NGSS HS-LS2-6
The Standard
Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.
Next Generation Science Standards
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students judge whether an ecological claim is supported by data and sound reasoning. They compare responses to modest and extreme disturbances, including recovery, population shifts, and ecosystem replacement.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can use population and biodiversity data to decide whether an ecosystem remained stable, recovered, or shifted. The student supports that judgment with relevant evidence and explains how the disturbance caused the pattern.
Common Misconceptions
- Students often think a stable ecosystem never changes. They may assume every disturbance causes permanent damage, or that population recovery means the original ecosystem fully returned.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: A marsh records 18, 17, and 19 species after seasonal floods, then 8, 7, and 7 after saltwater intrusion. Evaluate the claim that only the saltwater intrusion shifted the ecosystem, using evidence and reasoning.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Model an ecosystem with colored beads in cups, remove organisms after different disturbance cards, then graph whether each population recovers.
Write a response to this prompt: When does a disturbed ecosystem become a different ecosystem rather than a damaged version of the original?
Sort disturbance and data cards into stable, recovering, or shifted ecosystems, then earn points by defending each choice with evidence.
Compare local wildfire, flood, or drought data from before and after the event, then identify changes in species numbers and types.
Free download
Printable HS-LS2-6 Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to HS-LS2-6, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.
Download the worksheetBefore This Standard
If students are struggling here, check these first.
- MS-LS2-4
Middle school evidence about ecosystem changes affecting populations supports high school evaluation of ecosystem stability and shifts under changing conditions.
- MS-LS2-5
Evaluating biodiversity solutions gives students practice using ecosystem change and stability evidence, which supports judging high school ecosystem interaction claims.
Keep exploring
Related Standards
- 3-LS4-4
Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changes and the types of plants and animals that live there may change.
- HS-LS4-5
Evaluate the evidence supporting claims that changes in environmental conditions may result in: (1) increases in the number of individuals of some species, (2) ...
- MS-LS2-2
Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.
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