Course Description
This course teaches the student how organisms interact with the environment and with each other and how they adapt to fit into their environmental niche.
Credits: 5
Languages: English and Spanish
Course Content
Unit I - Ecology
- Explain what makes up an Ecosystem.
- List the Limiting Factors which affect the distribution and success of living things.
- Explain Energy Flow through an ecosystem.
- Identify the Big Four Elements in living things.
- Briefly explain Photosynthesis, its function, and write its equation.
- Explain the process of Respiration.
- Recognize ways in which Matter is Recycled through the biosphere.
- Explain and practice the Writing Process
Unit II - Producer Organisms, and Other Mysteries of Life
- List four giant molecules essential to living things.
- Describe the parts of the cell and the process of osmosis.
- Appreciate the chemical processes in one celled organisms and the contribution of plankton.
- Explain the importance of simple plants.
- Classify higher plants and explain the function of their structures.
- Explain two ways that higher plants reproduce and the advantages of each method.
- Explain how genetic traits are inherited.
- Explore careers related to one-celled organisms and plants.
- Conduct a scientific investigation using seeds.
Unit III - Animal Systems and Species
- Explain why predators need binocular vision and prey need monocular vision.
- Compare the compound eyes of insects with the eyes of vertebrates, including color vision.
- Explain how the nervous system is organized and name the major parts.
- Compare the body parts of herbivorous and carnivorous animals, including beaks, teeth, feet and stomachs.
- Trace a sandwich through the digestive system and name the major parts.
- Trace a drop of blood through the circulatory system, naming the parts of the system.
- Name major structures and functions of the respiratory and excretory systems.
- Understand that sexual reproduction requires a special kind of cell division.
- Compare fertilization of water and land animals.
- Compare embryo development of egg-laying animals and placental mammals.
- Compare precocial and altricial young, and explain how the care required for each is different.
- Identify the factors that destroy species.
- Be aware of laws regulating the extinction of species, and be able to make decisions regarding extinction.
- Conduct and report on a Scientific Project using the scientific method.
Unit IV - Population Communities and Ecosystems
- Calculate population density and averages.
- Distinguish between immigrants and emigrants in a mobile population.
- Define a geometric rate of increase.
- Diagram a food web, given a description of a community.
- Identify three types of food chains in a community.
- Identify two kinds of symbiotic relationships.
- Define natural succession and climax communities.
- Define the carrying capacity of an ecosystem.
- Identify four factors that control populations.
- Identify factors that give an ecosystem stability.
- Give three examples of ecosystems that have global effects.
- Conduct and report on a Scientific Project using the scientific method.
Unit V - Plants and Animals in the Biomes of California
- Define biosphere and give an example of human actions that affect the biosphere.
- Give the name and characteristics of each of the six zoogeographic realms.
- Describe at least seven important terrestrial biomes and give examples of the organisms found there.
- Compare marine and freshwater biomes.
- List six factors that control the climate zones to the plants found there.
- Identify birds and mammals commonly seen in different biomes in California.
- Identify adaptations that enable animals to live in their biome.
- Conduct and report on a Scientific Project using the scientific method.
