Grade 8, Strand 4
Life Science expands students’ biological understanding of life by focusing on the characteristics of living things, the diversity of life, and how organisms and populations change over time in terms of biological adaptation and genetics. This understanding includes the relationship of structures to their functions and life cycles, interrelationships of matter and energy in living organisms, and the interactions of living organisms with their environment.
Concept 1: Structure and Function in Living Systems
Understand the relationships between structures and functions of organisms.
No performance objectives at this grade level
Concept 2: Reproduction and Heredity
Understand the basic principles of heredity.
PO 1. Explain the purposes of cell division:
- growth and repair
- reproduction
Discovery Streaming: Biologix: Comparison of Mitosis and Meiosis
This video has a great overview of mitosis and meiosis including basic definitions and comparisons of the two.
Discovery Streaming: Mitosis and Meiosis
This video has a great overview of mitosis and meiosis including a description of each stage.
PO 2. Explain the basic principles of heredity using the human examples of:
- eye color
- widow’s peak
- blood type
http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/units/basics/print-and-go/recipe.cfm
This website has a link to an awesome lesson about inherited traits. In order to access the information it is necessary to create a user account.
PO 3. Distinguish between the nature of dominant and recessive traits in humans.
Concept 3: Populations of Organisms in an Ecosystem
Analyze the relationships among various organisms and their environment.
No performance objectives at this grade level
Concept 4: Diversity, Adaptation, and Behavior
Identify structural and behavioral adaptations.
PO 1. Explain how an organism’s behavior allows it to survive in an environment.
PO 2. Describe how an organism can maintain a stable internal environment while living in a constantly changing external environment.
PO 3. Determine characteristics of organisms that could change over several generations.
PO 4. Compare the symbiotic and competitive relationships in organisms within an ecosystem (e.g., lichen, mistletoe/tree, clownfish/sea anemone, native/non-native species).
PO 5. Analyze the following behavioral cycles of organisms:
- hibernation
- migration
- dormancy (plants)
Discovery Streaming: Animal Instincts
This video has a clip on migration as well as hibernation.
PO 6. Describe the following factors that allow for the survival of living organisms:
- protective coloration
- beak design
- seed dispersalpollination