Essential Question: If the average human consumes 2,000 lb of food each year, why don’t we weigh 2,000 lb?
Unit Storyline Synopsis: In this unit, scholars build an understanding of what the essential resources for life on Earth are and where they come from. Scholars begin by using yeast and plants as model organisms to discover that glucose and carbon dioxide are essential ingredients for life on Earth. They also consider the interdependence between plants and animals by studying how carbon dioxide and oxygen are exchanged.
Then scholars take a journey through the human body to learn how body systems acquire and cycle energy. They learn that the circulatory and digestive systems transport nutrients around the body, and how the muscular system uses that energy for movement. They see that the systems of the body work together to deliver and use key resources while eliminating their by-products.
Scholars end the unit by studying nutrition and exercise, extending their understanding of how the body regulates energy on a daily basis. Why do people exercise or care about what they eat? Scholars will have a stronger understanding of the choices humans have and will walk away with an understanding of common nutrition and health knowledge that they can apply to their own life.
Why This Unit? What do humans need to survive and, more importantly, how do we use those resources to survive? In this unit, scholars will investigate both macro- and microlevel structures and functions to develop an understanding of how energy and matter are captured, transported, transformed, used, and eliminated by the body. Scholars learn about these topics by studying the functioning of their own body systems.
Many scholars understand the necessary resources needed for organismal survival: food, water, and air. They have a strong foundation of cells and molecular components. However, they have yet studied the biological processes that allow for the processing of these resources into usable molecules. Digestion aids in the breakdown of food into a usable reactant, glucose, which is used for cellular respiration to produce energy that allows for basic body functions. Photosynthesis and the human respiratory system work in a complementary nature to provide the gaseous components― carbon dioxide and oxygen― that make air a necessary resource for both plants and animals.