How Can I Teach with This Tool?

CK-12's Life Science module provides resources for more than 250 short topics organized under nine easily perusable themes (such as Plants). Most topics include a brief article (often with related links, video clips, and review questions) as well as associated media. This connected content is the highlight, especially the Real World Applications, which includes videos and articles on subjects like underwater microscopes, oysters saving NY harbor, and rat basketball. Use these as class openers to jump-start kids’ engagement. Or, with free accounts, you can assign content directly to kids.

In general, you'll find the readings here aren't informative enough to give kids the whole picture. Nonetheless, they can be engaging at-home introductions in a flipped-classroom setting, or effective in-class supplements. If they’re logged in, students can highlight text and type notes, which should provide an effective springboard for class conversations. Teachers should note that the Next Generation of Science Standards correlations listed are for related information, and not the tasks that meet the standards.

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Standards:

Key Standards Supported

Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity

  • MS-LS4-1

    Analyze and interpret data for patterns in the fossil record that document the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of life forms throughout the history of life on Earth under the assumption that natural laws operate today as in the past.

  • MS-LS4-2

    Apply scientific ideas to construct an explanation for the anatomical similarities and differences among modern organisms and between modern and fossil organisms to infer evolutionary relationships.

  • MS-LS4-4

    Construct an explanation based on evidence that describes how genetic variations of traits in a population increase some individuals’ probability of surviving and reproducing in a specific environment.

  • MS-LS4-5

    Gather and synthesize information about the technologies that have changed the way humans influence the inheritance of desired traits in organisms.

  • HS-LS4-2

    Construct an explanation based on evidence that the process of evolution primarily results from four factors: (1) the potential for a species to increase in number, (2) the heritable genetic variation of individuals in a species due to mutation and sexual reproduction, (3) competition for limited resources, and (4) the proliferation of those organisms that are better able to survive and reproduce in the environment.

  • HS-LS4-4

    Construct an explanation based on evidence for how natural selection leads to adaptation of populations.

  • HS-LS4-5

    Evaluate the evidence supporting claims that changes in environmental conditions may result in: (1) increases in the number of individuals of some species, (2) the emergence of new species over time, and (3) the extinction of other species.

Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics

  • MS-LS2-1

    Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.

  • MS-LS2-2

    Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.

  • HS-LS2-3

    Construct and revise an explanation based on evidence for the cycling of matter and flow of energy in aerobic and anaerobic conditions.

  • HS-LS2-6

    Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.

  • HS-LS2-8

    Evaluate the evidence for the role of group behavior on individual and species’ chances to survive and reproduce.

From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes

  • MS-LS1-3

    Use argument supported by evidence for how the body is a system of interacting subsystems composed of groups of cells.

  • MS-LS1-5

    Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how environmental and genetic factors influence the growth of organisms.

  • MS-LS1-6

    Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for the role of photosynthesis in the cycling of matter and flow of energy into and out of organisms.

  • MS-LS1-8

    Gather and synthesize information that sensory receptors respond to stimuli by sending messages to the brain for immediate behavior or storage as memories.

  • HS-LS1-1

    Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the structure of DNA determines the structure of proteins which carry out the essential functions of life through systems of specialized cells.

  • HS-LS1-4

    Use a model to illustrate the role of cellular division (mitosis) and differentiation in producing and maintaining complex organisms.

  • HS-LS1-5

    Use a model to illustrate how photosynthesis transforms light energy into stored chemical energy.

  • HS-LS1-7

    Use a model to illustrate that cellular respiration is a chemical process whereby the bonds of food molecules and oxygen molecules are broken and the bonds in new compounds are formed resulting in a net transfer of energy.

Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits

  • HS-LS3-1

    Ask questions to clarify relationships about the role of DNA and chromosomes in coding the instructions for characteristic traits passed from parents to offspring.

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