Science Assessment

Students are expected to know that:

1. Growth, repair, and replacement of body structures (such as stems, leaves, roots, flowers, fruits, seeds, and the cells of which they are made) involves using sugar molecules to make a variety of larger carbon-containing molecules that become part of the plant’s body structures.
2. Growth of plants and animals requires the addition of molecules made up of linked carbon atoms to their body structures, and this is the only way that body structures can grow. An increase in size associated with taking up water is not considered to be growth.
3. The sugar molecules used to make these larger carbon-containing molecules are already inside the plant.
4. The processes by which sugar molecules are used to make carbohydrates, proteins, and fats involve chemical reactions in which atoms of the sugar molecules are rearranged to form molecules of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.
5. Other kinds of atoms from dissolved minerals in the soil (such as nitrogen, and sulfur) are also used and incorporated into the molecules that become part of the plant’s body structures, but in much smaller amounts than the carbon atoms from the sugars. Students should know that the incorporation of minerals into body structures does not produce observable growth.

Boundaries:

1. Items do not assess students’ knowledge of the chemical or structural formulas of carbohydrates, proteins, or fats or the processes by which they are made.
2. The idea that simple sugars are the “building blocks” of complex carbohydrates, that amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, and that fatty acids are the building blocks of fats is covered in Benchmark 6C/M2, not this key idea.
3. The idea that water is a major component of cells is part of Benchmark 5C/M4, not this key idea.
4. The idea that carbon, because of its small size and four available bonding electrons can join to several other carbon atoms in chains and rings to form large and complex molecules is part of Benchmark 5C/H8, not this key idea.