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Grade 5. In Unit 5.1 Ecosystems & Matter Cycling, students work to answer the Unit Driving Question: "How does a nurse log help other things live and grow?"

Have you ever seen a fallen log in a forest? Have you wondered how plants could be growing on it or why animals might be visiting it? In this unit, students explore nurse logs to figure out just that. Students begin their exploration of nurse logs by considering how the plant life that grows on them gets the matter needed to grow. They plan, carry out, and evaluate investigations that provide them with evidence that plants get the matter they need to grow primarily from air and water and the energy they need to grow from the sun. As students build their understanding of matter and energy transfer, they investigate how there are also many animals that live in, on, and around nurse logs. They model to explain the transfer of energy and matter between plants, animals, the nurse log, and the sun. Students figure out that decomposers are a vital component of the nurse log system. Finally, students consider how new species can disrupt that balance and flow of matter and energy, using the example of American bullfrogs that have been recently introduced to nurse log ecosystems.

This 1-Class Unit Kit comes with basic teacher access to instructional materials on CarolinaScienceOnline.com, plus the materials needed for a teacher to teach 1 class of 32 students per day.

Building Toward the Next Generation Science Standards
Performance Expectations (PEs)

5-PS1-1: Develop a model to describe that matter is made of particles too small to be seen.
5-PS3-1: Use models to describe that energy in animals' food (used for body repair, growth, and motion and to maintain body warmth) was once energy from the sun.
5-LS1-1: Support an argument that plants get the materials they need for growth chiefly from air and water.
5-LS2-1: Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.

Focal Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs)

Developing and Using Models
Engaging in Argument from Evidence

Focal Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs)

PS1.A: Structure and Properties of Matter
PS3.D: Energy in Chemical Processes and Everyday Life
LS1.C: Organization for Matter and Energy Flow in Organisms
LS2.A: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems
LS2.B: Cycles of Matter and Energy Transfer in Ecosystems

Focal Crosscutting Concepts

Systems and System Models
Energy and Matter
Scale, Proportion, and Quantity

*All enhancements to materials and instruction for this Carolina Certified Version of the unit are approved by OpenSciEd® to preserve the integrity of the storyline and the instructional model.

The Next Generation Science Standards® is a registered trademark of WestEd. Neither WestEd nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of this product, and do not endorse it.