This page contains links to the science standards and benchmarks developed by Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL). McREL surveyed many national and state efforts to identify what K-12 students should know and be able to do in a variety of subject areas. They also consulted over 100 national and state documents that address standards and benchmarks in various subject domains. (Copyright 2000 McREL; Used with permission).

"Hatch to Catch" specifically targets McREL's Life Sciences Standard #6: Understands relationships among organisms and their physical environment. Individual benchmarks related to this standard are outlined below.

Grade Level	Science Benchmark	"Hatch to Catch" Relevant Concept
K-2	Knows that plants and animals need certain resources for energy and growth. (6.1.1)	Habitat is a resource needed for lobster growth.
	Knows that living things are found almost everywhere in the world and that distinct environments support the life of different types of plants and animals. (6.1.2)	Gulf of Maine lobsters are subject to different environments, which vary with respect to habitat type and temperature. This variability affects the growth and survival of the lobsters.
3-5	Knows that an organism's patterns of behavior are related to the nature of that organism's environment. (6.2.3)	Lobster habitat selection is mediated by Gulf of Maine circulation (larval transport) and habitat type and availability.
6-8	Knows that all individuals of a species that exist together at a given place and time make up a population, and all populations living together and the physical factors with which they interact compose an ecosystem. (6.3.1)	The cohort of lobsters followed is one age-class of the Gulf of Maine population. The cohort interacts with other populations (lobsters and predators) and is influenced by physical factors of the Gulf.
	Knows factors that affect the number and types of organisms an ecosystem can support. (6.3.2)	Habitat limitation, temperature-dependent growth, and variable recruitment affect the growth and survival of the lobsters in the Gulf.
	Knows ways in which organisms interact and depend on one another through food chains and webs in an ecosystem. (6.3.3)	Size-dependent predation impacts lobster survival in the Gulf of Maine.