This unit on metabolic reactions in the human body starts out with students exploring a real case study of a middle-school girl named M’Kenna, who reported some alarming symptoms to her doctor. Her symptoms included an inability to concentrate, headaches, stomach issues when she eats, and a lack of energy for everyday activities and sports that she used to play regularly. She also reported noticeable weight loss over the past few months, in spite of consuming what appeared to be a healthy diet. Her case sparks questions and ideas for investigations around trying to figure out which pathways and processes in M’Kenna’s body might be functioning differently than a healthy system and why.

Students investigate data specific to M’Kenna’s case in the form of doctor’s notes, endoscopy images and reports, growth charts, and micrographs. They also draw from their results from laboratory experiments on the chemical changes involving the processing of food and from digital interactives to explore how food is transported, transformed, stored, and used across different body systems in all people. Through this work of figuring out what is causing M’Kenna’s symptoms, the class discovers what happens to the food we eat after it enters our bodies and how M’Kenna’s different symptoms are connected.

Yogurt is the byproduct of hungry bacteria that digest the lactose in milk. You can make more yogurt just by feeding the bacteria more milk.

CK-12’s Life Science delivers a full course of study in the life sciences for the middle school student, relating an understanding of the history, disciplines, tools, and modern techniques of science to the exploration of cell biology, molecular biology, genetics, evolution, prokaryotes, protists,fungi, plants, animals, invertebrates, vertebrates, human biology, and ecology. This digital textbook was reviewed for its alignment with California content standards.

CK-12’s Life Science delivers a full course of study in the life sciences for the middle school student, relating an understanding of the history, disciplines, tools, and modern techniques of science to the exploration of cell biology, genetics, evolution, prokaryotes, protists, fungi, plants, the animal kingdom, the human body, and ecology. This digital textbook was reviewed for its alignment with California content standards.

Organization of Living Things: Cells Functions, Growth and Development- Students will learn how cells function, grow and develop.

L.OL.M.2 Cell Function: I am able to explain the role cells play in the survival of living organisms.


L.OL.M.3 Growth and Development: I am able to describe how living organisms grow and develop over time

In this lesson, students learn about the basics of cellular respiration. They also learn about the application of cellular respiration to engineering and bioremediation. And, students are introduced to the process of bioremediation and several examples of how bioremediation is used during the cleanup of environmental contaminants.

This simulation shows the relationship between the inputs and outputs in the chloroplasts of plants to help explain how they convert water and carbon dioxide to glucose and water with the help of energy absorbed from light. It is used in Lesson 5 of Unit 7.4 in the OpenSciEd curriculum.

Students first consider what supports all life on Earth
and are then introduced to the levels of environmental
organization (biosphere, biome, ecosystem, community,
population, and organism).

Students take a short field trip into the schoolyard for a scavenger hunt to find examples of nonliving (abiotic) and living (biotic) ecosystem components, including organisms, habitat, population, community, ecosystem, sunlight, water, temperature, nutrients, and wind. This activity can be used as an informal assessment for Lesson 1.

Students will observe and describe the communities of plants and animals they discover within mini-ecosystems found in their schoolyards. Students will use tools to survey abiotic components of the mini-ecosystems – temperature, soil, moisture, etc. In order to observe changes over time, students should repeat the same activity (in same location) several times over the course of the year.Students answer these essential questions: What type of ecosystem is our schoolyard a part of and what miniecosystems might be found within it? and How do ecosystems change over time?

Students read a series of riddles depicting the habitat requirements for specific Michigan wildlife species; they then identify the animal as well as which type of ecosystem (forest, wetland, coastal dune, or river) may offer appropriate habitat for that species.

In this activity students will identify where the ingredients in a tomato and cheese sandwich originated. They will trace a food item from its place as a sandwich ingredient to where it was originally grown. Students then suggest ways that people can minimize their impact on ecosystems and biodiversity by making informed decisions about food choices.

Presentation to teach that we use food as fuel and to introduce the joule.

In this lesson, students will learn that minerals are a necessary part of our diet. They will learn that different minerals have different functions in the body. More specifically, they will discover that iron is necessary to carry oxygen around the body. In the associated activity, students will design a process that removes the most iron from the cereal.

The Ecology Student Edition book is one of ten volumes making up the Human Biology curriculum, an interdisciplinary and inquiry-based approach to the study of life science.

This simulation explores the relationship between the amount of surface area in the small intestine and the rate at which it absorbs food particles into the circulatory system. This simulation is used in Lesson 8 of Unit 7.3 of the OpenSciEd curriculum.

CK-12 Life Science Honors For Middle School covers seven units: Understanding Living Things; Cells: The Building Blocks of Life; Genetics and Evolution; Prokaryotes, Protists, Fungi, and Plants; The Animal Kingdom; The Human Body; and Ecology.

Students are introduced to our planet's structure and its dynamic system of natural forces through an examination of the natural hazards of earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, tsunamis, floods and tornados, as well as avalanches, fires, hurricanes and thunderstorms. They see how these natural events become disasters when they impact people, and how engineers help to make people safe from them. Students begin by learning about the structure of the Earth; they create clay models showing the Earth's layers, see a continental drift demo, calculate drift over time, and make fault models. They learn how earthquakes happen; they investigate the integrity of structural designs using model seismographs. Using toothpicks and mini-marshmallows, they create and test structures in a simulated earthquake on a tray of Jell-O. Students learn about the causes, composition and types of volcanoes, and watch and measure a class mock eruption demo, observing the phases that change a mountain's shape. Students learn that the different types of landslides are all are the result of gravity, friction and the materials involved. Using a small-scale model of a debris chute, they explore how landslides start in response to variables in material, slope and water content. Students learn about tsunamis, discovering what causes them and makes them so dangerous. Using a table-top-sized tsunami generator, they test how model structures of different material types fare in devastating waves. Students learn about the causes of floods, their benefits and potential for disaster. Using riverbed models made of clay in baking pans, students simulate the impact of different river volumes, floodplain terrain and levee designs in experimental trials. They learn about the basic characteristics, damage and occurrence of tornadoes, examining them closely by creating water vortices in soda bottles. They complete mock engineering analyses of tornado damage, analyze and graph US tornado damage data, and draw and present structure designs intended to withstand high winds.

OpenSciEd middle school is NGSS-aligned science curriculum. Designed for all students and teachers, OpenSciEd includes student-facing materials as well as teacher guides. As with most instructional materials, excellent professional learning for teachers should be provided. For more information in Michigan contact the Michigan Mathematics and Science Leadership Network, starrm@mimathandscience.org