Life Science Progression Map

NGSSGrades K to 1264 core standards · 67 connections

Organisms, ecosystems, heredity, and evolution as they articulate across grade bands.

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Structures and processes

Select a standard to trace its exact verified connections.

Kindergarten

1 standard

Grade 1

2 standards

Grade 3

1 standard

Grade 4

2 standards

Grade 5

1 standard

Middle School

8 standards

High School

7 standards

How to Read This Map

Start in the focused explorer, where standards are grouped into human-readable skill threads and placed in grade order. Select a standard to see what it builds on and what it unlocks. The full network preserves every verified connection: solid lines are essential prerequisites and dashed lines are supporting connections. Cross-topic foundations appear in a selected standard's details. Every standard links to a full breakdown with teaching ideas. How these connections are verified.

All standards on this map, as a list

Structures and processes

  • 1-LS1-1Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.
  • 1-LS1-2Read texts and use media to determine patterns in behavior of parents and offspring that help offspring survive.
  • 3-LS1-1Develop models to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death.
  • 4-LS1-1Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
  • 4-LS1-2Use a model to describe that animals' receive different types of information through their senses, process the information in their brain, and respond to the information in different ways.
  • 5-LS1-1Support an argument that plants get the materials they need for growth chiefly from air and water.
  • HS-LS1-1Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the structure of DNA determines the structure of proteins which carry out the essential functions of life through systems of specialized cells.
  • HS-LS1-2Develop and use a model to illustrate the hierarchical organization of interacting systems that provide specific functions within multicellular organisms.
  • HS-LS1-3Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence that feedback mechanisms maintain homeostasis.
  • HS-LS1-4Use a model to illustrate the role of cellular division (mitosis) and differentiation in producing and maintaining complex organisms.
  • HS-LS1-5Use a model to illustrate how photosynthesis transforms light energy into stored chemical energy.
  • HS-LS1-6Construct and revise an explanation based on evidence for how carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen from sugar molecules may combine with other elements to form amino acids and/or other large carbon-based...
  • HS-LS1-7Use a model to illustrate that cellular respiration is a chemical process whereby the bonds of food molecules and oxygen molecules are broken and the bonds in new compounds are formed resulting in a...
  • K-LS1-1Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.
  • MS-LS1-1Conduct an investigation to provide evidence that living things are made of cells, either one cell or many different numbers and types of cells.
  • MS-LS1-2Develop and use a model to describe the function of a cell as a whole and ways parts of cells contribute to the function.
  • MS-LS1-3Use argument supported by evidence for how the body is a system of interacting subsystems composed of groups of cells.
  • MS-LS1-4Use argument based on empirical evidence and scientific reasoning to support an explanation for how characteristic animal behaviors and specialized plant structures affect the probability of...
  • MS-LS1-5Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how environmental and genetic factors influence the growth of organisms.
  • MS-LS1-6Construct 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.
  • MS-LS1-7Develop 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.
  • MS-LS1-8Gather and synthesize information that sensory receptors respond to stimuli by sending messages to the brain for immediate behavior or storage as memories.

Ecosystems

  • 2-LS2-1Plan and conduct an investigation to determine if plants need sunlight and water to grow.
  • 2-LS2-2Develop a simple model that mimics the function of an animal in dispersing seeds or pollinating plants.
  • 3-LS2-1Construct an argument that some animals form groups that help members survive.
  • 5-LS2-1Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.
  • HS-LS2-1Use mathematical and/or computational representations to support explanations of factors that affect carrying capacity of ecosystems at different scales.
  • HS-LS2-2Use mathematical representations to support and revise explanations based on evidence about factors affecting biodiversity and populations in ecosystems of different scales.
  • HS-LS2-3Construct and revise an explanation based on evidence for the cycling of matter and flow of energy in aerobic and anaerobic conditions.
  • HS-LS2-4Use a mathematical representation to support claims for the cycling of matter and flow of energy among organisms in an ecosystem.
  • HS-LS2-5Develop a model to illustrate the role of photosynthesis and cellular respiration in the cycling of carbon among the biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere.
  • HS-LS2-6Evaluate 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...
  • HS-LS2-7Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.
  • HS-LS2-8Evaluate the evidence for the role of group behavior on individual and species' chances to survive and reproduce.
  • MS-LS2-1Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.
  • MS-LS2-2Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.
  • MS-LS2-3Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.
  • MS-LS2-4Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
  • MS-LS2-5Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Heredity

  • 1-LS3-1Make observations to construct an evidence-based account that young plants and animals are like, but not exactly like, their parents.
  • 3-LS3-1Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of these traits exists in a group of similar organisms.
  • 3-LS3-2Use evidence to support the explanation that traits can be influenced by the environment.
  • HS-LS3-1Ask questions to clarify relationships about the role of DNA and chromosomes in coding the instructions for characteristic traits passed from parents to offspring.
  • HS-LS3-2Make and defend a claim based on evidence that inheritable genetic variations may result from: (1) new genetic combinations through meiosis, (2) viable errors occurring during replication, and/or (3)...
  • HS-LS3-3Apply concepts of statistics and probability to explain the variation and distribution of expressed traits in a population.
  • MS-LS3-1Develop and use a model to describe why structural changes to genes (mutations) located on chromosomes may affect proteins and may result in harmful, beneficial, or neutral effects to the structure...
  • MS-LS3-2Develop and use a model to describe why asexual reproduction results in offspring with identical genetic information and sexual reproduction results in offspring with genetic variation.

Biological evolution

  • 2-LS4-1Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats.
  • 3-LS4-1Analyze and interpret data from fossils to provide evidence of the organisms and the environments in which they lived long ago.
  • 3-LS4-2Use evidence to construct an explanation for how the variations in characteristics among individuals of the same species may provide advantages in surviving, finding mates, and reproducing.
  • 3-LS4-3Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
  • 3-LS4-4Make 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-LS4-1Communicate scientific information that common ancestry and biological evolution are supported by multiple lines of empirical evidence.
  • HS-LS4-2Construct an explanation based on evidence that the process of evolution primarily results from four factors: (1) the potential for a species to increase in number, (2) the heritable genetic...
  • HS-LS4-3Apply concepts of statistics and probability to support explanations that organisms with an advantageous heritable trait tend to increase in proportion to organisms lacking this trait.
  • HS-LS4-4Construct an explanation based on evidence for how natural selection leads to adaptation of populations.
  • HS-LS4-5Evaluate the evidence supporting claims that changes in environmental conditions may result in: (1) increases in the number of individuals of some species, (2) the emergence of new species over time,...
  • HS-LS4-6Create or revise a simulation to test a solution to mitigate adverse impacts of human activity on biodiversity.
  • MS-LS4-1Analyze and interpret data for patterns in the fossil record that document the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of life forms throughout the history of life on Earth under the assumption...
  • MS-LS4-2Apply scientific ideas to construct an explanation for the anatomical similarities and differences among modern organisms and between modern and fossil organisms to infer evolutionary relationships.
  • MS-LS4-3Analyze displays of pictorial data to compare patterns of similarities in the embryological development across multiple species to identify relationships not evident in the fully formed anatomy.
  • MS-LS4-4Construct an explanation based on evidence that describes how genetic variations of traits in a population increase some individuals' probability of surviving and reproducing in a specific...
  • MS-LS4-5Gather and synthesize information about the technologies that have changed the way humans influence the inheritance of desired traits in organisms.
  • MS-LS4-6Use mathematical representations to support explanations of how natural selection may lead to increases and decreases of specific traits in populations over time.

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