as the primary source of energy for all living organisms.
- Plants use sunlight to make food
- Plants and animals use food for energy and growth
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b. Describe what happens to food in plants and animals.
- Contributes to growth
- Supports repair
- Provides energy
- Is stored for future use
- Is eliminated
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b. Cite evidence from observations and research that some insects and various other organisms depend on dead plant and animal material for food.
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c. Identify the things that are essential for plants to grow and survive.
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c. Provide examples that justify the statement "Most animals' food can be traced back to plants."
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F. Ecology
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F. Ecology
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F. Ecology
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1. Explain ways that individuals and groups of organisms interact with each other and their environment.
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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. Identify and describe the interactions of organisms present in a habitat.
- Competition for space, food, and water
- Beneficial interactions: nesting, pollination, seed dispersal, oysters filtering as in the Chesapeake Bay, etc.
- Roles within food chains and webs: scavengers, decomposers, producers, consumers.
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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. Explain that changes in an organism's habitat are sometimes beneficial to it and sometimes harmful.
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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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