Transformations in Matter and Energy Carbon TIME is an NSF-funded partnership led by Michigan State University
Human Energy Systems | Lesson 1 - Pretest and Expressing Ideas
Overview
Students take the unit pretest, practice how and why scientists construct graphs to represent data and construct a graph of arctic sea ice extent from 1979-2015 and identify a trend in the data: arctic sea ice is declining.
Guiding Question
What is happening to arctic sea ice?
Activities in this Lesson
- Activity 1.1: Human Energy Systems Unit Pretest (20 min)
- Activity 1.2: Expressing Ideas and Questions about Arctic Sea Ice (40 min)
- Activity 1.3: Graphing Arctic Sea Ice (45 min)
- Activity 1.4: Drawing a Trend Line (40 min)
- Activity 1.5: Finding a Trend in Arctic Sea Ice (40 min)
Unit Map
Target Student Performance
Activity |
Target Performance |
Lesson 1 – Pretest and Expressing Ideas about Arctic Sea Ice (students as questioners and investigators) |
|
---|---|
Activity 1.1 Human Energy Systems Unit Pretest (20 min) |
Students show their initial proficiencies for the overall unit goals: 1. Questioning, investigating, and explaining how the Earth’s climate is changing 2. Explaining and predicting how carbon cycles and energy flows in Earth systems. |
Activity 1.2: Expressing Ideas and Questions about Arctic Sea Ice (40 min) |
Students express ideas and record questions about why Arctic sea ice seems to be shrinking. |
Activity 1.3: Graphing Arctic Sea Ice (45 min) |
Students use data on Arctic sea ice to construct graphs showing patterns in changing coverage over time. |
Activity 1.4: Drawing a Trend Line (40 min) |
Students use multi-year averages to construct a trend line using data on Lake Superior ice cover. |
Activity 1.5: Finding a Trend in Arctic Sea Ice Data (40 min) |
Students use multi-year averages to construct a trend line using data on Arctic sea ice. |
NGSS Performance Expectations
This lesson does not feature a mastery of any of the NGSS performance expectations but provides students with foundational practices and knowledge needed to master all of the performance expectations in the rest of the unit.