Soil Chem Unit Planning - Elise DeBuysser

1. Scaffold Strategies

1.1. Nitrogen lesson

1.1.1. Powerpoint explanation: Teacher centered

1.1.2. Reading/video with cue cards: Group centered

1.1.3. Thinking exercises: Individual interacting with material

1.1.4. Game/model creation: Group solidifying understanding

1.1.5. **I need to think about how I want to assess individual learning...

1.2. Soil Testing Experimental Procedure

1.2.1. Teacher demonstration of materials and procedure

1.2.2. Students receive digital graphic organizer - work with group to fill in procedural steps

1.2.3. Each student in the group will be a "specialist" testing for a particular nutrient

1.3. Soil as an Ecosystem

1.3.1. Foundational knowledge: abiotic/biotic system = ecosystem. Decomposers restart the cycle. depends on energy

1.3.2. New Task: the soil system is an ecosystem in itself AND affects entire environments/populations of species

1.3.3. Scaffold: Inquiry project on how there are different kinds of soil. Nutrients are not distributed equally, factors affect their chemical cycle

1.3.4. Students will begin an independent project: create an experiment to explain how soil is connected to what you see in an ecosystem (of student's choosing

2. Big Idea

2.1. Chemistry helps us understand how the world works

2.1.1. DQ: "How can our chemistry knowledge help us understand soil?"

3. Objectives

3.1. Model Nitrogen Cycle in Soil System

3.1.1. Task

3.1.2. Prerequisites

3.2. Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource (nutrient) availability

3.2.1. Perform steps as prescribed by a scientific procedure during a guided inquiry soil testing lab

3.3. Identify soil as an ecosystem

3.3.1. Task

3.3.2. Prerequisites

3.4. Formulate scientific questions and experimental about how soil and ecosystems are related

3.4.1. Synthesize the meaning of a scientific text or article curated for the 7th grade level by highlighting important statements and writing a three sentence summary

3.4.2. Create properly formatted citations for quoted or referenced information by writing in-text citations and a complete bibliography.

4. Students

4.1. 7th Grade Science

4.2. Prior knowledge

4.2.1. What is a Scientific Question

4.2.2. What makes up an ecosystem

4.2.3. Significance of decomposers

4.2.4. Elements/atoms/chemical reactions

4.3. Readiness

4.3.1. scientific literacy: making a lab report, vocabulary, scientific process

4.3.2. Assess chemistry/ecology understanding