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Home » SBE Home » Standards &
Frameworks » Content Standards

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Biology/Life Sciences - Grades Nine Through Twelve
Science
Content Standards.

Standards that all students are expected to achieve in the
course of their studies are unmarked.
Standards that all students
should have the opportunity to learn are marked with an asterisk
(*).

Cell Biology

The fundamental life processes of plants and animals depend on
a variety of chemical reactions that occur in specialized areas of
the organism's cells. As a basis for understanding this concept:

Students know cells are enclosed within
semipermeable membranes that regulate their interaction with
their surroundings.

Students know enzymes are proteins that catalyze
biochemical reactions without altering the reaction equilibrium
and the activities of enzymes depend on the temperature, ionic
conditions, and the pH of the surroundings.

Students know how prokaryotic cells, eukaryotic
cells (including those from plants and animals), and viruses
differ in complexity and general structure.

Students know the central dogma of molecular
biology outlines the flow of information from transcription of
ribonucleic acid (RNA) in the nucleus to translation of proteins
on ribosomes in the cytoplasm.

Students know the role of the endoplasmic reticulum
and Golgi apparatus in the secretion of proteins.

Students know usable energy is captured from
sunlight by chloroplasts and is stored through the synthesis of
sugar from carbon dioxide.

Students know the role of the mitochondria in
making stored chemical-bond energy available to cells by
completing the breakdown of glucose to carbon dioxide.

Students know most macromolecules (polysaccharides,
nucleic acids, proteins, lipids) in cells and organisms are
synthesized from a small collection of simple precursors.

* Students know how chemiosmotic gradients in the
mitochondria and chloroplast store energy for ATP production.

* Students know how eukaryotic cells are given
shape and internal organization by a cytoskeleton or cell wall
or both.

Genetics

Mutation and sexual reproduction lead to genetic variation in
a population. As a basis for understanding this concept:

Students know meiosis is an early step in sexual
reproduction in which the pairs of chromosomes separate and
segregate randomly during cell division to produce gametes
containing one chromosome of each type.

Students know only certain cells in a multicellular
organism undergo meiosis.

Students know how random chromosome segregation
explains the probability that a particular allele will be in a
gamete.

Students know new combinations of alleles may be
generated in a zygote through the fusion of male and female
gametes (fertilization).

Students know why approximately half of an
individual's DNA sequence comes from each parent.

Students know the role of chromosomes in
determining an individual's sex.

Students know how to predict possible combinations
of alleles in a zygote from the genetic makeup of the parents.

A multicellular organism develops from a single zygote, and
its phenotype depends on its genotype, which is established at
fertilization. As a basis for understanding this concept:

Students know how to predict the probable outcome
of phenotypes in a genetic cross from the genotypes of the
parents and mode of inheritance (autosomal or X-linked, dominant
or recessive).

Students know the genetic basis for Mendel's laws
of segregation and independent assortment.

* Students know how to predict the probable mode of
inheritance from a pedigree diagram showing phenotypes.

* Students know how to use data on frequency of
recombination at meiosis to estimate genetic distances between
loci and to interpret genetic maps of chromosomes.

Genes are a set of instructions encoded in the DNA sequence of
each organism that specify the sequence of amino acids in proteins
characteristic of that organism. As a basis for understanding this
concept:

Students know the general pathway by which
ribosomes synthesize proteins, using tRNAs to translate genetic
information in mRNA.

Students know how to apply the genetic coding rules
to predict the sequence of amino acids from a sequence of codons
in RNA.

Students know how mutations in the DNA sequence of
a gene may or may not affect the expression of the gene or the
sequence of amino acids in an encoded protein.

Students know specialization of cells in
multicellular organisms is usually due to different patterns of
gene expression rather than to differences of the genes
themselves.

Students know proteins can differ from one another
in the number and sequence of amino acids.

* Students know why proteins having different amino
acid sequences typically have different shapes and chemical
properties.

The genetic composition of cells can be altered by
incorporation of exogenous DNA into the cells. As a basis for
understanding this concept:

Students know the general structures and functions
of DNA, RNA, and protein.

Students know how to apply base-pairing rules to
explain precise copying of DNA during semiconservative
replication and transcription of information from DNA into mRNA.

Students know how genetic engineering
(biotechnology) is used to produce novel biomedical and
agricultural products.

* Students know how basic DNA technology
(restriction digestion by endonucleases, gel electrophoresis,
ligation, and transformation) is used to construct recombinant
DNA molecules.

* Students know how exogenous DNA can be inserted
into bacterial cells to alter their genetic makeup and support
expression of new protein products.

Ecology

Stability in an ecosystem is a balance between competing
effects. As a basis for understanding this concept:

Students know biodiversity is the sum total of
different kinds of organisms and is affected by alterations of
habitats.

Students know how to analyze changes in an
ecosystem resulting from changes in climate, human activity,
introduction of nonnative species, or changes in population
size.

Students know how fluctuations in population size
in an ecosystem are determined by the relative rates of birth,
immigration, emigration, and death.

Students know how water, carbon, and nitrogen cycle
between abiotic resources and organic matter in the ecosystem
and how oxygen cycles through photosynthesis and respiration.

Students know a vital part of an ecosystem is the
stability of its producers and decomposers.

Students know at each link in a food web some
energy is stored in newly made structures but much energy is
dissipated into the environment as heat. This dissipation may be
represented in an energy pyramid.

* Students know how to distinguish between the
accommodation of an individual organism to its environment and
the gradual adaptation of a lineage of organisms through genetic
change.

Evolution

The frequency of an allele in a gene pool of a population
depends on many factors and may be stable or unstable over time.
As a basis for understanding this concept:

Students know why natural selection acts on the
phenotype rather than the genotype of an organism.

Students know why alleles that are lethal in a
homozygous individual may be carried in a heterozygote and thus
maintained in a gene pool.

Students know new mutations are constantly being
generated in a gene pool.

Students know variation within a species increases
the likelihood that at least some members of a species will
survive under changed environmental conditions.

* Students know the conditions for Hardy-Weinberg
equilibrium in a population and why these conditions are not
likely to appear in nature.

* Students know how to solve the Hardy-Weinberg
equation to predict the frequency of genotypes in a population,
given the frequency of phenotypes.

Evolution is the result of genetic changes that occur in
constantly changing environments. As a basis for understanding
this concept:

Students know how natural selection determines the
differential survival of groups of organisms.

Students know a great diversity of species
increases the chance that at least some organisms survive major
changes in the environment.

Students know the effects of genetic drift on the
diversity of organisms in a population.

Students know reproductive or geographic isolation
affects speciation.

Students know how to analyze fossil evidence with
regard to biological diversity, episodic speciation, and mass
extinction.

* Students know how to use comparative embryology,
DNA or protein sequence comparisons, and other independent
sources of data to create a branching diagram (cladogram) that
shows probable evolutionary relationships.

* Students know how several independent molecular
clocks, calibrated against each other and combined with evidence
from the fossil record, can help to estimate how long ago
various groups of organisms diverged evolutionarily from one
another.

Physiology

As a result of the coordinated structures and functions of
organ systems, the internal environment of the human body remains
relatively stable (homeostatic) despite changes in the outside
environment. As a basis for understanding this concept:

Students know how the complementary activity of
major body systems provides cells with oxygen and nutrients and
removes toxic waste products such as carbon dioxide.

Students know how the nervous system mediates
communication between different parts of the body and the body's
interactions with the environment.

Students know how feedback loops in the nervous and
endocrine systems regulate conditions in the body.

Students know the functions of the nervous system
and the role of neurons in transmitting electrochemical
impulses.

Students know the roles of sensory neurons,
interneurons, and motor neurons in sensation, thought, and
response.

* Students know the individual functions and sites
of secretion of digestive enzymes (amylases, proteases,
nucleases, lipases), stomach acid, and bile salts.

* Students know the homeostatic role of the kidneys
in the removal of nitrogenous wastes and the role of the liver
in blood detoxification and glucose balance.

* Students know the cellular and molecular basis of
muscle contraction, including the roles of actin, myosin,
Ca+2 , and ATP.

* Students know how hormones (including digestive,
reproductive, osmoregulatory) provide internal feedback
mechanisms for homeostasis at the cellular level and in whole
organisms.

Organisms have a variety of mechanisms to combat disease. As a
basis for under-standing the human immune response:

Students know the role of the skin in providing
nonspecific defenses against infection.

Students know the role of antibodies in the body's
response to infection.

Students know how vaccination protects an
individual from infectious diseases.

Students know there are important differences
between bacteria and viruses with respect to their requirements
for growth and replication, the body's primary defenses against
bacterial and viral infections, and effective treatments of
these infections.

Students know why an individual with a compromised
immune system (for example, a person with AIDS) may be unable to
fight off and survive infections by microorganisms that are
usually benign.

* Students know the roles of phagocytes,
B-lymphocytes, and T-lymphocytes in the immune system.

Questions: State Board of
Education | 916-319-0693

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Last Modified: Friday, July 21,
2006