Middle School, grades 6 through 8
Middle School Life Science
Algae do more than half of Earth's photosynthesis. Bring them into your classroom.
Middle school life science moves from what living things need to how matter and energy move through them and between them. Algae Beads show a single kind of cell making food in the light and using it in the dark. A Brainy Briny bag shows a producer and a consumer sharing a sealed ecosystem, so students can measure populations rise and fall instead of reading about it. Eight of the twelve middle school subjects we cover sit in life science.
Pick your lessons by the standard
Life science subjects
Each card is one NGSS standard. Open it to see how it can be taught. Pick your state and the codes update for Texas or Florida.
Grades 6-8
Cells and What They Do
Develop and use a model to describe the function of a cell as a whole and ways parts of cells contribute to the function.
Grades 6-8
Photosynthesis
Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for the role of photosynthesis in the cycling of matter and flow of energy into and out of organisms.
Respiration: How Organisms Use Food
Develop a model to describe how food is rearranged through chemical reactions forming new molecules that support growth and/or release energy as this matter moves through an organism.
Grades 6-8
Resources and Populations
Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.
Grades 6-8
Interactions and Food Webs
Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.
Cycling of Matter and Flow of Energy
Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.
Changes to Ecosystems and Populations
Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Kits for these lessons
Algae Beads: Make Your Own FULL KIT