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Grade 5. In 15 lessons, students learn about the transfer of matter and energy within complex living systems. This module includes a teacher guide, 10 student activity guides, 16 Smithsonian Science Stories student readers, and enough materials for 32 students to use 1 time.

Student Readers Available HERE

Alignment to the Next Generation Science Standards*
Performance Expectations

• 5-LS1-1: Support an argument that plants get the materials they need for growth chiefly from air and water.
• 5-LS2-2: Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.
• 5-PS1-1: Develop a model to describe that matter is made of particles too small to be seen.
• 5-PS3-1: Use models to describe that energy in animals' food (used for body repair, growth, motion, and to maintain body warmth) was once energy from the sun.

Disciplinary Core Ideas
LS1.C: Organization for Matter and Energy Flow in Organisms

• Plants acquire their material for growth chiefly from air and water.
• Food provides animals with the materials they need for body repair and growth and the energy they need to maintain body warmth and for motion.

• The food of almost any kind of animal can be traced back to plants. Organisms are related in food webs in which some animals eat plants for food and other animals eat the animals that eat plants. Some organisms, such as fungi and bacteria, break down dead organisms (both plants or plants parts and animals) and therefore operate as decomposers. Decomposition eventually restores (recycles) some materials back to the soil. Organisms can survive only in environments in which their particular needs are met. A healthy ecosystem is one in which multiple species of different types are each able to meet their needs in a relatively stable web of life. Newly introduced species can damage the balance of an ecosystem.

• Matter cycles between the air and soil and among plants, animals, and microbes as these organisms live and die. Organisms obtain gases, and water, from the environment, and release waste matter (gas, liquid, or solid) back into the environment.

• Matter of any type can be subdivided into particles that are too small to see, but even then the matter still exists and can be detected by other means. A model showing that gases are made from matter particles that are too small to see and are moving freely around in space can explain many observations, including the inflation and shape of a balloon and the effects of air on larger particles or objects.

• The energy released [from] food was once energy from the sun that was captured by plants in the chemical process that forms plant matter (from air and water).

Focal Science and Engineering Practices

• Developing and using models
• Engaging in argument from evidence

Focal Crosscutting Concepts

• Energy and matter

Phenomena and Problems Storyline
Lesson Summaries
Lesson 1: From Seed to Plant
Students are introduced to the phenomenon of radish plants that are grown without soil. They record initial explanations for the phenomenon. Students brainstorm possible sources of matter for the radish plants and develop questions they could investigate to figure out where the radish plants get the matter they use to build new structures.
Lesson 2: It's a Gas
Using a bromthymol blue (BTB) solution and aquatic plants, students collaboratively plan a fair test investigation to figure out if plants take in carbon dioxide. Students record initial observations and make predictions about the investigation's outcome.
Lesson 3: From Thin Air
Students analyze the results of the BTB investigation and find that the aquatic plant took in enough carbon dioxide to turn the BTB solution from greenish-yellow to bright blue. Students develop models that show what happens to the carbon dioxide on a scale too small to see.
Lesson 4: What's the Matter?
Students observe an investigation into whether air, water, and light have weight, indicating they are matter. Students will find that air, specifically carbon dioxide, is matter; water is matter; and sunlight is not matter. Students will use the findings to support their explanations that plants get matter they use to build new structures from water and carbon dioxide in air.
Lesson 5: Explaining the Radish Plants
Students collaboratively review findings from their investigations from Lessons 1 through 4. They develop a final model to explain where the radish plants get most of the matter they use as they grow.
Lesson 6: Panda-monium
Students watch videos and observe a giant panda as he grows, moves, and plays in the snow. Students collaborate to plan an investigation into where animals get the matter they need to grow using caterpillars. In the second class period, students gather evidence about the transfer of energy from food and use it to make claims about where the giant panda cub gets the energy he uses to move and stay warm.
Lesson 7: Cubs and Caterpillars
Students collect and analyze data gathered throughout their multi-day caterpillar investigation. Students gather additional information through a reading about the giant panda cub's food intake. Students use the information gathered from the text, along with data recorded from the caterpillar investigation, as evidence to support arguments explaining where the giant panda cub gets the matter he uses to grow and the energy he uses to stay warm and move.
Lesson 8: A Mystery at the Pond
Students are introduced to the phenomenon through a video and asked to help figure out what killed the fish in the pond. Students brainstorm initial ideas about what fish need for survival. Students conduct an investigation to determine if the aquatic plants from Lessons 2 and 3 release any gases in addition to releasing carbon dioxide as their results indicated previously.
Lesson 9: A Tangled Web
Students gather information about pond ecosystems through text. They use the information to model transfers of matter and energy and look for possible places where the system may have been disrupted to cause the fish kill.
Lesson 10: Tipping the Balance
Students analyze data sets collected from the pond to identify patterns of change. They incorporate this new information with information they found through the previous lessons and use it to develop claims based on evidence gathered so far for what could have killed the fish.
Lesson 11: Let the Sun Shine In
Students return to the investigation they conducted during Lessons 2 and 3 and repeat it, this time adding light and dark as independent variables to figure out that without sunlight, the plants do not take in carbon dioxide. Students develop models to explain what happened to the pond and caused the fish to die.
Lesson 12: Worming Their Way
Students are introduced to the phenomenon of a worm bin containing salad greens that appear to disappear after 5 to 7 days. They plan and begin an investigation into composting with and without worms.
Science Challenge
Lesson 13: Cleanup Crew
Students analyze data from their investigation to compare the results of composting with and without worms. They use this evidence to develop arguments explaining where the matter that made up the salad greens in the worm bins went over 5 to 7 days.
Lesson 14: Surveying Sea Squirts, Part 1
Students gather information about sea squirts through watching a video. Students then read about the ecology of sea squirts and use the information they gather to help them analyze data comparing the two marine locations. Students then develop models to represent the normal flow of energy and matter for organisms at each marine site.
Lesson 15: Surveying Sea Squirts, Part 2
Students add sea squirts to their food web models and use them to make predictions about how each site could be impacted by a sea squirt invasion. Students construct arguments, using evidence from their models, the field notes from the sites, and their past investigations as evidence to support their predictions. Finally, students evaluate a possible solution to prevent a sea squirt invasion at the site that is most at risk.

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