• Participate in a supported learning community alongside your peers to build content and pedagogical knowledge and skills. (Common to all courses)
• Experience phenomena-driven lessons which model three dimensional NGSS teaching and learning appropriate for 3rd–8th grade students. (Common to all courses)
• Explore how evolution is fundamental to life science while investigating topics of cells, genetics and natural selection.
• Understand that cells are the basic unit of structure and function in living things.
• Learn how DNA functions as the genetic material of living organisms.
• Investigate how evolution is driven by the process of natural selection of organisms best adapted to their environment.
• Discover the evidence for evolution and how it is integral to other disciplines of science.
• Explore how the processes of the fundamentals of life science have an impact on our daily lives.

NGSS Disciplinary Core Ideas

LS1: From molecules to organisms: structures and processes 

• LS1.A: Structure and function 
• LS1.B: Growth and development of organisms 
• LS1.C: Organization for matter and energy flow in organisms 

LS3: Heredity: inheritance and variation of traits 

• LS3.A: Inheritance of traits 
• LS3.B: Variation of Traits 

LS4: Biological evolution: unity and diversity 

• LS4.A: Evidence of common ancestry and diversity 
• LS4.B: Natural Selection
• LS4.C: Adaptation 
• LS4.D: Biodiversity and humans