Unpacked Content
Scientific and Engineering Practices
Engaging in Argument from Evidence
Crosscutting Concepts
Structure and Function
Knowledge
Students know:
- The presence or absence of cells in living and nonliving things.
- The presence of cells in a variety of organisms, including unicellular and multicellular organisms.
- Different types of cells within one multicellular organism.
- Cells only arise from preexisting cells by division.
- The cell is the structural and functional unit of all living things.
Skills
Students are able to:
- Make a claim about a given explanation or model for a phenomenon, including the cell theory .
- Identify and describe the given evidence that supports the claim.
- Evaluate the evidence and identify its strengths and weaknesses.
- Use reasoning to connect the necessary and sufficient evidence and construct the argument.
- Present oral or written arguments to support or refute the given explanation or model for the phenomenon.
Understanding
Students understand that:
- The three components of the cell theory:
- All life forms are made from one or more cells.
- Cells only arise from pre-existing cells.
- The cell is the smallest unit of life.
Vocabulary
- Cell
- Cell theory
- Unicellular
- Multicellular
- Living
- Non-living
- Organism
- Evidence
- Scientific argument
- Claims
