Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Plant-Insect Relationships Through Time

Introduction

National Middle School Science Standards

Life Science, Earth Science

Key Terms

plants, insects, coevolution, pollination, herbivory, fossil 

Key Concepts

  • Types of plant-insect relationships
  • Importance of plant-insect relationships
  • Coevolution of plant-insect relationships
  • Fossil evidence of coevolution
  • Technology used by paleoecologists

Resource Types

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)

The Plant-Insect Relationships Through Time teaching resources support students in meeting the following middle school NGSS Performance Expectations.

Life Science

MS-LS1 From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes

  • MS-LS1-4 Use argument based on empirical evidence and scientific reasoning to support an explanation for how characteristic animal behaviors and specialized plant structures affect the probability of successful reproduction of animals and plants respectively.

MS-LS2 Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics

  • MS-LS2-2 Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.

MS-LS4 Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity

  • MS-LS4-1 Analyze and interpret data for patterns in the fossil record that document the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of life forms throughout the history of life on Earth under the assumption that natural laws operate today as in the past.

  • MS-LS4-2 Apply scientific ideas to construct an explanation for the anatomical similarities and differences among modern organisms and between modern and fossil organisms to infer evolutionary relationships.

Earth Science

MS-ESS1 Earth's Place in the Universe

  • MS-ESS1-4 Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence from rock strata for how the geologic time scale is used to organize Earth's 4.6-billion-year-old history.

Resource Type
Subject Guides
Grade Level
6-8
Learning Standards
Next Generation Science Standards
Topics
Earth Science, Life Science, Paleontology