Grade 6-8 Life Science Standards and Posters (8.5 x11")

A Disciplinary Core List of Standards (NGSS)

Middle School (6-8th) Life Science Progression:

LS1.A Structure and  Function
All living things are made up of cells. In organisms, cells work together to form tissues and organs that are specialized for particular body functions.

LS1.B Growth and Development of Organisms
Animals engage in behaviors that increase the odds of reproduction. An organism’s growth is affected by both genetic and environmental factors.

LS1.C Organization for Matter and Energy Flow in Organism
Plants use the energy from light to make sugars through photosynthesis. Within individual organisms, food is broken down through a series of chemical reactions that rearrange molecules and release energy.

LS1.D Information Processing
Each sense receptor responds to different inputs, transmitting them as signals that travel along nerve cells to the brain; The signals are then processed in the brain, resulting in immediate behavior or memories.

LS2.A Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems
Organisms and populations are dependent on their environmental interactions both with other living things and with nonliving factors, any of which can limit their growth. Competitive, predatory, and mutually beneficial interactions vary across ecosystems but the patterns are shared.

LS2.B Cycles of Matter and Energy Transfer in Ecosystems
The atoms that make up the organisms in an ecosystem are cycled repeatedly between the living and nonliving parts of the ecosystem. Food webs model how matter and energy are transferred among producers, consumers, and decomposers as the three groups interact within an ecosystem.

LS2.C Ecosystem Dynamics, Functioning, and Resilience
Ecosystem characteristics vary over time. Disruptions to any part of an ecosystem can lead to shifts in all of its populations. The completeness or integrity of an ecosystem’s biodiversity is often used as a measure of its health.

LS2.D Social Interactions and Group Behavior - N/A

LS3.A Inheritance of Traits
Genes chiefly regulate a specific protein, which affect an individual’s traits.

LS3.B Variation of Traits
In sexual reproduction, each parent contributes half of the genes acquired by the offspring resulting in variation between parent and offspring. Genetic information can be altered because of mutations, which may result in beneficial, negative, or no change to proteins in or traits of an organism.

LS4.A Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity
The fossil record documents the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of many life forms and their environments through Earth’s history. The fossil record and comparisons of anatomical similarities between organisms enables the inference of lines of evolutionary descent.

LS4.B Natural Selection
Both natural and artifical selection result certain traits giving some individuals an advantage in surviving abd reproducing, leading to predominance of certain traits in a population.

LS4.C Adaptation
Species can change over time in response to changes in environmental conditions through adaptation by natural selection acting over generations. Traits that support successful survival and reproduction in the new environment become more common.

LS4.D Biodiversity and Humans
Changes in biodiversity can influence humans’ resources and ecosystem services they rely on.

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*See Performance Expectations in the Content Links below.

Content Links and complete NGSS for MS-LS1 From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes

Content Links and complete NGSS for MS-LS2 Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics

Content Links and complete NGSS for MS-LS3 Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits

Content Links and complete NGSS for MS-LS4 Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity