Unpacked Content
Scientific and Engineering Practices
Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions
Crosscutting Concepts
Cause and Effect
Knowledge
Students know:
- Animals engage in characteristic behaviors that increase the odds of reproduction.
- Plants reproduce in a variety of ways, sometimes depending on animal behavior and specialized features for reproduction.
Skills
Students are able to:
- Make a claim to support a given explanation of a phenomenon, including the idea that characteristic animal behaviors and specialized plant structures affect the probability of successful reproduction of animals and plants respectively.
- dentify the given evidence that supports the claim (e.g., evidence from data and scientific literature).
- Evaluate the evidence and identify the strengths and weaknesses of the evidence used to support the claim.
- Use reasoning to connect the appropriate evidence to the claim, using oral or written arguments.
Understanding
Students understand that:
- Many characteristics and behaviors of animals and plants increase the likelihood of successful reproduction.
- Animal behavior plays a role in the likelihood of successful reproduction in plants.
- Because successful reproduction has several causes and contributing factors, the cause and effect relationships between any of these characteristics and reproductive likelihood can be accurately reflected only in terms of probability.
Vocabulary
- Evidence
- Cause and effect
- Scientific Reasoning
- Characteristics
- Behaviors
- Specialization
- Probability
- Reproduction
- Validity
- Reliability
- Relevance
