Benchmark: Knows ways in which humans can modify ecosystems and cause irreversible effects (e.g., human population growth, technology, and consumption; human destruction of habitats through direct harvesting, pollution, and atmospheric changes).

Grade level: 9-12
Subject area: geography
Standard:
Understands how physical systems affect human systems.
Benchmarks:
Knows changes in the physical environment that have reduced the capacity of the environment to support human activity (e.g., the drought-plagued Sahel, the depleted rainforests of central Africa, the Great Plains Dust Bowl, the impact of the economic exploitation of Siberia's resources on a fragile sub-Arctic environment).

Benchmark: Knows how humans overcome "limits to growth" imposed by physical systems (e.g., technology, human adaptation).

Benchmark: Knows factors that affect people's attitudes, perceptions, and responses toward natural hazards (e.g., religious beliefs, socioeconomic status, previous experiences).

Grade level: 6-8
Subject area: life science
Standard:
Knows about the diversity and unity that characterize life.
Benchmarks:
Knows how organisms are classified into a hierarchy of groups and subgroups based on similarities that reflect their evolutionary relationships (e.g., shared derived characteristics inherited from a common ancestor; degree of kinship estimated from the similarity of DNA sequences).