I am so excited to have you in my class, there are some awesome things you'll get to learn about! These are also called our Essential Standards:

• Students will understand that an ecosystem can sustain relatively stable numbers and types of organisms. A stable ecosystem is capable of recovering from moderate biological and physical changes.

• Students will be able to identify the structure and function of a cell, determine the cell’s role in an organism and that it can accomplish essential life processes. Students will also understand that macromolecules in a cell function to carry out important reactions that allow cycling of matter and flow of energy within and between organisms.

• Students will explain how information is passed from parent to offspring through deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecules in the form of chromosomes and that the variation and distribution of traits observed in a population depend on both genetic and environmental factors.

• Students will describe that natural selection is the result of environmental factors selecting for and against genetic traits. Traits that allow an individual to survive and reproduce are likely to increase in the next generation, causing the proportions of specific traits to change within a population.