4mat4biology

Essential Question: How do human actions affect the “circle of life”?

So divinely is the world organized that every one of us, in our place and time, is in balance with everything else.

–Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

Student Reaction

I’ll probably remember photosynthesis and respiration.

I understand how they work now and I even know the equations! I've learned that without one we couldn’t have the other. We need plants to provide oxygen so I’m more interested in the environment. There is a whole cycle that goes on between humans and the earth.

–Lindsey

National Science Education Standards

• Science as Inquiry Standards
• The interdependence of organisms
• Matter, energy and organization in living systems
• The cell
• Form and function
• Evolution and equilibrium
• Change, constancy and measurement
• Science in personal and social perspectives
• Science as inquiry

Big Ideas

• Life depends on life.
• Energy changes form.
• Matter cycles in ecosystems.
• Matter stores energy.

Knowledge

• Cellular respiration and photosynthesis
• Sun is the ultimate source of energy.
• Energy is stored in chemical bonds (chemical energy).
• Trophic pyramids and food webs
• Ecosystems
• Relationship between carbon dioxide and climate change

Skills

• Design and interpret experiments with snails, elodea and carbon dioxide.
• Demonstrate respiration and photosynthesis using ball and stick models.
• Create a food web.
• Research and take a position on a controversial issue.

Objectives

Students will:

• Become more aware that the sun is the sustaining source of energy for the “Circle of Life.”
• Become more appreciative that ecosystems include the interactions of all living/nonliving components in one area and must be balanced.
• Enhance their understanding that:
  • respiration and photosynthesis are interdependent processes that form the basis of the “Circle of Life.”
  • matter has stored energy in its chemical bonds that can be released when the bonds are broken.
  • organisms store energy as ATP which is then used to carry out the processes of the cell.
• Become more skilled at experimenting with the interdependent nature of photosynthesis and respiration regarding the flow of energy and matter.
• Become more expert at investigating and taking a position on the climate change issue then sharing it on a classroom blog.

Time

This unit should take approximately 18 class periods (50 minutes each).