The Maine InterTidal Zone Investigation online program fulfills the following Maine Learning Results and meets National Science Standards in the categories listed.

Maine Learning Results
Science and Technology

A. Classifying Life Forms- Students will understand that there are similarities within the diversity of all living things.

Middle Grades 5-8
3. Describe some structural and behavioral adaptations that allow organisms to survive in a changing environment.

Secondary Grades
3. Analyze the basic characteristics of living things, including their need for food, water, and gases and the ability to reproduce

B. Ecology-Students will understand how living things depend on one another and on non-living aspects of the environment.

Middle Grades 5-8
2. Analyze how the finite resources in an ecosystem limit the types and populations of organisms within it.
4. Generate examples of the variety of ways that organisms interact (e.g. competition, predator/prey, parasitism/mutualism)

Secondary Grades
3. Analyze the factors that affect population size (e.g. reproductive and survival rates).

 

National Science Standards
LIfe Science

Populations and Ecosystems-Grades 5-8
*A population consists of all individuals of a species that occur together at a given place and time. All populations living together and the physical factors with which they interact compose an ecosystem.
*Populations of organisms can be categorized by the function they serve in an ecosystem. Plants and some microo-organisms are producers-they make their own food. All animals, including humans, are consumers, which obtain their food by eating other organisms. Decomposers, primarily bacteria and fungi, are consumers that use waste materials and dead organisms for food. Food webs identify the relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers in an ecosystem.
*For ecosystems, the major source of energy is sunlight. Energy entering ecosystems as sunlight is transferred by producers into chemical energy through photosynthesis. That energy then passes from organism to organism in food webs.
*The number of organisms an ecosystem can support depends on the resources available and abiotic factors, such as quantity of light and water, range of temperature, and substrate composition. Given adequate biotic and abiotic resources and no disease or predators, populations (including human) increase at a rapid rate. Lack of resources and other other factors such as predation and climate, limit population growth in specific niches in the ecosystem.
Diversity and Adaptations of Organisms-Grades 5-8
*Species acquire many of their unique characteristics through biological adaptation, which involves the selection of naturally occurring variations in the populations. Biological adaptations include changes in structures, behaviors, or physiology that enhance survival and reproductive success in a particular environment.
The Interdependence of Organisms-Grades 9-12
*Energy flows through ecosystems in one direction, from photosynthetic organisms to herbivores to carnivores and decomposers.
* Organisms both cooperate and compete in ecosystems. The interrelationships and interdependencies of these organisms may generate ecosystems that are stable for hundreds or thousands of years.
* Living organisms have the capacity to produce populations of infinite size, but environments and resources are finite. This fundamental tension has profound effects on the interactions between organisms.
* Human beings live within the world's ecosystems. Increasingly, humans modify ecosystems as a result of population growth, technology, and consumption. Human destruction of habitats through direct harvesting, pollution, atmospheric changes, and other factors is threatening current global stability, and if not addressed, ecosystems will be irreversibly affected.
The Behavior of Organisms-Grades 9-12
*Organisms have behavioral responses to internal changes and to external stimuli. Responses to external stimuli can result from interactions with the organism's own species and others, as well as environmental changes; these responses either can be innate or learned. The broad patterns of behavior exhibited by animals have evolved to ensure reproductive success. Animals often live in unpredictable environments, and so their behavior must be flexible enough to deal with uncertainty and change. Plants also respond to stimuli.
* Like other aspects of an organism's biology, behaviors have evolved through natural selection. Behaviors often have an adaptive logic when viewed in terms of evolutionary principles.