Life Processes and Genetics Level: 7th Grade Time Frame: 1 Quarter  Description: A study of plant parts and their functions will lead to an understanding of photosynthesis.  Diffusion and osmosis help to explain transport and energy use in living systems.  Students learn the parts of a cell and their functions.  Students will learn about genetics, heredity, DNA, and genetic engineering.

Overview Resources Activity List Learning Objectives Standards

Resources
Internet Sites:
Cells Alive - includes digital videos, interactive microscope images and online quizzes to check your understanding
Biology4Kids - includes a great tutorial with a guided tour of cell structure
The Virtual Cell - excellent graphics and 3d animated views of different types of cells
Cellular Organelles - basic explanations of  vocabulary
Life Science Safari  - great resource for visual learners with animations/images explaining vocabulary terms
Plant and Animal Cells -

United Streaming Videos:
 

Learning Objectives

• Explain how all of our food comes, directly or indirectly, from plants.

• Describe the basic process of photosynthesis.

• Demonstrate that carbon dioxide, water, and light are necessary for photosynthesis to occur.

• Explain that plants make sugar and oxygen during photosynthesis and that the sugar is stored as starch.

• Describe the different structures that make up the external features of a leaf.

• Describe the structure and function of the cells that make up the internal structure of a leaf

• Explain the function of chlorophyll during photosynthesis.

• Identify several conditions that allow for the formation of liquid water on Earth.

• Describe several characteristics of water that make it valuable to living things.

• Demonstrate that plants give off water through their leaves.

• Describe how transpired water fits into the water cycle.

• Describe how water is absorbed by the roots of plants.

• Explain how and why diffusion takes place.

• Explain the difference between permeable, semi-permeable, and impermeable membranes.

• Describe the relationship between osmosis and diffusion.

• Explain how osmosis affects the rigidity of plant cells.

• Identify factors that determine the rate of osmosis in plants.

• Describe how root pressure affects the absorption of water by a plant.

• Describe different means of water movement, including osmosis, cohesion, transpiration, and capillary action.

• Explain which types of water movement are significant in plants.

• Explain the function of digestion.

• Describe how human cells receive the oxygen they need for respiration.

• Explain the effect of physical activity on the rate of respiration.

• Describe how the digestion of starch takes place.

• Identify the main parts of the human digestive system.

• Explain the process of respiration as it applies to both plants and animals.

• Identify the products of respiration as carbon dioxide and water.

• Describe the interdependence of plants, animals, and the atmosphere.

• Explain the greenhouse effect.

• Identify some of the possible consequences of increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

• Identify several ways in which people resemble family members.

• Construct a family tree and use it to analyze the relationships among members of the same family.

• Identify several physical traits that unrelated people may have in common.

• Describe four essential properties of life.

• Explain why people once believed in spontaneous generation.

• Describe an experiment that disproved the theory of spontaneous generation.

• Describe the function of the nucleus of a cell.

• summarize the process of mitosis.

• Compare sexual and asexual reproduction.

• Describe some of the genetic experiments Mendel performed with pea plants.

• Compare dominant and recessive traits.

• Predict the ratio of dominant and recessive traits.

• Construct a diagram showing the combinations of inherited factors that are possible among the offspring of hybrid parents.

• Describe the process of meiosis.

• Explain how the process of fertilization occurs in humans.

• Describe the life-support system of an embryo within the uterus.

• Describe the sequence of events that takes place during the development of a human embryo and fetus.

• Compare the development of identical and fraternal twins.

• Describe the birth process.

• Identify several different ways that instructions are conveyed.

• Explain how scientists came to the conclusion that DNA contains the instructions for a living thing.

• Describe how DNA, chromosomes, and genes are related.

• Recognize that DNA uses a chemical code to store, convey, and duplicate genetic information.

• Compare genotype with phenotype.

• Identify examples of environmental and hereditary factors that contribute to an organism's well-being and development.

• Explain how mistakes in the genetic code affect the development of an organism.

• Define genetic engineering.

• Describe some of the current research involving genetics.

• Explain how advances in genetic research may affect the future.

Standards

Illinois Learning Standards (Middle School)  As a result of their schooling students will be able to: 

12A. Know and apply concepts that explain how living things function, adapt and change.
12.A.3a             Explain how cells function as "building blocks" of organisms and describe the requirements for cells to
                        live.
12.A.3b             Compare characteristics of organisms produced from a single parent with those of organisms produced
                        by two parents.
12.A.3c             Compare and contrast how different forms and structures reflect different functions (e.g., similarities
                        and differences among animals that fly, walk or swim; structures of plant cells and animal cells).

11A. Know and apply the concepts, principles and processes of scientific inquiry.
11.A.3a             Formulate hypotheses that can be tested by collecting data.
11.A.3b             Conduct scientific experiments that control all but one variable.
11.A.3c             Collect and record data accurately using consistent measuring and recording techniques and media.
11.A.3d             Explain the existence of unexpected results in a data set.
11.A.3e             Use data manipulation tools and quantitative (e.g., mean, mode, simple equations) and
                        representational methods (e.g., simulations, image processing) to analyze measurements.
11.A.3f              Interpret and represent results of analysis to produce findings.
11.A.3g             Report and display the process and results of a scientific investigation.  

Illinois Science Assessment Framework: Grade 7  For the 7^th grade ISAT, students are expected to be able to:

National Science Education Standards: Life Science  As a result of their activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop an understanding of:

STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION IN LIVING SYSTEMS

·         Living systems at all levels of organization demonstrate the complementary nature of structure and function. Important levels of organization for structure and function include cells, organs, tissues, organ systems, whole organisms, and ecosystems.

·         All organisms are composed of cells--the fundamental unit of life. Most organisms are single cells; other organisms, including humans, are multicellular.

·         Cells carry on the many functions needed to sustain life. They grow and divide, thereby producing more cells. This requires that they take in nutrients, which they use to provide energy for the work that cells do and to make the materials that a cell or an organism needs.

·         Specialized cells perform specialized functions in multicellular organisms. Groups of specialized cells cooperate to form a tissue, such as a muscle. Different tissues are in turn grouped together to form larger functional units, called organs. Each type of cell, tissue, and organ has a distinct structure and set of functions that serve the organism as a whole.

·         The human organism has systems for digestion, respiration, reproduction, circulation, excretion, movement, control, and coordination, and for protection from disease. These systems interact with one another.

·         Disease is a breakdown in structures or functions of an organism. Some diseases are the result of intrinsic failures of the system. Others are the result of damage by infection by other organisms.

REPRODUCTION AND HEREDITY

• Reproduction is a characteristic of all living systems; because no individual organism lives forever, reproduction is essential to the continuation of every species. Some organisms reproduce asexually. Other organisms reproduce sexually.
• In many species, including humans, females produce eggs and males produce sperm. Plants also reproduce sexually--the egg and sperm are produced in the flowers of flowering plants. An egg and sperm unite to begin development of a new individual. That new individual receives genetic information from its mother (via the egg) and its father (via the sperm). Sexually produced offspring never are identical to either of their parents.
• Every organism requires a set of instructions for specifying its traits. Heredity is the passage of these instructions from one generation to another.
• Hereditary information is contained in genes, located in the chromosomes of each cell. Each gene carries a single unit of information. An inherited trait of an individual can be determined by one or by many genes, and a single gene can influence more than one trait. A human cell contains many thousands of different genes.
• The characteristics of an organism can be described in terms of a combination of traits. Some traits are inherited and others result from interactions with the environment.
• All organisms must be able to obtain and use resources, grow, reproduce, and maintain stable internal conditions while living in a constantly changing external environment.

Benchmarks for Science Literacy  By the end of the 8th grade, students should know that:

·         In some kinds of organisms, all the genes come from a single parent, whereas in organisms that have sexes, typically half of the genes come from each parent.

• In sexual reproduction, a single specialized cell from a female merges with a specialized cell from a male. As the fertilized egg, carrying genetic information from each parent, multiplies to form the complete organism with about a trillion cells, the same genetic information is copied in each cell.
• New varieties of cultivated plants and domestic animals have resulted from selective breeding for particular traits.

• All living things are composed of cells, from just one to many millions, whose details usually are visible only through a microscope. Different body tissues and organs are made up of different kinds of cells. The cells in similar tissues and organs in other animals are similar to those in human beings but differ somewhat from cells found in plants.
• Cells repeatedly divide to make more cells for growth and repair. Various organs and tissues function to serve the needs of cells for food, air, and waste removal.
• Within cells, many of the basic functions of organisms-such as extracting energy from food and getting rid of waste-are carried out. The way in which cells function is similar in all living organisms.
• About two thirds of the weight of cells is accounted for by water, which gives cells many of their properties.

• Food provides molecules that serve as fuel and building material for all organisms. Plants use the energy in light to make sugars out of carbon dioxide and water. This food can be used immediately for fuel or materials or it may be stored for later use. Organisms that eat plants break down the plant structures to produce the materials and energy they need to survive. Then they are consumed by other organisms.
• Over a long time, matter is transferred from one organism to another repeatedly and between organisms and their physical environment. As in all material systems, the total amount of matter remains constant, even though its form and location change.
• Energy can change from one form to another in living things. Animals get energy from oxidizing their food, releasing some of its energy as heat. Almost all food energy comes originally from sunlight.

Champaign Community Unit School District #4 * Mellon Administrative Center
703 South New Street * Champaign, IL 61820 * 217.351.3800