Agenda | Teaching Notes |
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Total Time: 2 hours of instruction Section 1 1. Opening A. Introducing Learning Target and Focusing Question (10 minutes) 2. Obtaining Information A. Playing "Pass the Energy, Please" (25 minutes) B. Close Reading: "How Animals Use Energy" (30 minutes) Optional Extension: Weigh a Class Pet Optional Extension: Food Chain Pyramid Section 2 1. Communicating Information A. Revising Expert Ecosystem Explanatory Models (20 minutes) B. Scientists Meeting: Building Understanding (20 minutes) C. Independent Practice: Creating Models (15 minutes) |
Purpose of lesson sequence and alignment to NGSS standards:
How it builds on previous work in the Life Science Module:
How it connects to the CCSS Standards and EL Education's Language Arts Grade 5 Module 2:
Possible student misconceptions:
Possible broader connections:
Areas where students may need additional support:
Down the road:
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Lesson Sequence 7: Overview
Total Time: 2 hours of instruction (divided into two sections)
In this lesson sequence, students learn more about the transfer of energy between organisms in a food chain through a simulation and an informational text. Students continue to refine their expert ecosystem explanatory models to reflect their learning. Finally, students individually add their learning about the cycle of energy and how to make a model to their student science notebook.
Long-Term Learning Addressed (Based on NGSS)
Use a model (food web) in explaining that food provides animals with the matter and energy they need for body repair, growth, motion, and maintaining body warmth and for motion. (Based on NGSS 5-LS2-1 and 5-PS3-1)
This lesson sequence explicitly addresses:
Science and Engineering Practices:
- Developing and Using Models: Develop a model to describe phenomena. Students add information to their expert ecosystem explanatory model about how matter and energy pass from the sun to producers to consumers and then decomposers return matter to producers.
Crosscutting Concepts:
- Energy and Matter: Energy can be transferred in various ways and between objects. Matter is transported into, out of, and within systems. Students learn that matter and energy move from organism to organism through the food web.
Disciplinary Core Ideas:
- LS2.B: Cycles of Matter and Energy Transfer in Ecosystems: Matter cycles between the air and soil and among plants, animals, and microbes as these organisms live and die. Student revise their ecosystem model to explain how matter cycles through the food web.
Lesson Sequence Learning Target
- I can revise a food web model to explain what happens to energy as it is transferred among organisms in an ecosystem.
Ongoing Assessment
- Scientists Meeting: Building Understanding
- Student science notebooks: Matter and Energy Transfer entry
- Matter and energy transfer model
- Expert ecosystem explanatory model
Agenda
In Advance
- Read each section and complete the Preparing to Teach: Self-Coaching Guide
- Pre-determine groups of four students for the "Pass the Energy, Please" simulation in Section 1.
- Post: Lesson sequence learning target, lesson sequence focusing question, Schoolyard Ecosystem Poster-Size Explanatory Model, and Scientists Do These Things anchor chart.
Optional extensions:
- Weigh a Class Pet: Weigh a class pet before and after feeding, as well as all food. Ask: "What happens to the weight of the food as the pet eats it? Why does the pet's weight not change very much as it eats food?"
- Food Chain Pyramid: Guide students to apply their understanding of how useful energy decreases as it moves to each level of the food chain to create a food chain pyramid. For more information go here.
Vocabulary
revise = to change or make different in order to improve
Materials
General Materials
- Student science notebook (from Lesson Sequence 1; one per student)
- Energy Transfer entry (page 30 of student science notebook)
- Organism Name cards (one set per group)
- Directions for "Pass the Energy, Please" (one to display)
- "How Animals Use Energy" (one per student)
- Schoolyard Ecosystem Poster-Size Explanatory Model (begun in Lesson Sequence 5; added to during Section 2)
- Schoolyard Ecosystem Explanatory Model: Model for Lesson Sequence 7 (for teacher reference)
- Expert ecosystem explanatory model (begun in Lesson Sequence 5; added to during Section 2; one per expert group)
- Scientists Do These Things anchor chart (begun in Lesson Sequence 2 added to during Section 2; see supporting materials)
- Example of individual model (for teacher reference)
Science-Specific Materials (gathered by the teacher)
- Materials for "Pass the Energy, Please" (one set per group; used in Section 1)
- Bottle of soda or colored water (1-liter size)
- Plastic cups (four)
- 100 milliliter graduated cylinder
- Eyedropper (one)
- Teacher science notebook (from Lesson Sequence 1; for teacher reference)
Opening
Section 1: Opening | Preparing to Teach: Self-Coaching Guide |
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A. Introducing Learning Target and Focusing Question (10 minutes)
"What might happen to the energy that is stored in the plants and animals' bodies after they are consumed?" (Responses will vary. Do not correct students but note initial understanding.)
"What does it mean to revise something? (to change or make different in order to improve)
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(1) How can I help my students quickly and efficiently transition to science time? (2) What do my students know about energy transfer? Do I need to revisit the law of conservation? |
Work Time
Work Time | Preparing to Teach: Self-Coaching Guide |
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Section 1: Obtaining InformationA. Playing "Pass the Energy, Please" (25 minutes)
"What are the types of organisms that are in a food web?" (producers, consumers--primary and secondary--and decomposers)
"Why do you think the sun did not give all of its energy to the plants? Where do you think that energy might have gone?" (Much of the energy from the sun goes into warming the environment. Plants receive only about 10 percent of the sun's energy.) "Why do you think the directions told you to not pass on all your energy to whoever consumed you?" (Only 10 percent of the energy is stored in food energy. Ninety percent of plants and animals' energy is used for body repair, maintaining temperature, and movement for animals.) "What do you think happens to the energy that doesn't get passed on?" (The energy that is not passed on is used by that organism for body repair or is released into the environment as heat.) "Where do you think the energy might go?" (It is released into the environment.) "If you were a primary consumer, how many plants do you think you would to consume to get enough energy?" (Responses will vary.) "If you were a secondary consumer, how many primary consumers would you need to consume to get enough energy?" (Responses will vary. Students should understand that because not all the energy gets passed on, secondary consumers need to eat many primary consumers)
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(1) Should I have the whole class participate in this simulation or choose a few students to demonstrate it for the class? (2) Students will not know these answers yet. This part of the lesson is to begin to uncover student misconceptions as well as create a need to know. (3) Students will learn the answers to these questions during their reading in the next agenda item. |
B. Close Reading: "How Animals Use Energy" (30 minutes)
"What gist notes or vocabulary words did you write down? What similarities and differences are there between our notes?"
"What happens to the energy coming from the sun?" (It is captured by plants.) "What happens to the energy as it cycles through animals?" (Some of it used for body functions and movement, and some of it is stored and transferred from animal to animal.) "Think back to "Pass the Energy, Please." What happened to the energy inside the animal? Why didn't all the energy get passed to the next consumer?" (Some of it was used by the animals to function and, in the case of warm-blooded animals, for heat. It wasn't "used up," but rather transformed into a different type of energy.) "Do you think something similar happens in plants? Do you think they capture and pass on 100 percent of the energy they get from the sun? Why or why not?" (Plants do not pass on 100 percent of the energy they capture from the sun. They also use some of the energy for plant growth. It is not lost, but rather transferred into a different form.) "If you were a primary consumer, how many plants do you think you would need to consume to get enough energy? Why?" (many because the energy isn't passed 100 percent) "If you were a secondary consumer, how many primary consumers would you need to consume to get enough energy? Why?" (many because a fraction of the energy is passed up the food chain) |
(1) Based on the close reads in the earlier lesson sequences, what support will my students need? (2) Some of my students may benefit from having a visual with this conversation. Keeping in mind that students will eventually create their own models, what can I draw on the board to augment this discussion? |
Section 2: Communicating InformationA. Revising Expert Ecosystem Explanatory Models (20 minutes)
"How can we revise our ecosystem explanatory models to reflect our learning about the way energy is passed between organisms?" (Add arrows and lines to the model to represent how energy passed and how that energy is used within the bodies of each organism and released into environment as heat energy, plus labels to explain.) "How would using a different color for energy make our model clearer?" (Using a different color for energy makes the transfer of energy clearer)
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(1) What support do groups need as they revise? |
B. Scientists Meeting: Building Understanding (20 minutes)
"What are the norms of a Scientists Meeting?" (take turns talking, build on one another's ideas, disagree respectfully, ask questions to clarify information)
"Why do you think...?" "What is your reason...? "What is your evidence for saying that...?"
"Why do you think you have different conclusions?" "What in 'John's' argument do you disagree with?" "What evidence do you have?" "What points do you agree on?"
"As you think about the way energy moves through a food chain, in a healthy ecosystem do you think you would see more producers or more secondary consumers? Why?" (more producers because then more energy would be passed along the food chain; without producers there wouldn't be enough energy to support secondary consumers)
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(1) Students should be familiar with this practice now. What can I do to encourage this discussion to be more student centered and less teacher centered? |
C. Independent Practice: Creating Models (15 minutes)
"In Lesson Sequence 6, you learned how matter cycles through an ecosystem when you learned about food webs. You also learned about how energy cycles. In this lesson sequence, you learned more about how energy flows through an ecosystem. Now you're going to draw a small model to capture your learning."
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(1) My students may need more practice creating a model. How can I spend more time here and make this assignment more robust? Consider these scaffolds:
See example individual model (for teacher reference) for an example of what students may draw. |
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