• National Science Education Standards, Content Topics, and Rationale
  • Tennessee Content Objectives Based on the NSES Standards Cited

NSES Content Standard

• Life Science 5-8

• Structure and Function in Living

  Living systems at all levels of organization demonstrate complementarity of structure and function. Important levels of organization for structure and function include cells, organs, organ systems, whole organisms, and ecosystems.

• Life Science 9-12

• Biological Evolution

  Biological classifications indicate how organisms are related. Organisms are classified into hierarchy of groups and subgroups based on their similarities and reflecting their evolutionary relationships. Species is the most fundamental unit of classification.

  The atoms and molecules on the Earth cycle among the living and nonliving components of the biosphere.

  TN Content Objectives:

  • EnSc A.1.

    To understand the vocabulary related to ecology, to include hierarchy, biosphere, ecosystem, biome, community, population, species, organisms, cells, atom

  • EnSc A.2.

    To understand that atoms and molecules make up living and nonliving components of the biosphere

  • EnSc A.3.

    To understand that the species is the most fundamental unit of classification

  • EnSc A.4.

    To understand the classification of organisms into a hierarchy of groups and subgroups

  • EnSc A.5.

    To understand the evolutionary relationship of organisms

  • EnSc A.6.

    To recognize the different classifications of species based on their similarities and their relationships to each other

  • EnSc A.7.

    To understand the characteristics of an ecosystem

  • EnSc A.8.

    To identify different types of ecosystems

NSES Content Standard

• No NSES Correlation

• No NSES Correlation
  TN Content Objectives:

  • EnSc B.1.

    To understand that systems are a group of processes occurring simultaneously for the survival of the ecosystem, which is comprised of all organisms and natural processes

  • EnSc B.2.

    To understand the basic vocabulary of systems

  • EnSc B.3.

    To understand how individual systems function

  • EnSc B.4.

    To understand the interrelationship of all systems

  • EnSc B.5.

    To create models that will strengthen their understanding of systems
    Examples would be a food chain with a pond, lake, meadow, or forest.

NSES Content Standard

• Life Science 5-8

• Populations and Ecosystems

  Populations consist of all individuals of a species that occur together at a given place. All of the populations living together and the physical factors which they interact compose an ecosystem.

  Populations of organisms can be categorized by the function they serve in an ecosystem. Plants and some micro-organisms are producers-they make their own food. All animals including humans are consumers, which obtain 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.

• Life Science 9-12

• The Interdependence of Organisms

  Organisms both cooperate and compete in ecosystems. The interrelationship and interdependencies of these organisms may generate ecosystems that are stable for hundreds or thousands of years.

  Living organisms have the capacity to produce populations of infinite size, but environments and resources are finite. This fundamental tension has profound effects on the interactions between organisms.

  TN Content Objectives:

  • EnSc C.1.

    To define and understand the vocabulary associated with ecosystem and its functioning

  • EnSc C.2.

    To comprehend that every organism functions for a specific purpose in an ecosystem

  • EnSc C.3.

    To understand the balance between each organism and the respective ecosystem

  • EnSc C.4.

    To understand population capacities and evaluate limiting factors in an ecosystem

  • EnSc C.5.

    To analyze relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers in an ecosystem

NSES Content Standard

• Life Science 9-12

• Biological Evolution

  Species evolve over time. Evolution is the consequence of the interactions of (1) the potential for a species to increase its numbers, (2) the genetic variability of offspring due to mutation and recombination of genes, (3) a finite supply of resources required for life, and (4) the ensuing selection by the environment of those offspring better able to survive and leave offspring.

• Life Science 5-8

• Regulation and Behavior

  Regulation of organism's internal environment involves sensing external changes in the environment and changing physiological activities to keep within the range required to survive.

  An organism's behavior has evolved through adaptation to its environment. How organisms, move, obtain food, reproduce and respond to danger, all are based on the organism's evolutionary history.

• Life Science 5-8

• Diversity and Adaptations of Organisms

  Biological evolution accounts for a diversity of species developed through gradual processes over many generations. Species acquire many of their unique characteristics through biological adaptation, which involves the selection of naturally occurring variations in populations. Biological adaptations include changes in structures, behaviors, or physiology that enhance reproductive success in a particular environment.

  Extinction of a species occurs when the environment changes and the adaptive characteristics of a species do not enable it survive in competition with its neighbors. Fossils indicate that many organisms that lived long ago are now extinct. Extinction of a species is common. Most of the species that have lived on Earth no longer exist.

• Life Science 9-12

• Biological Evolution

  The great diversity of organisms is the result of more than 3.5 billion years of natural selection and evolution that has filled every available niche with life forms.

  Natural selection and its evolutionary consequences provide a scientific explanation for the fossil record of ancient life forms, as well as for the striking molecular similarities observed among the diverse species of living organisms.

  The millions of different species of plants, animals, and micro-organisms that live on Earth today are related by descent from common ancestors.

  TN Content Objectives:

  • EnSc D.1.

    To define evolution, species, mutation, resources, survival, extinction, and adaptation

  • EnSc D.2.

    To understand the history of organisms, including the origin of life, and their evolution

  • EnSc D.3.

    To understand genetics and its influence on a species

  • EnSc D.4.

    To understand how organisms adapt to environmental changes through natural selection and evolutionary consequences

  • EnSc D.5.

    To understand how changes can alter a species and how adaptations of organisms can result in diversity

NSES Content Standard

• Life Science 5-8

• Populations and Ecosystems

  For ecosystems, the major source of energy is sunlight. Energy entering ecosystems as sunlight is converted by producers into stored chemical energy through photosynthesis. It then passes from organism to organism in food webs.

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

• Life Science 5-8

• Diversity and Adaptations of Organisms

  There are millions of species of animals, plants, and micro-organisms living today that differ from those that lived in the remote past. Each species lives in a specific and fairly uniform environment.

• Life Science 9-12

• The Interdependence of Organisms

  Energy flows through ecosystems in one direction, from photosynthetic organisms to herbivores to carnivores and decomposers.

• Life Science 9-12

• Matter, Energy, and Organization in Living Systems

  The energy for life ultimately derives from the sun. Plants capture light energy and use it to form strong (covalent) chemical bonds between the atoms of carbon containing (organic) molecules. These molecules can be used to assemble larger molecules with biological activity(including proteins, DNA, sugars and fats). In addition, the bonds between the atoms can be used as sources of energy for life processes.

  The chemical bonds of food molecules contain energy. Energy is released when the bonds of food molecules are broken and lower energy bonds are formed in new compounds. Cells usually store this energy temporarily in phosphate bonds of a small high-energy compound called ATP.

  TN Content Objectives:

  • EnSc E.1.

    To understand the concept of photosynthesis and it's role as an energy provider to organisms in the ecosystem

  • EnSc E.2.

    To understand the roles of herbivores, carnivores, decomposers, as energy users

  • EnSc E.3.

    To describe and illustrate the energy flow through an ecosystem

  • EnSc E.4.

    To understand the interrelationship between energy production, and limiting resources such as disease, predation, and climate

NSES Content Standard

• Science in Personal and Social Perspectives 5-8

• Populations, Resources, and Environments

  Overpopulation for an area can result from increased numbers of people, the increased use of resources, or from both increased population and increased consumption of resources.

  Causes of environmental degradation and resource depletion vary from region to region and from country to country. In some cases, environmental degradation and resource depletion results from over consumption and in other cases they result from overpopulation.

• Life Science 9-12

• Matter, Energy, and Organization in Living Systems

  The complexity and organization of organisms accommodates the need for obtaining, transforming, transporting, releasing, and eliminating the matter and energy used to sustain the organism.

  The distribution and abundance of organisms and populations in ecosystems are limited by the availability of matter and energy and the ability of the ecosystem to recycle organic materials.

  As matter and energy flows through different levels of organization of living systems--cells, organs, organisms, communities--and between living systems and the physical environment, chemical elements are transformed and recombined in different ways. Each transformation results in storage and dissipation of energy into the environment as heat. Matter and energy are conserved in each transformation.

  TN Content Objectives:

  • EnSc F.1.

    To define the vocabulary associated with conservation

  • EnSc F.2.

    To identify resources in the ecosystem

  • EnSc F.3.

    To recognize causes of environmental degradation

  • EnSc F.4.

    To understand the need for conservation of natural resources, including energy sources, affects the population

  • EnSc F.5.

    To understand how an ecosystem is affected by overpopulation and the resulting increase in the use of resources if a balance is not achieved

NSES Content Standard

• Life Science 9-12

• The Interdependence of Organisms

  Human beings live within the world's ecosystems. Increasingly, humans modify ecosystems as a result of population growth, technology , and consumption. Human destruction of habitats through direct harvesting , pollution, atmospheric changes, and other factors is threatening global stability, and if not addressed, ecosystems will be irreversibly damaged.

• Science in Personal and Social Perspectives 9-12

• Natural Resources

  Human populations use resources in the environment in order to maintain and improve their existence. Natural resources have been and will continue to be exploited to maintain human populations.

  The Earth does not have infinite resources, and increasing human production and consumption places severe stress on the natural processes that renew some resources and depletes those resources that cannot be renewed.

  Humans use many natural systems as resources. Natural systems do have the capacity to reuse waste, but that capacity is limited. Changing natural systems can exceed the limits of organisms to adapt naturally or humans to adapt technologically.

• Science in Personal and Social Perspectives 9-12

• Environmental Quality

  Natural ecosystems provide an array of basic processes that affect humans. Those processes include maintenance of the quality of the atmosphere, generation of soils, control of the hydrologic cycle, disposal of wastes, and recycling of nutrients. Humans are changing many of these basic processes and the changes may be detrimental to humans.

  Materials from human societies disturb both physical and chemical cycles of the Earth.

• Science in Personal and Social Perspectives 9-12

• Science and Technology in Local, National, and Global Challenges

  Humans have a major effect on other species. The influence of humans on other organisms occurs through ways , such as land use--decreasing space available to other species, and pollution--changing the chemical composition of air, soil, and water.

• Science in Personal and Social Perspectives 9-12

• Population Growth

  Populations can reach the limits to growth. Carrying capacity is the maximum number of individuals that can be supported in a given environment. It is not availability of space, but the number of people.

  TN Content Objectives:

  • EnSc G.1.

    To understand population growth, technology, consumption, habitats, direct harvesting, pollution, atmospheric changes, global stability

  • EnSc G.2.

    To understand that people are a part of the world's ecosystem

  • EnSc G.3.

    To understand the role humans have on the ecosystem through pollution factors and the growth of the population

  • EnSc G.4.

    To understand stewardship of the ecosystem

  • EnSc G.5.

    To understand the role of technology in continuation of life on earth

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Last Modified Wednesday, 13-Jul-2005 13:44:12 CDT