Students will learn how ecosystems have carrying capacities that limit population growth based on available resources and environmental factors. They will also explore how human activities impact biodiversity and why maintaining biodiversity is essential for healthy, resilient ecosystems and human well-being. 

Students will learn how photosynthesis and cellular respiration move matter and energy through living systems, allowing organisms to obtain and use energy for life processes. They will also examine how these processes connect plants, animals, and Earth's atmosphere through the cycling of carbon, oxygen, water, and energy. 

Students will study how DNA contains the instructions needed to make proteins, which carry out important functions in cells. Students will construct explanations on how the steps of transcription and translation allow cells to produce proteins based on genetic instructions. 

Students will investigate how cells grow, divide, and specialize to form tissues and organs in multicellular organisms. They will also explore how DNA carries genetic information, directs protein production, and is passed from parent cells to daughter cells during cell division. 

Students will learn how genetic variation is created through meiosis, mutations, and the inheritance of traits from parents to offspring. They will also explore how both genes and environmental factors influence the expression and distribution of traits within populations. 

Students will learn how evidence from DNA, fossils, anatomy, and embryology supports the theory of evolution and reveals relationships among species. They will also examine how genetic variation, natural selection, and environmental changes drive adaptation, speciation, and the survival or extinction of populations over time.