Targets for seventh grade science
Raymond-Kermit-Watterson core
What are learning targets? These are essentially the California standards rewritten to
guide learning and studying.
Students enter copies of the targets into their sourcebooks and they are referred to as we
enter each lesson or activity.
What Targets are we using right now? These are listed below just as students copy them.
Life Science Targets
Students who are ON TARGET can explain clearly in writing,
orally and/or graphically:
1. the connection between evolution and diversity of
species.
2. how genetics and environment contribute to the
diversity of organisms.
3. the work of Darwin and his reasoning that led to the
conclusions he made.
4. how natural selection and evolution are connected.
5. the various lines of evidence that support evolution
including geology, fossils and comparative anatomy.
6. causes of extinction.
7. how evidence from rocks provides evidence for
evolution.
8. the structure of cells, their similarities and differences
and the function of the many cell parts.
In addition to the fairly wide scope targets, students are provided vocabulary lists prior to
study of a section or unit. The list below contains some of the words that support
understanding of several of the targets that deal with the evolution aspects of our current
targets:
Species
Adaption
Evolution
Scientific theory
Natural selection
Variation
Gradualism
Punctuated
Equilibria
Homologous
Structure
Branching tree
Dichotomous
Galapagos
Darwin
Infer
Finch
Competition
Selection
Variation
When we move to target 8, which is packed with vocabulary to support learning and
understanding. Though the seventh graders have not yet received these, I list them here for
future reference:
Compound
Microscope
Convex lens
Organelles
Cell wall
Cell membrane
Nucleus
Nuclear
Membrane
Chromatin
Nucleolus
Cytoplasm
Mitochondria
Endoplasmic
Reticulum
Ribosomes
Golgi bodies
Chloroplasts
Vacuoles
Lysosomes
Inorganic
Compounds
Carbohydrates
Lipids
Proteins
Nucleic acids
Amino acids
Enzymes
DNA
Diffusion
Osmosis
Engulfing
Resolution
RNA
Photosynthesis
Chlorophyll
Stomata
Heterotroph
Respiration
Fermentation
Of what use are the learning targets and word lists?
These can be sources of conversation by using the 4 to 0 scale with which students have become
familiar in many aspects of class (see explanation) I do not recommend simply looking these up
in a dictionary. Rather, I suggest revisiting the list and the targets from time to time since class
activities and readings will be sources of developing understanding.
You can help your seventh grader by listening to what they know or think they know and
recognizing that understanding does grow. I encourage students to recognize that learning IS a
process and all of us are at a beginning, unclear level at some point in that process. Knowing
that, is an important part of learning.