3-LS1-1 - Develop models to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death.

Clarification Statement - Changes organisms go through during their life form a pattern.

Assessment Boundary - Assessment of plant life cycles is limited to those of flowering plants. Assessment does not include details of human reproduction.

3-LS1-1 - Use simple graphical representations to show that different types of organisms have unique and diverse life cycles. Describe that all organisms have birth, growth, reproduction, and death in common but there are a variety of ways in which these happen.

Clarification Statement - Examples can include different ways plants and animals begin (e.g., sprout from a seed, born from an egg), grow (e.g., increase in size and weight, produce a new part), reproduce (e.g., develop seeds, root runners, mate and lay eggs that hatch), and die (e.g., length of life). Plant life cycles should focus on those of flowering plants. Describing variation in organism life cycles should focus on comparisons of the general stages of each, not specifics.

Assessment Boundary - Detailed descriptions of any one organism’s cycle, the differences of “complete metamorphosis” and “incomplete metamorphosis,” or details of human reproduction are not expected in state assessment.