Science
Grade: 10th
SCI.III.2.3
Strand III:
Using Scientific Knowledge in Life Science
Standard 2:
Organization of Living Things - All students will use classification
systems to describe groups of living things, investigate and explain how living
things obtain and use energy; and analyze how parts of living things are
adapted to carry out specific functions.
Benchmark 3: Explain the process of food storage and food use in organisms.
Constructing and Reflecting:
SCI.I.1.1 – Ask questions that can be answered empirically.
SCI.I.1.2 – Design and construct scientific investigations.
SCI.I.1.3 – Recognize and explain the limitations of measuring devices.
SCI.II.1.1 – Justify plans or explanations on a theoretical or empirical basis.
SCI.II.1.2 – Describe some general limitations of scientific knowledge.
SCI.II.1.3 – Show how common themes of science, mathematics and technology apply in real world contexts.
Vocabulary
Context
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Food storage:
• maple tree− maple sap
• potato− starch
• honey bee− honey
• cow− beef & milk
Cellular respiration
Photosynthesis
Oxygen
Sunlight
Carbon dioxide
Carbohydrate
Fat
Protein
Minerals
Water
Weight gain and weight loss
Change in respiration rates with exercise
Resources
Knowledge and Skills
Students will:
• Identify food as consumables containing
usable organic compounds needed to
support life.
•
Trace food energy from the sun, by direct or
indirect paths, to all organisms.
•
Describe how food produced by
photosynthesis is distributed to cells as a
form of stored energy and then converted to
a useful form of energy in a chemical
reaction involving oxygen (respiration).
•
Describe how the energy in food can be
stored for future energy use by organisms.
See Photosynthesis (SCI.III.2.MS.3).
Coloma Resources:
www.bdol.glenco.com
Glenco Biology – CH 6 Section 3
Portions of CH 9
Other Resources:
• SCoPE unit – Important Life Processes
- photosynthesis and cellular respiration and energy flow and nutrient cycling
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Michigan Teachers Network Resources
•
Access Excellence – Natl. Health Museum
Calories
See How organisms grow (SCI.III.1.HS.1).
See How plants store food (SCI.III.2.MS.3).
See How food and oxygen are distributed to
cells (SCI.III.2.MS.4).
See The Sun as the ultimate source of energy
for organisms (SCI.III.5.MS.2).
See Energy transformations (SCI.IV.2.MS.3).
Videoconferences Available
For more information, see
www.remc11.k12.mi.us/dl or call Janine Lim 4717725x101 or email jlim@remc11.k12.mi.us
III.2.HS.3
• Fill'er Up: Nutritional Chemistry to Fuel Your
Bodies from COSI Toledo
• Sports Nutrition from Healthspace Cleveland
Instruction
•
Use a simple calorimeter to measure the
amount of heat energy contained in a variety
of nuts. (i.e. pecans, peanuts, walnuts, etc.)
•
Calories = ( volume of water heated ) x
(change in temperature) ÷ (mass of the
nut)
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Compare the values calculated for the
different nut samples. Evaluate which type
of nuts store the most energy. Discuss how
this nut energy is used by the plant itself, or
other organisms. Corresponds to standard
I.1.3
•
An extension would be to measure the
calories contained in other common food
sources in the same way.
Assessment
Optional Assessment
•
Given 10 or more labels from prepared foods,
evaluate which food has the most stored
energy (note: students should look at calories
only). Support your answer by ranking the
foods in order of stored energy.
Criteria
Apprentice Basic
Meets
Exceeds
Correctness of
evaluation
Ranks
correctly
seven or
fewer
labels.
Ranks
correctly ten
labels.
Ranks
correctly
more than
ten labels.
Ranks
correctly eight
to nine
labels.
Teacher Notes:
Focus Question: How much energy is stored in food molecules for future use by organisms?
Investigate and explain how living things obtain and use energy.
The relationship between life and energy is complex. While the generalization that living things need
energy to survive is satisfactory at one level of understanding, it fails to convey the crucial role energy
plays in all aspects of life, from the molecular to the population level. At the elementary level students
can compare and contrast food, energy and environmental needs of selected organisms, such as
beans, corn or aquarium life.
In the middle and high school, the focus is more specific on the concept that plants make and store
food. Scientists speak of the flow of energy through the environment. Almost all life on the earth is
sustained by energy from the sun. This energy is transformed and moved from location to location,
but doesn't disappear. Plants capture the sun's energy and use it to produce energy rich organic
molecules that we call food. The food molecules then serve as energy sources for plants and
ultimately animals.
In animals, organic food molecules are chemically broken down and carried through the circulatory
system to cells, cytoplasm, and eventually to mitochondria. This is, most often the site of final energy
release through the process known as cellular respiration.
The chemical process of photosynthesis occurs at the cellular level and is capable of converting light
energy into molecular energy. Animals are dependent on plants for this first important step in the flow
of energy. In plants, light energy is captured by chloroplasts or chlorophyll and is converted to
chemical energy through the making of organic food molecules when water and carbon dioxide are
chemically combined to make sugar and oxygen. These sugars (organic compounds) formed in
photosynthesis are used for the plant's metabolic processes and maybe ultimately be used as food
for animals. The chemical process of respiration is also cellular. Cellular respiration releases stored
molecular energy so the energy can be used for other life processes. Both plants and animals respire.
The acquisition and use of energy by living things is a very abstract idea for students at all levels.
Students tend to develop a vague and very broad definition of energy that is inconsistent with the
scientific definition. This imprecise definition interferes with the acquisitions of the biological
understanding of energy and its importance in a living system.