Students who demonstrate understanding can: Use argument supported by evidence for how the body is a system of interacting subsystems composed of groups of cells.
Clarification statement: Emphasis is on the conceptual understanding that cells form tissues and tissues form organs specialized for particular body functions. Examples could include the interaction of subsystems within a system and the normal functioning of those systems.
Assessment boundary: Assessment does not include the mechanism of one body system independent of others. Assessment is limited to the circulatory, excretory, digestive, respiratory, muscular, and nervous systems.
Official wording from the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013). NGSS is a registered trademark of WestEd. Neither WestEd nor the lead states and partners that developed the NGSS were involved in the production of this page, and they do not endorse it. View on nextgenscience.org
Your body is organized in levels. Similar cells group together into tissues, tissues combine into organs, and organs work together as organ systems. Students use evidence to argue that the body is a system of interacting subsystems: no body system works alone. When you run, your muscular system needs more oxygen and glucose, your respiratory system breathes faster to take in oxygen, your circulatory system pumps faster to deliver it, and your nervous system coordinates all of these changes.
The argument part matters. Students should support a claim, such as 'the digestive and circulatory systems depend on each other', with evidence like the fact that nutrients absorbed in the small intestine enter the blood and are carried to every cell. The assessment is limited to the circulatory, excretory, digestive, respiratory, muscular and nervous systems, and it always looks at how they interact rather than at one system in isolation, so every answer should name at least two systems.
Students often learn systems one chapter at a time and miss the links. Tracing one oxygen molecule from the lungs to a muscle cell shows several systems involved in a single job.
The heart contains muscle tissue, nerve tissue and connective tissue. An organ is a group of different tissues working together.
Breathing moves air in and out of the lungs. Cellular respiration happens inside cells and releases energy. The respiratory and circulatory systems link the two.
The nervous system also adjusts heart rate and breathing rate automatically, which is a key example of systems interacting without us thinking about it.
During a 10-minute jog, a student's breathing rate rose from 14 to 32 breaths per minute and her heart rate rose from 70 to 150 beats per minute. Use this evidence to argue that body systems interact.
Answer: Both rates rose together because the systems depend on each other: muscles demand oxygen, the lungs take it in, the heart and blood deliver it, and nerves coordinate the change.
A simple pulse and breathing-rate investigation before and after exercise gives every student their own data to argue from. Follow with a systems map where students draw arrows between systems and label what passes along each arrow, such as oxygen, nutrients, wastes or nerve signals.
Avoid a test of isolated system facts. Assessment tasks present a scenario, such as a blocked artery or damaged nerves, and ask students to explain the effects on other systems.
Original questions written for this standard. Choose an option or type your answer, then press Check. Every question has a worked explanation.
Answer: D) Cell, tissue, organ, organ system
Cells form tissues, tissues form organs, and organs work together as organ systems.
Answer: A) Digestive and circulatory
The digestive system breaks down and absorbs food, and the circulatory system carries the nutrients in the blood to every cell.
Answer: tissue (also accepted: a tissue)
A tissue is a group of similar cells that perform a shared function, such as muscle tissue.
Answer: C) To carry more oxygen to working muscles
Muscles need more oxygen. The lungs take it in and the heart pumps faster so blood delivers it quickly.
Answer: D) Excretory
The excretory system, including the kidneys, filters wastes from the blood.
Answer: nervous (also accepted: nervous system, the nervous system)
The nervous system detects changes and sends signals that adjust heart rate, breathing and muscle movement.
Develop and use a model to illustrate the hierarchical organization of interacting systems that provide specific functions within multicellular organisms.
A full lesson with slides, activities and an exit ticket on body systems working together, pitched to grades 6-8 and editable in PowerPoint or Google Slides.
Make a lesson βA printable, differentiated worksheet on MS-LS1-3 with an answer key, ready in about a minute.
Make a worksheet βTurn body systems working together into a quiz students answer online that marks itself, with a class summary for you.
Build a test βThe assessment boundary limits it to the circulatory, excretory, digestive, respiratory, muscular and nervous systems.
An argument from evidence: students make a claim about how systems interact and back it with data or observations, such as pulse and breathing rates during exercise.