Unit 5 · Cells & Living Systems
Driving question: What makes something alive, and how does it stay alive? Across five lessons students trace the answer from the smallest unit of life — the cell — up through tissues, organs, and systems, discovering that being alive means constantly managing matter and energy. The anchor phenomenon is a seed left by a window that becomes a plant. The unit is the spring payoff of the year-long Energy & Matter throughline.
The lessons
What makes something alive — and what is everything made of?
A seed and a pebble both sit in a cup of water on the sill. One becomes a plant. Characteristics of life; the cell as the basic unit.
MS-LS1-1 Week 2Where does a plant's mass come from?
Photosynthesis: a tree's mass comes mostly from the air, not the soil. The Unit 1 matter-conservation payoff.
MS-LS1-6 Week 3How does a living thing get and use energy?
Cell structure and organelles; cellular respiration as the mirror of photosynthesis.
MS-LS1-2 · MS-LS1-7 Week 4How do trillions of cells work as one body?
Levels of organization: cells → tissues → organs → systems. How a cut heals; how the body delivers matter & energy to every cell.
MS-LS1-3 Week 5 · Performance taskModel how a living thing stays alive
Synthesis: model how an organism takes in, transforms, and uses matter & energy. Scored with a 3-dimensional rubric.
MS-LS1-6 (integrating LS1-1 · LS1-2 · LS1-3)