HS-LS1-2
The standard
Develop and use a model to illustrate the hierarchical organization of interacting systems that provide specific functions within multicellular organisms.
Next Generation Science Standards
What this standard means
Students need to build and use models that show how body parts are organized from cells to tissues to organs to organ systems. They also need to explain how those levels work together to carry out a function, such as moving, breathing, moving blood, or taking in nutrients.
Mastery looks like a labeled model that connects structure to function across several levels, not just a list of parts. Students often get stuck by skipping levels, mixing up tissues and organs, or describing one system alone without showing interactions, such as nerves signaling muscles or blood vessels supporting digestion.
Ways to teach it
- Have students build a nested card model using cells, tissues, organs, and systems for one function, then draw arrows showing interactions.
- Ask students to explain how a soccer kick depends on at least three body systems working together.
- Give a quick exit ticket with a diagram of an artery and ask students to label tissue, organ, and system levels.
- Use a medical scenario, such as dehydration during a race, and have students model how multiple systems respond.
Plan a lesson for HS-LS1-2
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Related standards
- 3-LS1-1
Develop models to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death.
- 5-LS2-1
Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.
- HS-LS1-4
Use a model to illustrate the role of cellular division (mitosis) and differentiation in producing and maintaining complex organisms.
- MS-LS1-2
Develop and use a model to describe the function of a cell as a whole and ways parts of cells contribute to the function.