Unit Narrative:
The Diffusion lesson is very important for students to understand because it involves many important concepts in biology.
After this lesson the students:
Will know the main functions of the cell membrane.
Will be able to know what lipid bilayer is how it’s related to the cell membrane.
Will be able to define and understand the concept of diffusion.
Will acknowledge the fact that molecules move from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration.
The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, explains that diffusion is a life process that all living organisms carry out in order to survive. Without diffusion, different molecules and ions wouldn’t be able to cross the cell membrane, which would result in the cell being a closed area where nothing would get in or out. Living organisms would die without diffusion. Some organisms such as insects, breath through diffusion.
The National Science Education Standard points out that “Every cell is surrounded by a membrane that separates it from the outside world.” This is an important concept for students to learn. Students need to understand that a cell membrane is a necessity because if there was no cell membrane, the organelles of different cells would mix up with one another and would make it hard to define a cell and it’s organelles.
The Osmosis lesson is very important for students to understand because it involves many important concepts in biology.
After the lesson the students:
Will know the main functions of the cell membrane.
Will be able to define and understand the concept of osmosis.
Will acknowledge the fact that water moves through a selectively permeable membrane.
Will acknowledge the fact that water moves from a region of higher concentration to a region of low concentration.
Will know the difference between hypertonic, hypotonic, and isotonic solutions.
The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education explains that osmosis is a life process that all living organisms carry out in order to survive. Osmosis is a specialized case of diffusion that involves the passive transport of water. Without osmosis, water molecules wouldn’t be able to pass through membranes and an organism would not be able to survive without it.
The Genetic lesson in this unit is very important because it involves many important concepts that students should know.
After the lesson, the students:
Know what genes are.
Know where genes are found in our bodies.
Know how a baby will inherit genes from his or her mother and father.
Know the difference between genotype and phenotype.
Know what dominant and recessive alleles are.
The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education points out the fact that there is a genetic basis for the transfer of biological characteristics from one generation to the next through reproductive processes. This is a very important fact every student should know and be familiar with. Every student should be able to explain how genotypes contribute to phenotypic variation within a species and should also be able to predict the probability of the occurrence of specific traits.
The cell specialization lesson in this unit introduces many important concepts about unicellular and multicellular organisms that every student should know and learn.
After the lesson, the students will :
Know the fact that cells are the basic units of all organisms.
Know that sometimes a single cell is a little more than the basic unit of that certain organism.
Know that sometimes, a cell is the organism. A single-celled organism is also called a unicellular organism.
Know that multicellular organisms depend on cell specialization, cell communication and cell cooperation.
Identify unicellular organisms and multicellular organisms.
Differentiate unicellular and multicellular organisms.
The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, explains that there is a fundamental unity underlying the diversity of all living organisms. It points out that cells are the fundamental units of structure and function of all living things. It also points out that students should be able to recognize that all organisms are composed of cells.
Click here to see the concept map that relates all these lessons together.