TE 401 Lesson Plans: Fall, 1997

Planning for a Clinical Interview on Matter in Biological Systems

TE 407/Fall, 2005

Objectives (from Michigan Curriculum Frameworks) Objective Type Describe the parts of plants and their functions. Telling the story Explain the process of food use and food storage in organisms. Using Describe how a person loses weight. Telling the story Explain how multicellular organisms grow, based on how cells grow & Using reproduce. Compare & contrast ways in which selected cells are specialized to carry Using out particular life functions. Describe how carbon & soil nutrients cycle through selected ecosystems. Using

Knowledge List: Experiences, Patterns, and Explanations Observations or experiences Patterns (laws, Explanations (models, (examples, phenomena, data) generalizations, graphs, theories) tables, categories) Growing plants from seeds Plants need water, light and soil Von Helmont’s experiment nutrients to grow, while animals Conservation of mass Plants grown in sunny area vs. shady area need to take in food in order to grow People and animals losing weight Photosynthetic reactions Glucose is produced from CO Raising a pet through adulthood 2 and H2O in chloroplast cells of Human babies growing into adults plants Composting vegetables and yard waste Plants incorporate carbon from Cellular respiration CO2, while animals release carbon from food in CO2

Carbon cycling

Application: Model-based Reasoning Inquiry: Finding and Explaining Patterns in Experience

Materials Needed for Interview Green potted plant or picture Handout page for drawing arrows on tree pictures and pictures of rotting apples. Explaining the Purpose of the Interview Explain the purpose of the interview to the student. Emphasize that this is not a test, and that right or wrong answers are not what you are looking for. You might want to have them recall interviews they have seen on television, or other interviews they might have participated in to help set the context. You want to learn more about how s/he thinks about the topic. NOTE: These questions are just “starters”, and you will have to probe as you pose questions and hear what the students have to say in response. Questions about Matter in Biological Systems

QUESTION #1 Have you ever had experiences growing plants, either in a garden or in your house? Tell me about these experiences. (Probe for knowledge of parts, the function(s) of these parts and what they need to grow. (If the student claims no knowledge of plants, show them a green potted plant or a picture of one and ask them to talk about the parts and what they do.)

QUESTION #2

Josh wanted to know how a small apple seed became a big apple tree. He designed the following experiment:  He planted a small apple seed in 200 pounds of dry soil in a pot.  For five years he added only water to the plant.  At the end of year five, he dried out the soil and the plant—which has really become a small apple tree by now--in an oven to remove all the water.  He weighed the soil and the tree. The dried plant weighed 169 pounds.

QUESTION 2a. John found that, after starting out as a small seed that weighed less than an ounce, the tree gained over 168 pounds. Where did that 168 pounds of tree come from? How do you think this happened?

QUESTION 2b. On the picture of the tree below, draw arrows to explain where food moves. Explain why you think the food needs to go there.

!//#, Page 2 QUESTION 2c. Now draw arrows on the picture below to show how water moves through the tree. Explain why you think it needs to travel this way.

QUESTION 2d. What do you think happened to the soil in the pot? Would you expect it to gain or lose weight? How much? Explain how you are thinking about what happens to the soil.

QUESTION #3 Daria has a mature apple tree in her backyard. She observes that by about the end of November each year, a large number of the apples fall to the ground and begin to rot. What happens to these rotting apples? What happens to their weight? Explain. You may draw pictures to accompany your explanation.

QUESTION #4 Think of a family member or a friend who has lost a lot of weight. How did that person manage to do this?

What do you think happened to the fat? Where did its weight go?

!//#, Page 3 QUESTION #5 Have you ever studied about how plants and animals grow in school? Where else did you learn about how plants and animals grow?

Are there some interesting things you know about plant and animal growth that we haven’t talked about?

Do you still have questions about the things we have talked about today?

What would you like to understand that you still don’t understand?

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