Disciplinary Core Ideas: 14

Earth and Space Sciences:

Engineering, Technology, and Applications of Science:

Life Sciences:

MS-ESS3.D1: Human activities, such as the release of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, are major factors in the current rise in Earth’s mean surface temperature (global warming). Reducing the level of climate change and reducing human vulnerability to whatever climate changes do occur depend on the understanding of climate science, engineering capabilities, and other kinds of knowledge, such as understanding of human behavior and on applying that knowledge wisely in decisions and activities.

MS-ESS3.D: Global Climate Change

MS-ESS3: Earth and Human Activity

MS-ETS1.B1: A solution needs to be tested, and then modified on the basis of the test results, in order to improve it.

MS-ETS1.B: Developing Possible Solutions

MS-LS2.A1: Organisms, and populations of organisms, are dependent on their environmental interactions both with other living things and with nonliving factors.

MS-LS2.A2: In any ecosystem, organisms and populations with similar requirements for food, water, oxygen, or other resources may compete with each other for limited resources, access to which consequently constrains their growth and reproduction.

MS-LS2.A3: Growth of organisms and population increases are limited by access to resources.

MS-LS2.A: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems

MS-LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics

Middle School:

Disciplinary Core Ideas: 15

Earth and Space Sciences:

Engineering, Technology, and Applications of Science:

HS-ESS3 : Earth and Human Activity

HS-ESS3.D1: Though the magnitudes of human impacts are greater than they have ever been, so too are human abilities to model, predict, and manage current and future impacts.

HS-ESS3.D2: Through computer simulations and other studies, important discoveries are still being made about how the ocean, the atmosphere, and the biosphere interact and are modified in response to human activities.

HS-ESS3.D: Global Climate Change

HS-ETS1.B : Developing Possible Solutions

HS-ETS1.B1: When evaluating solutions, it is important to take into account a range of constraints, including cost, safety, reliability, and aesthetics, and to consider social, cultural, and environmental impacts.

HS-LS2.A1: Ecosystems have carrying capacities, which are limits to the numbers of organisms and populations they can support. These limits result from such factors as the availability of living and nonliving resources and from such challenges such as predation, competition, and disease. Organisms would have the capacity to produce populations of great size were it not for the fact that environments and resources are finite. This fundamental tension affects the abundance (number of individuals) of species in any given ecosystem.

HS-LS2.A: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems

HS-LS2.C2: Moreover, anthropogenic changes (induced by human activity) in the environment—including habitat destruction, pollution, introduction of invasive species, overexploitation, and climate change—can disrupt an ecosystem and threaten the survival of some species.

HS-LS2.C: Ecosystem Dynamics, Functioning, and Resilience

HS-LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics

High School:

Life Sciences: