Teacher Portal
Investigation 3: Maternal - Fetal Interactions
In this Investigation, students move beyond how development begins to explore how it is sustained and protected over time. After learning that human growth occurs through repeated cell division, students now examine the uterine environment that makes continued development possible. Through models and observations, they investigate how the placenta functions as a specialized interface that allows nutrients, oxygen, and wastes to be exchanged without directly mixing maternal and fetal blood. This Investigation emphasizes that growth depends not only on making new cells, but also on maintaining the conditions, regulation, and protection required for healthy prenatal development.
Click an image below to download the full Student Guide or Teacher Guide for this Investigation.
Student PDF Lab Guide
Teacher PDF Lab Guide
Next Generation Science Standards: Investigation 3
MS-LS1-1: Conduct an investigation to provide evidence that living things are made of cells; either one cell or many different numbers and types of cells.
→ Students examine how a single fertilized human cell grows into a multicellular organism through repeated, regulated cell division, reinforcing that all human tissues originate from cellular processes.
MS-LS1-2: Develop and use a model to describe the function of a cell as a whole and ways parts of cells contribute to the function.
→ Through investigation of mitosis and chromosome behavior, students model how accurate DNA duplication and distribution allow cells to function properly as part of a growing human organism.
MS-LS1-3: Use argument supported by evidence for how the body is a system of interacting subsystems composed of groups of cells.
→ Students analyze the placenta as a specialized organ system that supports fetal development by regulating exchange between mother and fetus, demonstrating how groups of cells work together to perform essential life-support functions.
MS-LS1-7: Develop a model to describe how food is rearranged through chemical reactions forming new molecules that support growth and/or release energy as this matter moves through an organism.
→ The placental exchange model helps students understand how nutrients such as glucose move from mother to fetus to support growth, while waste products move in the opposite direction, illustrating matter transfer within biological systems.