Decomposers Unit Goals

The tables below show goals for this unit in two forms. A list of Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) addressed by this unit is followed by a table showing specific target performances for each activity.

Next Generation Science Standards

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) performance expectations that middle and high school students can achieve through completing the Plants Unit are listed below. To read a discussion of how the Carbon TIME project is designed to help students achieve the performances represented in the NGSS, please see Three-dimensional Learning in Carbon TIME.

High School

HS. Chemical Reactions. HS-PS1-4. Develop a model to illustrate that the release or absorption of energy from a chemical reaction system depends upon the changes in total bond energy.

http://www.nextgenscience.org/hsps-cr-chemical-reactions

HS. Chemical Reactions. HS-PS1-7. Use mathematical representations to support the claim that atoms, and therefore mass, are conserved during a chemical reaction.

http://www.nextgenscience.org/hsps-cr-chemical-reactions

HS. 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.

http://www.nextgenscience.org/hsls-meoe-matter-energy-organisms-ecosystems

HS. 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.

http://www.nextgenscience.org/hsls-meoe-matter-energy-organisms-ecosystems

Middle School

MS. Structure and Properties of Matter. MS-PS1-1. Develop models to describe the atomic composition of simple molecules and extended structures.

http://www.nextgenscience.org/msps-spm-structure-properties-matter

MS. Chemical Reactions. MS-PS1-2. Analyze and interpret data on the properties of substances before and after the substances interact to determine if a chemical reaction has occurred.

http://www.nextgenscience.org/msps-cr-chemical-reactions

MS. 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.

http://www.nextgenscience.org/msps-cr-chemical-reactions

MS. 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.

http://www.nextgenscience.org/msls-meoe-matter-energy-organisms-ecosystems

MS. 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.

http://www.nextgenscience.org/msls-meoe-matter-energy-organisms-ecosystems

Target Performances for Each Activity

All Carbon TIME units are organized around a common purpose: assessing and scaffolding students’ three-dimensional engagement with phenomena. Every Carbon TIME activity has its specific expectation for students’ three-dimensional engagement with phenomena, what we call its target performance. Each activity also includes tools and strategies that teachers can use to asses and scaffold the target performance in rigorous and responsive ways.

The target performances for each activity in the Decomposers unit are listed in the table below.

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Lesson 1 – Pretest and Expressing Ideas and Questions (students as questioners)
Activity	Target Performance
Activity 0.1: Investigation Set Up	Students will make initial measurements of the combined mass of a slide of bread and a Petri dish and leave the bread to mold.
Activity 1.1: Decomposers Unit Pretest	Students show their initial proficiencies for the overall unit goal: Questioning, investigating, and explaining how decomposers move and change matter and energy as they live and grow.
Activity 1.2: Expressing Ideas and Questions about Bread Molding	Students ask and record specific questions about changes in matter and energy in response to the unit driving question: What happens when bread molds?
Lesson 2 – Foundations: Zooming into Organisms (students developing foundational knowledge and practice)
Activity 2.1: Zooming into Plants, Animals, and Decomposers	Students “zoom in” to animals, plants, and decomposers, describing how all of these organisms are made of cells with special structures and functions.
Activity 2.2: Molecules Cells Are Made of	Students use food labels to describe molecules in animal, plant, and decomposer cells: large organic molecules (carbohydrates, proteins, and fats), as well as water, vitamins, and minerals.
Activity 2.3: Molecules in Cells Quiz	Students complete a quiz to assess their understanding of the molecules in cells and how to identify which molecules store chemical energy.
Activity 2.4: Questions about Decomposers	Students describe structures and functions that all decomposers share and pose questions about molding bread to prepare for their upcoming investigation.
Lesson 3 – Investigating Bread Molding (students as investigators and questioners)
Activity 3.1: Predictions and Planning about Bread Molding	Students (a) develop hypotheses about how matter moves and changes and how energy changes when bread molds and (b) make predictions about how they can use their investigation tools—digital balances and BTB—to detect movements and changes in matter.
Activity 3.2: Observing Bread Molding	Students record data about changes in mass and BTB when bread molds and reach consensus about patterns in their data.
Activity 3.3: Evidence-Based Arguments for Bread Molding	Students (a) use data from their investigations to develop evidence-based arguments about how matter moves and changes and how energy changes when bread molds, and (b) identify unanswered questions about matter movement and matter and energy change that the data are insufficient to address.
Lesson 4 –Explaining How Decomposers Move and Function (students as explainers)
Activity 4.1: Molecular Models for Fungi Moving and Functioning: Cellular Respiration	Students use molecular models to explain how carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen atoms are rearranged into new molecules in fungus cells.
Activity 4.2: Explaining How Fungi Move and Function: Cellular Respiration	Students explain how matter moves and changes and how energy changes during cellular respiration in fungus cells.
Lesson 5 – Explaining How Decomposers Grow (students as explainers)
Activity 5.1: Tracing the Processes of Fungi Growing: Digestion and Biosynthesis	Students “zoom in” to the structure and function of a mushroom’s organ systems and cells, tracing atoms and energy.
(Optional) Activity 5.2: Molecular Models for Fungi Growing: Digestion and Biosynthesis	Students use molecular models to explain how polymers are broken into monomers during the process of digestion and monomers are linked into polymers during biosynthesis.
Activity 5.3: Explaining How Fungi Grow: Digestion	Students explain how matter moves and changes and how energy changes during digestion by a fungus.
Activity 5.4: Explaining How Fungi Grow: Biosynthesis	Students explain how matter moves and changes and how energy changes during biosynthesis in a mushroom’s cells.
Lesson 6 – Explaining Other Examples of Decomposers Growing, Moving, and Functioning (students as explainers)
(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.