Living Earth · Week 10 · Matter and Energy in Living Systems
Cycling Carbon
Modeling the carbon cycle through photosynthesis and respiration and tracing how one person's choices cycle through a community.
- Students will
- Students model how carbon moves among atmosphere, producers, consumers, decomposers, and soil through photosynthesis and respiration.
- SEL skill
- Trace how one person's choices affect others in a community
- What it looks like
- Students take perspective by tracing how one person's choices cycle through a community.
- Content focus
- The carbon cycle in a desert ecosystem
- Format
- Collaborative analysis
Social awareness
Social awareness means working to understand and empathize with others, including people whose backgrounds and views differ from your own. More social awareness activities
What you get
A teacher guide with what to say, step by step, plus student pages and a supports page for students with diverse learning needs, including those with IEPs. Print or Project it, or assign it in Google Forms and Google Docs for Google Classroom. Your first 10 activities are free.
Standards
- HS-LS2-5: High School Life Science performance expectation
- Science and engineering practice: SEP2 Developing and using models
- Crosscutting concept: CCC4 Systems and system models
- CA Environmental Principles and Concepts: Principle IV: There are no permanent or impermeable boundaries that prevent matter from flowing between systems
- Literacy in science: RST.9-10.7 Translate between quantitative or technical information in words, tables, graphs, and equations.
- Traditional course: Biology
Fits these textbook chapters
- California HMH Science Dimensions: The Living Earth, Unit 2: Carbon in the Earth System
- California HMH Science Dimensions: The Living Earth, Unit 3: Ecosystem Interactions and Energy Flow
Textbook names are used only to help you find activities that fit what you teach. RoseThread Connect is not affiliated with these publishers.
More social awareness activities for Living Earth
- Who Eats Whom in the Desert Social awarenessStudents model energy flow through a desert food web and reflect on who depends on them and whom they depend on.
- Partners in the Desert Social awarenessExplaining the partnership between the yucca and the yucca moth and noticing the quiet partnerships that hold a classroom together.
- Earth Shapes Life Social awarenessArguing how Earth's surface and life changed together over time and recognizing how surroundings shape people's stories.
- Traits and Family Stories Social awarenessAsking questions about chromosomes and inherited traits while using respectful norms for discussing family differences.
Previous: Building Blocks of Life · Next: Energy Pyramids and Waste
RoseThread Connect activities are drafted with the help of AI and shaped by educators. Students never have to share anything personal. Our five SEL skills are informed by CASEL's SEL Framework; RoseThread Learning is not affiliated with or endorsed by CASEL.