Michigan Curriculum Framework

ELEMENTARY

III: Use Scientific Knowledge from the Life Sciences

Reference Content Standards The Digital Field Trip to The Wetlands
(with teacher support) 		The Digital Field Trip to The Rainforest
(with teacher support)
1. All students will apply an understanding of cells to the functioning of multicellular organisms; and explain how cells grow, develop and reproduce. (Cells)
1.1 Describe cells as living systems Use Organisms & Migration for examples Use Organisms for examples
2. All students will use classification systems to describe groups of living things; compare and contrast differences in the life cycles; investigate and explain how living things obtain and use energy; analyze how parts of living things are adapted to carry out specific functions. (Organization of Living Things)
2.1 Compare and classify familiar organisms on the bases of observable physical characteristics. Use Organisms & Migration for examples Use Organisms for examples
2.2 Describe vertebrates in terms of observable body parts and characteristics. Use Organisms & Migration for examples Use Organisms for examples
2.3 Describe life cycles of familiar organisms. Organisms & Migration: life cycle Organisms: Life cycle
2.4 Compare and contrast food, energy and environmental needs of selected organisms. Organisms & Migration, Producers, Consumers, Decomposers, Food Chain, Web Energy, Food Web Game, Adaptations Organisms, Dependency Web, Food, Habitat, Seed Dispersal, Pollination, Web Game
2.5 Describe functions of selected seed plant parts. Use Organisms for examples Organisms, Seed Dispersal, Botany: Seeds
3. All students will investigate and explain how characteristics of living things are passed on through generations; explain why organisms within a species are different from one another; and explain how new traits can be established by changing or manipulating genes. (Heredity)
3.1 Give evidence that characteristics are passed from parents to young. Organisms & Migration for examples Organisms for examples
4. All students will explain how scientists construct and scientifically test theories concerning the origin of life and evolution of species; compare ways that living organisms are adapted to survive and reproduce in their environments; and analyze how species change through time. (Evolution)
4.2 Explain how physical and/or behavioral characteristics of organisms help them to survive in their environments. Plant & Animal Adaptations, Organisms, Migration Organisms, Niches, Cryptic Coloration, Startle Display, Eyespots, Eyeshine, Warning & Mimicry
5. All students will explain how parts of an ecosystem are related and how they interact; explain how energy is distributed to living things in an ecosystem; investigate and explain how communities of living things change over a period of time; describe how materials cycle through an ecosystem and get reused in the environment; and analyze how humans and the environment interact. (Ecosystems)
5.1 Identify familiar organisms as part of a food chain or food web and describe their feeding relationships within the web. Habitat, Food Chain, Food Web, Web Game, Producers, Consumers, Decomposers, Organisms, Migration, Organisms, Dependency Web Game, Food
5.2 Explain common patterns of interdependence and interrelationships of living things. Organisms, Migration, Habitat, Food Chain, Food Web, Web Game, Producers, Consumers, Decomposers Organisms, Dependency Web Game, Food, Habitat, Seed Dispersal, Pollination, Niches
5.3 Describe the basic requirements for all living things to maintain their existence. Organisms & Migration: Food Source Organisms, Dependency Web Game, Food, Habitat, Seed Dispersal, Pollination
5.5 Describe positive and negative effects of humans on the environment. Conservation, Pollution Impact Screens, Rainforest Riches