Chloroplast ChaosPhotosynthesisGrades 7-8
Storyline
Using their knowledge of photosynthesis, students investigate why plants on Tellenor are dying to restore balance to the planet before it's too late.
Moodoo, the four-inch tall leader of the Fofa Alliance, is determined to wreak havoc on the planet of Tellenor. He is doing multiple chaotic and distruptive things at once. Plants are dying, but we don't exactly know why. The crew will need to investigate and analyze data to determine which of Moodoo's plans of chaos are causing the plants to die. They must get to the bottom of how Moodoo is meddling with photosynthesis. Once they do that, they'll take care of the threat to restore balance to the planet.
Phenomenon
Plants use chloroplasts for photosynthesis.
Science and Engineering Practices
Planning and Carrying Out Investigations
Collect data to produce data to serve as the basis for evidence to answer scientific questions or test design solutions under a range of conditions.
Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions
Construct an explanation using models or representations.
Construct a scientific explanation based on valid and reliable evidence obtained from sources (including the students' own experiments) and the assumption that theories and laws that describe the natural world operate today as they did in the past and will continue to do so in the future.
Apply scientific ideas, principles, and/or evidence to construct, revise and/or use and explanation for real-world phenomena, examples, or events.
Apply scientific reasoning to show why the data or evidence is adequate for the explanation or conclusion.
Analyzing and Interpreting Data
Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for phenomena.
Crosscutting Concepts
Energy and Matter
Students learn matter is conserved because atoms are conserved in physical and chemical processes. They also learn within a natural or designed system, the transfer of energy drives the motion and/or cycling of matter. Energy may take different forms (e.g. energy in fields, thermal energy, energy of motion). The transfer of energy can be tracked as energy flows through a designed or natural system.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
LS1.C: Organization for Matter and Energy Flow in Organisms
Plants use the energy from light to make sugars through photosynthesis. Within individual organisms, food is broken down through a series of chemical reactions that rearrange molecules and release energy.
PS3.D: Energy in Chemical Processes and Everyday Life
Sunlight is captured by plants and used in a reaction to produce sugar molecules, which can be reversed by burning those molecules to release energy.