Field Trip to the Moon

Learning Resource Type

Lesson Plan

Subject Area

Science

Grade(s)

7

Overview

Students will participate in a discussion of the Moon´s habitability. The students will create a plan for the design and creation of a self-sustaining ecosystem within a lunar station.

This lesson was created as part of the 2016 NASA STEM Standards of Practice Project, a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.

Science (2015) Grade(s): 7

SC15.7.5

Examine the cycling of matter between abiotic and biotic parts of ecosystems to explain the flow of energy and the conservation of matter.

UP:SC15.7.5

Vocabulary

  • Abiotic
  • Organisms as producers, consumers, and/or decomposers
  • Biotic
  • Evaluate
  • Ecosystem
  • Communicate
  • Chemical reaction
  • Molecules
  • Photosynthesis
  • Food web
  • Cellular respiration
  • Energy
  • Matter
  • Energy transfer

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Organisms can be classified as producers, consumers, and/or decomposers.
  • Abiotic parts of an ecosystem provide matter to biotic organisms.
  • Biotic organisms of an ecosystem provide matter to abiotic parts.
  • Energy flow within an ecosystem.
  • The number of each type of atom is the same before and after chemical reactions, indicating that the matter ingested as food is conserved as it moves through an organism to support growth.
  • During cellular respiration, molecules of food undergo chemical reactions with oxygen to release stored energy.
  • The atoms in food are rearranged through chemical reactions to form new molecules.
  • All matter (atoms) used by the organism for growth comes from the products of the chemical reactions involving the matter taken in by the organism.
  • Food molecules taken in by the organism are broken down and can then be rearranged to become the molecules that comprise the organism (e.g., the proteins and other macromolecules in a hamburger can be broken down and used to make a variety of tissues in humans).
  • As food molecules are rearranged, energy is released and can be used to support other processes within the organisms.
  • Plants, algae, and photosynthetic microorganisms require energy and must take in carbon dioxide and water to survive.
  • Energy from the sun is used to combine molecules (e.g., carbon dioxide and water) into food molecules (e.g., sugar) and oxygen.
  • Animals take in food and oxygen to provide energy and materials for growth and survival.
  • Some animals eat plants algae and photosynthetic microorganisms, and some animals eat other animals, which have themselves eaten photosynthetic organisms.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Articulate a statement that relates a given phenomenon to a scientific idea, including the cycling of matter and flow of energy among biotic and abiotic parts of ecosystems.
  • Identify and use multiple valid and reliable sources of evidence to construct an explanation.
  • Use reasoning to connect the evidence and support an explanation.
  • Obtain information about how food is broken down through chemical reactions to create new molecules that support growth and/or release energy as it moves through an organism from published, grade-level appropriate material from multiple sources.
  • Determine and describe whether the gathered information is relevant.
  • Use information to communicate how food is broken down through chemical reactions to create new molecules that support growth and/or release energy as it moves through an organism.
  • Articulate a statement that relates a given phenomenon to a scientific idea, including the idea that photosynthesis and cellular respiration cycle matter and energy.
  • Identify and use multiple valid and reliable sources of evidence to explain the roles of photosynthesis and cellular respiration in cycling matter and energy.
  • Use reasoning to connect the evidence and support an explanation of the roles of photosynthesis and cellular respiration in the cycling of matter and flow of energy into and out of organisms.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • There is a transfer of energy and a cycling of atoms that were originally captured from the nonliving parts of the ecosystem by the producers.
  • The transfer of matter (atoms) and energy between living and nonliving parts of the ecosystem at every level within the system, which allows matter to cycle and energy to flow within and outside of the system.
  • The atoms that make up the organisms in an ecosystem are cycled repeatedly between the living and nonliving parts of the ecosystem.
  • Matter and energy are conserved through transfers within and outside of the ecosystem.
  • Relationship among producers, consumers, and decomposers (e.g., decomposers break down consumers and producers via chemical reactions and use the energy released from rearranging those molecules for growth and development.
  • Within individual organisms, food moves through a series of chemical reactions in which it is broken down and rearranged to form new molecules, to support growth, or to release energy.
  • Plants, algae, and photosynthetic microorganisms take in matter and use energy from the sun to produce organic molecules that they can use or store, and release oxygen into the environment through photosynthesis.
  • Plants use the food they have made for energy, growth, etc.
  • Animals depend on matter from plants for growth and survival, including the following:
    • Eating photosynthetic organisms, thus acquiring the matter they contain, that they gained through photosynthesis.
    • Breathing in oxygen, which was released when plants completed photosynthesis.
  • Animals acquire their food from photosynthetic organisms (or organisms that have eaten those organisms) and their oxygen from the products of photosynthesis, all food and most of the oxygen animals use from life processes are the results of energy from the sun driving matter flows through the process of photosynthesis.
  • Photosynthesis has an important role in energy and matter cycling within plants as well as from plants and other organisms.

Scientific and Engineering Practices

Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions; Asking Questions and Defining Problems; Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information

Crosscutting Concepts

Energy and Matter
Science (2015) Grade(s): 7

SC15.7.6

Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence regarding how resource availability impacts individual organisms as well as populations of organisms within an ecosystem.

UP:SC15.7.6

Vocabulary

  • Analyze
  • Interpret
  • Evidence
  • Resource(s)
  • Organism(s)
  • Ecosystem
  • Biotic
  • Abiotic
  • Populations (e.g., sizes, reproduction rates, growth information)
  • Competition

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Organisms, and populations of organisms, are dependent on their environmental interactions both with other living (biotic) things and with nonliving (abiotic) things.
  • In any ecosystem, organisms and populations with similar requirements for food, water, oxygen, or other resources may compete with each other for limited resources, access to which consequently constrains their growth and reproduction.
  • Growth of organisms and population increases are limited by access to resources.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Organize the given data to allow for analysis and interpretation of relationships between resource availability and organisms in an ecosystem.
  • Analyze the organized data to determine the relationships between the size of a population, the growth and survival of individual organisms, and resource availability.
  • Determine whether the relationships provide evidence of a causal link between factors.
  • Interpret the organized data to make predictions based on evidence of causal relationships between resource availability, organisms, and organism populations.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Cause and effect relationships may be used to predict phenomena in natural or designed systems.
  • Causal links exist between resources and growth of individual organisms and the numbers of organisms in ecosystems during periods of abundant and scarce resources.

Scientific and Engineering Practices

Analyzing and Interpreting Data

Crosscutting Concepts

Cause and Effect

Primary Learning Objectives

The students will create a model of an ecosystem to explain the flow of energy and conservation of matter. 

The students will examine data that shows how resource availability impacts populations within an ecosystem.

Procedures/Activities

Day 1

(Read page 6 of the Field Trip to the Moon Educators Guide.)

1. Establish Prior Knowledge by asking students the following questions (10 minutes):

  • What have you heard, or what do you know, about human missions to the Moon?
  • What do you think it would be like to visit the Moon? What do you think living there would be like?
  • Are humans able to live there now? Why or why not? 
  • If you have time, you may want the students to investigate conditions on the moon using this website.

2. Show Field Trip to the Moon DVD (25 minutes)

3. Ask students the following debriefing questions after the video (10 minutes):

  • What makes Earth habitable? 
  • How is being on the Moon different than being on Earth?

Day 2

1. Recap Field Trip to the Moon DVD and after-video debriefing questions (5 min).

2. Distribute Food Web handout on page 15 of the Educators Guide. As a class, read through the descriptions of each type of organism in a food web.

3. Divide the class into a minimum of 6 groups of no more than 4 students. 

4. The groups will complete Task Card 1 on page 14 of the Educators Guide. 

Day 3

1. The students will complete Task 2 on page 15 of the Educators Guide.

2. Facilitate a final discussion using these questions or have the students answer the questions for homework in their science journal:

  • How have your ideas about living and working on the Moon changed after watching the DVD and working on these investigations?
  • What problems did you and your team encounter as you completed each task? How did you and your team solve the problems?
  • Do you think the lunar station you planned will be able to support a sustainable habitat for humans? Why or why not?
  • What kinds of careers do you think are going to be important if humans are going to return to the Moon to live?

Assessment Strategies

Prior-knowledge questions can be assessed for completion.

Food webs can be evaluated to ensure that organisms are accurately labeled based on their role in an ecosystem.  

Food webs cab be evaluated that energy arrows are flowing in the correct manner.

Final discussion questions can be evaluated for accuracy or completion. 

Intervention

The students may be given a food web that is already created and asked to identify the organisms in the food web based on the way the organisms get or use energy. 

Total Duration

Greater than 120 Minutes

Background/Preparation

Read page 3-8 the Field Trip to the Moon Educators guide to familiarize yourself with the tasks in this lesson plan.

Investigate conditions on the moon using this link. Compare these conditions with conditions on Earth. 

Read through the Educators Guide to familiarize yourself with the Ecosystem Investigation on page 9.

Materials and Resources

1. Field Trip to the Moon DVD (contact Mr. Fred Kepner for a free copy)

2. Copies of the Food Web Diagram on page 15 of the Field Trip to the Moon Educators Guide (one copy per student)

3. Field Trip to the Moon organism cards on pages 16-17 of the Educators Guide (one set of cards per group)

4.One piece of blank copy paper per group

5. Scissors, glue, & ruler

6. One science journal or piece of notebook paper per student

Technology Resources Needed

1. Field Trip to the Moon DVD (contact Mr. Fred Kepner for a free copy)

2. DVD Player or Computer with DVD player

3. Projector

Approved Date

2016-04-22

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