Systems and Scale

Carbon TIME: Human Energy Systems Unit

Human Energy Systems is one of the six Carbon TIME units. If you are new to teaching Carbon TIME, read the Carbon TIME FAQ: Which Units Should I Teach.

The Human Energy Systems Unit supports students in using core disciplinary ideas, science practices, and cross-cutting concepts to develop scientific explanations of how different energy systems transform matter and energy as they grow, move, and function.

Follow these steps to get ready to teach the Human Energy Systems Unit

Lead Editor for 2019 Version

Kirsten D. Edwards, Department of Teacher Education, Michigan State University

Principal Authors

Hannah K. Miller, Department of Teacher Education, Northern Vermont University

Wendy Johnson, Department of Teacher Education, Michigan State University

Jenny Dauer, School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Beth Covitt, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Montana

Craig Kohn, Department of Teacher Education, Michigan State University

Bonnie McGill, Kansas Biological Survey, University of Kansas

Charles W. (Andy) Anderson, Department of Teacher Education, Michigan State University

Contributing Authors

Sarah Bodbyl Roels, Elizabeth Xeng de los Santos, Jennifer Doherty, Allison Freed, Bonnie McGill, Lindsey Mohan, Emily Scott, Alex Walus Beth Covitt, Jennifer Doherty, Emily Scott, Nick Verbanic

Illustrations

Craig Douglas

This research is supported in part by grants from the National Science Foundation: A Learning Progression-based System for Promoting Understanding of Carbon-transforming Processes (DRL 1020187) and Sustaining Responsive and Rigorous Teaching Based on Carbon TIME (NSF 1440988). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or the United States Department of Energy.

Contact the MSU Environmental Literacy Program for more information: EnvLit@msu.edu.

The goal of the Human Energy Systems unit is to introduce students to carbon cycling at a global scale and the implications of human fossil fuel use for climate change. Students:

Investigate patterns of change in Earth systems (global temperatures, global sea levels, Arctic sea ice, atmospheric CO₂) and use the Greenhouse Effect to explain how increases in greenhouse gas concentrations drive changes in other systems;
Explain how three key fluxes (photosynthesis, cellular respiration, combustion of fossil fuels) affect the atmospheric CO₂ pool;
Explain how human actions affect CO₂ fluxes; and
Predict effects of changes in human actions on the atmospheric CO₂

The Research Base

Carbon is the key! In the unit, students learn to tell the story of how matter and energy are transformed as they move through human energy systems. A particularly powerful strategy for explaining how Earth systems transform matter and energy involves tracing carbon atoms. For more information about the Next Generation Science Standards disciplinary core ideas included in this unit see the sections on the Large Scale Four Questions below and the Unit Goals

Research base. This unit is based on learning progression research that describes the resources that students bring to learning about human energy systems and the barriers to understanding that they must overcome. It is organized around an instructional model that engages students in three-dimensional practices.

Students’ Roles and Science Practices

Human Energy Systems is the culminating unit in the Carbon TIME sequence, focusing on global-scale phenomena: climate change and global carbon cycling. We recommend that teachers complete the Systems & Scale, Plants, and Ecosystems units before the Human Energy Systems unit if possible. The foundational knowledge introduced in these units helps prepare students to engage in conversations and activities that require a basic understanding of photosynthesis, cellular respiration, and combustion of fossil fuels (on a cellular or atomic-molecular scale) and apply these concepts to carbon cycling and energy flow (on a global scale). It is through examining the pools and fluxes of carbon at a global scale that students will be able to make connections between energy use, combustion of fossil fuels, carbon emissions, and climate change.

The Carbon TIME instructional model reflects the two phases of the unit. The first phase focuses on helping students to understand, analyze, and explain multiple phenomena associated with climate change (What is happening to the planet?). The second phase focuses on global carbon cycling (What causes changes in CO₂?). In each phase students practice the roles of questioner, investigator, and explainer.

Phase 1: What is happening to the planet? (climate change)

In Lessons 1-3 students question, investigate, and explain four phenomena associated with climate change: Arctic sea ice, global sea levels, global average temperatures, and atmospheric CO₂ concentrations.

Lesson 1: After taking the unit pretest, students begin by expressing their ideas and questions around a single phenomenon: Arctic sea ice. They begin with ideas and questions about a single pair of images, comparing the extent of Arctic sea ice in 1979 and 2016. They then investigate data on Arctic sea ice over multiple years, learning to make graphs that show two patterns: (a) the extent of ice varies unpredictably from one year to the next, and (b) there is a long-term trend toward reduced ice cover.

Lesson 2: Students investigate multiple representations of data about three other phenomena, comparing the representations to look for patterns in the data. They end the lesson with four clear long-term trends:

The extent of Arctic sea ice is decreasing
Sea levels are rising
Global average temperatures are rising
Global concentrations of CO₂ are rising

Lesson 3:

Students learn about the Greenhouse effect and use it to explain the connections among the long-term trends: Increasing CO₂ levels are causing increases in global temperatures; the increasing temperatures are causing sea level to rise and ice to melt. Thus, atmospheric CO₂ is the driver—the factor that causes change in the other variables.

Phase 2: What causes changes in CO2? (global carbon cycling)

In the second half of the unit students investigate and explain “what drives the driver”—what is causing changes in atmospheric CO₂ levels.

Lesson 4: Students begin by sharing questions and hypotheses and make predictions about how reducing fossil fuel use will affect atmospheric CO₂ using the Big Ideas Probe. Students figure out how to answer the driving question by tracing carbon-containing molecules through a series of movements and chemical changes as they travel through different matter pools in Earth systems. At each stage in these processes they answer Four Questions about what is happening: The Carbon Pools Question, the Carbon Cycling Question, the Energy Flow Question, and the Stability and Change Question.

Note that, in Carbon TIME, NGSS
crosscutting concepts serve as the “rules of grammar” for producing a scientific performance. With respect to bread molding, high quality explanations should attend to the following rules that are implied by crosscutting concepts. Explanations should attend to:

Scale by explaining events and phenomena at the appropriate scale (see more in the structure and function bullets below).
Systems and system models and energy and matter by following rules for tracing matter and energy through systems and system models. For example, neither energy nor matter should be created or destroyed as it moves into, through, or out of a system.
Structure and function by linking structures and functions in explanations at each scale.
- Global scale (tracing fluxes of carbon and energy through different global carbon pools)
- Macroscopic scale (tracing matter and energy through processes occurring inside plants, animals, and decomposers)
- Atomic-molecular scale (tracing matter and energy through chemical processes—digestion, cellular respiration, and biosynthesis—involving molecules with different structures and properties)

In particular, students should learn to answer the Four Questions in three important contexts:

At the macroscopic scale, they relate our economic activities and lifestyle choices to carbon-transforming processes, especially combustion of fossil fuels. Students should understand both activities that directly use fossil fuels (such as driving a car) and activities that indirectly use fossil fuels (such as using electrical appliances or buying products that require fossil fuels for manufacture and transportation).
Relating local systems, actions, and choices to global effects and outcomes, particularly increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Relating changes in global carbon pools (the atmosphere, biomass, soil organic carbon, and organic carbon in fossil fuels) to the balance of fluxes of carbon between these pools.

Students use three different kinds of pool-and-flux models to explain both the annual cycle and the long-term trend in CO2 concentrations:

The Tiny World Game (Activity 4.3) is a hands-on activity in which students move counters to investigate the effect of different balances among photosynthesis, cellular respiration, and combustion fluxes on atmospheric, environmental organic carbon, and fossil fuel pools.
The Global Carbon Model (Activity 4.4) is an online model that students can manipulate to predict how different changes in carbon fluxes will affect carbon pools.

The Global Carbon Cycling Diagram (Optional Activity 4.5) adds the oceans as another carbon pool. Students make predictions that include carbon fluxes into and out of the oceans using the diagram.

Lesson 5: Students learn from Lesson 4 that combustion of fossil fuels is the unbalanced flux that drives the continuing increase in atmospheric CO₂ concentrations (and therefore climate change). In Lesson 5 they explore how human activities, including their own lifestyles, depend on combustion of fossil fuels—often in hidden ways. Students investigate how lifestyles associated with different countries (United States, France, China, and Ethiopia) lead to vastly different rates of fossil fuel combustion. They also examine how their own everyday activities (e.g., buying a pizza, washing dishes) use energy from fossil fuels and changes that could reduce carbon emissions.

Lesson 6: The unit concludes with a series of activities in which students make projections of how different scenarios will affect global temperatures as atmospheric CO₂ concentrations. They use a computer to make projections, then discuss different scenarios for Earth’s future, and how those scenarios will affect their lives.

Science Literacy

A note on media literacy. This unit makes extensive use of data and models from authoritative sources. Its contents are not scientifically controversial and are consistent with the Next Generation Science Standards. The data and models in this unit are complex, but critically important. The unit has many scaffolds, including the Questions, Connections, Questions Student Reading Strategy, to scaffold students’ understanding.

Some students might respond to the material presented in this unit by offering conflicting claims they have heard about climate change from their families, friends, or the media. Footnotes are included throughout the Teacher’s Guide to help you respond to these claims using with the evidence the scientific community looks to interpret these conflicting claims. Although scientists view climate change as a matter of scientific evidence and not one of morals and values, the students may feel that their core values and viewpoints are being threatened, which could in turn cause them to disengage. The footnotes included in this unit are intended to provide additional perspectives you might use to help your students interpret the claims they are making in light of the available evidence for anthropogenic climate change.

While we want to encourage students to ask questions and engage in dialogue about the conflicting claims about climate change, we also want to encourage these conversations to be constrained by accurate scientific evidence. Look for footnotes throughout the Teacher’s Guide-- these are designed to help you navigate these conversations if they arise.

How much detail? There are more complicated and more scientifically accurate ways of talking about chemical bonds and about changes in energy; we discuss some of those in detail in our educator resource: Carbon TIME Content Simplifications. But our learning progression research has shown that there is an important tradeoff here—many students get lost in the details and never learn a basic coherent story that answers the driving question. The Next Generation Science Standards take a clear position on this tradeoff; a coherent story based on principles such as matter and energy conservation are more important than the details. Consult the Unit Sequence tab and the sections on Extending the Learning at the end of each Activity page to decide how much detail is appropriate for your students.

Before beginning the Human Energy Systems Unit, you need to decide what to teach and importantly, what not to teach! Use this page to choose the unit sequence that’s most appropriate for your students.

Some activities are TWO-TURTLE ACTIVITIES (), which place a higher demand on students. Decide whether the higher demand required by these activities will be useful or distracting for your students. The Carbon TIME Turtle Trails Document document provides further info about choices for making units more or less demanding, depending on your students’ needs.

Unless otherwise noted in the table below, all activities in the unit should be taught.

Human Energy Systems Unit Sequence and Decisions Table

Here, we present two ways to think about how lessons are sequenced in the Human Energy Systems Unit. The Instructional Model, immediately below, emphasizes how students take on roles of questioner, investigator, and explainer to learn and apply scientific models in each section of the unit. Further below, the Unit Storyline Chart highlights the central question, activity, and answer that students engage with in each lesson of the Human Energy Systems Unit.

Instructional Model

Like all Carbon TIME units, this unit follows an Instructional Model (IM) designed to support teaching that helps students achieve mastery at answering the driving question through use of disciplinary content, science practices, and crosscutting concepts. To learn more about this design, see the Carbon TIME Instructional Model.

The instructional model for the Human Energy Systems Unit includes two phases, described in the Unit Overview, in which students play the role of questioners, investigators, and explainers. The first phase focuses on helping students to understand, analyze, and explain multiple phenomena associated with climate change (What is happening to the planet?). The second phase focuses on global carbon cycling (What causes changes in CO₂?). Across the unit, classroom discourse is a necessary part of three-dimensional Carbon TIME learning. The Carbon TIME Discourse Routine document provides guidance for scaffolding this discourse in lessons.

The core of the Carbon TIME Instructional Model is the Observation, Patterns, Models (OPM) triangle, which summarizes key aspects to be attended to as the class engages in unit inquiry and explanation. The OPM triangle for the Human Energy Systems Unit, shown below, articulates the key observations students make during the unit investigation, the key patterns they identify through analyzing their investigation data, and the central scientific model that can be used to answer the unit’s driving question.

Observations, Patterns, and Models for Phase 1: Climate Change

Observations and patterns: trends in global climate data.

Students investigate multiple representations of data about four global phenomena, comparing the representations to look for patterns in the data. They end the Lesson 2 with four clear long-term trends:

The extent of Arctic sea ice is decreasing
Sea levels are rising
Global average temperatures are rising
Global concentrations of CO₂ are rising

Models: The Greenhouse Effect and CO₂ as the driver. Students learn to use the Greenhouse effect to explain the connections among the long-term trends: Increasing CO₂ levels are causing increases in global temperatures; the increasing temperatures are causing sea level to rise and ice to melt. Thus, atmospheric CO₂ is the driver—the factor that causes change in the other variables.

Observations, Patterns, and Models for Phase 2: Global Carbon Cycling

Observations and patterns: Students use visualizations and graphs to investigate changes in atmospheric CO₂ concentrations. Key patterns include:

The annual cycle: CO₂ concentrations in the northern hemisphere decline every summer and rise every winter.
The long-term trend: Global CO₂ concentrations have increased from about 310 to 400 ppm since the late 1950s.

Models (and Explanations): Students explain carbon cycling and energy flow between carbon pools by connecting global, macroscopic, and atomic-molecular scales, and answering the Four Questions:

Carbon Pools: carbon atoms are found in CO₂, living organisms, soil organic carbon, oceans, and fossil fuels
Carbon Fluxes: Changes in photosynthesis drive the annual cycle; combustion of fossil fuels drives the long-term trend.
Energy Flow: CO₂ and other greenhouse gases cause climate change.
Stability and Change: The photosynthesis and cellular respiration fluxes are large, but balanced. So, the smaller but unbalanced flux from combustion of fossil fuels is steadily increasing the size of the atmospheric CO₂

Unit Storyline Chart

Another way to familiarize yourself with the sequence of lessons in the Human Energy Systems Unit is with the Unit Storyline Chart depicted below. The Unit Storyline Chart summarizes a unit phenomenon-based driving question associated with each lesson, what classes will do in each lesson to address the question, what conclusions they will come to, and how they will transition to a subsequent lesson.

Download Unit IM and Storyline Chart

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 Ecosystems 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

Matter and Its Interactions. 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/hsps1-matter-interactions

Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics. HS-LS2-5. Develop a model to illustrate the role of photosynthesis and cellular respiration in the cycling of carbon among the biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere.

http://www.nextgenscience.org/hsls2-ecosystems-interactions-energy-dynamics

Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics. HS-LS2-7. Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.
Earth’s Systems. HS-ESS2-2. Analyze geoscience data to make the claim that one change to Earth’s surface can create feedbacks that cause changes to other Earth systems.
Weather and Climate. HS-ESS2-4. Use a model to describe how variations in the flow of energy into and out of Earth’s systems result in changes in climate.

http://www.nextgenscience.org/hsls2-ecosystems-interactions-energy-dynamics

Earth’s Systems. HS-ESS2-6. Develop a quantitative model to describe the cycling of carbon among the hydrosphere, atmosphere, geosphere, and biosphere.

http://www.nextgenscience.org/hsess-es-earth-systems

Earth and Human Activity. HS-ESS3-4. Evaluate or refine a technological solution that reduces impacts of human activities on natural systems.

http://www.nextgenscience.org/hsess3-earth-human-activity

Earth and Human Activity. HS-ESS3-5. Analyze geoscience data and the results from global climate models to make an evidence-based forecast of the current rate of global or regional climate change and associated future impacts to Earth systems.

http://www.nextgenscience.org/hsess3-earth-human-activity

Earth and Human Activity. HS-ESS3-6. Use a computational representation to illustrate the relationships among Earth systems and how those relationships are being modified due to human activity.

http://www.nextgenscience.org/hsess3-earth-human-activity

Middle School

MS-ESS2-1. Develop a model to describe the cycling of the Earth’s materials and the flow of energy that drives this process.
Earth and Human Activity. MS-ESS3-3. Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.

http://www.nextgenscience.org/msess3-earth-human-activity

Human Impacts. MS-ESS3-4. Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capital consumption of natural resources impact Earth's systems.

http://www.nextgenscience.org/msess-hi-human-impacts

Earth and Human Activity. MS-ESS3-5. Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.

http://www.nextgenscience.org/msess3-earth-human-activity

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 Ecosystems unit are listed in the table below.

Materials List

Download Zip File of All Unit Materials

Materials to Purchase PDF

Resources You Provide

Activity 1.1

pencils (1 per student, for paper version)

Activity 1.2

sticky notes (1 per student)
(Optional) Powers of Ten video

Activity 1.3

pencil (1 per student)

Activity 1.4

1.3 Graphing Arctic Sea Ice Worksheet (completed worksheets from previous activity)

Activity 1.5

1.3 Graphing Arctic Sea Ice Worksheet (completed worksheets from previous activity)

Activity 2.1

Activity 2.2

Jigsaw Cards (already distributed during previous activity)

Activity 2.3

2.1 Finding Patterns Tool for Earth Systems (from previous activity)
2.1 Assessing the Finding Patterns Tool for Earth Systems

Activity 2.4

2.1 Finding Patterns Tool for Earth Systems (completed from previous activity)
2.1 Assessing the Finding Patterns Tool for Earth Systems

Activity 3.1

Activity 3.2

Activity 3.3

Activity 4.1

3.3 Explaining Relationships Between Earth Systems Worksheet (completed from Lesson 3)

Activity 4.2

Activity 4.3

Markers for Tiny World Pool and Flux Activity to be used on the placement (30 per pair of students)

Activity 4.4

Activity 4.5

Pump handle video (https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/history.html ) See the Lesson 4 Background information for more information about this video.
Keeling & South Pole PPT slides & video: https://youtu.be/UatUDnFmNTY
Primary productivity PPT slides & video: http://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/globalmaps/data/mov/MOD17A2_M_PSN.mov
Explanation of how changes in sunlight drive changes in photosynthesis, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgHmqv_-UbQ
Website on ocean acidification: https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/invertebrates/ocean-acidification
Media representations of carbon cycle:
- ESRL
- WGBH

Activity 5.1

(optional) Calculator (1 per group of four students)

Activity 5.2

(From previous lesson) 5.1 Lifestyle Cards (1-2 sets per class)
(From previous lesson) 5.1 Extreme Makeover: Lifestyle Edition Worksheet (1 per student)
(From previous lesson) 5.1 Secrets Revealed! Worksheet (1 per student)

Activity 5.3

Activity 5.4

Chart paper (1 per group of four students)

Activity 6.1

Activity 6.2

Activity 6.3

Pencils (1 per student)

Resources Provided

Activity 1.1

1.1 Human Energy Systems Unit Pretest (1 per student or online)
1.1 Assessing the Human Energy Systems Unit Pretest

Activity 1.2

Activity 1.3

1.3 Graphing Arctic Sea Ice PPT
1.3 Graphing Arctic Sea Ice Worksheet
1.3 Grading the Graphing Arctic Sea Ice Worksheet
Website to retrieve data: http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/archives/image_select

Activity 1.4

Activity 1.5

Activity 2.1

Activity 2.2

2.2 Expert Group A Worksheet (1 per student in Group A)
2.2 Expert Group B Worksheet (1 per student in Group B)
2.2 Expert Group C Worksheet (1 per student in Group C)
2.2 Expert Group D Worksheet (1 per student in Group D)
2.2 Assessing Expert Group A Worksheet (1 per class)
2.2 Assessing Expert Group B Worksheet (1 per class)
2.2 Assessing Expert Group C Worksheet (1 per class)
2.2 Assessing Expert Group D Worksheet (1 per class)

Activity 2.3

2.3 Home Groups: Share Expertise PPT

Activity 2.4

2.4 Evidence-Based Arguments for Patterns in Earth Systems PPT

Activity 3.1

3.1 Millions of Flasks of Air Reading (1 per student)
(Optional) “Climate Change is Clear Atop Mauna Loa” a 12-minute radio story about climate change: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9885767

Activity 3.2

3.2 The Greenhouse Effect Reading
3.2 The Greenhouse Effect Simulation Worksheet
3.2 Grading The Greenhouse Effect Simulation Worksheet
Greenhouse Effect PhET simulation: https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/greenhouse
Optional data (“Global Warming's Six Americas”) of attitudes toward climate change: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/reports/2009/05/19/6042/global-warmings-six-americas/

Activity 3.3

Activity 4.1

4.1 Questions for this Lesson PPT
(Extending the learning) New York Times Keeling article: https://nyti.ms/2jCmhVE
(Optional) Pumphandle Video (discussed in Background Information for this lesson)

Activity 4.2

4.2 Carbon Pools and Fossil Fuels PPT
4.2 Carbon Pools and Fossil Fuels Reading (1 per student)
Time-lapse history of CO₂ Emissions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAhZ1fA1AJs

Activity 4.3

4.3 Tiny World Modeling PPT
4.3 Tiny World Pool and Flux Placemat (1 per pair of students)
4.3 Tiny World Modeling Worksheet (1 per student)
4.3 Grading the Tiny World Modeling Worksheet (1 per class)

Activity 4.4

Global Computer Model
4.4 Global Computer Model PPT
4.4 Global Computer Model Reading (1 per student)
4.4 Global Computer Model Worksheet (1 per student)
4.4 Grading Global Computer Model Worksheet

Activity 4.5

4.5 Seasons & Oceans PPT
4.5 Seasons and Oceans Worksheet (1 per student)
4.5 Grading the Seasons and Oceans Worksheet

Activity 5.1

5.1 Lifestyle Cards (1-2 sets per class)
5.1 Extreme Makeover: Lifestyle Edition Worksheet (1 per student)
5.1 Secrets Revealed! Worksheet (1 per student)
5.1 Extreme Makeover: Lifestyle Edition PPT

Activity 5.2

5.2 Carbon Emissions Jigsaw PPT
5.2 Group A Electricity Handout (1 per student in Group A)
5.2 Group A Electricity Worksheet (1 per student in Group A)
5.2 Group B Transportation Handout (1 per student in Group B)
5.2 Group B Transportation Worksheet (1 per student in Group B)
5.2 Group C Buildings Handout (1 per student in Group C)
5.2 Group C Buildings Worksheet (1 per student in Group C)
5.2 Group D Food Handout (1 per student in Group D)
5.2 Group D Food Worksheet (1 per student in Group D)

Activity 5.3

5.3 Energy Scenarios Cards (1 per class)
5.3 Energy Scenarios Placemat (1 per student)
5.3 Energy Scenarios PPT
Large Scale Four Questions Handout

Activity 5.4

Activity 6.1

Activity 6.2

6.2 How Our Decisions Affect the Earth’s Future PPT

Activity 6.3

Recurring Resources

Activity 1.1

Activity 1.2

Questions, Connections, Questions Student Reading Strategy

Activity 1.3

Activity 1.4

Activity 1.5

Activity 2.1

Activity 2.2

Activity 2.3

Activity 2.4

Activity 3.1

Questions, Connections, Questions Student Reading Strategy

Activity 3.2

Questions, Connections, Questions Student Reading Strategy

Activity 3.3

Activity 4.1

Learning Tracking Tool for Human Energy Systems (1 per student)
Assessing the Learning Tracking Tool for Human Energy Systems
Four Questions Poster and/or Handout
(Optional) Big Idea Probe: What Would Happen if We Cut Fossil Fuel Use in Half (1 per student)
(Optional) Assessing the Big Idea Probe: What Would Happen if We Cut Fossil Fuel Use in Half

Activity 4.2

Activity 4.3

Activity 4.4

Learning Tracking Tool for Human Energy Systems (1 per student)
Assessing the Learning Tracking Tool for Human Energy Systems
Questions, Connections, Questions Student Reading Strategy
(Optional) Big Idea Probe: What Would Happen if We Cut Fossil Fuel Use in Half (1 per student)
(Optional) Assessing the Big Idea Probe: What Would Happen if We Cut Fossil Fuel Use in Half

Activity 4.5

Learning Tracking Tool for Human Energy Systems (1 per student)
Assessing the Learning Tracking Tool for Human Energy Systems
(Optional) Big Idea Probe: What Would Happen if We Cut Fossil Fuel Use in Half (1 per student)
(Optional) Assessing the Big Idea Probe: What Would Happen if We Cut Fossil Fuel Use in Half

Activity 5.1

Activity 5.2

Activity 5.3

Activity 5.4

Activity 6.1

Activity 6.2

(Optional) Big Idea Probe: What Would Happen if We Cut Fossil Fuel Use in Half? (1 per student)
(Optional) Assessing the Big Idea Probe: What Would Happen if We Cut Fossil Fuel Use in Half
Learning Tracking Tool for Human Energy Systems (1 per student)
Assessing the Learning Tracking Tool for Human Energy Systems

Activity 6.3

Download PDF Unit Front Matter

Systems and Scale is the first of the six Carbon TIME units. If you are new to teaching Carbon TIME, read the Carbon TIME FAQ: Which Units Should I Teach? .

The goal of the Systems and Scale unit is to introduce students to organic matter and chemical energy (in the context of combustion) using the tools for reasoning and environmental literacy practices that students will engage with in other units. Students develop required capacity to distinguish organic matter from inorganic matter, and to understand how differences in the chemical make-up of materials influences how materials and energy are transformed and moved between systems.

The Systems and Scale Unit supports students in using core disciplinary ideas, science practices, and cross-cutting concepts to develop scientific explanations of how matter and energy are transformed during combustion of different organic materials.

Follow these steps to get ready to teach the Systems and Scale Unit

Lead Editor for 2019 Version

Kirsten D. Edwards, Department of Teacher Education, Michigan State University

Principal Authors

Hannah K. Miller, Education Department, Johnson State University

Jenny Dauer, School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Christa Haverly, Department of Teacher Education, Michigan State University

Kirsten D. Edwards, Department of Teacher Edwards, Michigan State University

Christie Morrison Thomas, Department of Teacher Education, Michigan State University

Charles W. “Andy” Anderson, Department of Teacher Education, Michigan State University

Contributing Authors

Elizabeth Xeng de los Santos, Beth Covitt, Jennifer Doherty, Allison Freed, Wendy Johnson, Deborah Jordan, Craig Kohn, Lindsey Mohan, Joyce Parker, Elizabeth Tompkins, Nick Verbanic

Illustrations

Craig Douglas, Kendra Mojica

Contact the MSU Environmental Literacy Program for more information: EnvLit@msu.edu.

The Driving Question

The Systems and Scale Unit starts by asking students to express their ideas about the driving question about an anchoring phenomenon: What happens when ethanol burns? The unit helps students answer this question by using core disciplinary ideas, science practices, and cross-cutting concepts to develop scientific explanations of how matter and energy are transformed during combustion of different organic materials

Carbon is the Key!

In the unit, students learn to tell the story of how matter and energy are transformed as they move through systems where combustion of organic materials is occurring, including open flames and internal combustion engines. A particularly powerful strategy for explaining how flames transform matter and energy involves tracing carbon atoms. We have found that learning to use this strategy proficiently with flames—relatively simple systems—prepares students to study more complex living systems.

Students’ Roles and Science Practices

As students learn to answer the driving question by explaining how flames transform matter and energy, they play three different roles that encompass all of the Next Generation Science Standards science and engineering practices.

Questioners: Students explore the driving question, clarify, and generate more detailed questions.
Investigators: Students conduct two matter-tracing investigations of (a) soda water fizzing and (b) ethanol burning. They develop evidence-based arguments about key observations and patterns.
Explainers: Students construct model-based explanations of how matter and energy are transformed when organic materials burn.

The roles that students play are also embedded in the Carbon TIME Discourse Routine. The Discourse Routine guides how classroom discourse aimed first at divergent thinking and then at convergent thinking should be sequenced through the unit.

Good Explanations Answer the Three Questions

Students figure out how to answer the driving question by tracing the carbon-containing molecules in fuels through a series of movements and chemical changes inside flames. At each stage in these processes they answer Three Questions about what is happening: the Matter Movement Question, the Matter Change Question, and the Energy Change Question.

Note that, in Carbon TIME, crosscutting concepts serve as the “rules of grammar” for producing a scientific performance. With respect to organic materials burning, high quality explanations should attend to the following rules that are implied by crosscutting concepts. Explanations should attend to…

Scale by explaining events and phenomena at the appropriate scale (see more in the structure and function bullets below).
Systems and system models and energy and matter by following rules for tracing matter and energy through systems and system models. For example, neither energy nor matter should be created or destroyed as it moves into, through, or out of a system.
Structure and function by linking structures and functions in explanations at each scale.
- Macroscopic scale (tracing matter and energy through flames
- Atomic-molecular scale (tracing matter and energy through a chemical process—combustion—involving molecules with different structures and properties)

Below, we use the anchoring phenomenon of ethanol burning as an example of how students learn to answer the Three Questions for combustion of different organic materials.

The Matter Movement Question: Tracing Molecules Through Flames

Students learn to tell the following story of how carbon-containing molecules move through the flame in burning ethanol.

Ethanol (C₅H₂OH) evaporates and enters the flame, along with O₂ molecules from the air.
Carbon dioxide and water vapor leave the flame.

The Matter Change and Energy Change Questions: Explaining How Combustion Changes Organic Materials

Matter movement is an essential part of the story, but not the whole story. To answer the driving question, students learn to explain chemical changes that occur inside flames:

Matter Change: Students explain how the reactant molecules (ethanol and oxygen) break apart in the flame, and how their atoms then bond together to create new products (carbon dioxide molecules and water molecules).
Energy Change: Students explain how the chemical energy in the reactant molecules, indicated by high-energy C-C and C-H bonds, is released when the products form lower-energy C=O and H-O bonds, releasing energy in the form of heat, light, and movement of air.

Students practice their explanations using multiple representations: (a) hand-on molecular models, (b) PowerPoint animations, (c) a chemical equation (C₂H₅OH + 3O₂ -> 2CO₂ + 3H₂O), and (d) written paragraphs.

How Much Detail?

There are more complicated and more scientifically accurate ways of talking about chemical bonds and about changes in energy; we discuss some of those in detail in our educator resource: Carbon TIME Content Simplifications. But our learning progression research has shown that there is an important tradeoff here—many students get lost in the details and never learn a basic coherent story that answers the driving question. The Next Generation Science Standards take a clear position on this tradeoff; a coherent story based on principles such as matter and energy conservation is more important than the details. Consult the Unit Sequence tab to decide how much detail is appropriate for your students.

Before beginning the Systems and Scale Unit, you need to decide what to teach and importantly, what not to teach! Use this page to choose the unit sequence that’s most appropriate for your students.

Optional activities in the Systems and Scale Unit are designed to provide supportive learning opportunities for students who have not previously studied or who are still working to develop proficiency with regard to reasoning about scale and chemical change. Use your professional judgment to decide whether or not to teach each optional lesson or activity.

Unless otherwise noted in the table below, all activities in the unit should be taught.

Download Systems and Scale Unit Sequence Document

Here, we present two ways to think about how lessons are sequenced in the Systems and Scale Unit. The instructional model, immediately below, emphasizes how students take on roles of questioner, investigator, and explainer to learn and apply scientific models they can use to answer the driving question. Further below, the Unit Storyline Chart highlights the central question, activity, and answer that students engage with in each lesson of the Systems and Scale Unit.

Instructional Model

Like all Carbon TIME units, this unit follows an instructional model (IM) designed to support teaching that helps students achieve mastery at answering the driving question through use of disciplinary content, science practices, and crosscutting concepts. To learn more about this design, see the Carbon TIME instructional model.

The core of the Carbon TIME IM is the Observation, Patterns, Models (OPM) triangle, which summarizes key aspects to be attended to as the class engages in unit inquiry and explanation. The OPM triangle for the Systems and Scale Unit, shown below, articulates the key observations students make during the unit investigation, the key patterns they identify through analyzing their investigation data, and the central scientific model that can be used to answer the unit’s driving question. During the inquiry portions of the unit (Lessons 3 and 4), the class moves from making observations to identifying patterns, eventually using these patterns to make evidence-based arguments. During the explanation portion of the unit (Lessons 4 and 5), the class learns the atomic-molecular model, makes connections across scales, and uses atomic-molecular model to explain how animals grow, move, and function. Across the unit, classroom discourse is a necessary part of 3-dimensional Carbon TIME learning. The Carbon TIME Discourse Routine document provides guidance for scaffolding this discourse in lessons.

Unit Storyline Chart

Another way to familiarize yourself with the sequence of lessons in the Systems and Scale Unit is with the Unit Storyline Chart depicted below. The Unit Storyline Chart summarizes a unit phenomenon-based driving question associated with each lesson, what classes will do in each lesson to address the question, what conclusions they will come to, and how they will transition to a subsequent lesson.

Download Unit IM and Storyline Chart

Next Generation Science Standards

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) performance expectations that middle and high school students can achieve through completing the Animals 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

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

Middle School

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

Target Performances for Each Activity

The target performances for each activity in the Systems and Scale unit are listed in the table below.

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Materials List

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Resources You Provide

Activity 1.1: Systems and Scale Unit Pretest (20 min)

Pencils (1 per student)

Activity 1.2: Expressing Ideas about Ethanol Burning (40 min)

sticky notes (1 per student)
ethanol, 95% (10-15 ml)
water (10-15 ml)
lighter (1)
Petri dish, glass (1)
Petri dish, plastic (1)

Activity 2.1: Powers of Ten Video and Discussion (30 min)

(Optional) Activity 2.2: From Big to Small (30 min)

Activity 2.3: Zooming into Air (30 min)

piece of paper (1 per student)

Activity 2.4: Atoms and Molecules Quiz and Discussion (30 min)

pencils (1 per student)

Activity 2.5: Using a Digital Balance and BTB (30 min)

BTB, blue (1 cup per group of four students)
clear plastic cups (1 per group of four students)
digital balance (1 per group of four students)
paper clips (10 per group of four students)
safety glasses (1 per group of four students)
straws (1 per group of four students)

Activity 3.1: Predictions about Soda Water Fizzing (20 min)

Petri dish, plastic (1 per class)
Soda water (1 cup per class)

Activity 3.2: Observing Soda Water Fizzing (30 min)

BTB, blue (less than 1 cup per group of four students)
digital balance (1 per group of four students)
Petri dish, plastic (2 per group of four students)
sealable, 9.5-Cup container (1 per group of four students)
soda water (less than 1 cup per group of four students)
(Optional) Molecular modeling kits
(From previous activity) 3.1 Predictions and Planning Tool for Soda Water Fizzing

Activity 3.3: Evidence-Based Arguments for Soda Water Fizzing (45 min)

(From Previous Activity) 3.2 Observing Soda Water Fizzing Worksheet
(From Previous Activity) 3.2 Soda Water Fizzing Class Results 11 x 17 Poster (or spreadsheet)

Activity 3.4: Molecular Models for Soda Water Fizzing (45 min)

molecular model kit (1 per pair of students )

Activity 3.5: Explaining Soda Water Fizzing (40 min)

(from previous activity) 3.3 Evidence-Based Arguments Tool for Soda Water Fizzing

Activity 4.1: Predictions about Ethanol Burning (30 min)

(From previous activity) Students’ ideas and questions they shared in Activity 1.2 Expressing Ideas Tool for Ethanol Burning
(From previous activity) 1.2 Expressing Ideas and Questions Tool for Ethanol Burning
Video of demonstration of ethanol burning

Activity 4.2: Observing Ethanol Burning (30 min)

BTB, blue (less than 1 cup per group)
(optional) BTB, yellow (less than 1 cup per group)
Digital balance (1 per group of four students)
Ethanol, 95% (10-15 ml per group)
Large plastic container with aluminum foil taped inside to protect the bottom from the ethanol flame (1 per group of four students)
Lighter (1 per group of four students)
Petri dish, glass (1 per group of four students)
Petri dish, plastic (1 per group of four students)
Safety glasses (1 per student)
(Optional) Molecular modeling kits
(From previous activity) 4.1 Predictions and Planning Tool for Ethanol Burning with student answers

Activity 4.3: Evidence-Based Arguments for Ethanol Burning (50 min)

(From Previous Activity) 4.2 Ethanol Burning Class Results 11 x 17 Poster (or spreadsheet)
(From Previous Activity) 4.2 Observing Ethanol Burning Worksheet

Activity 4.4: Molecular Models for Ethanol Burning (50 min)

molecular model kit (1 per pair of students)
scissors (1 per pair of students)
twist ties (at least 12 per pair of students)

Activity 4.5: Explaining Ethanol Burning (40 min)

(from previous activity) 4.3 Evidence-Based Arguments Tool for Ethanol Burning

Activity 5.1: Molecular Modeling for Methane Burning (40 min)

molecular modeling kit (1 per pair of students)
twist ties (12 per pair of students)

(Optional) Activity 5.2: Explaining Methane Burning (40 min)

Activity 5.3: Preparing for Future Units – Organic vs. Inorganic (40 min)

(From Previous Activity) 1.2 Expressing Ideas and Questions Tool for Ethanol Burning with student ideas

Activity 5.4: Explaining Other Examples of Combustion (50 min)

Activity 5.5: Systems and Scale Unit Posttest (20 min)

Pencils (1 per student)

Resources Provided

Activity 1.1: Systems and Scale Unit Pretest (20 min)

1.1 Systems and Scale Unit Pretest (1 per student)
1.1 Assessing Systems and Scale Unit Pretest

Activity 1.2: Expressing Ideas about Ethanol Burning (40 min)

Activity 2.1: Powers of Ten Video and Discussion (30 min)

(Optional) Activity 2.2: From Big to Small (30 min)

2.2 Powers of Ten Cards (1 per group)

Activity 2.3: Zooming into Air (30 min)

2.3 Zooming Into Air PPT

Activity 2.4: Atoms and Molecules Quiz and Discussion (30 min)

2.4 Atoms and Molecules Quiz (1 per student)
2.4 Grading the Atoms and Molecules Quiz (1 per teacher)

Activity 2.5: Using a Digital Balance and BTB (30 min)

Activity 3.1: Predictions about Soda Water Fizzing (20 min)

Activity 3.2: Observing Soda Water Fizzing (30 min)

3.2 Soda Water Fizzing Class Results 11 x 17 Poster (or spreadsheet)(1 per class)
3.2 Observing Soda Water Fizzing Worksheet (1 per student)
3.2 Assessing the Observing Soda Water Fizzing Worksheet (1 per group)
3.2 Observing Soda Water PPT (1 per class)

Activity 3.3: Evidence-Based Arguments for Soda Water Fizzing (45 min)

Activity 3.4: Molecular Models for Soda Water Fizzing (45 min)

Activity 3.5: Explaining Soda Water Fizzing (40 min)

Activity 4.1: Predictions about Ethanol Burning (30 min)

4.1 Predictions about Ethanol Burning PPT
4.1 Predictions and Planning Tool for Ethanol Burning (1 per student)
4.1 Assessing the Predictions and Planning Tool for Ethanol Burning
4.1 Good Explanations of Chemical Change Reading (1 per student)

Activity 4.2: Observing Ethanol Burning (30 min)

4.2 Ethanol Burning Class Results 11 x 17 Poster (or spreadsheet) (1 per class)
4.2 Observing Ethanol Burning Worksheet (1 per student)
4.2 Grading the Observing Ethanol Burning Worksheet (1 per group)
4.2 Observing Ethanol Burning PPT (1 per class)

Activity 4.3: Evidence-Based Arguments for Ethanol Burning (50 min)

Activity 4.4: Molecular Models for Ethanol Burning (50 min)

4.4 Molecular Models for Ethanol Burning Worksheet (1 per student)
4.4 Grading the Molecular Models for Ethanol Burning Worksheet
4.4 Molecular Models for Ethanol Burning PPT
4.4 Molecular Models for Ethanol Burning Reading (1 per student)
(Optional) 4.4 Alternative Flame Molecular Model Placemat (1 per pair of students)
Carbon TIME Molecular Modeling Ethanol Video

Activity 4.5: Explaining Ethanol Burning (40 min)

4.5 Explanations Tool for Ethanol Burning
4.5 Explaining Ethanol Burning PPT
4.5 Grading the Explanations Tool for Ethanol Burning
(Optional) 4.5 What Happens When Ethanol Burns? Reading (1 per student)
(Optional) 4.5 Matter Tracing Tool
(Optional) Grading the 4.5 Matter Tracing Tool

Activity 5.1: Molecular Modeling for Methane Burning (40 min)

5.1 Molecular Models for Methane Burning PPT
(Optional) 5.1 Molecular Models for Methane Burning Worksheet (1 per student)
(Optional) 5.1 Grading Molecular Models for Methane Burning Worksheet

(Optional) Activity 5.2: Explaining Methane Burning (40 min)

Activity 5.3: Preparing for Future Units – Organic vs. Inorganic (40 min)

5.3 Organic vs. Inorganic PPT
5.3 Materials Cards (1 set per pair of students)
5.3 Organic vs. Inorganic Worksheet (1 per student)
5.3 Grading the Organic vs. Inorganic Worksheet
(Optional) 5.3 More About Chemical Energy Reading (1 per student)

Activity 5.4: Explaining Other Examples of Combustion (50 min)

Activity 5.5: Systems and Scale Unit Posttest (20 min)

Recurring Resources

Activity 1.1: Systems and Scale Unit Pretest (20 min)

Activity 1.2: Expressing Ideas about Ethanol Burning (40 min)

Questions, Connections, Questions Student Reading Strategy
Learning Tracking Tool for Systems and Scale (1 per student)
Assessing the Learning Tracking Tool for Systems and Scale
(Optional) Big Idea Probe: Fill 'Er Up (1 per student)
(Optional) Assessing the Big Idea Probe: Fill 'Er Up
Using Big Idea Probes

Activity 2.1: Powers of Ten Video and Discussion (30 min)

Learning Tracking Tool for Systems and Scale (1 per student)
Assessing the Learning Tracking Tool for Systems and Scale

(Optional) Activity 2.2: From Big to Small (30 min)

Powers of Ten 11 x 17 Poster (1 per class)
Powers of Ten with Pictures 11 x 17 Poster (1 per class)

Activity 2.3: Zooming into Air (30 min)

Learning Tracking Tool for Systems and Scale (1 per student)
Assessing the Learning Tracking Tool for Systems and Scale

Activity 2.4: Atoms and Molecules Quiz and Discussion (30 min)

Molecule 11 x 17 Poster (1 per class)

Activity 2.5: Using a Digital Balance and BTB (30 min)

Learning Tracking Tool for Systems and Scale (1 per student)
Assessing the Learning Tracking Tool for Systems and Scale
(Optional) BTB Color Handout
BTB Information and Instructions Handout

Activity 3.1: Predictions about Soda Water Fizzing (20 min)

Activity 3.2: Observing Soda Water Fizzing (30 min)

BTB Information and Instructions Handout
(Optional) BTB Color Handout (1 per group)

Activity 3.3: Evidence-Based Arguments for Soda Water Fizzing (45 min)

Learning Tracking Tool for Systems and Scale (1 per student)
Assessing the Learning Tracking Tool for Systems and Scale

Activity 3.4: Molecular Models for Soda Water Fizzing (45 min)

Activity 3.5: Explaining Soda Water Fizzing (40 min)

Activity 4.1: Predictions about Ethanol Burning (30 min)

Three Questions 11x17 Poster (1 per class)
Three Questions Handout (Color Version)
Three Questions Handout (BW Version)
Questions, Connections, Questions Student Reading Strategy
(Optional) Investigation Planning Tool
Burning Ethanol Video

Activity 4.2: Observing Ethanol Burning (30 min)

(Optional) BTB Color Handout
(Optional) BTB Information and Instructions Handout
Three Questions Handout (Color Version)
Three Questions Handout (BW Version)
Burning Ethanol Video

Activity 4.3: Evidence-Based Arguments for Ethanol Burning (50 min)

Three Questions Handout (Color Version) (1 per student)
Three Questions Handout (BW Version) (1 per student)
Learning Tracking Tool for Systems and Scale (1 per student)
Assessing the Learning Tracking Tool for Systems and Scale

Activity 4.4: Molecular Models for Ethanol Burning (50 min)

Learning Tracking Tool for Systems and Scale (1 per student)
Assessing the Learning Tracking Tool for Systems and Scale
Questions, Connections, Questions Student Reading Strategy
Using Big Idea Probes
Forms of Energy Cards (1 set pair of students)
Molecular Models 11 x 17 Placemat (1 per pair of students)

Activity 4.5: Explaining Ethanol Burning (40 min)

Three Questions Handout (Color Version)
Three Questions Handout (BW Version)
Questions, Connections, Questions Student Reading Strategy
(Optional) Big Idea Probe: Fill 'Er Up (1 per student)
(Optional) Assessing the Big Idea Probe: Fill 'Er Up
(Optional) Example Systems and Scale Explanations Handout (1 per student or per group)

Activity 5.1: Molecular Modeling for Methane Burning (40 min)

(Optional) Forms of Energy Cards (1 per pair of students)
(Optional) Molecular Models 11 x 17 Placemat (1 per pair of students)

(Optional) Activity 5.2: Explaining Methane Burning (40 min)

Three Questions Handout (Color Version) (1 per student)
Three Questions Handout (BW Version) (1 per student)
(Optional) Example Systems and Scale Explanations Handout (1 per student or per group)

Activity 5.3: Preparing for Future Units – Organic vs. Inorganic (40 min)

Learning Tracking Tool for Systems and Scale (1 per student)
Assessing the Learning Tracking Tool for Systems and Scale

Activity 5.4: Explaining Other Examples of Combustion (50 min)

Three Questions Handout (Color Version) (1 per student)
Three Questions Handout (BW Version) (1 per student)
Learning Tracking Tool for Systems and Scale (1 per student)
Assessing the Learning Tracking Tool for Systems and Scale
(Optional) Big Idea Probe: Fill 'Er Up
(Optional) Assessing the Big Idea Probe: Fill 'Er Up

Activity 5.5: Systems and Scale Unit Posttest (20 min)