Smithsonian Science for the Classroom™: How Can We Predict Change in Ecosystems? 3-Use Module

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Grade 5. Module Highlights: In 15 lessons spanning 19 class sessions, students explore how plants and animals get the matter and energy they need to live and grow, how they interact in food webs, how change in one part of an ecosystem can have multiple effects, and how newly introduced species can become invasive. In the first focus question, students investigate what contributes most of the matter to plant growth. Starting with a broad list of what plants need to live and grow, students narrow down this list of water and air through a series of investigations that provide evidence for or against each potential contributor. In the second focus question, students explore animals' needs for matter and energy. By analyzing weight and food intake data, and observing energy transfer from food items, students build the case that animals get both matter and energy by consuming food. In the third focus question, students trace matter and energy through complex food web interactions. In the fourth focus question, students consider what happens when one component of an ecosystem changes. They use models to make predictions about how the introduction of a top predator can affect even the bottom of a food web. In the final focus question, students are challenged to analyze data, develop and use models, and engage in argumentation to make a prediction about which of two coastal locations is likely more susceptible to an invasion by a nonnative sea squirt.

This module includes a teacher guide, 10 Student Activity Guides, 16 Smithsonian Science Stories student readers, and enough materials for 32 students to use 3 times.

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-LS2-1: 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 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.

LS2.A: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems

• 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. (5-LS2-1)

LS2.B: Cycles of Matter and Energy Transfer in Ecosystems

• 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. (5-LS2-1)

PS1.A: Structure and Properties of Matter

• 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. (5-PS1-1)

PS3.D: Energy in Chemical Processes and Everyday Life

• 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). (5-PS3-1)

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

• 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. (5-PS3-1)

Science and Engineering Practices
Focal:

• Developing and using models
• Analyzing and interpreting data
• Constructing explanations
• Engaging in argument from evidence

Supporting:

• Asking questions
• Planning and carrying out investigations
• Using mathematics and computational thinking
• Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information

Crosscutting Concepts
Focal:

• Patterns
• Cause and effect
• Systems and system models
• Energy and matter

Supporting:

• Scale, proportion, and quantity

Concepts and Practices Storyline
Focus Questions and Lesson Summaries
Focus Question 1: How can plants get what they need to live and grow?
Lesson 1: From Seedling to Skyscraper
Plants need many things to live and grow, but not all of them contribute most of the matter to growth.
Students ask questions about possible sources of matter for plant growth.
Lesson 2: It's a Gas
Plants take in carbon dioxide from the air, and air is made up of particles.
Students analyze data from an investigation to develop a model that explains how matter can enter or leave the air.
Lesson 3: From Thin Air
Air is matter, and light is energy.
Students carry out an investigation to collect evidence that air is matter and develop a model to represent transfers of matter and energy.
Lesson 4: Weighing the Willow
Plants get most of their matter for growth from air and water, not soil.
Students obtain and evaluate information from a text to provide evidence to support a claim that plants get most of their matter from air and water.

Focus Question 2: How can animals get what they need to live and grow?
Lesson 5: Active Animals
Animals need matter and energy to live and grow, and to gain weight they need to consume more food.
Students analyze graphs of weight and food intake for growing animals to identify patterns.
Lesson 6: Eating for Energy
Food is a source of energy for animals.
Students make a claim based on observations about which of two pieces of food has more energy stored in it.
Lesson 7: Building Bodies
Animals get both the matter and the energy they need from food.
Students develop a model that supports a claim that when animals eat, they are getting both matter and energy.

Focus Question 3: How do matter and energy flow through ecosystems?
Lesson 8: A Tangled Web
Organisms are related in food webs, which can be used to model the flow of matter and energy.
Students develop and use food web models to trace the path of matter and energy through ecosystems.
Lesson 9: Cleanup Crew
Decomposers return matter from dead organisms to the environment.
Students obtain information and analyze data showing that decomposers return matter to the air and soil.
Lesson 10: Flows and Cycles
Energy flows and matter cycles through living and nonliving components of ecosystems.
Students develop and use a model to show that matter cycles and energy flows through living and nonliving parts of ecosystems.

Focus Question 4: What affects the stability of ecosystems?
Lesson 11: A Whale's Tale
Organisms can survive only in environments in which their needs for matter and energy are met.
Students analyze data to construct an argument that explains how a decrease in available matter and energy can cause a killer whale population to decline.
Lesson 12: The Lion's Share
Newly introduced species can often cause problems in native ecosystems.
Students obtain and evaluate information from a text about the causes and effects of the lionfish invasion in the Caribbean.
Lesson 13: Top Trout
The introduction of a top predator can sometimes have a cascade effect that reaches the bottom of the food web.
Students use food web models to predict changes to the system of native organisms when a nonnative predatory fish is introduced.

Science Challenge
Focus Question 5: How can we use models to make predictions about invasive sea squirts?
Lesson 14: Surveying Sea Squirts Part 1
Sea squirts often hitchhike on boats and become invasive species.
Students analyze and interpret data to develop and compare food web models of matter and energy flow in two coastal ecosystems.
Lesson 15: Surveying Sea Squirts Part 2
Models can be used to make predictions about locations that are more susceptible to invasion.
Students modify food web models to make predictions about which of two locations is more likely to cause a new species of sea squirt to become invasive.

*Next Generation Science Standards® is a registered trademark of WestEd. Neither WestEd nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of this product, and do not endorse it.