Unpacked Content
Scientific and Engineering Practices
Planning and Carrying out Investigations
Crosscutting Concepts
Structure and Function; Stability and Change
Knowledge
Students know:
- A negative feedback loop is when the body senses (receptor) an internal change (stimulus) and activates mechanisms (effector) that reverse, or negate (response) that change (e.g., Regulation of body temperature).
- The positive feedback loop is a process where the body senses a change and activates mechanisms that accelerate or increase that change—can aid in homeostasis but also can be life threatening (e.g., blood clotting (helpful), response to myocardial infarction (potentially fatal).
- The chemical structure of the phospholipid membrane and the various ways large and small molecules move between the inside and outside of the cell to maintain homeostasis.
- The movement of water is a cellular response to different solute concentrations within and outside the cell.
Skills
Students are able to:
- Investigate and communicate factors that affect homeostasis in living organisms.
- Develop an answerable scientific question and plan and carry out an investigation that provides data about homeostasis.
- Investigate the function of the plasma membrane in relation to cellular processes that maintain homeostasis within the cell.
- Observe and explore simple experiments to develop a working list of the properties of water.
- Use a model to explain the properties of water at a molecular level.
- Use a model to illustrate chemical interactions between water molecules and other polar and non-polar compounds.
- Design an experiment that provides data regarding one property of water and communicate the experimental design, results and conclusions.
Understanding
Students understand that:
- Homeostasis is the tendency of an organism or cell to regulate its internal environment and maintain equilibrium, usually by a system of feedback controls, so as to stabilize health and functioning.
- A complex set of chemical, thermal and neural factors interact in complex ways, both helping and hindering the body while it works to maintain homeostasis.
- Water movement is critical to the maintenance of homeostasis for cells and vascular systems.
Vocabulary
- Negative feedback loop
- Positive feedback
- Enzyme related feedback
- Stimulus
- Response
- Effector
- Receptor
- Afferent pathway
- Efferent pathway
- Integration
- Phospholipid bilayer
- Selective permeability
- Transport protein
- Fluid mosaic model
- Polarity
- Surface tension
- Capillary
- Adhesion
- Cohesion
- Hypotonic
- Hypertonic
- Isotonic
- Active transport
- Passive transport
- Mixture
- Solution
- Solvent
- Solute
- Diffusion
- Dynamic equilibrium
- Facilitated diffusion
- Osmosis
- Endocytosis
- Exocytosis
