| Standards that all students
are expected to achieve in the course of their studies are unmarked.
Standards that all students should have the opportunity to learn are
marked with an asterisk (*).
Cell Biology 
1. The fundamental life processes of plants and animals depend on a
variety of chemical reactions that occur in specialized areas of the
organism's cells. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know cells are enclosed within semipermeable
membranes that regulate their interaction with their surroundings.
b. Students know enzymes are proteins that catalyze
biochemical reactions without altering the reaction equilibrium and
the activities of enzymes depend on the temperature, ionic
conditions, and the pH of the surroundings.
c. Students know how prokaryotic cells, eukaryotic cells
(including those from plants and animals), and viruses differ in
complexity and general structure.
d. Students know the central dogma of molecular biology
outlines the flow of information from transcription of ribonucleic
acid (RNA) in the nucleus to translation of proteins on ribosomes in
the cytoplasm.
e. Students know the role of the endoplasmic reticulum and
Golgi apparatus in the secretion of proteins.
f. Students know usable energy is captured from sunlight
by chloroplasts and is stored through the synthesis of sugar from
carbon dioxide.
g. Students know the role of the mitochondria in making
stored chemical-bond energy available to cells by completing the
breakdown of glucose to carbon dioxide.
h. Students know most macromolecules (polysaccharides,
nucleic acids, proteins, lipids) in cells and organisms are
synthesized from a small collection of simple precursors.
i.* Students know how chemiosmotic gradients in the
mitochondria and chloroplast store energy for ATP production.
j* Students know how eukaryotic cells are given shape and
internal organization by a cytoskeleton or cell wall or both.
Genetics
2. Mutation and sexual reproduction lead to genetic variation in a
population. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know meiosis is an early step in sexual
reproduction in which the pairs of chromosomes separate and
segregate randomly during cell division to produce gametes
containing one chromosome of each type.
b. Students know only certain cells in a multicellular
organism undergo meiosis.
c. Students know how random chromosome segregation explains
the probability that a particular allele will be in a gamete.
d. Students know new combinations of alleles may be
generated in a zygote through the fusion of male and female gametes
(fertilization).
e. Students know why approximately half of an individual's
DNA sequence comes from each parent.
f. Students know the role of chromosomes in determining an
individual's sex.
g. Students know how to predict possible combinations of
alleles in a zygote from the genetic makeup of the parents.
3. A multicellular organism develops from a single zygote, and its
phenotype depends on its genotype, which is established at
fertilization. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know how to predict the probable outcome of
phenotypes in a genetic cross from the genotypes of the parents and
mode of inheritance (autosomal or X-linked, dominant or recessive).
b. Students know the genetic basis for Mendel's laws of
segregation and independent assortment.
c.* Students know how to predict the probable mode of
inheritance from a pedigree diagram showing phenotypes.
d.* Students know how to use data on frequency of
recombination at meiosis to estimate genetic distances between loci
and to interpret genetic maps of chromosomes.
4. Genes are a set of instructions encoded in the DNA sequence of
each organism that specify the sequence of amino acids in proteins
characteristic of that organism. As a basis for understanding this
concept:
a. Students know the general pathway by which ribosomes
synthesize proteins, using tRNAs to translate genetic information in
mRNA.
b. Students know how to apply the genetic coding rules to
predict the sequence of amino acids from a sequence of codons in
RNA.
c. Students know how mutations in the DNA sequence of a
gene may or may not affect the expression of the gene or the
sequence of amino acids in an encoded protein.
d. Students know specialization of cells in multicellular
organisms is usually due to different patterns of gene expression
rather than to differences of the genes themselves.
e. Students know proteins can differ from one another in
the number and sequence of amino acids.
f.* Students know why proteins having different amino acid
sequences typically have different shapes and chemical properties.
5. The genetic composition of cells can be altered by incorporation
of exogenous DNA into the cells. As a basis for understanding this
concept:
a. Students know the general structures and functions of
DNA, RNA, and protein.
b. Students know how to apply base-pairing rules to explain
precise copying of DNA during semiconservative replication and
transcription of information from DNA into mRNA.
c. Students know how genetic engineering (biotechnology)
is used to produce novel biomedical and agricultural products.
d.* Students know how basic DNA technology (restriction
digestion by endonucleases, gel electrophoresis, ligation, and
transformation) is used to construct recombinant DNA molecules.
e.* Students know how exogenous DNA can be inserted into
bacterial cells to alter their genetic makeup and support expression
of new protein products.
Ecology
6. Stability in an ecosystem is a balance between competing effects.
As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know biodiversity is the sum total of
different kinds of organisms and is affected by alterations of
habitats.
b. Students know how to analyze changes in an ecosystem
resulting from changes in climate, human activity, introduction of
nonnative species, or changes in population size.
c. Students know how fluctuations in population size in an
ecosystem are deter-mined by the relative rates of birth,
immigration, emigration, and death.
d. Students know how water, carbon, and nitrogen cycle
between abiotic resources and organic matter in the ecosystem and
how oxygen cycles through photosynthesis and respiration.
e. Students know a vital part of an ecosystem is the
stability of its producers and decomposers.
f. Students know at each link in a food web some energy is
stored in newly made structures but much energy is dissipated into
the environment as heat. This dissipation may be represented in an
energy pyramid.
g.* Students know how to distinguish between the
accommodation of an individual organism to its environment and the
gradual adaptation of a lineage of organisms through genetic change.
Evolution
7. The frequency of an allele in a gene pool of a population depends
on many factors and may be stable or unstable over time. As a basis
for understanding this concept:
a. Students know why natural selection acts on the
phenotype rather than the genotype of an organism.
b. Students know why alleles that are lethal in a
homozygous individual may be carried in a heterozygote and thus
maintained in a gene pool.
c. Students know new mutations are constantly being
generated in a gene pool.
d. Students know variation within a species increases the
likelihood that at least some members of a species will survive
under changed environmental conditions.
e.* Students know the conditions for Hardy-Weinberg
equilibrium in a population and why these conditions are not likely
to appear in nature.
f.* Students know how to solve the Hardy-Weinberg equation
to predict the frequency of genotypes in a population, given the
frequency of phenotypes.
8. Evolution is the result of genetic changes that occur in
constantly changing environments. As a basis for understanding this
concept:
a. Students know how natural selection determines the
differential survival of groups of organisms.
b. Students know a great diversity of species increases
the chance that at least some organisms survive major changes in the
environment.
c. Students know the effects of genetic drift on the
diversity of organisms in a population.
d. Students know reproductive or geographic isolation
affects speciation.
e. Students know how to analyze fossil evidence with regard
to biological diversity, episodic speciation, and mass extinction.
f.* Students know how to use comparative embryology, DNA
or protein sequence comparisons, and other independent sources of
data to create a branching diagram (cladogram) that shows probable
evolutionary relationships.
g.* Students know how several independent molecular
clocks, calibrated against each other and combined with evidence
from the fossil record, can help to estimate how long ago various
groups of organisms diverged evolutionarily from one another.
Physiology
9. As a result of the coordinated structures and functions of organ
systems, the internal environment of the human body remains relatively
stable (homeostatic) despite changes in the outside environment. As a
basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know how the complementary activity of major
body systems provides cells with oxygen and nutrients and removes
toxic waste products such as carbon dioxide.
b. Students know how the nervous system mediates
communication between different parts of the body and the body's
interactions with the environment.
c. Students know how feedback loops in the nervous and
endocrine systems regulate conditions in the body.
d. Students know the functions of the nervous system and
the role of neurons in transmitting electrochemical impulses.
e. Students know the roles of sensory neurons,
interneurons, and motor neurons in sensation, thought, and response.
f.* Students know the individual functions and sites of
secretion of digestive enzymes (amylases, proteases, nucleases,
lipases), stomach acid, and bile salts.
g.* Students know the homeostatic role of the kidneys in
the removal of nitrogenous wastes and the role of the liver in blood
detoxification and glucose balance.
h.* Students know the cellular and molecular basis of
muscle contraction, including the roles of actin, myosin, Ca+2,
and ATP.
i.* Students know how hormones (including digestive,
reproductive, osmoregulatory) provide internal feedback mechanisms
for homeostasis at the cellular level and in whole organisms.
10. Organisms have a variety of mechanisms to combat disease. As a
basis for understanding the human immune response:
a. Students know the role of the skin in providing
nonspecific defenses against infection.
b. Students know the role of antibodies in the body's
response to infection.
c. Students know how vaccination protects an individual from
infectious diseases.
d. Students know there are important differences between
bacteria and viruses with respect to their requirements for growth
and replication, the body's primary defenses against bacterial and
viral infections, and effective treatments of these infections.
e. Students know why an individual with a compromised
immune system (for example, a person with AIDS) may be unable to
fight off and survive infections by microorganisms that are usually
benign.
f.* Students know the roles of phagocytes, B-lymphocytes,
and T-lymphocytes in the immune system.
Investigation and
Experimentation
1. Scientific
progress is made by asking meaningful questions and
conducting careful investigations. As a basis for
understanding this concept and addressing the content in the
other four strands, students should develop their own
questions and perform investigations. Students will:
a. Select and use appropriate tools and technology
(such as computer-linked probes, spreadsheets, and
graphing calculators) to perform tests, collect data,
analyze relationships, and display data.
b. Identify and communicate sources of unavoidable
experimental error.
c. Identify possible reasons for inconsistent results,
such as sources of error or uncontrolled conditions.
d. Formulate explanations by using logic and evidence.
e. Solve scientific problems by using quadratic equations
and simple trigonometric, exponential, and logarithmic
functions.
f. Distinguish between hypothesis and theory as
scientific terms.
g. Recognize the usefulness and limitations of models and
theories as scientific representations of reality.
h. Read and interpret topographic and geologic maps.
i. Analyze the locations, sequences, or time intervals
that are characteristic of natural phenomena (e.g.,
relative ages of rocks, locations of planets over time,
and succession of species in an ecosystem).
j. Recognize the issues of statistical variability and
the need for controlled tests.
k. Recognize the cumulative nature of scientific evidence.
l. Analyze situations and solve problems that require
combining and applying concepts from more than one area of
science.
m. Investigate a science-based societal issue by
researching the literature, analyzing data, and
communicating the findings. Examples of issues include
irradiation of food, cloning of animals by somatic cell
nuclear transfer, choice of energy sources, and land and
water use decisions in California.
n. Know that when an observation does not agree with an
accepted scientific theory, the observation is sometimes
mistaken or fraudulent (e. g., the Piltdown Man fossil or
unidentified flying objects) and that the theory is
sometimes wrong (e.g., the Ptolemaic model of the movement
of the Sun, Moon, and planets).
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