Investigation 1: Milkweed Bugs
Differentiate between organism, species, and population.
Define habitat.
Observe organisms in their habitats and record observations.
Investigation 2: Sorting Out Life
Define and use the following terms: individual, population, community, and ecosystem.
Describe biotic factors in an ecosystem.
Describe abiotic factors in an ecosystem.
Explain the defining characteristics of an individual, population, community, and ecosystem.
Investigation 3: Mini-Ecosystems
Distinguish between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.
Define an ecosystem.
Describe how organisms depend on the abiotic elements in their ecosystem.
Investigation 4: Mono Lake
Use a food chain to describe the sequence of how organisms eat one another to get food.
Use feeding relationships and a food chain to create a food web for an ecosystem.
Describe how an ecosystem is defined by the interactions among its organisms and physical factors.
Diagram a food web, using arrows to indicate what eats what.
Explain the functional roles and feeding relationships that constitute a food web.
Investigation 5: Finding the Energy
Define food
Describe how energy in food is measured.
Outline photosynthesis
Feeding Relationships define trophic levels: producer, consumer, and decomposer
Explain how organisms get the energy they need for life.
Discuss how photosynthesis makes energy available to organisms.
Describe how energy moves from one trophic level to another in an ecosystem.
Describe how every activity undertaken by living organisms involves expenditure of energy.

Investigation 6: Population Size
Describe reproductive potential.
Identify limiting factors in an ecosystem.
Discuss how biotic and abiotic factors in an environment can limit a population.
Explain the roles of both lab experiments and field observations in the study of populations.
Describe the population fluctuations in Mono Lake in terms of limiting factors and feeding relationships.
Investigation7: Ecoscenarios
Define ecosystem.
Identify common characteristics that all ecosystems share: trophic levels – producers, consumers, and decomposers.
Describe ways that all ecosystems are alike.
Describe factors that make ecosystems different from one another.
Discuss ways that activities of humans affect natural ecosystems.
Investigation 8: Adaptations
Define adaptation.
Distinguish between a feature and a trait.
Explain variation as it relates to features of organisms.
Explain how adaptations help organisms survive in an environment.
Describe how a population can change over time in response to environmental factors.
Investigation 9: Genetic Variation
Explain how individuals in a population vary by trait.
Define heredity, chromosomes, genes, and alleles.
Explain dominant and recessive alleles.
Define and differentiate between genotype and phenotype.
Use the terms homozygous and heterozygous.
Use Punnett squares to predict the proportions of offspring that will have certain traits.
Explain how organisms inherit features and traits from their parents.
Describe how dominant and recessive alleles interact to produce traits in a population.
Investigation 10: Natural Selection
Explain how environmental factors put pressures on populations.
Define natural selection.
Describe how selective pressure can affect the genetic makeup of a population.
Explain how the traits expressed by the members of a population can changes naturally over time.