Content Notes
The standards of learning that this website will focus on are the following:
2.4 The student will investigate and understand that plants and animals undergo a series of orderly changes as they mature and grow. Key concepts include
Understanding the Standard
(Background Information for Instructor Use Only)
Essential Knowledge, Skills, and Processes
In order to meet this standard, it is expected that students will
More information on the Standards of Learning or Curriculum Framework can be found at:
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/standards_docs/science/2010/k-6/stds_science2.pdf
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/standards_docs/science/cf_final_web_version/framewk_science2.pdf
2.4 The student will investigate and understand that plants and animals undergo a series of orderly changes as they mature and grow. Key concepts include
- a) animal life cycles; and
- b) plant life cycles
Understanding the Standard
(Background Information for Instructor Use Only)
Essential Knowledge, Skills, and Processes
- Throughout their lives, plants and animals undergo a series of orderly and identifiable changes.
- Changes in organisms over time occur in cycles and differ among the various plants and animals.
- Some animals, such as mealworms, pill bugs, frogs, and butterflies go through distinct stages as they mature to adults. Other animals, such as crickets, praying mantises, gray squirrels, and white-tailed deer, resemble their parents from birth to maturity and do not have distinct stages.
- White-tailed deer are the largest herbivores in Virginia. They are found in all areas of Virginia including forests, open fields, mountain tops, coastal islands, and in cities and towns. Their diet consists of grasses, leaves, nuts, fruits, and fungi. Virginia’s white-tailed deer have few predators. Fawns may be taken by bobcat. Other mortality factors include hunting, motor vehicles, poaching, and trains.
- Newborn white-tailed deer are called fawns. They become yearlings at 14 to 18 months of age. As adults, males are called bucks and females are called does. White-tailed deer are tan or reddish brown in the summer and grayish brown in the winter. The underside and throat are white, and the tail is brown above and white below.
- A white-tailed deer’s lifespan averages eight years.
- Of the more than 200,000 kinds of vascular plants in the world today over 95 percent flower at some time in their lives. The best-known flowers are bright and colorful but others, like those of grasses, are small and inconspicuous.
- The basic stages in the life cycle of flowering plants include: seeds, germination of the seed, growth of the stem and roots, growth of leaves,
growth of flowers, fertilization (pollination) of the flowers, production
of fruit/new seeds, and death.
In order to meet this standard, it is expected that students will
- describe changes in the life cycles of a butterfly and a white-tailed deer.
- compare and contrast life cycles of a butterfly and a white-tailed deer.
- identify the stages in the life cycle of a flowering plant.
- construct and interpret models/diagrams of animal and plant life cycles.
More information on the Standards of Learning or Curriculum Framework can be found at:
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/standards_docs/science/2010/k-6/stds_science2.pdf
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/standards_docs/science/cf_final_web_version/framewk_science2.pdf