B.1.33 Describe how life on Earth is thought to have begun as simple, one-celled organisms about 4 billion years ago. Note that during the first 2 billion years, only single-cell microorganisms existed, but once cells with nuclei developed about a billion years ago, increasingly complex multicellular organisms evolved.

Molecules and Cells

Developmental and Organismal Biology

B.1.11 Describe that through biogenesis all organisms begin their life cycles as a single cell and that in multicellular organisms, successive generations of embryonic cells form by cell division.

B.1.12 Compare and contrast the form and function of prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells.

B.1.13 Explain that some structures in the modern eukaryotic cell developed from early prokaryotes, such as mitochondria, and in plants, chloroplasts.

Genetics

B.1.21 Understand and explain that the information passed from parents to offspring is transmitted by means of genes which are coded in DNA molecules.

B.1.24 Explain that gene mutations can be caused by such things as radiation and chemicals. Understand that when they occur in sex cells, the mutations can be passed on to offspring; if they occur in other cells, they can be passed on to descendant cells only.

Evolution

8.4.9 Recognize & describe that fossil evidence is consistent with the idea that human beings evolved from earlier species.

B.1.30 Understand and explain that molecular evidence substantiates the anatomical evidence for evolution and provides additional detail about the sequence in which various lines of descent branched off from one another.

B.1.35 Explain that the degree of kinship between organisms or species can be estimated from the similarity of their DNA sequences, which often closely matches their classification based on anatomical similarities. Know that amino acid similarities also provide clues to this kinship.

There should also be something here about the fossils themselves, along with a brief primer on geological strata and the dating thereof, because this is an essential part of the data on this issue.

Ecology

Historical

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