Essential Question: How does the acquisition of energy relate to the health of a biological system?
Unit Storyline Synopsis: Scholars engage with the Essential Question by considering what they already know about how organisms acquire and transform energy. They also learn to better understand a term they hear often: system. What exactly is a system, and how does systems thinking support scientists in their work every day?
Before scholars are able to answer the Essential Question, they will first stop to consider what food and energy are. They explore the idea that energy is stored in food and discover that organisms must transform the energy in food in order for it to become usable. They come to realize that this is possible due to the chemical makeup of food.
Scholars continue to learn about energy acquisition in various organisms as they revisit two processes they are already familiar with: cellular respiration and photosynthesis. They gain a much deeper conceptual understanding of these processes and their stages, and they learn that many systems and their components must work together for organisms to undergo these remarkable processes.
In the Elaborate lessons, scholars apply their understanding of energy acquisition and biological systems in new contexts as they learn about the carbon cycle and how human activities such as factory farming impact the most important biological system of all: our planet. Then, they conclude the unit by sharing their newfound knowledge.
Why This Unit? In this unit, scholars make authentic connections between the disciplines of life, earth, and physical sciences, reinforcing their understanding that these branches of science are deeply interconnected. They build on their prior knowledge of photosynthesis and cellular respiration to deepen their understanding of how critical these processes are to life on Earth, and they are introduced to the idea that these processes are influenced by the chemical properties of their materials. The discoveries made and connections drawn in this unit will benefit scholars greatly as they prepare for high school– and college-level science.
This unit also features an Essential Question that supports scholars in applying the content they study to real-world problems facing us today, including climate change and global food access. This reinforces their understanding of biological systems at the “macro” level.