Enduring Understandings: 

• The cell is the fundamental unit of life.

• Cells are the basic units of structure and function in living things.

• Cells have basic needs for survival. They use energy, consume materials, require water, eliminate waste, and reproduce.

• Cells have particular structures that underlie their functions.

• The structures present in living things are related to the functions performed by those structures.

 

 

Essential Question(s): 

• How is the cell the basic unit of life?

• How do materials enter and leave cells?

• What are the structures and function of the cell?

• What are the functions of the major cell structures?

• How are the characteristics of life manifested by the cell?

• What can cells tell us about the organization of other systems?

• Why is each part of the cell essential to survival?

• How does scientific development rely on our knowledge of cells?

 

 

 

Standards:

 

NGSS

• MS-LS1-1.  Conduct an investigation to provide evidence that living things are made of cells; either one cell or many different numbers and types of cells. 

• MS-LS1-2.  Develop and use a model to describe the function of a cell as a whole and ways parts of cells contribute to the function. 

• MS-LS1-3.  Use argument supported by evidence for how the body is a system of interacting subsystems composed of groups of cells.

 

 

CCSS 

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ELA/Literacy 

• RST.6-8.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical texts. 

• RST.6-8.2 Determine the central ideas or conclusions of a text; provide an accurate summary of the text distinct from prior knowledge or opinions. 

• RI.6.8 Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, distinguishing claims that are supported by reasons and evidence from claims that are not. 

• WHST.6-8.1 Write arguments focused on discipline content. 

• WHST.6-8.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content. 

• WHST.6-8.7 Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration. 

• WHST.6-8.8 Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources; assess the credibility of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and providing basic bibliographic information for sources. 

• WHST.6-8.9 Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. 

• SL.8.5 Integrate multimedia and visual displays into presentations to clarify information, strengthen claims and evidence, and add interest. 

 

 

Mathematics 

• 6.EE.C.9 Use variables to represent two quantities in a real-world problem that change in relationship to one another; write an equation to express one quantity, thought of as the dependent variable, in terms of the other quantity, thought of as the independent variable. Analyze the relationship between the dependent and independent variables using graphs and tables, and relate these to the equation. 

• 6.SP.A.2 Understand that a set of data collected to answer a statistical question has a distribution which can be described by its center, spread, and overall shape. 

• 6.SP.B.4 Summarize numerical data sets in relation to their context.