Competency Assurance - Science

Structure and Function in Living Systems:  Students will demonstrate an understanding of the complimentary nature of structures and functions in living systems.

State Core Content

Sample Demonstrators, Skills, and Activities

SC-M-3.1.1 

Living systems at all levels of organization demonstrate the complementary nature of structure and function.  Important levels of organization for structure and function include cells, tissues, organs, organ systems (e.g., bacteria, protists, fungi, plants, animals), and ecosystems.

• Identify the levels of organization in living systems.
• Investigate and illustrate a system; identify its components and interrelationships with other systems. (e.g. Explain how the various organs of the digestive system have specialized functions that make the system work properly).

SC-M-3.1.2 

All organisms are composed of cells, the fundamental unit of life.  Most organisms are single cells; other organisms, including plants and animals are multi-cellular.

• Observe various types of single celled organisms and describe life at the single-cell level.
• Observe pond water or other samples and describe characteristics of various organisms, including movement, behavior and responses.
• Create models of single-celled organisms; explain the function of the cell model and how the structure affects its function.

SC-M-3.1.3 

Cells carry on the many functions needed to sustain life.  They grow and divide, thereby producing more cells.  This requires that they take in nutrients, which they use to provide energy for the work that cells do and to make the materials that a cell or an organism needs.

• Observe the effects of different amounts of variables (light, water, soil or other substances) on plant growth.
• Describe why a cell is considered a living thing.

Subtopic:  Structure and Function in Living Systems:Students will demonstrate an understanding of the complimentary nature of structures and functions in living systems.

Core Content: SC-M- 3.1.4

SCORE

DESCRIPTION

4

• Student describes four structures that help the animal in its environment. 
• These include sharp teeth, feathers or fur, fins, webbed feet, or flippers, and large ears. 
• Student illustrates these structures and gives an explanation, based on the animal’s physical characteristics, of why the animal they drew is suited for its environment.

3

• Student either describes three structures that help the animal function in its environment with logical connections to their illustration; OR, student illustrates an animal with four structures and attempts, with some minor errors, to describes. 
• Response may lack connections between characteristic and environment.

2

• Response discusses an animal with three or more structures, accompanied with an illustration, but lacks connections to how the illustrated animal is suited to its particular environment.

1

• Either the response or illustration addresses one or two structures that do not show connections to how the animal is best suited for a particular environment.

0

• Response is blank or inappropriate.

Regulation and Behavior:  Students will be able to identify the behaviors and inherited characteristics of an organism and describe how these characteristics allow the organism to live and reproduce within its environment.

State Core Content

Sample Demonstrators, Skills, and Activities

SC-M-3.2.1 

All organisms must be able to obtain and use resources, grow, reproduce, and maintain stable internal conditions while living in a constantly changing external environment.

• Identify characteristics necessary for an organism to survive.
• Describe physical adaptations organisms process in order to survive in a particular environment.

SC-M-3.2.2 

Regulation of an organism’s internal environment involves sensing the internal environment and changing physiological activities to keep conditions within the range required to survive.  Maintaining a stable internal environment is essential for an organism’s survival.

• Identify essential components involved in the regulation of  an organism's internal environment.
• Investigate the relationships among exercise, pulse rate, and respiration.
• Choose a specific organism and describe how its structure and/or behavior determines how it survives in a particular environment.

SC-M-3.2.3 

Behavior is one kind of response an organism may make to an internal or environmental stimulus.  A behavioral response requires coordination and communication at many levels including cells, organ systems, and organisms.  Behavioral response is a set of actions determined in part by heredity and in part from experience.

• Observe an organism and evaluate its behavioral responses to internal and external stimuli.
• Investigate behavior as a characteristic of an organism resulting from inheritance and from interactions with the environment.
• Choose a catastrophic event and show how it can affect the organisms within the environment in which the event occurred.

Subtopic:  Regulation and Behavior:  Students will be able to identify the behaviors and inherited characteristics of an organism and describe how these characteristics allow the organism to live and reproduce within its environment.

Core Content: SC-M- 3.2.3

SCORE

DESCRIPTION

4

• Student response demonstrates that biological functions change as the environment changes. 
• Student suggests different reasons for the change in biological functions and may include ways to test for these reasons. 
• Student correctly explains how organisms must adapt to changing conditions in order to function within an environment. 
• Student response correctly indicates that as the temperature drops, breathing rate decreases. 
• Response may indicate that oxygen levels increase with decreasing temperature.

3

• Student response demonstrates that biological functions change as the environment changes. 
• Reasons for changes are included but are incomplete or lack an explanation. 
• Student correctly states that temperature decrease produces lower breathing rate. 
• Oxygen levels are identified, but relationships between temperature and levels are not correctly identified.

2

• Student indicates that the temperature change causes the goldfish reaction to change, but does not give reasons for the change nor is relationship between temperature and breathing rate correctly states. 
• No mention of need for organisms to adapt to changing environment is evident in the response.

1

• Response merely restates data from problem and indicates that one factor influences another. 
• Reasons are missing or completely incorrect. 
• No relationship between environment and biological functions are included in response.

0

• Blank or inappropriate response.

Reproduction and Heredity:  Students will be able to identify the processes of reproduction and discuss how organisms pass their genetic  traits to the next generation.

Academic Expectations:  2.2 Patterns of Change,   2.3 Systems,   2.4 Scale and Models,   2.5 Constancy, and   2.6 Change Over Time

State Core Content

Sample Demonstrators, Skills, and Activities

SC-M-3.3.1 

Reproduction is a characteristic of all living systems and is essential to the continuation of every species.  Some organisms reproduce asexually, others reproduce sexually.  In species that reproduce sexually, including humans and plants, male and female sex cells carrying genetic information unite to begin the development of a new individual.

• Classify organisms by the manner in which they reproduce.
• Observe and illustrate the reproduction of budding yeast induced by sugar being added to the yeast-water mixture.
• Construct Punnett Squares to demonstrate possible outcomes of genetic combinations.

SC-M-3.3.2 

Every organism requires a set of instructions for specifying its traits.  This information is contained in genes located in the chromosomes of each cell.  Heredity is the passage of these instructions from one generation to another.

• Raise plants to identify a particular phenotype in the offspring. Collect and record data about this trait for two generations. Detect patterns and compare the results of expected ratios for dominant/recessive traits.
• Compare various visible characteristics of at least three generations of family members (e.g., hair color, eye color, earlobe attachment, nose shape.) Record and chart observations. Identify patterns

Subtopic:  Reproduction and Heredity:  Students will be able to identify the processes of reproduction and discuss how organisms pass their genetic traits to the next generation.

Core Content: SC-M- 3.3.2

SCORE

DESCRIPTION

4

All four parts are correctly answered and student identifies the genetic makeup of the offspring and indicates a ratio or percentage of the offspring with each trait.  Dominate and recessive traits are identified.

• Parents are identified as hybrids
• Red is dominate and white is ressive
• 1 out of 4 is purebred red
• 1 out of 4 is purebred white
• 2 out of 4 are hybred

The white offspring had to inherit ONE recessive gene from each parent.

3

Answer any 3 of the 4 completely and accurately.

2

Answer any 2 of the 4 completely and accurately.

1

May be able to answer only portions of each answer, but does not completely answer any of the questions.

0

No answer or inappropriate answer.

Diversity and Adaptations of Organisms:  Students will demonstrate an understanding of biological evolution and how adaptations may influence survival or extinction of the species.

State Core Content

Sample Demonstrators, Skills, and Activities

SC-M-3.4.1

Biological change over time accounts for the diversity of species developed through gradual processes over many generations.  Biological adaptations include changes in structures, behaviors, or physiology that enhance survival and reproductive success in a particular environment.

• Develop a geological time scale for animals or plants using adding machine tape or time line software. Observe the patterns that appear in the time scale.
• Investigate a physical change in the local environment; document the changes; describe the causal agents, and predict future changes had on the investigation.

SC-M-3.4.2

Extinction of a species occurs when the environment changes and the adaptive characteristics of a species are insufficient to allow its survival.  Extinction of species is common; most of the species that have lived on Earth no longer exist.

• Compare and contrast an extinct animal and its environment to a comparable present day animal and its environment.
• Collect fossils and compare them to similar organisms found today.
• Use the structure of the fossil to make inferences about how it survived in its environment.

Subtopic:  Diversity and Adaptations of Organisms:  Students will demonstrate an understanding of biological evolution and how adaptations may influence survival or extinction of the species.

Core Content: SC-M-3.4.2

SCORE

DESCRIPTION

4

• The response is complete and shows a strong understanding of the use of camouflage as an adaptation for survival.
• There is a detailed understanding of the pollution effects created by the coal-burning plant that will enable the black butterflies to survive better that white butterflies, and go on to reproduce more black moths.
• The response will explain how the white butterflies will survive better and be more successful in reproducing once the power plant closes.

3

• The response is complete and shows an understanding of the use of camouflage.
• There is an understanding of the pollution effects created by the coal-burning power plant that enables the black moth to survive better.
• The response will explain how the white butterflies will survive better and be more successful in reproducing once the power plant closes.

2

• The response shows a limited understanding of the connection between the pollution and the survival of black butterflies.
• There is an attempt to explain the results after the coal-burning power plant closes.

1

• The response is incomplete and shows a minimal understanding of the pollution and the survival of the black butterflies.

0

• The response is totally incorrect or irrelevant.

Populations and Ecosystems:  Students will demonstrate an understanding of a population of organisms in an ecosystem and the interactions between the biotic and abiotic resources that comprise the ecosystem.

State Core Content

Sample Demonstrators, Skills, and Activities

SC-M-3.5.1

A population consists of all individuals of a species that occur together at a given place and time.  All populations living together and the physical factors with which they interact compose an ecosystem.

• Identify the physical factors that compose a particular ecosystem.  Describe its characteristics of the population and ecosystem.
• Choose an ecosystem, such as a pond, a field, an aquarium, etc. and identify ways in which the physical conditions affect the population within the ecosystem.
• Extend the above investigation over the entire year and describe the changes that result as the seasons change.

SC-M-3.5.2 

Populations of organisms can be categorized by the function they serve in an ecosystem.  Plants and some microorganisms are producers because they make their own food.  All animals, including humans, are consumers, and obtain their food by eating other organisms.  Decomposers, primarily bacteria and fungi, are consumers that use waste materials and dead organisms for food.  Food webs identify the relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers in an ecosystem.

• Investigate the relationship between two organisms that exist in the same ecosystem.
• Create (or observe) an ecosystem and design a food web for said ecosystem.

SC-M-3.5.3 

For most ecosystems, the major source of energy is sunlight.  Energy entering ecosystems as producers transfer sunlight into chemical energy through photosynthesis.  That energy then passes from organism to organism in food webs.

• Develop a presentation (using any medium) that shows movement of energy as it begins with sunlight and moves through the ecosystem.

SC-M-3.5.4 

The number of organisms an ecosystem can support depends on the resources available and abiotic factors (e.g., quantity of light and water, range of temperatures, soil composition).  Given adequate biotic and abiotic resources and no diseases or predators, populations (including humans) increase at rapid rates.  Lack of resources and other factors, such as predation and climate, limit the growth of populations in specific

• Design an experiment to investigate the effect of various factors in the change of a population.
• Participate in a simulation (e.g. Project Wild, Oh Deer!, etc.) and graph the relationship between the numbers of producers and consumers.
• Use community and/or print resources to gather information on an issue, such as global warming, to determine its affect on the carrying capacity of an ecosystem.
• Write a paper that predicts the effects of an issue, such as global warming, on the economy.

Content Area:  Life Science

Level: Middle School

Subtopic:  Populations and Ecosystems:  Students will demonstrate an understanding of a population of organisms in an ecosystem and the interactions between the biotic and abiotic resources that comprise the ecosystem.

Core Content: SC-M-3.5.2

SCORE

DESCRIPTION

4

Student describes 2 beneficial consequences, 2 harmful consequences, and describes what the world environment what the world environment would be like in 100 years.

3

Student describes 2 beneficial consequences and 2 harmful consequences.

2

Student describes 1 beneficial consequence and 1 harmful consequence.

1

Student describes only 1 consequence, either beneficial or harmful.

0

Blank or inappropriate answer.

Subtopic:  Populations and Ecosystems:  Students will demonstrate an understanding of a population of organisms in an ecosystem and the interactions between the biotic and abiotic resources that comprise the ecosystem.

Core Content: SC-M-3.5.4

Observation Year

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Fox population

6

12

28

56

18

14

30

70

20

29

Rabbit population

98

148

132

86

40

90

160

137

45

151

SCORE

DESCRIPTION

4

• The concept of predator/prey is central in the response.
• Graph is correctly drawn and completely labeled with axes, units, legend, and title.
• Response indicates that populations oscillate and depend on each other for survival.

3

• The response identifies predator/prey relationships but lacks detail to connect the oscillations in the populations.
• Graph is complete and points are correctly located.
• Graph contains only minor errors or omissions.

2

• Graph does not correctly indicate population oscillations and is incomplete in either the labeling or location of data points. 
• Predator/prey relations are implied or incomplete.

1

• Major portions of the data and/or labeling are missing from the graph. 
• Explanations do not identify predator/prey relationships or uses incorrect explanations for this relationship. 
• Misconceptions are apparent.

0

• Blank or inappropriate response.

Subtopic:  Populations and Ecosystems:  Students will demonstrate an understanding of a population of organisms in an ecosystem and the interactions between the biotic and abiotic resources that comprise the ecosystem.

Core Content: SC-M-3.5.4

SCORE

DESCRIPTION

4

• Response includes at least 3 changes and correctly indicates which environmental factors contribute to these changes. 
• Response clearly connects environmental factors to specific biological adaptations of plant in each environment. 
• Explanations may be accompanied by clear examples that illustrate the explanation. 
• Response identifies living and non-living factors that may affect the changes. 
• Independent and dependent variables are identified and a process for testing is described. 
• Multiple measurements are used to verify that changes in the independent variable produce consistent changes in the dependent variable.
• Hypothesis is clearly stated and compared to results.
• Conclusions include data summary, questions for further study, and applications or extensions to other physical phenomena.

3

• Experimental design misses one or two processes, but student clearly identifies variables and correctly demonstrates the relationship between dependent and independent variables. 
• Changes are identified, but may be missing either environmental factors or examples that illustrate these changes. 
• Conclusion is not missing more than required element. 
• Response is essentially correct but lacks supporting details.

2

• Experimental design is flawed due to omissions of major parts, such as control of variables, lack of dependent or independent variables, lack of multiple trials, etc. 
• Response does not identify the required number of changes and may be missing (or use incorrect) explanations. 
• Major misconceptions are apparent in the explanations. 
• Conclusion is missing more than one element.

1

• Response is incomplete and does not correctly identify environmental factors that contribute to changes in plant life. 
• Experimental design is missing several of the major parts. 
• Results are missing completely or include only a summary of data.
• Explanations are missing or are incomplete. 

0

• No response or inappropriate response.