5. The Living Environment
A. Diversity of Life - (Life Sciences-Related Benchmarks)
Grades K - 2: By the end of the 2nd grade, students should know that:
- Plants and animals have features that help them live in different environments.
Grades 6 - 8: By the end of the 8th grade, students should know that:
- All organisms, including the human species, are part of and depend on two main interconnected global food webs. One includes microscopic ocean plants, the animals that feed on them, and finally the animals that feed on those animals. The other web includes land plants, the animals that feed on them, and so forth. The cycles continue indefinitely because organisms decompose after death to return food material to the environment.
5. The Living Environment
C. Cells - (Life Sciences-Related Benchmarks)
Grades K - 2: By the end of the 2nd grade, students should know that:
- Most living things need water, food, and air.
Grades 3 - 5: By the end of the 5th grade, students should know that:
- Some living things consist of a single cell. Like familiar organisms, they need food, water, and air; a way to dispose of waste; and an environment they can live in.
5. The Living Environment
D. Interdependence of Life - (Life Sciences-Related Benchmarks)
Grades K - 2: By the end of the 2nd grade, students should know that:
- Animals eat plants or other animals for food and may also use plants (or even other animals) for shelter and nesting.
Grades 3 - 5: By the end of the 5th grade, students should know that:
- for any particular environment, some kinds of plants and animals survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
- Changes in an organism's habitat are sometimes beneficial to it and sometimes harmful.
5. The Living Environment
E. Flow of Matter and Energy - (Life Sciences-Related Benchmarks)
Grades K - 2: By the end of the 2nd grade, students should know that:
- Plants and animals both need to take in water, and animals need to take in food. In addition, plants need light.
Grades 6 - 8: By the end of the 8th grade, students should know that:
- 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.
Grades 9 - 12: By the end of the 12th grade, students should know that:
- the amount of life any environment can support is limited by the available energy, water, oxygen, and minerals, and by the ability of ecosystems to recycle the residue of dead organic materials.
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From Benchmarks for Science Literacy