Food is a Basic Need for Living

K.L.1.2 Basic needs: Students know that all animals are living things that have basic needs to stay alive. Animals need air, water, food, and shelter for protection. 

• If an organism does not get everything that it needs to stay alive, it will die. By comparing these characteristics of several animals, students begin to classify things as living and nonliving based on these characteristics. 

Students know that animals (including humans) are living things that grow and develop, and need food, air, and water but nonliving things do not. 

Why do We Need Food?

1.L.1.2 Students know people need water, food, air, waste removal and a particular range of temperatures in their environment, just as other animals (and plants) do. 

• Students know that living things are found almost everywhere in the world.

• In North Carolina, from the coast to the mountains, students should observe how different environments support the needs of different organisms (crab/seashore, raccoon/piedmont, elk/mountains). There are different kinds of organisms in different places.

Life Cycles

2.L.1.1 Students know that animals experience a cycle of life which begins with birth, then a period of time in which the animal develops into an adult. 

• At adulthood, animals reproduce in order to sustain their species. In nature, all animals are programmed to age and eventually die. The details of the life cycle are different for specific animals.

 2.L.1.2 Students know that different animals spend varying periods of time in each stage of the life cycle and that some animals have few stages, while others have several. 

• Students know that animals might look the same, similar, or completely different at specific stages of development. 

• Students know that animals may have varied needs at different stages of development, and may occupy unique habitats according to these needs. 

Human Body Systems

3.L.1.1 Students know that the muscles and the skeleton provide a structural framework that protects and supports mobility of the human body. 

• Students know that the skeletal system is comprised of bone.   Bone is a hard material that provides support and protection to the body’s soft tissues. Students know that muscles are formed from tissues that contract and relax, producing motion. 

• Muscles are attached to bones and initiate and regulate movement. Muscles are also found in internal organs that are responsible for essential life processes (heart, stomach, intestines).

Food as Energy

4.L.2.1 Classify substances as food or non-food items based on their ability to provide energy and materials for survival, growth, and repair of the body.

Maintaining a Healthy Body

4.L.2.2 Explain the role of vitamins and minerals, and exercise in maintaining a healthy body. 

Food as Energy 

5.L.2.2 Classify the organisms within an ecosystem according to the function they serve: producers, consumers, or decomposers (biotic factors). 

5.L.2.3 Infer the effects that may result from the interconnected relationship of plants and animals to their ecosystem. 

Human Body Systems

5.L.1 Understand how structures and systems of organisms (to include the human body) perform functions necessary for life. 

5.L.1.2 Compare the major systems of the human body (digestive, respiratory, circulatory, muscular, skeletal, and cardiovascular) in terms of their functions necessary for life 

Cellular Respiration

6.L.1.2 Explain the significance of the processes of photosynthesis, respiration and transpiration to the survival of green plants and other organisms 

Food Chains

6.L.2.1 Summarize how energy derived from the sun is used by plants to produce sugars (photosynthesis) and is transferred within a food chain or food web (terrestrial and aquatic) from producers to consumers to decomposers. 

Human Body Systems

7.L.1.4 Summarize the general functions of the major systems of the human body (digestion, respiration, reproduction, circulation, and excretion) and ways that these systems interact with each other to sustain life 

Food as a Source of Energy

8.L.5 Understand the composition of various substances as it relates to their ability to serve as a source of energy and building materials for growth and repair of organisms. 

8.L.5.1 Summarize how food provides the energy and the molecules required for building materials, growth and survival of all organisms (to include plants).

Importatance of Diet & Exercise

8.L.5.2 Explain the relationship among a healthy diet, exercise, and the general health of the body (emphasis on the relationship between respiration and digestion) 

Energy from Food comes from the Sun

8.L.3.3 Students know that the sun is the ultimate source of energy. 

•  Energy entering ecosystems as sunlight is transferred by producers into chemical energy through the process of photosynthesis.  

• Energy then passes from organisms to organisms.  Energy can change from one form to another in living things. 

• Animals get energy from oxidizing their food, releasing some of its energy as heat.  

• Almost all food energy comes originally from sunlight. 

Spread, Treatment, and Prevention of Infectious Diseases

8.L.1 Understand the structure and hazards caused by agents of disease that effect living organisms. 

8.L.1.1 Summarize the basic characteristics of viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites relating to the spread, treatment and prevention of disease. 

Disease Outbreaks

8.L.1.2 Explain the difference between epidemic and pandemic as it relates to the spread, treatment and prevention of disease.