Embedded Files
Theme: Sharing The Planet
Provocations For Central Idea->
Key Words-Dependent, Living Organisms, Non Living Things, Compete, Challenge, Environment, Resources, Survive, Adapt, Extinct, Evolution, Interaction
The Central Idea I have created using the Key Words-
All living organisms compete for resources to survive.
Central Idea: Interdependence, competition, evolution and extinction are natural processes of life.
Lines Of Inquiry:
Organisms are organized on a cellular basis.(Big Idea 7)
Competition amongst living things for resources.(Big Idea 8)
How genetic information is passed from one generation to another.(Big Idea 9)
How living things evolve and extinct.(Big Idea 10)
Key Concepts: Form, Connection, Causation, Change
Related Concepts: Structure, Interdependence, Relationship, Consequences & Impact
'What I Know' and 'What I Want To Know' about the Lines Of Inquiry.
Organisms are organized on a cellular basis:
Key Lessons From BIG IDEA 7-
1. Big Idea 7 says that all organisms are organized on cellular basis.
2. Organisms have many cells. These cells are assembled into larger structures. These larger structures are the organisms.
3. To understand larger structures, it is convenient to start with the smallest part.
4. From small to large parts of an organism, it increases in complexity.
5. Subatomic particles, atoms, molecules, organelles, cells, tissues, organs, organ systems, organisms and biosphere are the levels of increasing complexity.
6. Big Idea 1 and Big idea 7 are almost the same with a significant difference. Big Idea 1 says that all material in the universe is made up of small particles. Those small particles are atoms. In living or non-living things atoms are the small particles. Whereas cells are present only in living things.
7. Atom is the form of a small particle in a living or non-living thing. Whereas, cell is also has a form but it is a functioning unit in a living thing.
The 10 Levels Of Biological Organization
Competition amongst living things for resources:-
Key Lessons From BIG IDEA 8-
1.Big Idea 8 says that Competition occurs when organisms occupy the same or similar niches.
a)Competition occurs in virtually every ecosystem in nature. This relationship develops when more than one organism in an environment has the same need for resources as another to survive. Competition often results in the survival of the fittest.
b)A competitive relationship in a biological community includes the plant and animal species within the ecosystem that compete over food, territories and other things.
c)Competition among the members of the same species is known as intra-specific competition.
d) Rivalry often occurs between members of the same species within an ecological community, known as intraspecific competition. The most common of the competitive relationships, animals of the same species often live together in the same community. These individuals compete for limited resources like food, shelter and mates.
e) Intraspecific competition helps nature keep the population under control. When food is limited, the environment can only feed so many individuals of the same species. This results in the survival of the fittest, only those capable of winning against their counterparts survive.
2) When different species compete: Inter-specific Competition occurs when members of more than one species compete for the same resource.
Even though individual animals are competing for the same shelter or food, inter-specific competition is usually less critical than intra-specific competition.
Animals of different species typically compete with each other only for food, water and shelter but they often compete with members of their own species for mates and territory as well.
3) Plants also compete for space, nutrients and resources such as water and sunlight. This competition can shape how the ecosystem looks.
4) Evolutionary specification: Scientists posit that competitive relationships may at least be partially responsible for the evolutionary process. In natural selection, the individuals of a species best adapted to the environment around them survive to reproduce and pass on the genetics that make them well adapted.
Plants Also Compete:-
Plants also compete for space, nutrients and resources such as water and sunlight. This competition can shape how the ecosystem looks.
Taller trees shield a forest's understory -- the ground beneath the forest's tree-top canopy -- from sunlight, making it hard for anything to grow but the most shade-tolerant plants.
Competition occurs above - and belowground.
How genetic information is passed from one generation to another:
Key Lessons From BIG IDEA 9->
PART 1
1)A gene is a unit of heredity which is transferred from a parent to the child’. It is the genes, which make you look like your parents or grandparents.
2)Genetic information is passed from generation to generation through inherited units of chemical information-‐ this means you have secret code of chemical information, which is being passed down from your great grandparents generation till you.
3)Genetic material, including genes and DNA, controls the development, maintenance and reproduction of organisms – this means that your body is being maintained by that secret code of chemical information and it is the same secret code which will be passed down to your children and grandchildren.
PART 2
The long scientific name of DNA is deoxyribo nucleic acid.
DNA is a molecule that contains the information that contains the proteins.
Proteins along with water and sugars, fats and DNA constitute cells and create the chemicals that make our bodies to function.
The structure of DNA resembles a ladder twisted into a spiral shape called a double helix.
Mendel is the father of Genetics, who discovered and wrote about the principles that scientists use to examine genetics.
Mendel experimented with garden peas to find out why two different plants in the same species produced certain characteristics time after time. He discovered and identified dominant and recessive genes .
Dominant genes in us are the strongest and show up as we are. Recessive genes are hidden by the dominant genes.
PART 3
Mutations:
Mutations are changes in an organism’s genetic information that potentially affect the current functioning of that genetic information.
Changes in genetic information (for example, from mutation) can give rise to variation in characteristics and can be passed on through the generations.
Mutations can be caused by exposure to specific chemicals and radiation. These agents cause the DNA to break down.
Application of genetic mutation:
✔To control inherited diseases.
✔Improve agriculture and food products.
✔ Produce genetically engineered foods.
PART 4
Genetically modified organisms(GMOs):
According to WHO genetically modified organisms can be defined as organisms in which the genetic material(DNA) has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally by mating and / natural recombination.
Genetically modified foods(GM foods):
Genetically modified foods or GM foods, also known as genetically engineered foods or bio-engineered foods, are foods produced from organisms that have had changes introduced into their DNA using the methods of genetic engineering.
Genetic engineering techniques allow for the introduction of new traits as well as greater control over traits than previous methods such as selective breeding and mutation breeding.
How living things evolve and extinct:
Key Lessons From BIG IDEA 10->
1)According to the big idea 10, the diversity of organisms, living and extinct, is the result of evolution. It is because of evolution we began to acquire new characteristics, new needs, habitats and thus our identity changed.
2)Evolution made many modifications in life, brought genetic mutations, adaptations and thus brought diverse living organisms. That's how some of us have become humans, some animals, some birds , some plants, some insects and so on.
3)LUCA: The ancestor was a single-cell, bacterium-like organism. But it has a grand name, or at least an acronym. It is known as LUCA, the Last Universal Common Ancestor, and is estimated to have lived some four billion years ago.
LUCA is not thought to be the first life on Earth but rather the latest that is ancestral to all current existing life. While there is no specific fossil evidence of LUCA, it can be studied by comparing the genetic material of all modern organisms, its descendants. The genes describe a complex life form with many adapted features. The study concluded that the LUCA probably lived in the high-temperature water of deep sea vents near the ocean-floor where magma flows.
4)Survival of the fittest: Survival of the fittest is a famous phrase of Herbert Spencer which describes the idea that, in nature, there is competition to survive and reproduce. It means that the 'fittest' can survive regardless of complexity.
The definition of ‘fittest’ differs in each environment and condition and so do the means for the survival of the fittest.
5)Evolution of humans: Modern humans and apes both developed from the same apelike ancestor. Each group developed on its own. Modern humans evolved in stages from a series of earlier forms of humans. The bodies of these ancestors changed over time. Human ancestors also began walking upright on two feet and using tools. As they did, the shape of their legs, feet, hands, and other body parts changed.
Modern humans probably developed about 300,000 years ago. The scientific name of the species is Homo sapiens. Many scientists believe that the first modern humans evolved in Africa and then spread through Asia and Europe and later the Americas.
6)Extinction and its causes: Extinction is the dying out of a species. Extinction is the process of evolution that leads to the disappearance of a population or species. The mass extinction in the Cambrian era created niches or openings in the Earth’s ecosystems. Those niches allowed for new groups of organisms to thrive and diversify, which produced a range of new species. In the case of the Cretaceous extinction, the demise of the dinosaurs allowed mammals to thrive and grow larger.
The major causes of extinction are: Loss of food & habitat, ecosystem imbalance, catastrophic events like volcanic eruptions, climate changes, extermination/ abrupt demise of certain species either from other animals or from humans, diseases are the various causes of extinction.
Over All Reflection->
Application:-
I can connect this learning to real life by saving endangered animals, giving food to homeless people so they can can give birth to their off springs and more.
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