| DIVERSITY
OF LIFE COURSE MATRIX |
 |
SYNOPSIS |
SCIENCE
CONCEPTS |
THINKING PROCESSES |
|
1. |
What
Is Life? (5 sessions)
|
|
Students
think about
characteristics that are common to all living organisms to develop
an operational definition of life that will be used throughout
the course.
|
•
Any free-living thing—plant, animal, or other—is
an organism.
• All living organisms exhibit common characteristics;
they grow, consume nutrients, exchange gases, respond to stimuli,
reproduce, need water, and eliminate waste. |
•
Categorize pictures of objects and organisms into living and
nonliving groups.
• Investigate unknown materials by placing them in aquatic
environments and observing them for evidence of life.
• Analyze data. |
|
|
2. |
Introduction
to the Microscope (3–4 sessions) |
|
Students
develop their skills with an important piece of scientific technology.
They use a microscope to observe and study microorganisms. |
•
Optical power is the product of the magnification of the eyepiece
and the objective lens.
• A microscope image appears reversed and inverted.
• Focal plane is a thin plane at a fixed distance from
the objective lens where the image is in focus. |
•
Use the microscope to study layers in a sample and structures
of brine shrimp.
• Draw scale representations of images seen in a microscope
to estimate size accurately.
• Explain how focal plane affects the image seen through
a microscope. |
|
3. |
Microscopic
Life (5–6 sessions) |
|
Students
discover cells and begin to understand their importance as the
basic units of life. Elodea and Paramecia are studied in depth,
and students search for other microorganisms in pond water. |
•
The cell is the basic unit of life.
• Cells have the same needs and perform the same functions
as more complex organisms.
• Paramecia have structures that have certain functions.
|
•
Observe single-celled
microorganisms with a microscope and investigate structure-function
relationships.
• Generate evidence to support the idea that paramecia
are organisms.
• Compare microorganisms. |
|
4. |
The
Ribbon of Life (2 sessions) |
|
Students
become familiar with biological structures and functions at
different levels of organization: cells, organs, tissues, organ
systems, and whole organisms.
|
•
Humans, and all other complex life-forms, are made of cells.
• Cells have defining structures, such as membranes, cell
walls, nuclei, chloroplasts, ribosomes,
mitochondria, and cytoplasm. |
•
Compare structure and function of cells from different organisms.
• Relate the structure and function of cells, tissues,
organs, systems, and organisms. |
|
5. |
Seeds
of Life (5 sessions) |
|
Students
recognize that seeds are living organisms in a dormant state.
They observe and describe the first development stages of a
plant. |
•
Seeds contain the dormant, living embryo of a plant.
• Germination is the onset of growth and differentiation
in plant seeds.
• The cotyledon is the primary source of energy for seed
germination. |
•
Dissect seeds to discover their structures.
• Investigate the effect of light on germinated seeds.
• Compare the development of two groups of complex plants—
monocots and dicots.
|
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page 4
of 8 |
