SCIENCE: Forest Ridge School District 142
Structure & Function in Living Systems Unit: Grade 7
Unifying Theme: Stability & Change
Essential Question: How can we investigate conditions of stability and change within designed and natural systems?
Guiding Questions:
How do structures of organisms help them to perform life’s functions?
What processes do living things use to live, grow and reproduce?
How are living systems organized? Support with evidence.
How can we explain the statement: The cell is the fundamental unit of life?
How do cell structures and processes direct the healthy functioning of multi-cellular organisms?
How do the structure and functioning of organisms change over time? What evidence can we gather from the past?
Big Ideas
Living systems at all levels of organization demonstrate the complimentary nature of structure and function.
Important levels of organization of structure and function include cells, organs, tissues, organ systems, whole organisms and ecosystems.
The cell is the fundamental unit of life. Most organisms are single cells: other organisms are multi-cellular
(animals/plants).
Cells carry on many functions needed to sustain life.
Specialized cells perform specialized functions in multicellular organisms.
Change Over Time
All forms of life change over time by natural selection.
Power Standards
Differentiate among the levels of organization within a living system.
Analyze the relationship between structure and function.
Compare and contrast structure and function in specialized cells.
Justify an explanation of change over time based upon natural selection.
Support with evidence how we know organisms increased in complexity over time through analysis of internal structures, external adaptive features and examination of the fossil record.
Descriptors: Based on National & State Documents
Differentiate among the levels of organization within a living system.
Explain how cells function as the “building blocks” of organisms and describe the requirements for cells to live.
Compare and contrast unicellular and multi-cellular organisms.
Compare and contrast plant and animal cells.
Analyze the relationship between unique structures and their functions in living organisms.
Investigate the role of variation and adaptations in natural selection.
Construct an explanation of how organisms changed over time using supporting evidence from Darwin’s
Theory of Natural Selection.
Generate explanations of how organisms change over time using evidence from comparative anatomy, physiology and the fossil record.
ASSESSMENT
Summative:
Create a Cell Analogy Book – Relate cell structure and function to parts in and everyday system.
Formative:
Compare and contrast the complexity of organization in living systems.
Analyze relationship between structure and function of cells.
Explain how cells function as “building blocks” of organisms and describe the requirements of cells to live.
Compare and contrast plant and animal cells.
Compare and contrast prokaryote/eukaryote
Create a cell structure/function chart
Summative:
Support with evidence: Does daphnia’s rapid evolution support
Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection?
Formative:
Distinguish between claim and evidence
Relate structure to function

The unity among organisms becomes apparent from an analysis of internal structures, the similarity of their chemical processes and evidence of common ancestry.
The earth’s present day species developed from earlier distinctive different species through gradual processes over many generations.
Extinction of species is common; most of the species that have lived on earth no longer exist.
Scientific Inquiry
Scientific inquiry is a dynamic process that is not limited to one scientific method.
Inquiry engages learners in asking scientifically oriented questions, gathering and prioritizing evidence, formulating explanations, making connections to scientific knowledge and communicating and justifying explanations.
The Nature of Science
Science is an imaginative endeavor that is subject to modification as new information challenges current theories. It involves the collection of data, the use of logical reasoning, argumentation and the devising of hypotheses and explanations informed by evidence.
Propose scientific questions and engage in active inquiry gathering and prioritizing evidence, formulating explanations, making connections to scientific knowledge and communicating and justifying explanations.
Justify scientific claims, using supporting evidence.
Formulate an explanation of Natural Selection
Distinguish claim from evidence
Explain Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection
Compare and contrast the evolution of a variety of organisms.
(Examples: Bird beaks, fruit flies, diatoms)
Formative:
After comparing and contrasting the evolution of a variety of organisms formulate an explanation of Natural Selection.
Formative
Develop an evidence chart to support the Theory of Natural Selection.

Habits of Mind
Scientists keep honest/unbiased, clear and accurate records, value hypotheses and understand that more than one explanation can be given for the same evidence.
Scientists value the role of computation and estimation in their work.
Scientists use a variety of tools to inform their observations.
Scientists organize information using tables, graphs, diagrams and symbols.
Scientists question claims based on vague attributions and are skeptical of arguments based on small data samples.
Scientists embrace unexpected results.
Examine Darwin’s journal entries (Primary
Documents)
Synthesize Darwin’s findings.
Vocabulary
Tier Two: evidence, claim, support, argue, defend, analyze, justify, change, stability, theory
Tier Three: structure, function, unicellular, multi-cellular, cell, organelles, tissue, organ, organ system, prokaryotic, eukaryotic, natural selection
See formative section one