MATTER CYCLES: webquest to be completed during class time
1. https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/ecology/biogeochemical-cycles/a/the-nitrogen-cycle 2. https://utah.pbslearningmedia.org/asset/lsps07_int_nitrogen/ 3. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxbMEw6DF88-ZDVnUjE3X2RBYlk/view?usp=sharing 4. https://www.ck12.org/biology/nitrogen-cycle/lesson/Nitrogen-Cycle-BIO/?referrer=concept_details 5. http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=4134873&itype=CMSID
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Today we learned about the Carbon Cycle by playing a game. All living things are made of carbon. Carbon is also a part of the ocean, air, and even rocks. Because the Earth is a dynamic place, carbon does not stay still. It is on the move! In the atmosphere, carbon is attached to some oxygen in a gas called carbon dioxide. Plants use carbon dioxide and sunlight to make their own food and grow. The carbon becomes part of the plant. Plants that die and are buried may turn into fossil fuels made of carbon like coal and oil over millions of years. When humans burn fossil fuels, most of the carbon quickly enters the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and traps heat in the atmosphere. Without it and other greenhouse gases, Earth would be a frozen world. But humans have burned so much fuel that there is about 30% more carbon dioxide in the air today than there was about 150 years ago, and Earth is becoming a warmer place. In fact, ice cores show us that there is now more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than there has been in the last 420,000 years. Take a look at how CO2 cycles in the environment according to this video from NASA. Read this article on climate change in Utah. Today students were asked to review the water cycle from last time. We will have a Mastery check next time on the water and oxygen cycle. Once we completed this, we set up the aquaponics system that we will be working with for the next few weeks. We also discussed the assessment for this unit. We will be writing a letter to a representative about a current ecological issue in Utah. Students are given nearly two weeks to research and work on this letter which will be mailed on October 6th or 9th.
Once completed, we are going to be discussing the Oxygen Cycle. The oxygen cycle is the process in which oxygen from the atmosphere is processed by animals and converted into carbon dioxide, which is then processed by plants and comes out as oxygen again; the oxygen then goes back into the atmosphere, completing the cycle. After reading pages 79-83 and 251-253 in our Biology textbooks, with their table they were to choose one of the following activities to demonstrate learning. 3D Model For this activity, you make a 3D model of the oxygen cycle. They can choose how you'd like to represent the cycle. For example, you could make a diorama, a clay sculpture, or a mobile. Find ways to make visual representations and depict all the different cycles without using any words. Children's Book With your table, make a children's book to explain how the oxygen cycle works. You should work together to write in a way that you think younger children would understand and illustrate in ways that will help students. It should be colorful and fun. Puppet Show With your table, write and perform a puppet show that explains the oxygen cycle. You might include puppets of oxygen molecules, carbon dioxide molecules, animals, and plants. Your students should write a script for the show that requires either a narrator or the puppets to describe their role in the oxygen cycle. Allow students to practice before presenting their puppet show to the rest of the class. These should be done well with good descriptions. Students are encouraged to either take pictures or record their video and email it to me via a youtube link. We will begin class by finishing our discussion on bias in the media so that students will be able to distinguish between inference and evidence. We will read these articles and answer the questions. Separating Fact and Fiction Article 1 Article 2 Once we have completed this, we will move on to how matter cycles on the planet starting with the Water Cycle. Once we have completed that we will talk about how water is a limiting factor and how the unavailability of it in certain locations is a crisis. Today we completed the Brine Shrimp lab. This is a wonderful lab that encompasses a huge portion of our Ecology standard including the following:
Once we finished the lab and turned it in, we changed pace to begin discussing bias. Students should be able to distinguish between inference and evidence in a newspaper, magazine, journal, or Internet article that addresses an issue related to human impact on cycles of matter in an ecosystem and determine the bias in the article. We will be learning to identify bias in media including the following videos: http://techtv.mit.edu/videos/420-dihydrogen-monoxide https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzEr23XJwFY Please watch these videos and be prepared to read and decipher bias in the following articles and answer these questions: Separating Fact and Fiction Article 1 Article 2 Today in class we took Mastery Check #2 on Relationships and Limiting Factors in an ecosystem. We then looked at the Brine Shrimp that we began growing last time to see how well they have hatched. We then worked on the Brine Shrimp packet as it will be graded as two Mastery Check scores.
Ecology Videos your might find helpful: Energy Transfer/ 10% rule Relationships in an Ecosystem Limiting Factors in an Ecosystem Abiotic and Biotic Factors Today in class we finished the Backwards Predator Prey information from last time and explained what Limiting Factors are. They are anything that, whether present or absent, limits growth in an ecosystem. We created a large list of things that would be considered limiting factors such as water, soil nutrients, plant population, pollution, temperature, sun, ect. We then divided that list into abiotic or biotic factors. Abiotic is anything non-living in an ecosystem such as water. Biotic is anything living in an ecosystem like the things in our food chain. Once we did this we started on the Brine Shrimp lab biology_-_brine_shrimp_ecology.docx. You will create a control ecosystem for the Brine Shrimp and one ecosystem in which a factor is changed whether Biotic or Abiotic. We will continue to monitor these micro-ecosystems next time as we discuss factors and variables.
Today we finished the videos from last time on Energy Conservation strategies. We talked about good strategies for conserving energy in a food chain. Once we completed this we did an activity to define the following words: Symbiosis, Parasitism, Mutualism, Predator-Prey and Commensalism. Once this was completed we began the Backwards Predator Prey activity which will be completed next time.
We will begin class my taking a Mastery Check. Once this is complete we will move into the computer lab to complete the following worksheet and watch these videos.
Videos- drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BxbMEw6DF88-YkVFbFZjOHNxSTQ?usp=sharing Worksheet-docs.google.com/a/alpinedistrict.org/document/d/1Fr5ijruv8rqcgZ1rQgirIEm-Mxn1ctu8Ms7wIECK6IU/edit?usp=sharing |
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October 2019
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