LS2+(7-8)+-+7

LS2 (7-8) - 7 **Students demonstrate an understanding of recycling in an ecosystem by …**

7a __diagramming or sequencing a series of steps showing how matter cycles among and between organisms and the physical environment.__

7b __developing a model for a food web of local aquatic and local terrestrial environments.__

7c __explaining the inverse nature or complementary aspects of photosynthesis/respiration in relation to carbon dioxide, water and oxygen exchange.__

7d conducting a controlled investigation that shows that the total amount of matter remains constant, even though its form and location change as matter is transferred among and between organisms and the physical environment (e.g., bottle biology, mass of a closed system over time).

What ideas to students need to understand before they can address the topics described above?
Need to be able to develop a food web to show the flow of energy in a simple, familiar ecosystem

What misconceptions are students likely to have about these topics?

 * 1) Stronger organisms have more energy.
 * 2) There are more herbivores because they have more offspring.
 * 3) A species high on the food web is a predator to everything below it.
 * 4) Energy accumulates in an ecosystem so that a top predator has all the energy from the organisms below it.
 * 5) Carnivores can exist in a plant free world if their prey reproduce enough.
 * 6) The food that is eaten and used as a source of energy is part of the good chain; food that is synthesized into the body of the eater is now food for the next level.

What activities or activity sequences can be used to address these GSEs?
Have students create a food web that shows the flow of energy in their terrariums and aquariums.

How can students demonstrate that they understand these GSEs?
Six Facets of Understanding: 1. Explanation- based on data, experiments, observations.

2. Interpretation- the means by which scientists make sense of data, making connections.

3. Application- using knowledge to solve new problems - Do not give the answer. - Present a related, but challenging task to explain - Point towards use of prior knowledge - Hints to provide a scaffold ]

4. Perspective- recognizing that multiple interpretations are possible, not jumping to conclusions and consider all alternatives, **knowing the importance of an idea-** teachers should design their lessons so that students come away knowing the importance - “Valuing the discipline is required for knowing and understanding the discipline”

5. Empathy- Four levels: 1. Struggle to validate the ideas and theories that they’re learning 2. Understand and appreciate the ways that science has changed people’s ways of thinking over time about the natural world. 3. Teachers need to grasp how and why students are thinking as they do 4. Open- mindedly embrace ideas that seem strange <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">6. Self-knowledge- examination of one’s own ideas and reasoning in order to advance them