The Bosque Education Guide: Education Standards
Science Part 2: 2003 Content Standard, Benchmarks and Performance Standards
C: Grade Nine through Twelve
Strand I
Strand I: Scientific Thinking and Practice |
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| Standard I: Understand the processes of scientific investigations and use inquiry and scientific ways of observing, experimenting, predicting, and validating to think critically. | Activity Number* |
| 9-12 Benchmark I: Use accepted scientific methods to collect, analyze, and interpret data and observations and to design and conduct scientific investigations and communicate results. | |
| 9-12 1. Describe the essential components of an investigation, including appropriate methodologies, proper equipment, and safety precautions. | 28, 32 |
| 2. Design and conduct scientific investigations that include: | 28 |
• testable hypotheses • controls and variables • methods to collect, analyze, and interpret data • results that address hypotheses being investigated • predictions based on results • reevaluation of hypotheses and additional experimentation as necessary • error analysis. |
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| 3. Use appropriate technologies to collect, analyze, and communicate scientific data (e.g., computers, calculators, balances, microscopes). | 8, 9, 24, 27, 28 |
| 4. Convey results of investigations using scientific concepts, methodologies, and expressions, including: | |
| • scientific language and symbols | 8, 9, 12 |
| • diagrams, charts, and other data displays | 4, 13, 22, 26, 28, 32 |
| • mathematical expressions and processes (e.g., mean, median, slope, proportionality) | 8, 9, 22, 28, 33, 34, 35 |
| • clear, logical, and concise communication | 8, 9, 12, 24 |
| • reasoned arguments. | 13, 15, 18, 33, 34 |
| 5. Understand how scientific theories are used to explain and predict natural phenomena (e.g., plate tectonics, ocean currents, structure of atom). | 12, 13, 15, 16, 26, 27, 33 |
| 9-12 Benchmark II: Understand that scientific processes produce scientific knowledge that is continually evaluated, validated, revised, or rejected. | |
| 9-12 1. Understand how scientific processes produce valid, reliable results, including: | 28, 32, 33 |
• consistency of explanations with data and observations •openness to peer review • full disclosure and examination of assumptions • testability of hypotheses • repeatability of experiments and reproducibility of results. |
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| 2. Use scientific reasoning and valid logic to recognize: | 11, 13, 34, 36, 37 |
• faulty logic • cause and effect • the difference between observation and unsubstantiated inferences and conclusions • potential bias. |
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| 3. Understand how new data and observations can result in new scientific knowledge. | 4, 13 |
| 4. Critically analyze an accepted explanation by reviewing current scientific knowledge. | 26 |
| 5. Examine investigations of current interest in science (e.g., superconductivity, molecular machines, age of the universe.) | 33 |
| 6. Examine the scientific processes and logic used in investigations of past events (e.g., using data from crime scenes, fossils), investigations that can be planned in advance but are only done once (e.g., expensive or time-consuming experiments such as medical clinical trials), and investigations of phenomena that can be repeated easily and frequently. | 33 |
| 9-12 Benchmark III: Understand the motion of objects and waves, and the forces that cause them. | Activity Number* |
| Motion | |
| 8. Apply Newton’s Laws to describe and analyze the behavior of moving objects, including: | |
| • displacement, velocity, and acceleration of a moving object | 32 |
| Standard II (Life Science): Understand the properties, structures, and processes of living things and the interdependence of living things and their environments. | |
| 9-12 Benchmark I: Understand how the survival of species depends on biodiversity and on complex interactions, including the cycling of matter and the flow of energy. | |
| 9-12 Ecosystems | |
| 1. Know that an ecosystem is complex and may exhibit fluctuations around a steady state or may evolve over time. | 4, 11, 15, 16, 22, 24 |
| 2. Describe how organisms cooperate and compete in ecosystems (e.g., producers, decomposers, herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, predator-prey, symbiosis, mutualism). | 4, 8, 9, 11, 12, 15, 16, 18, 22, 24 |
| 3. Understand and describe how available resources limit the amount of life an ecosystem can support (e.g., energy, water, oxygen, nutrients). | 11, 13, 18, 22, 24, 33, 36 |
| 4. Critically analyze how humans modify and change ecosystems (e.g., harvesting, pollution, population growth, technology). | 4, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 24, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38 |
| Energy Flow in the Environment | |
| 5. Explain how matter and energy flow through biological systems (e.g., organisms, communities, ecosystems), and how the total amount of matter and energy is conserved but some energy is always released as heat to the environment. | 11 |
| 6. Describe how energy flows from the sun through plants to herbivores to carnivores and decomposers. | 12, 15, 16 |
| 7. Understand and explain the principles of photosynthesis (i.e., chloroplasts in plants convert light energy, carbon dioxide, and water into chemical energy). | 12 |
| Biodiversity | |
| 8. Understand and explain the hierarchical classification scheme (i.e., domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species), including: | |
| • classification of an organism into a category | 8, 9, 12, 22 |
| • similarity inferred from molecular structure (DNA) closely matching classification based on anatomical similarities | 8, 9, 12, 22 |
| • similarities of organisms reflecting evolutionary relationships. | 4, 8, 9 |
| 9. Understand variation within and among species, including: | |
| • mutations and genetic drift | 4, 8, 9 |
| • factors affecting the survival of an organism | 4, 8, 9, 11, 13, 15, 16, 18, 22, 24, 33 |
| • natural selection. | 8, 9, 33 |
| 9-12 Benchmark II: Understand the genetic basis for inheritance and the basic concepts of biological evolution. | Activity Number* |
| 9-12 Genetics | |
| 5. Know how genetic variability results from the recombination and mutation of genes, including: | |
| • radiation or chemical substances can cause mutations in cells, resulting in permanent change in DNA. | 4, 11 |
| 6. Understand the principles of sexual and asexual reproduction, including meiosis and mitosis. | 8, 9, 12 |
| Biological Evolution | |
| 8. Describe the evidence for the first appearance of life on Earth as one-celled organisms, over 3.5 billion years ago, and for the later appearance of a diversity of multicellular organisms over millions of years. | 4, 11 |
| 9. Critically analyze the data and observations supporting the conclusion that the species living on Earth today are related by descent from the ancestral one-celled organisms. | 4, 8, 9, 11 |
| 11. Understand that evolution is a consequence of many factors, including the ability of organisms to reproduce, genetic variability, the effect of limited resources, and natural selection. | 4, 8, 9, 11, 12, 15, 16 |
| 12. Explain how natural selection favors individuals who are better able to survive, reproduce, and leave offspring. | 8, 9 |
| 13. Analyze how evolution by natural selection and other mechanisms explains many phenomena including the fossil record of ancient life forms and similarities (both physical and molecular) among different species. | 8, 9 |
| 9-12 Benchmark III: Understand the characteristics, structures, and functions of cells. | |
| 9-12 Structure and Function | |
| 2. Know that specialized structures inside cells in most organisms carry out different functions, including: | |
| • similarities and differences between plant and animal cells | 8, 9, 12 |
| 3. Describe the mechanisms for cellular processes (e.g., energy production and storage, transport of molecules, waste disposal, synthesis of new molecules). | 12 |
| 4. Know how the cell membrane controls which ions and molecules enter and leave the cell based on membrane permeability and transport (i.e., osmosis, diffusion, active transport, passive transport) | 12 |
| Biochemical Mechanisms | |
| 7. Describe how most cell functions involve chemical reactions, including: | |
| • processes of respiration (e.g., energy production, ATP) | 12 |
| Standard III (Earth and Space Science): Understand the structure of Earth, the solar system, and the universe, the interconnections among them, and the processes and interactions of Earth’s systems. | Activity Number* |
| 9-12 Benchmark I: Examine the scientific theories of the origin, structure, contents, and evolution of the solar system and the universe, and their interconnections. | |
| 9-12 2. Predict changes in the positions and appearances of objects in the sky (e.g., moon, sun) based on knowledge of current positions and patterns of movements (e.g., lunar cycles, seasons). | 4 |
| 9-12 Benchmark II: Examine the scientific theories of the origin, structure, energy, and evolution of Earth and its atmosphere, and their interconnections. | |
| 9-12 Characteristics and Evolution of Earth | |
| 1. Describe the characteristics and the evolution of Earth in terms of the geosphere, the hydrosphere, the atmosphere, and the biosphere. | 26, 27, 32 |
| 2. Recognize that radiometric data indicate that Earth is at least 4 billion years old and that Earth has changed during that period. | 26, 27 |
| 3. Describe the internal structure of Earth (e.g., core, mantle, crust) and the structure of Earth’s plates. | 26, 27 |
| 4. Understand the changes in Earth’s past and the investigative methods used to determine geologic time, including: | |
| • rock sequences, relative dating, fossil correlation, and radiometric dating | 26, 27 |
| • geologic time scales, historic changes in life forms, and the evidence for absolute ages (e.g., radiometric methods, tree rings, paleomagnetism). | 26 |
| 5. Explain plate tectonic theory and understand the evidence that supports it. | 26, 27 |
| Energy in Earth’s System | |
| 7. Describe convection as the mechanism for moving heat energy from deep within Earth to the surface and discuss how this process results in plate tectonics, including: | |
| • geological manifestations (e.g., earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain building) that occur at plate boundaries | 26, 27 |
| • impact of plate motions on societies and the environment (e.g., earthquakes, volcanoes). | |
| 8. Describe the patterns and relationships in the circulation of air and water driven by the sun’s radiant energy, including: | |
| • patterns in weather systems related to the transfer of energy | 32, 33, 34, 35 |
| • differences between climate and weather | 33, 34, 35 |
| • global climate, global warming, and the greenhouse effect | 35 |
| • El Niño, La Niña, and other climatic trends. | 37, 38 |
| Geochemical Cycles | |
| 9. Know that Earth’s system contains a fixed amount of natural resources that cycle among land, water, the atmosphere, and living things (e.g., carbon and nitrogen cycles, rock cycle, water cycle, ground water, aquifers). | 15, 16, 28, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38 |
| 10. Describe the composition and structure of Earth’s materials, including: | |
| • the major rock types (i.e., sedimentary, igneous, metamorphic) and their formation | 26 |
| • natural resources (e.g., minerals, petroleum) and their formation. | 26, 27, 28 |
| 12. Explain how the availability of ground water through aquifers can fluctuate based on multiple factors (i.e., rate of use, rate of replenishment, surface changes, and changes in temperature). | 28, 32, 33, 34, 35 |
