Rot It Right: the Cycling of Matter and the Transfer of Energy
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Rot It Right: The Cycling of Matter and the Transfer of Energy 4th Grade Science Immersion Unit This draft document is the result of several months of writing and discussion as part of the SCALE Math and Science Partnership. It is a living document open to change based on feedback from pilot testing and input. It is intended to be circulated for consultation to the SCALE community and other interested parties. A final version will be made available near the end of the SCALE project in 2007. DRAFT 3 September 2006 Rot It Right: The Cycling of Matter and the Transfer of Energy Rot It Right: The Cycling of Matter and the Transfer of Energy This Grade 4 Immersion Unit is being developed in partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District and is being tested and revised by teachers, scientists, and curriculum developers associated with the NSF-funded Math/ Science Partnership, System-wide Change for All Learners and Educators (SCALE) and the DOE-funded Quality Educator Development (QED) project at the California State University – Dominguez Hills and Northridge. Development of this Unit is a collaborative effort involving educators from partner universities and k-12 school districts. Numerous administrators, professors, teachers, and students were involved in rigorous content review, field-testing, and focus groups that provided valuable insight for development and subsequent revisions of the Immersion Unit version presented here. Rot it Right builds on activities and ideas that were shared with SCALE by the Bottle Biology / Wisconsin Fast Plants program, an instructional materials development program funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation and administered by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The preparation of this report was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation to the University of Wisconsin–Madison (EHR 0227016). At UW–Madison, the SCALE project is housed at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research. The other partners are the University of Pittsburgh, where the SCALE project is housed within the Learning Research and Development Center’s Institute for Learning; California State University at Dominguez Hills and Northridge; Los Angeles Unified School District; Denver Public School District; Providence Public School District; and Madison Metropolitan School District. Any opinions, findings, or conclusions are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the view of the supporting agency. 2 Rot It Right: The Cycling of Matter and the Transfer of Energy Table of Contents Navigating the Unit ..................................................................................................7 Unit Overview ...........................................................................................................9 Unit Overarching Concepts ........................................................................................9 Unit Supporting Concepts ..........................................................................................9 Evidence of Student Understanding ..........................................................................9 Unit Preview .................................................................................................................9 Unit Standards ...........................................................................................................10 California Science Content Standards ..................................................................10 California Science Investigation and Experimentation Standards ........................10 Assessing Student Understanding ............................................................................10 Continuous Assessment ........................................................................................10 Formative Assessment ...........................................................................................10 Summative Assessment .........................................................................................11 Support Materials ......................................................................................................12 Immersion Unit Toolbox .......................................................................................12 Science Inquiry Map .............................................................................................13 Instructional Timeline ...............................................................................................15 Unit Advance Preparation ........................................................................................17 Terraqua Column Preparation ...............................................................................17 Decomposition Column Preparation .....................................................................17 Step 1 Overview .....................................................................................................19 Step 1 – Lesson 1 Snapshot: Terraqua Column Investigation ..............................21 Teacher Preparation ..............................................................................................23 Background Information .......................................................................................23 Implementation Guide ..........................................................................................25 Teacher Page 1.1a: Terraqua Column Construction ..............................................31 Student Page 1.1B: Observations ..........................................................................33 Step 1 – Lesson 2 Snapshot: The Role of Producers ..............................................35 Teacher Preparation ..............................................................................................37 Background Information .......................................................................................37 Implementation Guide ..........................................................................................39 Student Page 1.2A: Producer Power .....................................................................41 Table of Contents 3 Step 2 Overview .....................................................................................................43 Step 2 – Lesson 1 Snapshot: Food Chains ...............................................................45 Background Information .......................................................................................47 Implementation Guide ..........................................................................................48 Student Page 2.1A: Food Chains ..........................................................................51 Student Page 2.1B: Organism Cards .....................................................................53 Step 2 – Lesson 2 Snapshot: The Role of Consumers .............................................75 Background Information .......................................................................................77 Implementation Guide ..........................................................................................78 Student Page 2.2A: Consumers.............................................................................79 Step 3 Overview .....................................................................................................81 Step 3 – Lesson 1 Snapshot: Observing Decomposition Columns ........................83 Background Information .......................................................................................85 Teacher Preparation ..............................................................................................85 Implementation Guide ..........................................................................................87 Student Page 3.1A: Observations .........................................................................91 Student Page 3.1B: Who Eats Dead Leaves? .......................................................93 Step 3 – Lesson 2 Snapshot: Designing a Decomposition Investigation ...............95 Background Information .......................................................................................97 Implementation Guide .......................................................................................100 Student Page 3.2A: Design an Investigation ......................................................105 Step 3 – Lesson 3 Snapshot: Column Construction and Data Collection ..........107 Teacher Preparation ............................................................................................109 Implementation Guide .......................................................................................109 Student Page 3.3A: Column Construction ..........................................................113 Student Page 3.3B: Column Observation ...........................................................115 Student Page 3.3C: Column Data Chart .............................................................117 Step 3 – Lesson 4 Snapshot: Decomposition Data Collection ..............................119 Background Information .....................................................................................121 Teacher Preparation ............................................................................................121 Implementation Guide .......................................................................................122 Step 4 Overview ...................................................................................................125