BiologyQ&A by dot point

Describe how the digestive system breaks food into absorbable molecules and how the immune system defends the body against pathogens, including the roles of white blood cells and antibodies (MA STE HS-LS1-2, HS-LS1-3, structure and function).

Explain how feedback mechanisms, especially negative feedback, maintain homeostasis (a stable internal environment), using examples such as temperature and blood glucose regulation (MA STE HS-LS1-3, stability and change).

Explain how multiple organ systems interact to carry out the functions of the body, using the model of a system of interacting subsystems, and connect this to the maintenance of homeostasis (MA STE HS-LS1-2, systems and system models).

Describe how the nervous system and the endocrine system detect stimuli and coordinate responses, and compare the two control systems in terms of signal type, speed, and duration (MA STE HS-LS1-3 supporting, structure and function).

Describe how the circulatory and respiratory systems transport oxygen, carbon dioxide, and nutrients, and explain how their structures (such as alveoli and capillaries) suit gas exchange and delivery (MA STE HS-LS1-2, HS-LS1-3, structure and function).

Explain the structure of the cell membrane and how diffusion, osmosis, facilitated diffusion, and active transport move substances across it, including the role of the concentration gradient and ATP (MA STE HS-LS1-4 supporting).

Describe the structures and functions of the major organelles in plant and animal cells, distinguish prokaryotic from eukaryotic cells, and relate cell structure to function (MA STE HS-LS1).

Explain how carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids are constructed from smaller subunits, and relate the structure of each macromolecule to its function (MA STE HS-LS1, structure and function).

Explain how enzymes lower activation energy and catalyze specific reactions, and analyze how temperature, pH, and substrate concentration affect enzyme activity (MA STE HS-LS1, structure and function).

Describe the hierarchy of biological organization from molecules to organelles, cells, tissues, organs, organ systems, and organisms, and explain how specialization and cell differentiation support complex life (MA STE HS-LS1-1, HS-LS1-2).

Explain the properties of water (polarity, cohesion, solvent ability, heat capacity) and the bonding properties of carbon that make it the backbone of biological molecules (MA STE HS-LS1-6 supporting).

Develop a model of how matter (especially carbon) cycles through an ecosystem via photosynthesis, feeding, respiration, and decomposition, and contrast the cycling of matter with the one-way flow of energy (MA STE HS-LS2-4, HS-LS2-5, energy and matter).

Describe the main ecological interactions (competition, predation, and symbiosis: mutualism, commensalism, parasitism) and explain how they affect the populations involved (MA STE HS-LS2-2, HS-LS2-6, cause and effect).

Describe the levels of ecological organization (organism, population, community, ecosystem) and explain how biotic and abiotic factors interact to shape an ecosystem (MA STE HS-LS2-1, HS-LS2-2 supporting, systems and system models).

Explain how energy flows through an ecosystem from producers to consumers along food chains and webs, and use the idea that only about 10 percent of energy passes between trophic levels to interpret energy pyramids (MA STE HS-LS2-3, HS-LS2-4, energy and matter).

Explain how human activities such as habitat destruction, pollution, overexploitation, and climate change affect ecosystems and biodiversity, and evaluate solutions that support sustainability (MA STE HS-LS2-7, HS-LS4-6, stability and change).

Explain how limiting factors and carrying capacity control population size, and interpret population growth curves, distinguishing exponential from logistic growth (MA STE HS-LS2-1, HS-LS2-2, stability and change).

Explain how cells capture, store, and release energy, the role of ATP as the cell's usable energy currency, and how energy transformations obey the conservation of energy (MA STE HS-LS1-7 supporting, energy and matter).

Develop a model of the role of photosynthesis and cellular respiration in cycling carbon, and explain how cells combine atoms from sugars into amino acids and other large carbon-based molecules (MA STE HS-LS1-6, HS-LS2-5).

Use a model to illustrate how cellular respiration breaks the bonds of glucose and oxygen to release energy as ATP, and compare aerobic respiration with anaerobic respiration and fermentation (MA STE HS-LS1-7, HS-LS2-3).

Compare photosynthesis and cellular respiration as linked processes, contrasting their reactants, products, energy changes, and locations, and explain how together they cycle matter and transfer energy (MA STE HS-LS1-5, HS-LS1-7, energy and matter).

Use a model to illustrate how photosynthesis transforms light energy into stored chemical energy in sugars, including the reactants, products, and the role of chlorophyll (MA STE HS-LS1-5).

Explain what biodiversity is and why it matters for ecosystem stability, and describe how organisms are classified into a hierarchy of groups based on shared characteristics and evolutionary relationships (MA STE HS-LS4-5, HS-LS2-7 supporting).

Explain how common ancestry is represented by phylogenetic trees and cladograms, and interpret these diagrams using shared characteristics and molecular data to infer relationships (MA STE HS-LS4-1, patterns).

Describe and evaluate the lines of evidence for evolution, including the fossil record, comparative anatomy (homologous structures), embryology, and molecular biology (DNA and protein similarities) (MA STE HS-LS4-1, engaging in argument from evidence).

Explain how natural selection acts on heritable variation so that advantageous traits become more common in a population over generations, and apply this to examples such as antibiotic resistance (MA STE HS-LS4-2, HS-LS4-3, cause and effect).

Explain how reproductive isolation and natural selection can lead to speciation, and describe how the distribution of traits in a population changes as allele frequencies shift over generations (MA STE HS-LS4-3, HS-LS4-4, HS-LS4-5).

Describe the structure of DNA as a double helix of nucleotide base pairs and explain how complementary base pairing allows DNA to be copied accurately during replication (MA STE HS-LS1-1, HS-LS3-1, structure and function).

Explain how meiosis produces gametes with half the chromosome number and how meiosis and fertilization, together with mutation, create genetic variation among offspring (MA STE HS-LS3-2, HS-LS3-3).

Describe the cell cycle and mitosis as the process that produces two genetically identical daughter cells, and explain its role in growth, repair, and asexual reproduction (MA STE HS-LS1-4, HS-LS3-2 supporting).

Explain what a mutation is, how mutations change proteins and can be harmful, neutral, or beneficial, and describe examples of biotechnology such as selective breeding and genetic engineering (MA STE HS-LS3-2, HS-LS3-3 supporting).

Use the rules of inheritance, including dominant and recessive alleles, genotype and phenotype, and Punnett squares, to predict the probability of traits in offspring and apply statistical reasoning to genetic crosses (MA STE HS-LS3-3, using mathematics).

Explain how a gene's base sequence is transcribed into messenger RNA and translated into a sequence of amino acids, and how this gene-to-protein pathway produces an organism's traits (MA STE HS-LS1-1, HS-LS3-1).