About this resource
- Appropriate grades
- 8
- Subjects
- mathematics (number sense, number theory), science (biology and life science, environmental science), thinking skills (information literacy)
- Provider
- American Association for the Advancement of Science
Legal
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In this Science Update, students explore how one brood of cicadas only emerges from the ground every 13 or 17 years. Biologist Keith Clay of Indiana University suggests that this group of cicadas only surface in this cycle because it is very difficult for predators to have a similar life cycle, and therefore, would not just prey on this particular insect. This update combines science with the mathematical concept of prime numbers. Science NetLinks provides a link to the audio file, a written transcript, and questions that engage students in a discussion about the advantages of having prime-numbered life cycles and how cicadas might evolve and adapt to environmental changes.
North Carolina Curriculum Alignment
Mathematics (2004)
Grade 8
- Goal 1: Number and Operations -The learner will understand and compute with real numbers.
- Objective 1.01: Develop number sense for the real numbers.
- Define and use irrational numbers.
- Compare and order.
- Use estimates of irrational numbers in appropriate situations.
- Objective 1.01: Develop number sense for the real numbers.
Science (2005)
Grade 8
- Goal 1: The learner will design and conduct investigations to demonstrate an understanding of scientific inquiry.
- Objective 1.01: Identify and create questions and hypotheses that can be answered through scientific investigations.
- Objective 1.05: Analyze evidence to:
- explain observations.
- make inferences and predictions.
- develop the relationship between evidence and explanation.
- Objective 1.08: Use oral and written language to:
- Communicate findings.
- Defend conclusions of scientific investigations.
- Describe strengths and weaknesses of claims, arguments, and/or data.
- Objective 1.09: Use technologies and information systems to:
- Research.
- Gather and analyze data.
- Visualize data.
- Disseminate findings to others.
- Objective 1.10: Analyze and evaluate information from a scientifically literate viewpoint by reading, hearing, and/or viewing:
- Scientific text.
- Articles.
- Events in the popular press.
- Goal 5: The learner will conduct investigations and utilize appropriate technologies and information systems to build an understanding of evidence of evolution in organisms and landforms.
- Objective 5.02: Correlate evolutionary theories and processes:
- Biological.
- Geological.
- Technological.
- Objective 5.03: Examine evidence that the geologic evolution has had significant global impact including:
- Distribution of living things.
- Major geological events.
- Mechanical and chemical weathering.
- Objective 5.02: Correlate evolutionary theories and processes:
