Decomposers | Lesson 6 - Explaining Other Examples of Decomposers...

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Students do optional readings and activities about different types of decomposers. Then they practice explaining other examples of decomposers growing, moving and functioning and take the unit posttest.

Guiding Question

How do other decomposers grow, move, and function?

Activities in this Lesson

(Optional) Activity 6.1: Exploring Different Kinds of Decomposers (varies)
Activity 6.2: Explaining Other Examples of Decomposers Growing, Moving, and Functioning (50 min)
Activity 6.3: Comparing Decomposers, Plants, and Animals (50 min)
Activity 6.4: Functions of All Decomposers (50 min)
Activity 6.5: Decomposers Unit Posttest (40 min)

Unit Map

Decomposers Lesson 6 Unit Map

Target Performances

Lesson 6 – Explaining Other Examples of Decomposers Growing, Moving, and Functioning (students as explainers)
Activity	Target Performance
(Optional) Activity 6.1: Exploring Different Kinds of Decomposers	Students explain how matter and energy move and change in other phenomena involving decomposers, included aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, fermentation, spontaneous combustion of hay, and decomposition in forests.
Activity 6.2: Explaining Other Examples of Decomposers Growing, Moving, and Functioning	Students develop integrated accounts of how other fungi (bracket fungi, bread mold, mycorrhizal fungi) grow and function through the processes of digestion, cellular respiration, and biosynthesis.
Activity 6.3: Comparing Decomposers, Plants, and Animals	Students compare how matter moves and changes and how energy changes in decomposers, plants, and animals.
Activity 6.4: Functions of All Decomposers	Students develop integrated accounts of how all aerobic decomposers grow and function through the processes of digestion, cellular respiration, and biosynthesis.
Activity 6.5: Decomposers Unit Posttest	Students show their end-of unit proficiencies for the overall unit goal: Questioning, investigating, and explaining how decomposers move and change matter and energy as they live and grow.

NGSS Performance Expectations

High School

Chemical Reactions. HS-PS1-4. Develop a model to illustrate that the release or absorption of energy from a chemical reaction system depends on the changes in total bond energy.
Chemical Reactions. HS-PS1-7. Use mathematical representations to support the claim that atoms, and therefore mass, are conserved during a chemical reaction.
From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes. HS-LS1-2. Develop and use a model to illustrate the hierarchical organization of interacting systems that provide specific functions within multicellular organisms.
Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems. HS-LS1-6. Construct and revise an explanation based on evidence for how carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen from sugar molecules may combine with other elements to form amino acids and/or other large carbon-based molecules.
Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems. HS-LS1-7. Use a model to illustrate that cellular respiration is a chemical process whereby the bonds of food molecules and oxygen molecules are broken and the bonds in new compounds are formed resulting in a net transfer of energy.
Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems. HS-LS2-3. Construct and revise an explanation based on evidence for the cycling of matter and flow of energy in aerobic and anaerobic conditions.

Middle School

Structure and Properties of Matter. MS-PS1-1. Develop models to describe the atomic composition of simple molecules and extended structures.
Chemical Reactions. MS-PS1-5. Develop and use a model to describe how the total number of atoms does not change in a chemical reaction and thus mass is conserved.
From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes. MS-LS1-3. Use argument supported by evidence for how the body is a system of interacting subsystems composed of groups of cells.
Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems. 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.
Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems. MS-LS2-3. Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.

Three-dimensional Learning Progression

In this final lesson of the unit, students have completed the inquiry and explanation sequences for decomposers’ growth and movement. The activities in the previous lessons were designed to walk students through a cognitive apprenticeship model of Establishing the Problem, Modeling, Coaching, and Fading. The results of the unit posttest will help you determine if your students are ready to move on to other units and carry forward concepts from this unit into those future units. If the results from your posttest imply that a majority of your students are still struggling with certain concepts, it might be valuable to return to some of the main concepts they are struggling with before moving on to the next Carbon TIME unit.

Key Ideas and Practices for Each Activity

Activity 6.1 is an optional activity that allows students to explore other types of decomposers through activities, readings, and videos. The 6.1 Decomposers Without Oxygen Reading and Modeling Handout is the only activity in the Decomposers unit that addresses anaerobic conditions which is a component of HS-LS2-3.

Activity 6.2 is the Fading phase of the Explanation Activity Sequence, which provides students with important less-scaffolded practice with digestion, biosynthesis, and cellular respiration. Students should take more responsibility for their work than in Lessons 4 and 5, which included the Modeling and Coaching phases. Students answer the Three Questions for different decomposers growing and moving using the Explanations Tools, coordinating accounts at the macroscopic and atomic-molecular scales. Macroscopic scale accounts include these components:

the structure of the system (the decomposer in this case) and the movement of materials through the system;
the location where chemical changes take place (outside and inside decomposers’ cells);
the materials involved in the chemical changes: the reactants going in and the products coming out.

Atomic-molecular scale accounts include three different ways of representing chemical change:

molecular models, with twist ties to represent units of energy, that students use to physically rearrange the atoms of the reactant molecules into the molecules of the products;
a chemical equation that shows how atoms are rearranged into new molecules in a compact way (but does not account for energy);
the Explanations Tools, which provide a way for students to account for changes in matter and energy in writing by answering the Three Questions.

In Activity 6.3, which is also part of the Fading phase of the Explanation Activity Sequence, students think across the macroscopic-focused Carbon TIME units to compare how decomposers grow and function with how animals and plants grow and function.

In Activity 6.4, the final component of the Fading phase of the Explanation Activity Sequence, students write generalized explanations of how all decomposers grow, move, and function with reduced scaffolding.

Activity 6.5 includes summative assessment for the unit. You can track students’ progress by having them take the unit posttest (identical to the unit pretest) and comparing the results of the two assessments.

Key Carbon-Transforming Processes: Digestion, Biosynthesis, and Cellular Respiration

Content Boundaries and Extensions

Talk and Writing

This lesson of the unit represents the fading portion of the Explanations Phase. This means that students are expected to develop explanations for carbon-transforming processes they studied in this unit in new and novel contexts. The table below shows specific talk and writing goals for the Explanations Phase of the unit.

Talk and Writing Goals for the Explanations Phase	Teacher Talk Strategies That Support This Goal	Curriculum Components That Support This Goal
Examine student ideas and correct them when there are problems. It’s ok to give the answers away during this phase! Help students practice using precise language to describe matter and energy.	Let’s think about what you just said: air molecules. What are air molecules? Are you talking about matter or energy? Remember: atoms can’t be created. So that matter must have come from somewhere. Where did it come from? Let’s look at the molecule poster again… is carbon an atom or a molecule?	Molecule Poster Three Questions Poster
Focus on making sure that explanations include multiple scales.	The investigation gave us evidence for what was happening to matter and energy at a macroscopic sale. But what is happening at an atomic-molecular scale? What is happening to molecules and atoms? How does energy interact with atoms and molecules during chemical change? Why doesn’t the macroscopic investigation tell us the whole story? Let’s revisit our scale poster… what is happening to matter at the molecular scale?	Molecular Models Molecular Modeling Worksheets Explanation Tools PPT Animation of chemical change Powers of Ten Poster
Encourage students to recall the investigation.	When did this chemical change happen during our investigation? How do we know that? What is our evidence? What were the macroscopic indicators that this chemical change took place?	Evidence-Based Arguments Tool Investigation Video
Elicit a range of student explanations. Press for details. Encourage students to examine, compare, and contrast their explanations with others’.	Who can add to that explanation? What do you mean by _____? Say more. So, I think you said _____. Is that right? Who has a different explanation? How are those explanations similar/different? Who can rephrase ________’s explanation?	Explanation Tools