Table 4 Summary of alignment of the key learning outcomes for the hierarchy of life in ETI theory to the ninth to twelfth grade NGSS performance expectations along with key insights
Lower Anchor: There are different kinds of biological individuals such as unicellular, multicellular, and social insect colonies. Individuals can form groups and cooperate to increase the likelihood of group survival and reproduction | ||
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Upper Anchor: The nested hierarchical organization of life results from the repeated evolution of cooperating groups of individuals into highly integrated groups that evolve into new kinds of individuals | ||
ETI key learning outcomes | NGSS performance expectations | Key insights |
Natural selection acts on individuals both within and between groups | HS-LS4-4: Construct an explanation based on evidence for how natural selection leads to adaptation of populations | • Cooperation and the division of labor among group members are advantageous traits that are favored by natural selection on groups (HS-LS4-4; HS-LS4-3) |
Natural selection on groups promotes the formation of integrated, cooperating groups of evolutionary individuals | HS-LS4-3: Apply 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 | • The formation of these integrated, cooperating groups via natural selection allows for transitions in individuality, which gives rise to the evolution of hierarchical complexity (HS-LS2-8; HS-LS4-3) |
HS-LS2-8: Evaluate evidence for the role of group behavior on individual and chances to survive and reproduce | ||
Members of a group of cooperating individuals can become so integrated via specialization and division of labor that they evolve into a new kind of evolutionary individual | 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) the emergence of new species over time, and (3) the extinction of other species | • Evolutionary transition in individuality give rise to the emergence of new kinds of individuals (which can be new species) which gives rise to the hierarchical organization of life (HS-LS4-5; HS-LS1-2) |
Life is a nested hierarchy of different kinds of individuals resulting from dozens of repeated ETIs over the last 4 billion years | HS-LS1-4: Use a model to illustrate the role of cellular division (mitosis) and differentiation in producing and maintaining complex individuals | • Evolutionary transitions also have consequences for inheritance patterns (HS-LS1-1) and reproduction (including by cell division) (HS-LS1-4) in these new individuals |
HS-LS1-1: Construct 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 | • ETIs give rise to the hierarchical organization of life and are an explanatory framework for understanding the evolution of hierarchical complexity (HS-LS1-2) | |
HS-LS1-2: Develop and use a model to illustrate the hierarchical organization of interacting systems that provide specific functions within multicellular individuals | ||