Next Generation Science Standards - Activity LIsting

In the first part of this activity, students use basic information about the structure, functions, and synthesis of starch and proteins to understand why certain parts of plants or animals contain starch and/or proteins.

Then, students practice the scientific method by carrying out key components of a scientific investigation, including generating hypotheses, developing experimental methods, designing and carrying out experiments to test their hypotheses, and, if needed, using experimental results to revise their hypotheses. (NGSS)

Download Student Handout: PDF format or Word format

Download Teacher Preparation Notes: PDF format or Word format

Most of our activities for helping middle school and high school students learn life sciences are aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS; http://www.nextgenscience.org/next-generation-science-standards and http://www.nextgenscience.org/sites/default/files/HS%20LS%20topics%20combined%206.13.13.pdf). The attached tables summarize our activities that are explicitly aligned with NGSS Disciplinary Core Ideas and Performance Expectations. These tables also summarize how each of these activities engages students in Scientific Practices and provides the opportunity to discuss Crosscutting Concepts. Brief descriptions of these activities are compiled at /exchange/bioactivities/NGSS/listing. The Teacher Notes for each activity provide additional information concerning alignment with the Next Generation Science Standards.

This activity includes two hands-on experiments and numerous analysis and discussion questions to help students understand how the characteristics and organization of the molecules in the cell membrane result in the selective permeability of the cell membrane.

In the hands-on experiments, students first evaluate the selective permeability of a synthetic membrane and then observe how a layer of oil can be a barrier to diffusion of an aqueous solution.

Students answer analysis and discussion questions to learn how the phospholipid bilayer and membrane proteins play key roles in the cell membrane function of regulating what gets into and out of the cell. Topics covered include ions, polar and nonpolar molecules; simple diffusion through the phospholipid bilayer; facilitated diffusion through membrane proteins; and active transport by membrane proteins.

An optional additional page introduces exocytosis and endocytosis.

These Teacher Notes summarize basic concepts and information related to energy, ATP, cellular respiration, and photosynthesis. These Teacher Notes also review common misconceptions and suggest a sequence of learning activities designed to develop student understanding of important concepts and overcome any misconceptions.

The attached files describe the key concepts, common misconceptions and suggested learning activities (in Word and PDF formats).

In the shorter version of the Student Handout, students learn how coronaviruses are replicated inside our cells, how white blood cells fight a coronavirus infection, and how a coronavirus infection can cause you to feel sick.

In the longer version of the Student Handout, students also learn how the respiratory and circulatory systems work together to provide oxygen to the body’s cells, and they learn how a coronavirus infection can interfere with oxygen delivery, which can result in severe disease.

In this hands-on, minds-on activity, students extract DNA from Archaea or from their cheek cells.

In addition, students learn or review key concepts about the structure, function, and replication of DNA. For example, students learn that the genes in DNA give the instructions to make proteins, which influence our characteristics.

They also learn how the double helix structure of DNA and the base-pairing rules provide the basis for DNA replication.

This activity includes multiple analysis and discussion questions and hands-on or online modeling of DNA replication. (NGSS)

 Download Student Handout Archaea: PDF format or Word format

Download Teacher Preparation Notes Archaea: PDF format or Word format

Download Student Handout Cheek Cells: PDF format or Word format

Download Teacher Preparation Notes Cheek Cells: PDF format or Word format

This overview summarizes major ecological concepts and recommends learning activities on topics such as food webs, energy flow through ecosystems, the carbon cycle, trophic pyramids, exponential and logistic population growth, species interactions in biological communities, succession, and effects of human activities on ecosystems. This overview also recommends introductory ecology readings. 

In common experience, the term "adapting" usually refers to changes during an organism's lifetime.

In contrast, evolutionary biologists use the term "adaptation" to refer to a heritable trait that increases fitness.

To help students reconcile these different concepts, this activity introduces the concept of phenotypic plasticity (the ability of an organism to adapt to different environments within its lifetime).

Questions guide students in analyzing how the balance between the advantages and disadvantages of a characteristic (e.g. an animal’s color) can vary in different circumstances, how phenotypic plasticity can be a heritable trait that can optimize fitness in a variable environment, and how natural selection can influence the amount of phenotypic plasticity in a population.

In this analysis and discussion activity, students learn how food production results in the release of three greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), and methane (CH4). Students analyze carbon and nitrogen cycles to understand how agriculture results in increased CO2 and N2O in the atmosphere.

Students interpret data concerning the very different amounts of greenhouse gases released during the production of various types of food; they apply concepts related to trophic pyramids and learn about CH4 release by ruminants.

Finally, students propose, research, and evaluate strategies to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that will be released during future production of food for the world’s growing population.

The Student Handout is available in the first two attached files and as a Google doc designed for use in online instruction and distance learning. The Teacher Notes, available in the last two attached files, provide instructional suggestions and background information and explain how this activity is aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards.