Biology Standards

CONTENT STANDARD C: As a result of their activities in grades 9-12, all students should develop understanding of The cell.

Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• Cells have particular structures that underlie their functions. Every cell is surrounded by a membrane that separates it from the outside world. Inside the cell is a concentrated mixture of thousands of different molecules which form a variety of specialized structures that carry out such cell functions as energy production, transport of molecules, waste disposal, synthesis of new molecules, and the storage of genetic material.
• Most cell functions involve chemical reactions. Food molecules taken into cells react to provide the chemical constituents needed to synthesize other molecules. Both breakdown and synthesis are made possible by a large set of protein catalysts, called enzymes. The breakdown of some of the food molecules enables the cell to store energy in specific chemicals that are used to carry out the many functions of the cell.
• Plant cells contain chloroplasts, the site of photosynthesis. Plants and many microorganisms use solar energy to combine molecules of carbon dioxide and water into complex, energy rich organic compounds and release oxygen to the environment. This process of photosynthesis provides a vital connection between the sun and the energy needs of living systems.
  

Mathematics Standards
Instructional programs from prekindergarten through grade 12
should enable all students to—

• Judge the reasonableness of numerical computations and their results.
• Generalize patterns using explicitly defined and recursively defined functions.
• Understand relations and functions and select, convert flexibly among, and use various representations for them.
• Judge the meaning, utility, and reasonableness of the results of symbol manipulations, including those carried out by technology.
• Identify essential quantitative relationships in a situation and determine the class or classes of functions that might model the relationships.
• Draw reasonable conclusions about a situation being modeled.
• Identify trends in bivariate data and find functions that model the data or transform the data so that they can be modeled.
• Build new mathematical knowledge through problem solving; solve problems that arise in mathematics and in other contexts.
• Apply and adapt a variety of appropriate strategies to solve problems.
• Monitor and reflect on the process of mathematical problem solving.
• Recognize and apply mathematics in contexts outside of mathematics.
• Use representations to model and interpret physical, social, and mathematical phenomena.