NSTA - National Science Teaching Association

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Middle School

From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes

How to Read the Standards

Teaching Resources

Students who demonstrate understanding can:

Performance Expectations

Conduct an investigation to provide evidence that living things are made of cells; either one cell or many different numbers and types of cells. MS-LS1-1

Clarification Statement and Assessment Boundary

Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on developing evidence that living things are made of cells, distinguishing between living and non-living things, and understanding that living things may be made of one cell or many and varied cells.

Assessment Boundary: none

Science and Engineering Practices

Planning and Carrying Out Investigations

Planning and carrying out investigations to answer questions or test solutions to problems in 6–8 builds on K–5 experiences and progresses to include investigations that use multiple variables and provide evidence to support explanations or design solutions.

Conduct an investigation to produce data to serve as the basis for evidence that meet the goals of an investigation. (MS-LS1-1)

Disciplinary Core Ideas

LS1.A: Structure and Function

All living things are made up of cells, which is the smallest unit that can be said to be alive. An organism may consist of one single cell (unicellular) or many different numbers and types of cells (multicellular). (MS-LS1-1)

Crosscutting Concepts

Scale, Proportion, and Quantity

Phenomena that can be observed at one scale may not be observable at another scale. (MS-LS1-1)

Connections to Engineering, Technology, and Applications of Science

Interdependence of Science, Engineering, and Technology

Engineering advances have led to important discoveries in virtually every field of science and scientific discoveries have led to the development of entire industries and engineered systems. (MS-LS1-1)

Common Core State Standards Connections

ELA/Literacy

WHST.6-8.7 - Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration. (MS-LS1-1)

Mathematics

6.EE.C.9 - Use variables to represent two quantities in a real-world problem that change in relationship to one another; write an equation to express one quantity, thought of as the dependent variable, in terms of the other quantity, thought of as the independent variable. Analyze the relationship between the dependent and independent variables using graphs and tables, and relate these to the equation. (MS-LS1-1)